# Rat peeing blood. Tried everything.



## furryfaces (Nov 10, 2012)

One of my male rats in peeing blood. The blood is not mixed in the urine. He leaves pool of urine with a pool of blood in the middle. Sometime he will pee with no blood. He has no other signs of illness. I have taken him to the vet. We tried baytril for 10 days and trimethoprim-sulfa for 16 days if it was a uti. We tired fenbendazole for 5 days if it was a worm. No medication had any affect. A ultrasound was done. No kidney damage and no stones. The penis itself is fine. The bladder wall is thickened. The ph of the urine is 6 - 7. High levels of protein and white blood cells are in the urine. My vet told me she is unsure what to do next. I will be making a appointment again soon. Any advice on what could be causing the blood in the urine. Should I ask for clavomox?


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## unlikelyfather (Sep 11, 2012)

What is his diet? High levels of protein in the urine suggest he may be eating too much protein. If he's older than 12 weeks, he really shouldn't be having a lot of protein in his diet at all.


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## furryfaces (Nov 10, 2012)

I asked my vet about that and she said the protein in the urine is from the blood.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Poor lad, no cysts or masses inside his urinary tract? Did they test for bacteria in his urine?


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## furryfaces (Nov 10, 2012)

The ultrasound did not show anything. My vet looked around pretty well. A few times we did a urinalysis stick with sediment. But we did not culture the urine. My vet said after the last urinalysis that she did not see any bacteria. I did not even consider doing a urine cutler because we put him on baytril first. The results might be different with him on baytril. Should I wait a while after the antibiotics are over and ask for a urine cutler?


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

furryfaces said:


> The ultrasound did not show anything. My vet looked around pretty well. A few times we did a urinalysis stick with sediment. But we did not culture the urine. My vet said after the last urinalysis that she did not see any bacteria. I did not even consider doing a urine cutler because we put him on baytril first. The results might be different with him on baytril. Should I wait a while after the antibiotics are over and ask for a urine cutler?


that is something to discuss with your vet, but its possible the bacteria is just not responsive to baytril. You have ruled out a lot of the other issues but not really tackled bacteria yet, so I would go ahead. Good for you for trying sooo hard for your boy!!


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## furryfaces (Nov 10, 2012)

Hey I want to update this thread. My rat is still peeing blood. Me and my vet have cultured the blood. He had E.Coli in the culture. He is on antibiotics that his E.coil is susceptible to; doxy and baytril. Before he was on antibiotics that should have killed this. I am thinking I did something wrong or he got reinfected. I am going to clean the cage a lot now. I will update this again in a few days.


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## unlikelyfather (Sep 11, 2012)

What are you doing for his water source? Contaminated water could contain E.coli, I would suggest only giving him bottled water and being very careful with how YOU wash YOUR hands and what YOU drink, because E.coli is vicious and can also infect humans.


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## furryfaces (Nov 10, 2012)

Update.

I give them bottled water. From what I understand a uti is not caused by anything they eat or drink it is from bacteria going into the urethra. I have been washing my hands a lot. So I do not spread the bacteria. 

It has been 17 days into the treatment. The total treatment will last 28 days. So over halfway there. My rat is still peeing blood. It appears to have gotten a little better. On a side note my rats love saltine crackers.


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

Yeah sounds like a UTI. Good he's on a treatment. If you can try to feed him mainly fresh foods (Herbs, leafy greens, Vegetables, Berries, maybe some sardines, maybe only 5% to 30% lab blocks in his diet), in cats at least it really helps out with UTIs so I can imagine it would be similar in rats.

Rats Love crackers in general


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

As to crackers, years ago I worked security in a cookie factory. On weekends, when the plant was empty a huge wild rat would plant himself right next to the pile on the floor where crackers would spill off the conveyor belt. You could hear him munching over a vast distance in the empty factory. He apparently had no fear of security personnel. But if there was anyone else in the plant, he would not come out of hiding and therefore when I heard or saw him munching away I knew I was all alone and have the entire facility to myself. If he wasn't where he was supposed to be, munching his crackers I knew I had company somewhere in the huge facility. But more to the point, with every kind of imaginable cookie for him to eat, I only ever found him by the pile of salt free soup crackers. He was huge, and likely obese and I certainly can't say that he didn't eat anything else but I can definitely confirm that crackers were among his favorite foods.

