possible urine scald

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meganmarie

Post   » Thu Jul 16, 2015 8:06 pm


Well, we've just got back from a very long(and very expensive) emergency vet trip. The blood in the urine came back, with very little urine output. The emergency vet did an ultrasound, and found 'suspicious shadowing' in her bladder. I got an x-ray, and they couldn't see any stones. We now left with metacam, and baytril. Any thoughts?

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Thu Jul 16, 2015 9:23 pm


Are you saying she is not urinating much? Are you giving extra fluids? I'm sorry you don't feel you got answers. At the very least, the metacam should help with any pain.

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meganmarie

Post   » Thu Jul 16, 2015 10:11 pm


To be honest, i think i was just freaking myself out. She wasn't peeing much, and a tint of blood was back in her urine. But, about half way to the emergency vets, she EXPLODED pee on me. Which was good, but i still wanted to get her x-rayed just to be safe.

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Fri Jul 17, 2015 1:41 am


I'm going to take a guess that she passed a stone, or perhaps even more likely a clot of congealed sludge, when she exploded.

Is she urinating normally now?

You probably know this but use probiotics with Baytril. Please keep us posted on how she's doing.

The 'shadowing' could be more sludge, or possibly interstitial cystitis. Also possibly a tumor, but I'd consider that the least likely of the three.

The vibration from the car ride may have helped her more than anything else. Consider getting a vibrating massage pillow-type thingy for her. You could also just put her on a thin pillow or clean, soft folded-up towel, and hold her on top of your washer on spin cycle. If she'll tolerate it, it might help loosen sludge for passage before it gets into an uncomfortably -- or blocking-ly -- large clump.

Without reading back, does she drink well?

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meganmarie

Post   » Fri Jul 17, 2015 1:03 pm


No, she does not. It's almost a running joke in my house. She'll wheek, and it'll be a sad, croaky wheek. We all yell, "Ginger, get a drink!". I've been syringing her about 10-12 CC's of water a day since this happened.

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Sat Jul 18, 2015 12:51 pm


Try offering her some unflavored Pedialyte, if you haven't tried that yet. Many pigs love the taste of it and will drink more of it more readily than water via syringe.

Also, give her thoroughly, dripping, sopping wet greens, and the ribs (center stem) of leaf lettuces. Those have a lot of water in them.

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jacqueline

Post   » Mon Jul 20, 2015 5:56 pm


Aren't there oxbow supplements?

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:28 pm


J -- which one, or maybe more properly, for what? There is a urinary-tract-support one, but I don't know if it helps with sludge.

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jacqueline

Post   » Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:47 pm


I guess I was thinking of the cranberry-ish one for UTIs. But wouldn't the acidity in the cranberry also help with sludge?

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Tue Jul 21, 2015 12:41 am


In theory, yes but in practice attempting to acidify their urine usually doesn't seem to help much.

I think you're referencing Oxbow's Critter Berries. I don't think they make them anymore? Not sure on that. A few of our pigs enjoyed them.

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LS in AK
Upside-down & Backwards

Post   » Tue Jul 21, 2015 6:08 am


Just a note on the Oxbow urinary support tabs: they contain dandelion leaf, which often causes sludge in calcium challenged pigs.

I have observed an increase in chalky deposits in past pigs in response to feeding the tabs.

So, don't go that direction in treating Ginger-pig.

Frankly, I don't know what Oxbow was thinking in putting the ingredients together for that product.

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Wed Jul 22, 2015 8:08 am


Shoot. I'm glad you posted that. That's about the last thing that needs to be in a urinary support tablet for a guinea pig.

Dandelion is supposed to ease urinary discomfort (muscle relaxation? I think; some mechanism, anyway), but has way too much calcium to be used for that purpose in a cavy.

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