A couple of months ago, Meisha's urine started looking odd. It was after she ate carrots and anything reddish for a while, so I thought it just had to do with the food color at first. However, her pee started to consistently stay darker and stink, so I took her to the vet. They found blood in her urine and prescribed amoxicillin for a week. It seemed to help her feel a little better, but her urine remained dark.
We waited to see if her pee would clear up, but it started getting more pink in color, and her energy declined the day before I took her to her second vet appointment. They put her on Metacam and orbifloxacin. They helped her feel better and brought her appetite back, but the orbifloxacin gave her mild diarrhea, so we had to stop giving her that. The orbifloxacin also did something weird: it separated the blood from the urine to the point where she would sometimes have normal urine, sometimes nearly pure blood, and sometimes blood in the middle of normal urine.
I know it was Meisha's urine because she's the only one of my two rats who pees on the platforms, plus I watched her do it a few times.
The vet said the next step would most likely be to have an ultrasound done to check her kidneys. She said an X-Ray may show kidney stones but not tumors or tissue damage. I came across older threads that said a combination of Baytril and doxycycline are usually helpful for UTIs, and one thread involved a rat having more bloody urine than Meisha. Should I ask the vet about prescribing those to her to see if they help? The place they would send us to have the ultrasound done is three hours away, but Meisha doesn't like car rides and the people who drive us around aren't willing to go that far.
Also, what foods would be good to give her and Iris (my other rat) during this time? I know the food won't be a cure, but I know some are more helpful (and some are more harmful) than others. I'm mostly looking for non-sugary fruit and vegetable ideas but am open to other suggestions.
We waited to see if her pee would clear up, but it started getting more pink in color, and her energy declined the day before I took her to her second vet appointment. They put her on Metacam and orbifloxacin. They helped her feel better and brought her appetite back, but the orbifloxacin gave her mild diarrhea, so we had to stop giving her that. The orbifloxacin also did something weird: it separated the blood from the urine to the point where she would sometimes have normal urine, sometimes nearly pure blood, and sometimes blood in the middle of normal urine.
I know it was Meisha's urine because she's the only one of my two rats who pees on the platforms, plus I watched her do it a few times.
The vet said the next step would most likely be to have an ultrasound done to check her kidneys. She said an X-Ray may show kidney stones but not tumors or tissue damage. I came across older threads that said a combination of Baytril and doxycycline are usually helpful for UTIs, and one thread involved a rat having more bloody urine than Meisha. Should I ask the vet about prescribing those to her to see if they help? The place they would send us to have the ultrasound done is three hours away, but Meisha doesn't like car rides and the people who drive us around aren't willing to go that far.
Also, what foods would be good to give her and Iris (my other rat) during this time? I know the food won't be a cure, but I know some are more helpful (and some are more harmful) than others. I'm mostly looking for non-sugary fruit and vegetable ideas but am open to other suggestions.
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Keep us posted? Thanks.
