# Constipation/Not Peeing



## cardiologineer (Sep 29, 2012)

So I took Zannah to the vet this afternoon. The good news is she said the swelling behind her ears doesn't look concerning.
But she initially suspected bladder stones due to the straining/not peeing. They took X-rays and are sending those off to a radiographer but said it didn't look like there were any noticable stones (though there could still be smaller ones). They also got a urine sample while she was out, but she's had no discharge or blood or anything so the vet doesn't think it's an infection but they're checking to be sure. What she did notice from the X-ray was that she had a lot of stool inside of her.
I had noticed that she was pooping a little less but it didn't seem super drastic. 
She told me to syringe her a tiny bit of prune juice to try to clean her out. And also said that the constipation could be that that's causing her to have trouble peeing too. She's going to try to call the office tomorrow to see about the results of the X-rays/urine test but is super busy with interviews tomorrow. She's going to do her best but may not be able to get back to me right away.
Just wondering if anyone has any experiences with this? What could cause this (I know too many insects can cause constipation but she hasn't had any mealies in a while and only a few beetles every so often)? And also, is there anything else I can do to help her out?


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## cardiologineer (Sep 29, 2012)

So far I've given her 0.3 ccs of prune juice (the vet said do a couple times today of 0.1 or 0.2 so I started with 0.1 when we got home and gave her 0.2 a little bit ago, I think I'll give her a little more in a bit).
She's in the bath right now and has been for probably 10-15 minutes already and no poop or pee yet. She keeps putting her tail up like when they poop but nothing comes out. It doesn't look like she's straining. Just two nights ago she was pooping in her bath at least a little bit. She had a few poops this morning and what looked like a tiny puddle of pee dried on her wheel. But nothing since then at all. 
The vet did mention that it could be a neurological problem or physical. Even though it was less than normal, at least she did poop some last night.
I'm just worried about the poor girl. She seems to be acting fine (ran 7 miles on her wheel the other night, which is her new record, at least since I've had her odometer) but I know they hide illness very well. I hope she's not too uncomfortable. :?

EDIT: She just had a rather large poop (looked like a tiny bit of white-ish mucus on it) and peed a little. Still looks like she's trying to pee more but nothing's coming out. Hopefully by the time she gets all the poop out of her will help her pee a little better like the vet suspects.


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## Katis228 (Aug 19, 2012)

Poor Zannah  Sounds like things are getting better though. Mal and I send good healthy hedgie thoughts your way!


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## AlexONeil (Nov 14, 2012)

Poor Zannah!  I think you're doing just fine on her care though. Hopefully she'll get cleared out and a clean bill of health from the tests! Best wishes! (I still want to meet her, by the way. )


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## Avarris (Dec 3, 2012)

Healing prayers for you and Zannah! Let's hope it's just a simple matter of constipation and an easy prune juice cure.


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## alexvdl (Dec 19, 2012)

First off, I sincerely hope that the prune juice helps clear Zanna out and that she gets a clean bill of help afterwards. 

Secondly, I am jealous of Zanna's wheel production. The most that Reginald has run was 3.798 miles and that was back during a week of unusual activity from him. He had just gotten done quilling so I think he was feeling his druthers after having been under the weather for so long. I'm hoping he breaks 4 miles one night. I'm also hoping that he beats his 4.3 mph record.


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## cardiologineer (Sep 29, 2012)

AlexONeil said:


> Poor Zannah!  I think you're doing just fine on her care though. Hopefully she'll get cleared out and a clean bill of health from the tests! Best wishes! (I still want to meet her, by the way. )


Thanks.  I'll have to invite you over soon once we've figured out what's going on with her and I stop being exhausted all the time. :?



Avarris said:


> Healing prayers for you and Zannah! Let's hope it's just a simple matter of constipation and an easy prune juice cure.


Thanks, I appreciate it.



alexvdl said:


> First off, I sincerely hope that the prune juice helps clear Zanna out and that she gets a clean bill of help afterwards.
> 
> Secondly, I am jealous of Zanna's wheel production. The most that Reginald has run was 3.798 miles and that was back during a week of unusual activity from him. He had just gotten done quilling so I think he was feeling his druthers after having been under the weather for so long. I'm hoping he breaks 4 miles one night. I'm also hoping that he beats his 4.3 mph record.


