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[iheartchins]

So her fur is stained again, but not wet. I stopped giving the cranberry juice a few days ago. I just wiped the stains with baby wipes, but it didn't really come off. Wondering if I should go back to the vet again or what. Wondering if she just keeps sitting in her pee because the fleece soaks it up. Otherwise, everything else looks fine.

[GrayRodent]

Can you feel where she sits? Is it right against a hard surface?

[iheartchins]

The surface is hard. It's a plastic shelf with a fleece cover over it.

[GrayRodent]

I recommend replacing it with a wooden shelf that does not have fleece on it. Perhaps the fleece has taken on the odor of the urine and your pet smells and thinks it's acceptable to do it there.
I can conceive that the hard surface doesn't allow the fleece to absorb fast enough to protect your chinchilla from getting drenched but since I don't use fleece I recommend that you investigate based on that route. Considering your vet did not see significant inflammation or signs of infection I have my doubts that the cause is an infection.

[iheartchins]

I have the double critter nation, so there are no wooden shelves :/ I think the fleece also helps to avoid bumblefoot (like Ivory was getting.) Tonight I took the fleece off and washed them and put them back on. While they were washing, I noticed pee spots all over the pans, so they don't have a specific spot that they always pee in. I'm hoping her fur is just pee-stained and I'll try to keep it clean with the baby wipes.

[mb30]

I use fleece in my cage and the chin might associate fleece with peeing if she has done it already.

If the fleece is directly on a shelf it wouldn't be able to absorb the pee as much and could be a cause.
The fleece i use for my cage is layered and has bamboo toweling in the middle to absorb any pee.

Just a thought...

[iheartchins]

That makes sense. My fleece is like a pillow case with only one layer on top and one layer on the bottom, so it's not absorbent.

[iheartchins]

So the yellowing is worse today and it's more in between her legs. I'll talk to the vet again and talk about antibiotics because I don't really think pee stains would be this big. It's also a little damp. The pee stains started coming back pretty much after I took her off the cranberry juice so I'm thinking maybe it treated but didn't cure? Anyways, I'll call the vet in the morning and see what they say. But, if she was given antibiotics and she didn't absolutely positively have a UTI, would the meds hurt her? Just wanna be on the safe side!

[GrayRodent]

Certainly discuss it with your vet. Antibiotics will have the same effect whether or not there is an infection so there's no increased danger if there's no infection. The antibiotics are potentially harmful and some chinchillas can have very serious reactions although it is not the norm. That is why I feel it's important to make sure it's not something to do with the cage if possible. If the cage is okay then I certainly recommend medical treatment.

I recommend discussing the dangers of GI stasis which is the most typical complication with your vet and obtain hand feeding supplies if you go that direction.

I do think that visibly wet fur is a danger sign. The wetness in itself can breed dangerous microbes that can also become a serious problem if left untreated. Considering the problem came back after the cranberry juice was discontinued does point towards a UTI. The cranberry juice prompts the chinchilla to drink more and that can curb and sometimes cure a UTI. (Although don't assume it will cure it and use proper meds to treat a UTI)

If it is a UTI the infection could become dangerous. If it isn't the meds are still a risk and if it's a problem with the cage the exposure to urine becomes a different risk. At this point it's a judgement call on how you wish to handle it. (Although I do recommend another washing with a damp rag)

With that being said my personal intuition (which is not always right) is that your pet is peeing on something and not moving away from the space. This could be a behavioral problem and I recommend going with regular pine bedding and plain wooden shelves and see if that fixes it.

[iheartchins]

Thanks for the info(: I'm not really sure what to do. I did put the cranberry juice back into the water and I felt around the cage for wet spots. There are a few, but I assume they dry within half an hour or so. I also wash the fleece weekly. I checked the yellowing again, and it's barely wet, it just looked wet. I wiped it with the baby wipes and a little did come off. With UTIs is there usually vulva swelling? Because if so, I remember the vet saying she didn't have any.

[GrayRodent]

A UTI that is diagnosed visually will show swelling of the opening that goes into the urethra. Sometimes an infection of the vulva can cause the urine to shoot out sideways onto the legs (and often the urethra is also involved).

Otherwise it is usually diagnosed with a culture where they put a sample under the microscope and check for the presence of microbes and blood cells. In addition a test strip may be available to confirm other chemical markers. I recommend discussing this with your vet.

If the swelling is bad enough to affect the passage of the urine to cause staining I would think it would be visually discerned (although I'm an expert on this and maybe someone else can comment). In other cases I've observed on this board pus is often observed in the fur. I would expect the urine would appear abnormal under a microscope. Another thing a UTI can do is result in incontinence which can also cause your chinchilla to urinate where it is not supposed to.

[iheartchins]

I haven't noticed any swelling and no pus at all. I've read online somewhere before that sometimes heavier chins seem to get yellow stained more (and she is big.) Since she's sleeping a lot in the day time she could be waking up to pee and then going back to sleep so the pee soaks into her fur. Since it's been about 2 weeks since I first noticed this, wouldn't it have gotten worse if it was an infection? I'm kinda now leaning more towards pee stains since in the previous cage I used bedding and they always peed in one spot and the bedding soaked the urine up quickly.

[mb30]

Have you noticed any excessive grooming of her private area? If there were a uti or some kind of infection she would surely be grooming more. My chin girl had a vaginal infection earlier in the year and she was grooming more than usual and grinding her teeth right after. The grinding of the teeth happened every single time she was done grooming so i knew something wasn't right. She had very visible swelling as well.

I don't know if this would be the case with a uti or not though.

[iheartchins]

Yes, she does groom a lot down there and I was wondering what the grinding sound was. She does it right after, too. The vet gave me baytril to give twice daily (.4CC) and meloxidyl (2 lb. dose daily). Wondering why there's 2 meds? I had someone else pick the meds up for me (had to work).

[iheartchins]

I've looked up other baytril doses and it looks like .4 is a lot more than it should be? I've seen doses like .15 and .25...