Urine Not sure what to do

[spudsthepiget]

When I got my guinea pig Trudy in October, she was part of PetCo's Think Adoption First program. A family had bought her then returned her because she had cloudy urine and it smelled funny. The employees thought she was pregnant and monitored her for two months, but she never showed any signs of pregnancy, but still had cloudy urine. The employees took her to a vet, who said that she was fine. The employees told me the cloudy urine might have been caused by a miscarriage, but would go away. It hasn't cleared up yet, and from the day I got her it still has that smell to it. Should I be concerned?

 

[bpatters]

Yes, you should be concerned, and the pet store employees who told you that cloudy urine could result from a miscarriage should be fired. The vet that said she had nothing wrong with her should be shot, if indeed she was ever taken to a vet.

Cloudy urine is most often the result of excess calcium in the urine, and smelly urine is most often the result of a urinary tract infection. Vets used by Petco, Petsmart, etc., are almost never exotic vets, and have little experience with animals other than dogs and cats.

If it were my pit, I'd find an exotic vet and take her in. If you can, just before you go, see if you can get a fairly clean urine sample. They can't use it for a culture, but they can put it under a microscope and see if they can see crystals or gross amounts of bacteria.

To get the sample, put her in a plastic box, like a filing box, and slant it slightly by putting something under one end. If you can put something in it, like an upside-down shallow baking pan, that will keep her up off the floor of the box, you can get a much cleaner sample. But don't bother to do it if you can't do it right before you go -- it won't help if the sample is old or if you have to put it in the refrigerator.