4 year old female is squeaking when urinating

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duskern

Post   » Fri Apr 27, 2018 7:23 am


This is my first post here. I'm looking for advice regarding my pig Abigail. Like stated in the subject title, she is 4 years old. Since she was around 1 I think, she has been squeaking every now and then when she is peeing, and defecating. At first it was not too much, but we still took her to the vet. They found an infection, so they gave her some antibiotics. This happened a couple of times over the years, but she still kept squeaking every now and then.

Then it starte to get more and more, so we took her to the vet again, for a more through check. They did some test, and xrays, and the only thing they could come up with was that there was a bit of blood in her urin. They wanted to do a check on her urin directly from her bladder with a needle to extract it, but it failed, as she accidentally peed before they could get it out. The idea here was to find out where the blood was added to her urin. We decided to not try that test again, as it weight more heavily for us to keep her from the stress of going to the vet all the time. At this point, I think we had take her to the vet 4 times for various small checks in a very short time. I had a long talk with the vet to figure out if this was the right call, and they actually agreed, since figuring out where the blood was coming from, most likely would not help that much in figuring out what the problem was. Even if we did figure it out, there were no centerties for a cure, since operating on the urinal pathways of such a small animal is not really possible. Instead they advised us to give her cucumber a couple of times a day, to clear out the urin, or something like that.

We have been giving her cucumber for around a year now. I think that her squeaking has increased a bit. It takes around 10-15 seconds, and the she's fine.

During all of this she has always been perfectly fine, except during minor periods with disease a couple of times. She is a really big pig by nature, weighing 1,5 kg. She is close related to some kind of special large pig. I think her father was really large if I remember correctly. We keep track of the weight of our pigs, and she is really steady. She always eats fine, and is really happy when I have her out. She talks a lot when I cuddle her. So all in all, there's not any problems when she is not squeaking. As my vet haven't heard about something like this, I was hoping to find some help online. I got this forum recommended by a friend, so I hope you can help me :)

Martin.

kailaeve1271

Post   » Fri Apr 27, 2018 9:28 am


By special large pig do you mean Cuy?

Also I’d consider looking into bladder stone and UTI information for her.

I’d be on the lookout for soft poos too since I heard a lot of cucumber can give the diarrhea sometimes, but if it is a UTI the best thing is to get fluid into her to flush the system so keep it up, but under close watch just in case. Make sure her water is fresh at all times to encourage her to drink more.

duskern

Post   » Fri Apr 27, 2018 10:47 am


Yes I think she is closely related to a Cuy. I'm pretty sure the vet told us that it wasn't a bladder stone, when they did an x-ray of her. She is drinking a good amount I think. We are not overdoing it with the cucumber as far as I know. We give her 3 cm two times a day. I'm not familiar with the term UTI. Can you explain what it is, or throw me a link or something?

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Fri Apr 27, 2018 11:13 am


UTI means urinary tract infection.

She's got classic signs of stones, but if that's the case, it's unusual that she hasn't gotten steadily worse over all this time. Pigs can have interstitial cystitis.

Here's a link: https://www.guinealynx.info/stones.html

kailaeve1271

Post   » Fri Apr 27, 2018 4:51 pm


Here's the UTI link as well: https://www.guinealynx.info/uti.html

I'd really consider having your vet check again for stones. I've heard of vets doing X-Rays and not spotting them until the 2nd or 3rd time. It really sounds like one and they can be very painful for them

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Fri Apr 27, 2018 9:36 pm


Do read over the links on this page too. It is possible pain medication could help.
https://www.guinealynx.info/records/viewtopic.php?t=21

duskern

Post   » Sun Apr 29, 2018 11:14 am


So I've been over most of the links posted here. It's a bit much to take in, also due to english not being my first language, there's a couple of medical terms and such that I don't quite understand. I'm not really sure how to proceed, but I really like to have a list of possible problems to take to my vet, so that we can try to figure out how to go from there. What do you guys think I should do??

My vet have been very helpful in all of this, and I believe they are the most qualified to handle guinea pigs in Aarhus, Denmark. That being said, I'm not sure about how much knowledge they have on GP's, all though they seem to be really good. I can't really know if they have considered Interstitial Cystitis, or other stuff. It's a small clinic in Denmark, so they might not have access to cutting edge research regarding guinea pig health issues. I don't even know how that stuff works in the world of vets :D

Thx for the replies. It's nice to have some help with this :)

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sun Apr 29, 2018 11:20 am


I think the interstitial cystitis would be a possibility if no stones were found but sludge was found.

duskern

Post   » Mon Apr 30, 2018 8:07 am


What are the illnesses I should discuss with my vet? There's interstitial cystitis and bladder stones, but are there more?

I think that interstitial cystitis is the most likely. Does it have another name?

kailaeve1271

Post   » Mon Apr 30, 2018 9:18 am


In humans it is referred to as “Painful Bladder Syndrome” but I’m not sure if it’s the same for guinea pigs. I would look into Pyometra as well if she isn’t fixed. So in my opinion I’d ask the vet to check for sludge, stones, infections, Pyometra and Interstitial Cystitis just to get everything covered

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Apr 30, 2018 3:40 pm


Pyometra is an infection of the uterus.

duskern

Post   » Tue May 01, 2018 10:30 am


What do you mean by "fixed"? And what is sludge?

Thx for your replies all :)

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