2.5 year old male post op bladder surgery problems

[Crislynf]

Hi everyone,

My boy Sonic underwent bladder surgery on Wednesday, July 6, to remove a stone shown in the XRAY. However, when they opened up his bladder, they only found a lot of sludge and were able to clean some, but some of the sludge went to his prostate. Thankfully, he made it through surgery and was discharged to me the next day, Thursday, July 7. Before his surgery, he was squeaking while pooping and peeing and constantly found a bit of blood in his urine. We had to wait one week before his surgery because his primary doctor was on vacation, and I don't trust other doctors with no experience with guinea pigs. After discharge, he hasn't been eating hay or drinking water; however, he goes crazy for fruits or veggies. I have been hand feeding him every 4-5 hours of Critical care or Sherwood about 15ml and providing water 1.0ml every 2-3 hours. As of right now, he is currently on Meloxicam 0.3mL (inflammation & pain) once a day, Baytril (antibiotic) 0.4mL twice a day, & Reglan 0.45mL (gut motility) twice a day. His urine output is good but still with a bit of blood. His poops are very inconsistent. I do provide probiotics 2 hours after antibiotics are given. He has a follow-up appointment on Wednesday, July 13.

Questions:
1. When will the bloody urine stop?
2. Why is he still in pain while pooping and peeing?
3. Should I ask the doctor for a bladder flush if possibly he is bleeding due to bladder sludge irritating his bladder?
4. How do I encourage him to eat his hay?
5. What are the low calcium veggies or fruits he can eat? I'm a bit confused.

Any advice/tips are welcome, thank you

 

[Crislynf]

Here's a picture of the day he got discharged, a picture of his adopted brother Cloud , and we celebrated his 2nd-year adoption in April.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi and welcome

Normally, any blood in the urine should stop within two days of the operation; it is common to see some bleeding in the first day post-op. Please contact your vets if the bleeding persists beyond that because the healing process should be well under way by now. By what you are reporting, there was obviously a problem with the operation, which could be the reason for the continued bleeding.


Your poo output reflects the food intake from ca, 1-2 days earlier (it takes around a day for feed to get from the mout to the anus if the gut is moving normally, and then your piggy will eat some of the poos for a second run through the gut for breaking down the nutritious but tough grass/hay fibre further). Think of the gut as a bug conveyor belt. Try to up the feeding sessions to include one more or see whether your piggy will eat some of the recovery mix from a bowl. You control the overall food intake by weighing daily at the same time of the day. I find first thing in the morning before the first feed most helpful as the weight is at its lowest then, so I can then plan the level of feeding support throughout the day. You will have to continue for as long as it takes.
Our very detailed medicating and feeding guide discusses these aspects in more practical detail: All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures

The partial loss of appetite can be due a reaction to the GA drugs, especially when the operation took longer or to a pain issue due to the complications. You will have to discuss this with the vet; especially if he may need an analgesic.
I would also recommend to discuss the use of glucosamine to additionally help ease the discomfort in the bladder. The walls in the urinary tract have a natural glucosamine coating that prevents highly corrosive urine from coming into direct contact with raw tissue. The bleeding from before the operation is proof that this coat has been badly scratched when the sludge as tumbled around and banged into the walls with every pee. This measure is however not a quick fix; it will take several weeks to build up in the urinary tract but it will contribute considerably to the long term comfort in there. Glucosamine is not a medication; it is classed as a food supplement so you can either look at a freely available cat bladder supplement or your vet if needed at an arthritis medication. You can also use human glucosamine tablets but will have to compute how much to give of each tablet.


You can find detailed modification our diet recommendations for a normal diet in the diet guide (see especially chapter special diets but looking through the whole guide may also help you). They consist mainly of the more consequent cutting out of several not necessarily expected food groups; your aim is not to cut out all calcium but to find the soft spot in the diet where it is balanced. Too little calcium can cause also lead to the formation of stones/sludge. You want to however minimise any foods that are contributing directly or indirectly to the formation of stones.
Please keep in mind that this also includes any treats, filtering the water (minerals can also contribute to the build up of stones and sludge as well as hard water) and reducing your pellets to 1 tablespoon per piggy day - even no added calcium pellets contain more calcium weight for weight than the veg highest in it, kale.
Please be aware that - like with glucosamine - that this takes again several weeks work its way through the body.
Unless your diet has been very unbalanced, it is likely a combination of factors like a genetic disposition, not drinking loads naturally (not something you can change) or a problem with the complex calcium absorption process. Diet is basically the one area we can influence. You can discuss with your vet whether a medication that promotes stronger urination can help with the sludge issue and feed a bit more water veg like cucumber and lettuce to encourage stronger pees.


Take the time to read these very practical and detailed links here; they contain all the how-to and in-depth
information to the points mentioned above:
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

Tips For Post-operative Care
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures

I hope that this will help you.

PS: I would kindly ask you to please not write any thread titles in capitals in order to attract attention; it is not needed on this forum. We are doing our best to look at any new threats whenever one of our designated section monitors is coming on (keep in mind that we all are doing this for free in our own free time) and that we do our best to answer them as promptly as we can.
Titles in upper case only makes them far more difficult for us to read when we scroll and skim through our alerts when coming on, so I usually leave them until last unless they really contain a genuine life or death emergency - and even those are MUCH easier for us to read and pick up on when written normally because it allows us to triage which threads need answering first in order to help saving lives.

 

[weepweeps]

Welcome to the forum. I hope your boy is soon on the mend.

 

[Free Ranger]

Welcome, and well done on all you're doing for him. Another vote here for the glucosamine to help heal the bladder walls... my sow who suffers with gritty pee gets it every day to ward off future problems.