blood in urine, vet suggests spay

[rugrat]

I have a female chinchilla who is at least 7 years old. (I've had her for about 6 months.) About a month ago I started seeing blood in her urine. The first urine sample that I took to my vet contained bacteria and white blood cells. She palpated her abdomen and didn't feel any lumps or stones. We treated her with SMZ for 2 weeks and re-tested the urine, and it was the same. So we treated her with Baytril for another 2+ weeks, and then my vet sent a urine sample to a lab to be cultured, and the results came back clear, no bacteria. But she still has occasional blood, and sometimes she cries when she pees, so I know it's still hurting her.

The blood is usually a small puddle in the middle of a larger puddle of clear urine. I read somewhere (maybe on this site) that this pattern suggests that the source of blood is the reproductive organs rather than the bladder. (If the blood were coming from the bladder, it would be evenly mixed with the urine.) Is this true? She also sometimes pees little red blood clots, about the size of this letter O.

My vet suggests that we spay her -- it will cure her if the source of the problem is the uterus, and if it doesn't cure her, then at least we'll know it's coming from the bladder, not the uterus.

Has anyone had a similar experience? Would you recommend the spay surgery? Or do you know of an alternative way to find out what's going on?

If I do the spay surgery, I'll be posting here again to ask about follow-up care!

 

[tunes]

First, I would not trust the vet to "palpate" for stones. If he wants to know if there are stones, then he should do an ultrasound to see if they are present.

Second, I would want to know for sure why my chin was undergoing surgery. Not all chins handle surgery well. They don't do well under anesthesia, they don't recovery in a speedy manner, they go off feed, lose weight, etc., etc. I don't think something as potentially traumatic as a spay for a rule out is a great idea.

First, I would want the ultrasound. Secondly, I would send an email to Angie at [email protected] and tell her everything that has been done, the symptoms, the treatments, etc., and get her opinion on what might be going on.

It may be that the spay will take care of what's going on, but I would want to be sure that I had a second opinion from an experienced vet to be sure.

 

[AZChins]

Has the vet discussed putting her on another antibiotic to see if this is a urinary tract/bladder infection? Most of the time it ends up being an infection and not so much it being actual stones.

Unnecessary spays are just not the best thing. Sometimes getting a female spayed will make her stop eating and needing handfeeding several times a day. A second opinion would be a great idea...or possibly trying a stronger antibiotic in case you're dealing with inflammation from a bad bladder infection.

 

[rugrat]

I think we ruled out infection because the last urine test came back clean. That is, there was bacteria in the first 2 urine tests, but in the 3rd urine test (after 2 weeks of Baytril) there was no bacteria. So that means no infection, right? But there's still occasionally blood in the urine.

My vet is arranging an ultrasound appt for me. I will also send an email to Dr. Angie and see if she's had similar cases.

I should also mention that her energy level is good. She doesn't act sore or painful when handled, even when her vet palpated her. She's not lethargic (now that she's done with the Baytril).

 

[Riven]

If there is discharge from her reproductive organs the slit in her labia will be probably be open and you will visibly be able to see that it is open, opposed to the majority of the time there does not appear to be an opening.

I agree that a spay "just to see" doesn't sound like a good plan to me either.

 

[rugrat]

Interesting! I'll have to check her tomorrow morning. I've looked before, there was no obvious gap or discharge, but the white fur around her genitals is stained reddish; it was clean and white before this problem started.
She's been peeing clear for the last 48 hours, but she still makes little squeaks when she pees, so I don't think we're out of the woods yet. Luckily she's regaining the weight she lost during the Baytril treatment.

 

[rugrat]

An update: My chinchilla had her x-ray and an ultrasound. No stones were seen in bladder or kidneys, and no tumors/masses were seen in the uterus, but the ultrasound vet did see some free fluid in her abdomen, which she said may be a sign of diffuse disease of the uterus.
Chilly is no longer peeing blood, but she still makes little crying/hooting sounds sometimes when she pees, so I know she's still uncomfortable. I've sent an email to Dr. Angie for her opinion, which I will share with my vet. But it's looking more and more like a spay is on the horizon. :-(

 

[rugrat]

Also, since my last post, we've put her on Metacam to see if that has any effect on her pain during urination. Sadly, she's still crying when she pees. So the Metacam isn't helping. I am still resistant to spaying her, since that has such a history of bad outcomes, and her quality of life is good... when she isn't peeing.

 

[ticklechin]

I have no experience with female issues but I do with pain, tramadol used with metecam works well for moderate pain, metecam alone IMO might as well be tylenol in strength.