Peeing blood?!?

[Promisedsin]

My mother let me get two female rats for christmas. They are sisters and about 8 weeks old now. I was in the hospital since friday and returned tuesday to find that while my boyfriend had been feeding them and giving them water he did not clean their cage. Wednesday night i noticed that the darker one appeared to have red urine. Upon waking up this morning the tissues they use as nesting material was all pink. I think she might have a urinary tract infection...

Because I was in the hospital I missed a lot of work and currently cannot afford to take her to the vet. My friend is going to look into things for me but is there anything that I can do for her that doesn't require taking her to the vet? Thanks for looking.

 

[Joanne]

Sorry, but I would recommend borrowing some money and taking her to the vet's. The bleeding may be coming from her bladder or it could be coming from her uterus. A vet will be able to tell which one and if an antibiotic is required (which it probably will) they will be able to prescribe it.

 

[jorats]

Are you sure it's not porphyrin? (red nasal discharge)

 

[missnikki]

My rat had dark reddy brown urine for her whole life - tried different meds, feeding less calcium, nothing changed. It never seemed to be a big deal for her - what got her was the respiratory illnesses ...

Take your girl to the vet and have her checked out - try and get a pee sample right before you go too - they can test it.

 

[Godmother]

She will need to see a vet for sure. My first experience with that was coming home to find my three little rat sisters all pale, with one very lethargic. I was able to get them into the vet right away, fortunately, or one of them would surely have died. They were put on Zithromax, and they recovered well.

The second time I had a rat discharging blood, the cause was a tumour which soon became painful; I had to have her pts.

 

[EDK]

I would say get her to the vet asap, regardless of money troubles, I'm sure the vet will understand and you'll be able to cover the ammount later, prehaps they can do a 'bill later' thing for you

 

[Bundyrats]

Sounds like you definately need to get to a vet....

 

[TheRatQueen]

One of my boys had a UTI and they aren't pretty and he was in a ton of pain overnight before I could get him to the vets. I would def. try to take her in.