guinea pig bleeding

serenacat

Hi i have two guinea pigs, twix and nutmeg they are 11months young.

last night i found my female guinea pig twix all bloody and blood around the cage coming from her bottom.

i clean her up and the cage. im taking her to after hours in ucd its costing me 90euro but as im worried and have few other options im going to have to bring her in, im bringing all the animals as its the same price.

has this happened to any of your piggies? and does anyone know what it could be?
im post after i come back to let you know.
hopefully this will help any guinea pig owner if this happens to them

Sigma Force

Good that you're taking her in, can never be too careful with guinea pigs as they go down hill so quickly.

It could be a urine infection or a womb infection or something like that.

If it's a bladder infection then boiling pearl barley and cooling it and putting it in her water bottle, cranberry juice is another option. So if the vets say it's a urine infection there's no harm along with whatever treatment they give the pig to have some cranberry juice or pearl barley fed to the pig.

Also give the pig a little honey as well, this helps soothe inflammed bladders.

That is only if they say it is a urine infection.

If they put her on Baytril or another antibiotics ensure you get some avi pro or acedopholis (can never spell it) a wee capsule of acedopholis a half hour before the anitbiotic is due. Snip off the end of the capsule, and squeeze the contents into the pigs mouth and throw away the empty capsule. Or rub it into a small piece of the pigs favourite veg and see if she will eat it.

Ensure she keeps eating throughout, pigs in pain may not eat so ask the vets is she in pain if so a mild painkiller (they might say infant calpol and give you the dosage for it) may help.

Or something like critical care is handy to have for pigs who are poorly.

Once the vet says what it is it will be easier to suggest some extra things to make the piggy comfortable. With pigs the general care of them and extras when they are ill can be as important as the medication.

Keep her warm with vet bed or a snuggle safe heat pad, if you haven't either just keep her in a nice warm room away from draughts.

Let us know how you get on.

Here's a link that may help when you get the piggy home.
http://web.onetel.net.uk/~petergurney/atozmainpage.htm

serenacat

thanks for your reply it was very helpful.

i just got back was waiting for 1 hour and a half. it cost 106.14euro, i dont have pet insurance but now am considerin it! does anyone have guinea pig insurance if so how much?

she has an urinary tract infection and the vet says to give her cranberry juice.

good idea about the acidophilius by the way and thanks so much for link!

Sigma Force

There's no guinea pig insurance in Ireland they've only started rabbit insurance but none for other smallies sadly.

Other than the cranberry juice did the vet give you any meds and offer any other advice?

The peal barley is supposed to be even more effective than the cranberry juice so well worth seeing if you can get it in the supermarket, sometimes it's available in the baby section or in health food shops.

It tells you how to make it here http://www.oginet.com/pgurney/cystitis.htm

If you have honey handy do give her a little think the dose is 1 ml a time.

You can't over do the cranberry juice so syring a little into her mouth every hour or so, give it to her from the side of the mouth slowly. Cucumber is good too because of it's high water content.

Basically you want to flush the bacteria out hence so many fluids.

Female pigs can be prone to it so there's a few things you can do to help prevent it happening again esp. as she could be one of those pigs that's prone to it. Here's some tips.

Keep the bedding spotless, changing daily if needed as some pigs like to sit in the wet bedding and their butts become dirty easily. If she has longish hair or if the hair around the butt area is a bit long keep it well trimmed, trim the hair around the area every two weeks.

Keep the area clean, no harm even to start now in just giving her bum area a wash under a warm tap, careful not too hot or cold. Just her bum area so she doesn't get too cold. Then keep her somewhere warm on warm towels or vet bed with snuggle safe heat pad.

Wash the area regularly every day at the moment if she's still bleeding and the blood is sticking to her fur. If possible place a white towel on her bed area so it's easier to keep an eye and you'll be able to tell wether the bleeding is lessening.

Dandelion can be good for a uti mabey even try a hay that contains dried dandelion.

Some pigs can get bladder stones, the vet probably felt for them but if your pig doesn't appear to be getting better and is in pain or anything it could be a stone causing it and that may require surgery. But would be unusual in a young pig like that.

Here's another site that will help, this is also a link to a more reliable site as some sites can give all sorts of wrong info. this is one of the more trustworthy ones their products are great too http://www.galensgarden.co.uk/herbivores/health/urinarytract.php

Our little piggy girl 'Giggles' died earlier this year she used to suffer from the odd uti but was easily cleared up with cranberry juice, but she had a particularly nasty one and even after being to the vets, took xrays for stones etc. she just gave up and stopped eating despite being up all hours syringe feeding her so so parnoid about it now.

So just ensure your pig is eating normally and encourage her to eat plenty of hay and cucumber and the like, even check her at night to make sure once she's eating that's a good sign, most pigs pull through though.

Let us know how you get on.

serenacat

hm.. no the vet didnt say much else other than the antibiotics every day for 5 days and some cranberry juice. im go get some celery and honey now!

what and where can you buy a snuggle pad and pet bed?


RIP giggles i hope she had a good long life.

thanks so much for your reply! :-)

Sigma Force

Vet bed should be available in most pet shops, it's bought by the foot usually but since pigs are small you can sometimes buy a foot of it and just cut it in half yourself for their sleeping area, it washes in the washing machine and you can dry it in a dryer or on the rad, brilliant stuff esp. for sick smallies and very comfy too.

There's a good few places that sell the snuggle safe heat pads, worth shopping around a bit for them very handy to have as well, say if giving a pig a bath and you need to keep them warm, or for poorly pigs etc. Even use them yourself if your hot water bottle bursts they just go in the microwave always use the cover provided though.

