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UTI/Urinary Tract Infection Recurring UTIs

guineapigtoes

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I had an existing thread in late July but when I tried to update it, I got an error saying the thread was too old. Here is the link: https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/123257-Blood-in-cage-excessive-drinking-possible-stones


I brought my pig to the emergency vet again. She's usually very vocal and energic; she runs up to her bars and stands up when I come to my piggies' room and squeaks for her pellets. On that morning she was hiding, and when I picked her up and placed her back inside, she darted back to her hiding spot. She was easily scared by normal sounds like a car starting up outside.


She's been hospitalized for several days. They saw blood in her urine and found bacteria in her urine as well. Yesterday they thought she was in a good enough state to go home with antibiotics. But then they needed to have her on heating pads because she wasn't feeling well last night, and today the vet said she's much less energetic, even before they gave her the first dose of antibiotics. In one of the pictures they've sent me, she looks more puffy than usual.


I feel tremendously guilty. I noticed her urinating frequently again, but because her urine was clear and she wasn't in pain, straining, or incontinent, I thought she was just a frequent urinator. Then in the past few weeks, her urine has been smelling sweet and drying darker than usual, but still clear when I had her on a white towel. I thought that was strange, but she was acting so normal and energetic. My family members told me I was finding reasons to work myself up. The day I brought her to the emergency vet, a family member said she was probably just full and moody, but I knew she wasn't her regular self.


All I can think about is how long must she have felt unwell and I didn't realize. For all I know the infection from months ago could have never cleared up. I keep thinking how awful she must feel now if she can no longer be her energetic self.


She's my only pig to have gotten sick in the past years, except for her daughter who had a birth defect. I vacuum the droppings and hay on the fleece every night, and I have pads that I also change out at least once a day for high traffic areas. (Seriously, with all my pigs I have two loads of laundry each week to wash those pads, not counting the rest of the fleece.) She does play with her water bottle like someone earlier in the thread suggested, so I keep her hay elevated right by it so she can pull out her hay and not have to sit in a wet spot while she drinks. If it's a different infection, what could be causing it? What can I do differently to avoid this happening again?
 

Jake8771

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Some pigs are simply prone to it. I’m confused why they are keeping her there though, she may be uncomfortable and stuff, but I don’t see why it would be necessary for her to stay. Its not at all uncommon for them to be less active and fluffed with a UTI.
 

guineapigtoes

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They kept her an extra day because her internal temperature went down overnight, and that was even before the first dose of antibiotics. I had the option of bringing her home, but the vet and I agreed to have them keep her a little longer in case the infection had progressed far worse than they thought.

I got her home today. I can tell she's not 100%, but she's still in there. I gave her a treat, and before I went to ER, she only nosed at the same kind of treat. This time she perked up and gobbled it all down. She's also eating on her own too -- not 100%, but I've caught her eating her pellets and munching on hay.

Unfortunately her feet are red and sore... For as long as I've had her, I've never seen her really lay down to sleep (maybe she does, but she never has laid down out in the open like my other pigs do sometimes), so her discomfort probably led to her sticking to one spot and her feet getting sore. I added extra cushioning to her fleece and put her pellets and hay nearby, and am keeping an eye on her.
 

Jake8771

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She doesn’t lay down at all? For red feet/sore, epsom salt soaks are great.

so I read through your other thread. Just so you know, one of my sows just got diagnosed with a UTI today, so just know that we’ve all been there. Her sister had a bad one last year too, bloody urine and painful when she went pee. I saw that your vet is giving you Baytril. While I’m not a vet, I would be asking for Bactrim instead. Baytril is a lot harder on their digestive system and Bactrim is better with UTIs. My sows have used SMZ for various things, and they do great on it, never any issues. Just my two cents, especially because you suspect recurrence or even that it never fully went away the first time. And I also saw you questioning the dosage, but I think that the dosage is highly dependent on what you’re dealing with. With a deep and more severe UTI, the dose will be higher than say a mild skin infection. When my sow had the UTI last year, she was doing 1ml every 12 hours (shes 2.8 pounds), but the guinealynx says .79mls every 12 hours. Likewise, my sow today is now on .8ml every twelve hours, whereas the guinealynx website says .59mls every 12 hours. As you might have noticed, there’s very very little information online that give dosages for guinea pigs.
 

ItsaZoo

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If her feet look sore, dry or irritated, coconut oil is very soothing. In the winter when the air is dry, I use coconut oil a few times a week to keep the skin soft on my guinea pig’s feet.
 

guineapigtoes

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Thank you for your responses everyone. I have a hopeful update and a frightening one.

