oxtinamona
Junior Guinea Pig
Hi
I’ve decided to post out story as a warning to others...we had our oldest pigs for about 4 years, some longer some less than others as they are all different ages, from different rescues all over UK, different breeds and mix of sows and boars. Sadly in March we switched our pellets from JR Farm grainless as Zooplus Stopped selling 15kg bags and with 7 pigs buying a tiny bag wasn’t economically wise. After extensive research I found Roseweood Grainless and after checking every ingredient listed I thought it looked ok. There was no added sugar, no grains, no GMO soy, no soy at all which I thought was great. Calcium is 0.9% which worried me but previous pellets were 0.8% so we decided to give them less.
This was in March. 3 weeks ago we have lost one of our boys to kidney stones. It came as a shock. As typical for guineas he hid it so well. A week later another one of our boys went for a routine check up with a small lump he had for a while, they vet didn’t worry about just asked to monitor it.
When we took him in for lump check up we noticed there was blood in his pee in his carrier, as we had white puppy nappy lined inside. Again, it was a shock. We did x ray, and he had bladder stones. We caught r a bit earlier than with Presley and Elvis had stone remove surgery on Tuesday and is recovering well.
Yesterday, I came back from work thankfully only worked half day and decided to clean cages early, as I was doing it I noticed that one of my younger girls is squealing when trying to pee. I also noticed she didn’t drink much so I quickly gave her some water sign the syringe hoping this will get her to pee. She tried when I put her back in the cage but obviously pain was too much. I gave her Metacam instantly and called the vet straight away and we rushed for an emergency appointment (4 th in 3 weeks). I checked her cage and there was hardly any wee there. When we were driving luckily she did have a wee in the Carrier, thanks to Metacam, but there was a bit of blood in it. Effective I had a meltdown as I knew what that means. She had stones too. We did x ray and thank go she didn’t have any, but the vet came back and said she actually passed one! This time we were very lucky, but I have a feeling this isn’t over yet and we may well have more pigs with the same issues.
I spoke in depth about it with the vets who saw us on all these occasions and the surgeon who is exotics vet and we explained the following:
1.Nothing in our pigs diet has changed for the past 4.5 yrs
2.They have a very varied diet, with some herbs and leafy greens given in moderation as you cannot cur calcium out of their diets, as they’ll start absorbing it from their bones causing other issues.
3. Nothing in their lives has changed
4. The only thing that we changed is the pellets
Vet has asked us various questions, if the 3 pigs that had stones are related, If they are of the same age, what do we feed them and they agreed that seeing they’re all fo difference places in Uk, different ages and sexes the only common factor is us and the pellets. They said it is very possible it was the pellets that caused us all these issues.
In my heart (and brain) I know this is what it is sadly. It’s too much coincidence for it to be anything else. If we changed anything else in their diet I would consider it, but we didn’t. Momo who was the one who passed the stone, is one of our youngest, she has been with us since 2017 only and still it happened to her. I Feel that if it wasn’t pellets but food then she wouldn’t have been affected at the exact same time as other pigs that we had twice as long. But she was. They all went down hill at the same time. The only common factor here is the pellets and I wanted to post it as a warning. You can all make you own mind up of course, but sometimes it’s best to be safe then sorry, because we are very sorry now. I’m devastated that we and our pigs had to go through this ordeal. It’s left us traumatised and extremely stressed. A month ago we had perfectly happy , healthy pop-corning pigs. Now we lost one in hideous circumstances, nearly lost two more and I feel it is still not over yet.
We will be sending off sample of the urine with the stone to the lab, as vet advised that lab will be able to establish origins of the calcium.
Please avoid these pellets. We are now pellet free and the only treats they will be getting is pea flake and forage from the garden and small amount of veg.
I cannot express how broken and exhausted we are over what happened. Not to mention the financial side of things. We spent over £1300 for vet in just 3 weeks and it’s still not over as Elvis is due some checks and stitches need removing.
I hope this message will help to ensure that no one else goes through the same ordeal.