Thank you! And yes, she definitely loves her wheel. Rarely does she go a night below 5 miles (I think once or twice in the past few weeks). She's a pretty active little girl and also was running all over the exam table at the vet it was pretty funny and cute. I kept having to pull her back from the edge and when the vet was blocking her access to the edge she was trying to like nudge the vet away. :lol:


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## cardiologineer (Sep 29, 2012)

The vet just called with the results. The urinalysis looked good, so no infections or anything there and also no crystals. She said something about vertebrate calcification in her lower back, which she said she's a little young for but may just be a genetic faster aging process. The main thing was something about soft tissue (I'll admit I didn't 100% understand what she was saying about it) but the causes could be: 1. Intestinal/colon issues, 2. Reproductive issues, or 3. a displaced bladder.

1. She didn't mention much about this, and I think was more concerned about the other two possibilities.
2. She hasn't had any discharge which the vet said is a good sign for this but it could depend on what type of issue it was. Also said she's a little young for this but it's been known to happen. This would only get worse with time, so I'm assuming she'd need to be spayed.
3. She was pretty confident that if this is the cause of her issues it would go away with time, especially after getting all the poop out of her (she did the large poop I mentioned last night but other than that only had a few tiny ones this morning, so I gave her some more prune juice this morning and will continue giving it throughout the day, didn't look like any more pee this morning, just what she did in the bath last night). 

She said the issues could be genetic, it's just hard to tell because she was a rescue and so I don't have any background for her.
She prescribed an anti-inflammatory (I believe Metacam) and I'm going to pick that up shortly from the vet's office. If it doesn't get better, she wants me to call on Monday to update on her status and talk to someone (whose name I already forgot  ) about costs of our options. Basically in that case it would either be an ultrasound or exploratory surgery. The ultrasound would be less expensive and less invasive, so I'm leaning towards that. She said they have a woman who does this for them who is really great and they would probably be able to tell a lot from this. But the exploratory surgery might be kind of nice too because if it was anything urgent, they'd already be in there and be able to fix it right away.
Cost isn't really an issue, I don't have this much money saved up (she's already cost me $500 between the exam, x-rays, and urinalysis from yesterday) but my parents are loaning me however much money I need to get things worked out and so I'm not really letting that influence my judgement. Does anyone have any input on these options or any experience that could help me make my decision?


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## LizardGirl (Aug 25, 2008)

I'm glad to hear the tests didn't uncover anything obviously wrong, though that makes it harder to tell what the problem is. If it's not dehydration/urinary infection/crystals, it's hard to guess what not peeing could be caused by. In your shoes, based on the different things they think it might be, I'd probably opt to do the exploratory surgery. It'd give the best, most clear idea of what could be going wrong and the opportunity to fix it right then, rather than guess based off the ultrasound and then have to do surgery anyway. I really hope she's okay!


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## cardiologineer (Sep 29, 2012)

LizardGirl said:


> I'm glad to hear the tests didn't uncover anything obviously wrong, though that makes it harder to tell what the problem is. If it's not dehydration/urinary infection/crystals, it's hard to guess what not peeing could be caused by. In your shoes, based on the different things they think it might be, I'd probably opt to do the exploratory surgery. It'd give the best, most clear idea of what could be going wrong and the opportunity to fix it right then, rather than guess based off the ultrasound and then have to do surgery anyway. I really hope she's okay!


Thank you. Yeah, I've sort of been thinking more about the surgery option because I feel like that would get everything taken care of as soon as possible. Thinking back on it, it has seemed like she's been pooping less for a while now, but it wasn't a whole lot less so I didn't really think anything of it at the time. She's only seemed to have trouble peeing the past several days. I didn't get her to poop or pee in the bath last night and this morning there were only a couple tiny poops and some spots that look like dried pee on her liner (which still means she's peeing but little bits at a time). Which to me indicates that she's having a lot of trouble if she's just going wherever in her cage, since previously she only ever peed on her wheel or litter box.
I'll update how things go on the metacam and what I end up deciding on Monday.


