Urine Penny - wet behind

[Rywen]

Hi Everyone, Penny has a wet behind and I can't figure out why. Normally she's very fastidious. It's urine (not feces), it looks like she is peeing down the inside of her back left leg. This has been going on for a few days now. Her weight is stable, she isn't hunching or squeaking when she pees, I see no signs of blood in her urine, her genital region looks a bit swollen but it's difficult to tell, and she doesn't act like it's tender when I clean it. I'm going to call her vet in the morning but I am hoping you all have some ideas on what might cause a wet behind issue in a spayed female guinea pig.

 

[sallyvh]

I know when my girl Margaret had a stone the only symptom she had was a wet bottom, I only heard one tiny pain squeak in the time she had it. Penny may have a UTI or something like that. Hopefully it's nothing serious, let us know how she does!

 

[bpatters]

Get her to a vet. That's a sign of either a UTI or a stone, or both. If it's a stone and it's small enough, you may be able to give her enough fluids that she can pass it on her own. If it's not a small stone, it may block the opening to the urethra, and that's a full-out medical emergency from which she may not recover.

 

[Rywen]

Oh no, will get her to the vet asap!

 

[Rywen]

Just to clarify, I emailed her vet last night and got a call from one of the vet techs at 9am. The vet is out of town until mid-next week. I'll probably take to the 24hr exotics vet in Fairfax. But her back up vet has Sat hours so I've left them a message for an emergency appointment.

 

[Rywen]

At the vet, X-ray shows no stones (whew!). Waiting on urinalysis results.

 

[Rywen]

No UTI, yay! The urinalysis does indicate elevated protein and albumin in Penny's urine, which the vet said she's only ever seen in 1 guinea pig before. She wants me to put her on orchard hay (which is a lower protein hay?) and bring in a urine sample in a couple of weeks so she can recheck. @spy9doc I asked vet about giving pedialyte to help flush kidneys and she thinks that's a good idea. Do you dilute the pedialyte?
Also, I got a copy of Penny's lab results so I can research and get a 2nd opinion from her regular vet when she's back in town.

 

[bpatters]

Walgreens also has generic pedialyte that's about half the price of the brand-name stuff.

 

[CutsieCavies]

How old is your piggie?

 

[Rywen]

@CutsieCavies she is 1.5 yrs, too young for all this (in my opinion).
Thanks @spy9doc & @bpatters! Of course I'm leaving for vacation tomorrow (how did Penny know?). I'm headed to the store in a bit to get them their weekly veggies and will pick up pedialyte. The pet sitter is very competent and will syringe Penny pedialyte 2x per day (I'll give her some tonight and tomorrow morning).
Thanks for the explanation of the results and what they mean. It's very similar to what the vet said, and she mentioned it may be possible early sign of kidney failure. I'll take a picture of the lab results and PM them to you, the vet cautioned me it's an incomplete chart because she hadn't finished filling in her notes.
They are on KMS Timothy pellets right now, I'll check the label on the bag for protein content.