Prices can vary on sites hugely here's the cheapest places I've seen so far although if you have access to e-bay you might get it cheaper.

http://www.zooplus.ie/shop/dogs/dog_beds_baskets/dog_cushions_pillows_blankets/heat_pads_and_heat_pillows/129427

http://www.bronteglen.ie/bronteglenDetail.asp?cat=2&subCat=25&prod=151&name=SnuggleSafe%20Heat%20pad%20for%20Cats%20&%20Dogs

Giggles had a great life, she spent a lot of it helping bring rescue piggies out of their shell and had lots of space and tons of food just what every pig loves, total spoilt. Miss her though she was a little sweetheart.

Another site that has smaller vet bed so works out cheaper although postage can be dear so if ordering might as well go the whole hog and order loadsa stuff lol. It's one of my fave sites atm.

https://www.thehayexperts.co.uk/Blankeys+%252526+Bedding.29/Vetbed+Original.258.html

Hope your piggy feels better soon, such gentle little souls pigs so many suffer in silence so nice to hear of a caring owner.

serenacat

ahh thank you. that vet bed looks really cute! i just gave twix her antibiotics there she was in a bad mood she was running away and when i pet her she jerked her head up and said hmpf which was cute but hard to get her to eat the antibiotics. i had to chase her around the cage. she took it anyway and it mustn't taste that bad as she took it ok.

0.7ml for 5 days is her dose

Sigma Force

lol typical guinea pig, good to hear she is resisting good sign she's being fiesty. Headbutting you is pretty normal a guinea pigs way of telling you to get lost.

Baytril is the typical general antibiotic given, there's a few others that can be more effective against a uti but baytril is considered one of the safest.
Dosage wise depends on the weight of the pig I'm not great on dosage always have to read over and check a zillion times before dosing the animals even with wormer. Sounds about right though sometime it's once a day sometimes twice depending.

How's she doing on the cranberry juice, some pigs love it some spit it out.
If she's in the cage with the other pig there's no harm in putting the cranberry juice in their water bottle, you can water it down a little. That way she'll be drinking it throughout the day and you can give her a little extra throughout the day as well.

Any improvement in the bleeding yet?
Keep us posted..ooo and some pigtures as well if you have them!

serenacat

here are the pics
pigtures-lol

she doesnt seem to be bleeding at all now so that's great. im giving her honey but have to give nutmeg (non sick guinea pig) it as well so not be unfair. she doesnt like the cranberry juice if i put it in her bottle she will probably drink it though, its cranberry light btw.

the vet weighted her and said she is a healthy weight very slim!
which is funny as i think she is chubby! gave her the antibiotics again i had to wrap a blanket around her legs to stop her kicking me!

i have a Q btw when i tickle/scratch their lower backs they made a weird vibrating sound. can't figure out if they like it or hate it!!

serenacat

nutmeg= mostly brown one
twix=has more white

Sigma Force

They're both gorgeous! Lovely to see them having lots of space as well.

I used cranberry light before they do say to try and get the sugar free one so that's why I did. Although being Xmas just though you might be able to get some fresh cranberries although not sure if guineas like the taste.

Twix looks like she's the more outgoing one and Nutmeg more shy there's usualy one a bit more forward than the other one. They're so cute!

If the noise they are making is like a 'drrrrrrr' sound it means she's not happy and is basically giving out. You might hear them doing that to each other sometimes if one gets in the way of the other one or is having a grumpy day.

They look great, coats are lovely. At that age they don't tend to be as plump as slightly older pigs. I always like my pigs to be chubby so if they do get a bit ill they can afford to loose a little.

Sounds like she's improving which is great, always hate when guineas get ill.
Highly recommend peter gurneys piggy potions book, if you can't find it in the shops I have a spare one here if you want it.
Bought a load of them ages ago to hand out to guinea pig owners so have a few left for anyone who has piggies.

She's on to you with the antibiotics, she'll get more squirmy each time the cheeky madam.

Pics are great never enough guinea pig piccies on this site.

serenacat

Guineapigrescue wrote: »

They're both gorgeous! Lovely to see them having lots of space as well.

I used cranberry light before they do say to try and get the sugar free one so that's why I did. Although being Xmas just though you might be able to get some fresh cranberries although not sure if guineas like the taste.

Twix looks like she's the more outgoing one and Nutmeg more shy there's usualy one a bit more forward than the other one. They're so cute!

If the noise they are making is like a 'drrrrrrr' sound it means she's not happy and is basically giving out. You might hear them doing that to each other sometimes if one gets in the way of the other one or is having a grumpy day.

They look great, coats are lovely. At that age they don't tend to be as plump as slightly older pigs. I always like my pigs to be chubby so if they do get a bit ill they can afford to loose a little.

Sounds like she's improving which is great, always hate when guineas get ill.
Highly recommend peter gurneys piggy potions book, if you can't find it in the shops I have a spare one here if you want it.
Bought a load of them ages ago to hand out to guinea pig owners so have a few left for anyone who has piggies.

She's on to you with the antibiotics, she'll get more squirmy each time the cheeky madam.

Pics are great never enough guinea pig piccies on this site.

you are bang on about twix being more outgoing! nutmeg is like the baby. thanks for compliments i'll pass them on now! alot of people don't like guinea pigs and think they are scary which is crazy as they are terrified of their shadow!!

they just bit off the string for the water bottle there they are really bold guinea pigs! they bit their some wires before now i relgiously take them out of their reach. They also jump into the box i keep the hay so im always lifting them out!

i have Q for you did you train your guinea pig to do anything? any tips?