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## LizardGirl (Aug 25, 2008)

That sounds good, and the Metacam should definitely help if her problem is pain related.


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## Avarris (Dec 3, 2012)

I aren't calling until tomorrow, bit wanted to know how Zannah was doing. Thinking about you guys.


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## cardiologineer (Sep 29, 2012)

Well, she's still doing fine in terms of activity. She even hit a new record of 7.5-ish miles a day or two ago and she's as active and curious and cuddly as ever.
But still not going to the bathroom much. She had one medium sized poop in the bath last night, no pee. This morning there were two tiny poops in her litter and a couple small smudges on her wheel. There was some pee on the wheel, a little puddle and some around the whole thing. She's never been a super messy girl, but even for her it's noticeably abnormal. Especially considering I've been giving her prune juice twice a day since Thursday and Metacam once a day since Friday. So I'll be calling sometime tomorrow to update and look into surgery, and will keep updated with specifics.


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## LizardGirl (Aug 25, 2008)

Are you absolutely sure it's not just her metabolism slowing down since she's not a baby anymore? It's hard to tell for us since we don't know what's normal for her or how much she's really eliminating now, but I'd hate for her to be put through surgery if it's just a normal decrease in eating/drinking and therefore she's not pooping and peeing as much.


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## cardiologineer (Sep 29, 2012)

LizardGirl said:


> Are you absolutely sure it's not just her metabolism slowing down since she's not a baby anymore? It's hard to tell for us since we don't know what's normal for her or how much she's really eliminating now, but I'd hate for her to be put through surgery if it's just a normal decrease in eating/drinking and therefore she's not pooping and peeing as much.


I've been worrying about that too a little. She's never really gone a whole lot. Even when she was a baby, I only got pooped on once but it seems like all of the sudden it just dropped off in the past week or two. I suppose it could be her metabolism. It really does seem like she's struggling to go though. In the bath, she just sort of gets in the position and then stands there forever like she's trying to pee. And she'll do the same for pooping, like getting ready to poop and nothing comes out and she gives up. And only after many tries does she sometimes get some out. I may try and see if I can get the vet on the phone tomorrow to talk a little more about what she saw on the x-ray and how concerned she is about the possibilities.


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## SouthernSweet (Jul 25, 2012)

aw, Zannah  Good luck with the vet.

The amount of waste you mentioned sounds normal, but it's not good if she's struggling!


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## cardiologineer (Sep 29, 2012)

This morning there was definitely a decent amount in her wheel/litter box. So it does seem like maybe it's improving?
I think I'll call and tell them it seems to be getting better. I was kind of thinking about staying up real late tonight (since I don't have class in the morning and can sleep in) and watching her on her wheel/in her cage to see if she's struggling to go in there. Like, maybe I'm just assuming she's struggling and she's not?
She's definitely peeing more than when I took her to the vet so maybe it was just a matter of getting all the poop through her?


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## jholstein11 (Dec 13, 2012)

Poor little Zannah is full of crap. 

I hope she keeps improving.


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## LizardGirl (Aug 25, 2008)

jholstein11 said:


> Poor little Zannah is full of crap.
> 
> I hope she keeps improving.


Hahaha!

I would give her a few more days to keep an eye on things just to be sure. The struggling to pee/poop does worry me, but if she's still moving food through just fine and she's peeing (even if not as much) without bacteria/crystals in the urine, I wouldn't rush on any testing/surgery. Maybe see how she does for a bit, and see if things change when you take her off the Metacam. Might help determine if it's just that it's painful or if maybe it's just taking a long time to "get started".


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## cardiologineer (Sep 29, 2012)

LizardGirl said:


> I would give her a few more days to keep an eye on things just to be sure. The struggling to pee/poop does worry me, but if she's still moving food through just fine and she's peeing (even if not as much) without bacteria/crystals in the urine, I wouldn't rush on any testing/surgery. Maybe see how she does for a bit, and see if things change when you take her off the Metacam. Might help determine if it's just that it's painful or if maybe it's just taking a long time to "get started".


Yeah, I think that's exactly what I'll do. Thanks for all the help!


