Guinea pig pees blood on occasion

Question
QUESTION: I am really stumped with this problem. I recently purchased a guinea pig, and I have one at home. One is alot bigger than the other in size. They get along pretty good, at times they can fight. My problem being the little one pees blood on occasion. I have went to the vet, had x rays for stones, and believe it or not, no infection or stones. What could be causing this? Also, I have tried to get my guinea pigs to take vit c, orange flavored, and tried everything, but they do not like the tablets, and refuse to take it. If I crush it up on their food, they won't eat the food. Do you have any suggestions for me?

ANSWER: Hi Cindy

Regarding the vitamin c, as long as they get a balanced diet with fresh veggies then vit c suppliment aren't usually neccesary, however, you could add it to their water if you get soluble vitamin.

Ok, the blood. First of all please make sure that the urine is red and dries to become a brown colour, just like human blood. The reason I say this is sometimes, piggies' pee can be orange colour quite normally.

The normal possibilities for this are bladder stones or urinary tract infection but if they have both been ruled out, I am not sure.

Can you tell me, does your pig squeek when she pees and is the urine red or just orange?

Andy

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: It does dry to brown. My piggie doesn't act sick, nor does he squeak when he pees. I can't tell you the care that I give to them, because it wouldn't be believed. I am really worried, as I lost one piggie on Sept 29,07, had labored breathing, and poor guy lost alot of weight. I had him to different specialists, (exotics), and nothing worked. I do tend to shy away from giving a guinea pig an anitbiotic, unless really needed, because the last one took my guinea pig down fast. Anyways, to answer your question, my guinea pig does not squeak when he pees. He is not lethargic, no puffy fur, but no mistaking the pee is red. It dries brown on the blanket.

As for the vit c, they get fresh fruits and veggies everyday. Matter of fact, I have one which weighs in close to 4 lbs, he is a real sweetie. I do apologize for asking the question on the pee, but I am really worried. I found that when I had to put my other guinea pig down, it was a long process with syringe feeding, and then he slipped away so very fast. The vet said without me, the guinea pig wouldn't have lived as long as he did. I am just trying to avoid another period of long suffering illness, as I do believe the problem should be addressed before it becomes a major thing for my guy. Thank you for your time and response to this question

Answer
Hi again Cindy

There is no need to apologise. Blood in the urine shouts UTI or bladder stones so you are right to question it.

I have also lost 2 of my 4 piggies in the last month so I know how worried you are.

Every resource I have available to me tells me that the antibiotic bactrim is the treatment for these things as it seems sooooo likely that a urinary infection is the problem. However, I understand your dislike of antibiotics. But given in the correct dose there should be no problem.

The other alternative is to give unsweetened cranberry juice in the first instance. It all depends on how confident you are in the vet's conclusion that there is definately no infection present. I'm not a vet but I cant see why there would be blood in the urine if there wasnt one.

Andy