I will never forgive myself for changing these pellets... no one should go from 100% healthy herd this this sorry about the essay. I wanted you all to know our story. I will be contacting rosewood to ask if they can revisit their recipe and there is something in these pellets that is really not very good .
x
I’ve decided to post out story as a warning to others...we had our oldest pigs for about 4 years, some longer some less than others as they are all different ages, from different rescues all over UK, different breeds and mix of sows and boars. Sadly in March we switched our pellets from JR Farm grainless as Zooplus Stopped selling 15kg bags and with 7 pigs buying a tiny bag wasn’t economically wise. After extensive research I found Roseweood Grainless and after checking every ingredient listed I thought it looked ok. There was no added sugar, no grains, no GMO soy, no soy at all which I thought was great. Calcium is 0.9% which worried me but previous pellets were 0.8% so we decided to give them less.
This was in March. 3 weeks ago we have lost one of our boys to kidney stones. It came as a shock. As typical for guineas he hid it so well. A week later another one of our boys went for a routine check up with a small lump he had for a while, they vet didn’t worry about just asked to monitor it.
When we took him in for lump check up we noticed there was blood in his pee in his carrier, as we had white puppy nappy lined inside. Again, it was a shock. We did x ray, and he had bladder stones. We caught r a bit earlier than with Presley and Elvis had stone remove surgery on Tuesday and is recovering well.
Yesterday, I came back from work thankfully only worked half day and decided to clean cages early, as I was doing it I noticed that one of my younger girls is squealing when trying to pee. I also noticed she didn’t drink much so I quickly gave her some water sign the syringe hoping this will get her to pee. She tried when I put her back in the cage but obviously pain was too much. I gave her Metacam instantly and called the vet straight away and we rushed for an emergency appointment (4 th in 3 weeks). I checked her cage and there was hardly any wee there. When we were driving luckily she did have a wee in the Carrier, thanks to Metacam, but there was a bit of blood in it. Effective I had a meltdown as I knew what that means. She had stones too. We did x ray and thank go she didn’t have any, but the vet came back and said she actually passed one! This time we were very lucky, but I have a feeling this isn’t over yet and we may well have more pigs with the same issues.
I spoke in depth about it with the vets who saw us on all these occasions and the surgeon who is exotics vet and we explained the following:
1.Nothing in our pigs diet has changed for the past 4.5 yrs
2.They have a very varied diet, with some herbs and leafy greens given in moderation as you cannot cur calcium out of their diets, as they’ll start absorbing it from their bones causing other issues.
3. Nothing in their lives has changed
4. The only thing that we changed is the pellets
Vet has asked us various questions, if the 3 pigs that had stones are related, If they are of the same age, what do we feed them and they agreed that seeing they’re all fo difference places in Uk, different ages and sexes the only common factor is us and the pellets. They said it is very possible it was the pellets that caused us all these issues.
In my heart (and brain) I know this is what it is sadly. It’s too much coincidence for it to be anything else. If we changed anything else in their diet I would consider it, but we didn’t. Momo who was the one who passed the stone, is one of our youngest, she has been with us since 2017 only and still it happened to her. I Feel that if it wasn’t pellets but food then she wouldn’t have been affected at the exact same time as other pigs that we had twice as long. But she was. They all went down hill at the same time. The only common factor here is the pellets and I wanted to post it as a warning. You can all make you own mind up of course, but sometimes it’s best to be safe then sorry, because we are very sorry now. I’m devastated that we and our pigs had to go through this ordeal. It’s left us traumatised and extremely stressed. A month ago we had perfectly happy , healthy pop-corning pigs. Now we lost one in hideous circumstances, nearly lost two more and I feel it is still not over yet.
We will be sending off sample of the urine with the stone to the lab, as vet advised that lab will be able to establish origins of the calcium.
Please avoid these pellets. We are now pellet free and the only treats they will be getting is pea flake and forage from the garden and small amount of veg.
I cannot express how broken and exhausted we are over what happened. Not to mention the financial side of things. We spent over £1300 for vet in just 3 weeks and it’s still not over as Elvis is due some checks and stitches need removing.
I hope this message will help to ensure that no one else goes through the same ordeal.
I will never forgive myself for changing these pellets... no one should go from 100% healthy herd this this
sorry about the essay. I wanted you all to know our story. I will be contacting rosewood to ask if they can revisit their recipe and there is something in these pellets that is really not very good . x