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## cardiologineer (Sep 29, 2012)

Also, I just called the vet's office and they were able to get Dr. Vickstrom on the phone for me. She was very encouraged by the improvement I've seen so far and wants me to keep her on the Metacam 7-10 days (we're at day 4 now) and just keep them updated on how she's doing and see if I get a better idea if she's still straining for sure.
And just a side note, Zannah went 11.4 miles last night! So she's certainly not feeling back enough to cut down on the activity! :lol:


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## cardiologineer (Sep 29, 2012)

Oh and one thing she said to watch for would be compared poops because that would indicate inflammation. What would that look like? Just a bunch of shorter poops or what? I don't really know what to look for in regards to that because a lot of her poops are pretty small.


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## LizardGirl (Aug 25, 2008)

Compared poops? Maybe that's an autocorrect of compacted poops? I'd look for ones that are too loose, or ones that are very thin (think like spaghetti thin versus normal "toothpaste" width) as indications of possible irritation or compaction.


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## cardiologineer (Sep 29, 2012)

LizardGirl said:


> Compared poops? Maybe that's an autocorrect of compacted poops? I'd look for ones that are too loose, or ones that are very thin (think like spaghetti thin versus normal "toothpaste" width) as indications of possible irritation or compaction.


Whoops, yes, compacted, haha. Ok, thank you.


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## cardiologineer (Sep 29, 2012)

Sorry for all the questions  but are either of these concerning?:

1. I watched her last night while she was on her wheel and she stopped a couple of times briefly and looked like she was either trying to pee or poop but after nothing came out she went back to running. A little while later, she was starting to poop, she got off her wheel and a couple of drops of pee or something landed on the paper towels in her litter box (I've been noticing little spots on her liner that look like pee stains too). She then gave up on pooping too, even though a little bit was coming out. This morning there's a pretty normal amount of poop, but obviously it's not completely easy for her to poop judging by what I saw last night.

2. This is what it looked like in her litter box this morning and I can't tell what all the flaky stuff is.


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## LizardGirl (Aug 25, 2008)

Hard to tell through a picture, but it looks like her poop might be so dry that it "crumbles" a bit. We get lots of "poop flakes" here too, but they're always just crumbs that fall off the wheel. I'd show Dr. Vickstrom the pic too and see if she has any input.


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## Immortalia (Jan 24, 2009)

Did the vet say anything about the specific gravity of the urine? 

I'd be tempted to mention subQ fluids as well as maybe even seeing if adding some oils to the food may help lubricate things along.


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## cardiologineer (Sep 29, 2012)

LizardGirl said:


> Hard to tell through a picture, but it looks like her poop might be so dry that it "crumbles" a bit. We get lots of "poop flakes" here too, but they're always just crumbs that fall off the wheel. I'd show Dr. Vickstrom the pic too and see if she has any input.


Ok, thanks. I think that sounds plausible. There was a little bit this morning too but not too much. I'll be calling them with an update on Monday, so I will mention that then and if she's concerned I can probably get the picture to her somehow. She seems to be doing pretty well, so I'm not too concerned at this point.



Immortalia said:


> Did the vet say anything about the specific gravity of the urine?
> 
> I'd be tempted to mention subQ fluids as well as maybe even seeing if adding some oils to the food may help lubricate things along.


She didn't mention that, no. I can ask about it on Monday though. I have been adding a bit of olive oil to her food, mainly for dry skin. I could try adding a bit more but it does seem like I've definitely seen improvement.


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## cardiologineer (Sep 29, 2012)

Figured I'd give an update on Zannah. I've been super busy and low energy lately so she hasn't been getting a ton of attention but she seems to be doing well. The weekend before last I tried taking her off of the prune juice and she didn't go nearly as much so I kept giving it to her. She's now been off it again for a few days and seems to be doing fine. So maybe it was the displaced bladder that the vet mentioned as one possible option. Either that or some inflammation that was fixed by being on Metacam for 10 days or so. I'm still keeping a close eye on everything but I think we may be in the clear!


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## AlexONeil (Nov 14, 2012)

Keep truckin' Zannah!


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