Bean goes to the vet. UTIs & substrate?

[Stella Maris]

So I hadn't had Bean for long, so didn't (still don't really) know how active is "normal" for him. He seemed to be sleeping a lot, and then I discovered red pee in his wheel. I took him to the vet, and $140 later (Exam & weigh $100, ABs $40), he has 6 days of Baytril. (She only gave me 3 days worth! When I asked, she said that that was the new protocol. He was still peeing red in the night before Day 3, so I had to call and request more.)
He seems to be a bit perkier, and there was no pee on his wheel last night - red or otherwise. I mixed some water with his 'pee sand' and it was just milky - not red, so hopefully he's on the way to recovery.

Here's a query for those of you with lots of hamster experience:
When I told the pet store of our problems, they said that I shouldn't be using shredded paper bedding (All Living Things paper bedding), or let him have a sandbath, because dust from the paper bedding, or sand, would get on his bits and cause irritation & therefore infection. Sounded unlikely to me, and was never a problem for my dwarf, Oreo, but the gal at the store wanted me to use their brand, Carefresh, and use official hamster toilet beads (which I read somewhere I shouldn't use because they might eat them).

So, actually three queries:
1. Does the type of bedding & chinchilla sand cause UTIs?
2. Did I do something wrong? Was his cage 'dirty'? (It's 4.5 square feet & I cleaned it after 2 weeks.) Should I be cleaning out under his nest a lot?
3. Have you heard of the new 3-day Baytril protocol?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[cypher]

Paper substrate & chinchilla sand are both fine & I can't see any way they would contribute to a UTI, it doesn't sound as though there is any problem with your cleaning either, it's really hard to know why or how they get UTi's sometimes but it's unlikely anything you're doing.
I don't know anything about the baytril protocol where you are but UTI's can sometimes be stubborn & need more than one course of meds.

[Stella Maris]

Thanks, Cypher. I'm reassured.
Looks like you've hosted quite a few hamsters! I've just had my dwarf, Oreo, and now Bean, my first syrian. Oreo's been healthy his whole life, and Bean got a UTI after only 3 weeks in my care. I wondered if syrians were more fragile or needed different care or something.
I haven't seen any blood for 2 nights now, so hopefully he'll be ok.
Thanks again!