As to the UTI, fresh cranberries couldn't hurt.


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## furryfaces (Nov 10, 2012)

If I worked in a place with a sort of regular visits by a small furry animal I would be fired because I would stop everything in a vain attempt to befriend the woodland creature. I have tried to keep fresh fruit around to get him to drink more. He will not drink flavored water unless he is thirsty. So I keep the water normal and give him fruits with lots of water in them. 

Update
Still peeing blood. I am really not sure if it is better then when we started. He has been on antibiotics for about a month now and is still peeing blood. The vet grew an e coli from his pee. It is possible to have e coli in the pee and not have a uti. As in he could have e coli in his urine but that may not be causing his blood urine. I really do not know what to do. He has to be on meds for 2 more weeks. But I do not think it will help. It is time to consider another possibility. But we have tried everything. I will talk to my vet. But if there is nothing left to do, I will ask for a x ray and then give up. I was thinking maybe he got into some rat poison or something.


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## elliriyanna (Jul 27, 2011)

how would he have gotten hold of a toxin? also what are you feeding? are you sure its from the penis and not a nearby area ? once when i was little i had a drop of blood in my urine but it turned out i was actually not peeing blood.


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

Ok, other then tumors or cysts (are you sure there was nothing on the X-ray? maybe you should do another one just to check?), it could be Urine crystals, which I know that cats get (not sure how often rats get them) and it scraps the walls of the urethra so it causes minor bleeding. Normally a wet diet fixes it (so, low amount of lab blocks + lots of fresh vegetables and fruits basically).

Could be a prostate infection.

Also he could have Diabetes or Kidney failure/infection. Peeing blood is a common sign of both of those. Dehydration is also a possibility, though not likely but not impossible. See if your vet will do a Diabetes test on him.


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## furryfaces (Nov 10, 2012)

It is from his penis. I have seen it drip out. He pees it, a lot of it. I thought maybe one of the boxes I used to make him a fort out of caused it. I used boxes from stores and the mail, at some point the boxes might have been in contact with poison, and when he chewed it he got injured. He is on a special diet. I have changed his diet and talked with my vet to rule that out. We have not done a x ray yet. We did a ultra sound and we did not see anything. Kidneys are fine and no tumors or cysts. I am going to ask for a x ray just to be sure. I have actually been to a couple vets about this. And one said it may be some problem with the prostate or testicle. So there is some room to go forward with more test but not much. I will ask about diabetes as I have not yet.


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## furryfaces (Nov 10, 2012)

This is very sad. I had my rat put down. My vet agreed it was the best thing to do. In the recent weeks his URI had gotten worse. His condition was rapidly deteriorating. He was still peeing blood. I came to the conclusion to have him put down because of a combination of several things. 

He was 2 1/2 years old
He had a active UTI and URI
He had been on baytril and doxy for a month and a half with no improvement
I bought him from a pet store full grown so he spent a large amount of his life in poor housing 
He had a hunched posture, he would hang over things in the cage, I believe it helped him breath
He had labored breathing that was getting worse by the day
He would only eat peanut butter and cheese 
He was able to move but would not move much due to his breathing 
He spent weeks on his igloo hanging his head off it struggling to breath and not doing anything else 

I love my rats. I loved him the most. He was my best friend. I will miss him with all my heart. I will never forget him. He was loving and kind. He trusted me.


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## zurfaces (Jan 16, 2013)

Aww man I'm crying. :'( I'm sorry you lost him! I believe you made the right choice though. Poor little guy


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## Muttlycrew (Dec 21, 2012)

I'm so sorry for your loss... 


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## cervine (Oct 14, 2012)

I'm so sorry you lost your friend. It sounds like you gave him a great life with a lot of care and attention, and that's all we can really do for our companion animals. Our final gift to them is letting them go peacefully. I think you did the right thing, since he was obviously not having a comfortable life anymore.


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