Any experience of piggies with one functioning kidney?

[Free Ranger]

Hi all
The poster in this thread Unexplained continued weight loss. Please help! has a lovely boy with one good kidney and one which looks like it has failed due to a stone. The prognosis is that without additional fluids the good kidney will enlarge and eventually fail too - but how long might this take? Or will a piggy adjust their food/fluid intake accordingly if the pain is managed. Perhaps any advice can be added to the thread linked above? Many thanks.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi!

Unfortunately, I have no personal experience with this scenario. Ureter stones that are stuck are unfortunately not good news. Nobody can make any predictions; kidneys in guinea pigs are more difficult to manage compared to other species and are still rather at the limit of veterinary possibilities.

All you can do is to cherish every day as a special gift and take it as it comes.

Wishing you as many days together as you can get.

 

[piggieminder]

I was offered the option to remove one of Bracken's kidneys a few years ago but I decided not to have it done, so yes in theory like people they can survive with only one kidney (my vet had done this operation before).
Bracken had already had a long and difficult operation to remove bladder stones and to flush one back into the bladder that was stuck in the penis. He bounced back really well from the operation but sadly had more stones but in the kidney a few weeks later. We kept him going with pain killers for a 3 months until we struggled to keep him pain free and happy, we sadly had to say goodbye. I made this decision reluctantly but after discussing the strong likely hood of him getting stones again with the vet we felt it was the right thing to do.
Sending the little piggie and his owner my very best wishes. I hope you have many more happy days together.