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UTI/Urinary Tract Infection Advice on UTI

jade_14

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Oct 24, 2011
Messages
71
I took my Gracie to the vet on Monday because I noticed blood in her urine and her squeeking while peeing. No stones were found so the vet put her on some antibiotics for a UTI. She's been doing good since, and I meant to ask the vet about cranberry juice but I forgot. Does anyone give their guinea pigs cranberry juice to help prevent UTIs? I have heard of people giving unsweetened cranberry juice to their pigs, but I'm just wondering how much to give and how often. I don't want her to develop another one after we get rid of this one.
She is 7 months old and weighs 2.2 lbs.
Thanks!
 
Cranberry juice is very acidic so it adjusts the ph to make it less likely for a UTI to form. It's a preventative measure rather than a cure. My vet recommended adding a tiny drop of vinegar to their drinking water. I use a 1 ml syringe and add a single drop to a full bottle of water. I'm sure that's less vinegar than the residue left in my cages when I spray my cage down with 50/50 vinegar and water when I clean cages. 100% cranberry juice is getting harder to find unless you go to a health food store and it's pretty expensive. It's also really bitter so they'll probably avoid it if you add it to their drinking water. They don't detect the vinegar in their water so they still drink enough water. You can buy ph test strips and test their urine to see if it's a good ph or not. If it's good, there's no need to try and adjust the ph.
 
I'd worry more about her diet than the acidity of her urine. Giving cranberry juice is supposed to prevent stone formation, but an UTI isn't necessarily indicative of stones.

What are you feeding her in the way of pellets and vegetables? And do you notice any white deposits in her cage where the urine has dried?
 
I feed her Martins pellets (I have been trying to find a timothy hay based pellet but I have yet to find one around here), she gets oxbow timothy hay, and green veggies (cilantro, green pepper..) every day, carrots & fruit a couple times a week. I haven't noticed any white deposits, though i haven't checked very closely. She pretty much only pees in her litter box which has yesterdays news in it, so I can't tell. She ocassionally will pee on her fleece, which I line with puppy pads. I will look closely at it tomorrow when I clean her cage.
 
Does she get lettuce? Pigs should be fed lettuce daily with their veggies.

To help prevent future UTIs I would change bedding more frequently. Since she is on fleece, you could do what I do and put little fleece pads where they pee the most. Then, you can change those out daily to keep your pig dry. If she has long hair around her butt you can trim that too, as hair soaked with urine harbors bacteria.
 
Yes she gets lettuce, not quite every day though. I change the puppy pads if she pees on them. But she is usually quite clean. I empty her litter box every other day. I keep her bum hairs trimmed so she doesn't have any long hairs back there.
 
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