I have an older female (age unknown) who has been experiencing urine scald on her hind end and down the backs of her legs recently. I have been treating it by washing her off every night, drying, and applying first calendula cream to soothe and heal it, and now UnPetroleum Jelly to act as a barrier against it. It´s almost healed up, but I have discovered over the weekend in blotting her back end that there is a rusty-brown tinge to her urine.
She has been making sounds that I associate with painful urination and they have been increasing in frequency, which made me think of cystitis. At first I thought it was because the urine burned over the raw skin, but this is healing well and she is still making little crying noises -- and the blood. Lately she is hanging out around her potty area frequently, kind of hunched, and making that noise, all of which sounds like cystitis to me.
Our local vets are less than helpful. Some won´t even see a GP (in his defense, he said he doesn´t know enough about their health to do me any good or charge me for it. At least he´s honest.) Another one will look at them, but won´t inspect molars without general anaesthetic, nor take x-rays of a pig that sits there like a furry potato without the same. I can do my own incisor inspections, temperature taking, and heart and lungs w/stethescope. So I am rather on my own.
The nearest GP specialist is a 500 mile round trip, and I´ve also got a horse that needs doctoring every night at the moment, making it difficult to travel (not to mention all the other pigs at home and no sitter). You ALSO need a vet referral to even get in to see them, another problem. Should I be trying to get an appointment and pulling a red-eye?
Does anyone have any advice on dealing with this? Forcefeeding cranberry juice help at all? Blueberries? Any drugs I might be able to strong-arm a vet into giving me?
Thanks for listening to me rant. I´m feeling frustrated with the vets every time I hear Zinger crying. So far she isn´t touching the blueberries...
Urine Scald -- Bloody urine -- cystitis?
Sulfa drugs are excellent for urinary tract infections. Some you can get with a prescription from a regular pharmacy. Sulfatrim (APO) is one.
It could also be bladderstones, but that would require an xray. Most pigs do not need sedating for an xray but some are such squigglers it is impossible to get a good pic without sedation.
Cranberry juice is more of a preventative measure than a cure. In fact, it won´t cure anything.
Any vet can spin down a urine sample to see if there is blood present. Blood would indicate an infection and at least point you towards using antibiotics. Get a urine sample from your pig and bring it in and ask for sulfa if there is blood present.
It could also be bladderstones, but that would require an xray. Most pigs do not need sedating for an xray but some are such squigglers it is impossible to get a good pic without sedation.
Cranberry juice is more of a preventative measure than a cure. In fact, it won´t cure anything.
Any vet can spin down a urine sample to see if there is blood present. Blood would indicate an infection and at least point you towards using antibiotics. Get a urine sample from your pig and bring it in and ask for sulfa if there is blood present.
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Lynx
- Celebrate!!!
Check:
https://www.guinealynx.info/forums/threa ... id=2&sid=4
I wrote: In rabbits with urinary incontinence Hillyer & Quesenberry mention daily cleaning and topical treatment for dermatitis with a drying agent such as Domeboro astringent solution in addition to treatment of the primary problem (which for you is probably related to the stones/sludge).
This does sound like it could be a stone. Antibiotic treatment could help if you can find a vet who would prescribe something like bactrim. The urinary tract infection Pinta mentioned might be likely, but perhaps less likely given the urinary incontinence.
It sounds like you´re between a rock and a hard place. An appropriate antibiotic is the best thing you can do right now.
https://www.guinealynx.info/forums/threa ... id=2&sid=4
I wrote: In rabbits with urinary incontinence Hillyer & Quesenberry mention daily cleaning and topical treatment for dermatitis with a drying agent such as Domeboro astringent solution in addition to treatment of the primary problem (which for you is probably related to the stones/sludge).
This does sound like it could be a stone. Antibiotic treatment could help if you can find a vet who would prescribe something like bactrim. The urinary tract infection Pinta mentioned might be likely, but perhaps less likely given the urinary incontinence.
It sounds like you´re between a rock and a hard place. An appropriate antibiotic is the best thing you can do right now.
My pig, Cookie, took Sulfatrim, which she tolerated quite well. The bleeding stopped (she did have a UTI), but started up again due to her bladder stones. The whimpering while urinating is what put me on to something being wrong.
Even after the stones were removed, there was a great deal of sludge still in her bladder and was causing her pain on urination even after the infection cleared. We´ve had a week of daily SQ injections and are now on every-other-day injections and when I clean her daily, the urine is less and less brownish, indicating to me she´s beginning to clean out.
Don´t know if any of this helps. Just my experience. My vet indicated that a sludgy bladder can be quite painful, and when he manipulated it to get a urine sample to spin, he could tell it was quite painful.
Even after the stones were removed, there was a great deal of sludge still in her bladder and was causing her pain on urination even after the infection cleared. We´ve had a week of daily SQ injections and are now on every-other-day injections and when I clean her daily, the urine is less and less brownish, indicating to me she´s beginning to clean out.
Don´t know if any of this helps. Just my experience. My vet indicated that a sludgy bladder can be quite painful, and when he manipulated it to get a urine sample to spin, he could tell it was quite painful.
-
Lynx
- Celebrate!!!
Also the longer a UTI goes untreated the more painful it will be for the pig. If there are stones their abrasive quality can cause a UTI so an antibiotic is probably needed regardless.
An xray or ultrasound will rule out or confirm stones.
Bladderstones and Sludge
http://208.185.185.132/forums/thread.ph ... &styleid=1
An xray or ultrasound will rule out or confirm stones.
Bladderstones and Sludge
http://208.185.185.132/forums/thread.ph ... &styleid=1
Last edited by pinta on Mon Apr 22, 2002 1:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
Thank you all. I´ve been pitching this on several forums, and it all comes down to pretty much the same conclusions -- kidney/bladderstone possibilities, UTI possibility.
I´ve come to the conclusion that as soon as the vets open tomorrow morning, i´m going to be on the phone and calling every vet I can find until I find someone who can do the x-rays on Zinger and check for occult blood. It is possible that my former dog vet will do these things for me if I ask him to -- I´ve printed out everything I can find on the situation as reference. I think I embarrassed him once by taking in a constipated chinchilla that he didn´t know what was wrong with (and couldn´t find the rectum -- still more embarrassing perhaps, altho I thought it was pretty funny. Chinchilla´s have pretty fuzzy pants, so it´s not always easy to find.).
If I can´t get satisfaction around here, I´ll just start phoning further and further down the road. And if THAT doesn´t work, there is an emergency clinic in that same town as the University vet center and I´ll just have to do a same day trip with her.
Thanks for your help.
I´ve come to the conclusion that as soon as the vets open tomorrow morning, i´m going to be on the phone and calling every vet I can find until I find someone who can do the x-rays on Zinger and check for occult blood. It is possible that my former dog vet will do these things for me if I ask him to -- I´ve printed out everything I can find on the situation as reference. I think I embarrassed him once by taking in a constipated chinchilla that he didn´t know what was wrong with (and couldn´t find the rectum -- still more embarrassing perhaps, altho I thought it was pretty funny. Chinchilla´s have pretty fuzzy pants, so it´s not always easy to find.).
If I can´t get satisfaction around here, I´ll just start phoning further and further down the road. And if THAT doesn´t work, there is an emergency clinic in that same town as the University vet center and I´ll just have to do a same day trip with her.
Thanks for your help.
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