I realized I hadn't updated from the last thread -- she's actually on Bactrim right now and for the next week, at the very least, for a minimum of three weeks. Either the dosage or the Baytril didn't sit well with her last time.

Her feet are much better. There were a scary few days when she was reluctant to move at all and only put the minimum amount of weight on her back feet, but after some rest, she's mobile and energetic.

Very late last night she started bleeding again. I gave her her morning dose a few hours late, but the bleeding was different from pinkish blood in her urine.

Her fleece was stained with bright red blood and I thought somehow she injured herself. I held her on a towel with a paper towel under her rear and she ducked down a few times to clean herself as she passed blood. She squeaked in pain once, and her abdomen was sensitive to pressure.

The blood itself appeared to have very small clots in it. I dabbed at her after each pass, and she bore down maybe three or four times before the bleeding appeared to stop. Each time it looked like she passed maybe a teaspoon of blood. She urinated and defecated at a point where her vulva was clean -- the urine was uncolored, and her stool was shaped normally, not loose or a different color than normal. I also checked her and saw the blood appear to ooze from her vulva before each pass, and I've never seen any of my pigs with a bladder infection clean their bloody urine before.

I got her to the emergency vet in the morning. After the three hours I slept, I saw only a teaspoon of blood in the cage, and during the vet visit, two or three smaller spots of blood in her carrier. I hadn't mentioned that they did an ultrasound last time -- they ran one again and both times saw nothing out of the ordinary. This entire time she's been her normal, energetic self too. Ultimately we'll be continuing the treatment and will come back if the bleeding gets any worse, because given her medical history and the current treatment improving her condition up until last night, the vet couldn't pinpoint what exactly would be the cause for so much blood from her vulva so suddenly.

I'll post pictures of the bleeding below. As a warning, both of these are disturbing to look at.





I changed her bedding and she has not bled since coming home from the vet. The bottom two fleece pads are from when I first noticed the blood. I hadn't checked on her in a few hours, and I only saw stool alongside the blood, no stones or anything else unusual.

Does anyone have any idea on what this could be? I'm glad she's not bleeding right now, and the second ultrasound appears to disprove any tumors or cysts in her reproductive system, but not knowing why she bled is frightening. I only have guesses: perhaps I accidentally skipped a dose or two over the weekend and her insides become irritated? I don't think I missed any doses, but I can't say 100% that I did not. But that much blood after two weeks of antibiotics and maybe missing a dose doesn't make sense to me. My other thought is that maybe she passed something and consumed it before I saw her. But what could she pass if there was nothing strange on the ultrasound?
 

bpatters

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Your pictures didn't post. Insert them by clicking on the third icon from the right above the quick reply box.
 

ItsaZoo

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You mention she has been on antibiotics for two weeks. Was there any blood during that time? The reason I ask is it may not be her bladder, it may be hormonal. Guinea pigs have a heat cycle about every 16 days, and rarely there is blood from the uterus. It is usually a small amount and lasts only a couple of days. Then it may reoccur roughly 16 days later.

I had this happen for a few months with my guinea pig, and then it stopped. Its good that you had a couple of ultrasounds to see of there is anything abnormal in the reproductive area as well as the bladder. I would imagine the vet also checked her abdomen for anything out of the ordinary. My vet did basically the same thing, ultrasound showed nothing and physical exam all seemed fine.
 

guineapigtoes

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Thankfully my girl hasn't bled again since taking her to the vet. She's energetic and affectionate today.

I'll try attaching the images again here.

20210323_055000901_iOS (2).jpg

20210323_102417750_iOS (2).jpg

ItsaZoo, I didn't see any blood in the two weeks before that night... I also read about female guinea bleeding a bit during heat, but apparently that's supposed to be a very tiny amount. When I was holding her, she would pass enough to soak through 3-4 layers of paper towel.
 

ItsaZoo

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That looks like an awful lot of blood, I doubt that's hormonal. When mine had blood spots it was just smears on the fleece, nothing close to this. I'm glad it hasn't happened again, but it would be nice to know what caused it in the first place.
 

Jake8771

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Wait a second, I just realized you haven’t said anything about an xray for stones. Hopefully the vet did that? I would be pretty shocked if a UTI was causing all that blood. Ultrasounds are for soft tissue and organs, its easy to miss a stone doing that. Because x rays are picking up calcified bones, stones show up very well on them.
 
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