Zoe's Medical Thread

[Delaine]

Thanks countrygirl49. I am looking forward to Tuesday when we get to see Zoe's regular vet. I am having an X-ray done. I hope it will explain what is going on. Expecting to see stones but hoping I am wrong.

[countrygirl49]

Oh, man. Well I hope all goes well and that it's not stones!

[Delaine]

Zoe had blood in her urine and a few spots on her fleece before the antibiotics. When she was taking the Bactrim she had tons of blood on the fleece and her urine was so dark, almost beet color. I have never seen it that bad. I looked up overdose of Bactrim and blood in urine was one of the side effects. The blood started to decrease once I stopped the Bactrim.

I am trying one more thing. I have stopped the Oxbow hay tabs completely. It has been a couple of days now. This morning was the best ever. No obvious blood on the fleece. Haven't checked to see if her urine is pink or not. The girls have been on the hay tabs for 4 months now and if the X-ray showed stones or calcium sludge I was going to stop them anyways. It is a little early to tell but maybe the hay tabs were causing irritation. I started out giving them 1/2 tab and dropped it down to 1/4 tab. Could so little cause problems?

[Lynx]

That is interesting. I wonder if the ingredients are not that good for urinary health after all.

[Delaine]

I see I just said Oxbow hay tabs. I should of said Oxbow Vitamin C hay tabs. Lynx do you mean Bactrim or Oxbow Vitamin C hay tabs may not be good for urinary health? Or were you thinking I meant Oxbow urinary support hay tabs?

[Lynx]

The hay tabs is what I was responding to. There are lots of "herbs" in them which may have unintended consequences.

[Delaine]

Zoe went to her regular vet on Monday morning. She did another urinalysis, an X-ray and another sub-Q to flush the excess antibiotic. She was concerned the overdose of antibiotic could damage her kidneys and asked me to watch her for excessive drinking. Her stools were still misshapen and a little sticky but otherwise okay.

Her X-ray was normal and there were no stones or even sludge. Maybe the previous sub-Q flushed the sludge. Also she has been eating very few pellets, if any. The urinalysis was also normal. No blood or any sign of infection in her urine.

Monday morning was the first morning she was out begging for her breakfast since this all happened. Her stools are plentiful and close to normal today and she has started to eat pellets. She is spending less time in her house and more in the hay pile.

Her water consumption is normal so I think she will be okay. I am glad I questioned the dose and she didn't get the full 14 doses. Her vet felt so bad this happened and when I went to pay for all the testing there was no charge for any of it. I am thankful to have such a caring and supportive vet for my girls.

[Talishan]

Very glad to hear she's doing well.

[Lynx]

It would be ironic if the higher dose actually helped!

Hoping for continued improvement.

[Delaine]

Thanks Talishan and Lynx. It is possible Lynx but when she was on the very high dose of Bactrim the amount of blood on her fleece and in her urine was scary. Her urine was the color of beets. I have never seen urine that dark before.

[Lynx]

Ah, I see, bad sign! Hopefully still no long term harm done! So glad you all noted this and got it checked out.

For what it's worth, I found this:

"Up to 10 times the recommended dose of trimethoprim has been given with no adverse effects."

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/pharm ... tions.html

[countrygirl49]

Glad Zoe is doing better!

I can relate to the scariness of blood in the urine. I'm sure you saw the photo I put up of Panda's urine/blood/clot. It was like someone sliced their hand and poured blood on the aspen. Freaks me out. But, nothing we can do about it.