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Bladder stone mystery

T

T&A

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hi,

A scan at the vets 48 hours ago confirmed by male guinea pig has a bladder stone (about 2mmx3mm in size). She confirmed this via scans.
It’s located just at the top of his urethrea, not blocking it but causing pain. We took him to the vets again after being on a course of antibiotics for an UTI and noticing blood in his urine. We found it it wasn’t a UTI but a bladder stone.
Yesterday he went to the vets again to see is she could manoeuvre the stone away from the urethra and into his bladder, and hopefully remove it via operation, but she couldn’t find the bladder stone anywhere, even when she took another scan!
She sent both scans in to a higher-up exotic vet who will confirm if he still has the bladder stone but I don’t understand where it is! She said there’s a tiny chance he may have passed it but it’s harder for boars to do so. Has anyone had any experiences with boars passing their bladder stones?

We’ve looked in the cage and found no stone so if he’s passed it, we’ve either missed it or it’s happened whilst at the vets and she couldn’t see it aswell.
 
I had a boar pass a stone, he later got one stuck at the end of his penis which was flushed back into the bladder and removed. Sending you boy healing vibes.
 
Oh gosh, how awful! Hope everything’s fine now. Do you happen to know how big his was? Thanks!
 
It’s just very confusing! He’s been drinking loads of water and weeding loads - is that a sign of having just passed a stone? I’ve never heard of a boar passing a stone on his own before ?
 
Stone me! George's secret...

I've linked the above thread for you as I think you may find it interesting!
Bracken passed 3 or 4 coffee granule sized stones, big grit really. I don't know how big the one was that got stuck at the end of his penis. I don't think the vet said, if she did I've forgotten it was 6 or 7 years ago.
 
We hope he passed it by himself. We’re still waiting for the exotic vet to see if there is a stone! The whole thing is so wierd! He’s been wheeling for food and seems his usual self today. I’m just so confused i don’t know how he’s passed it. We’re going to the vets tomorrow for another check up. Thanks! (Will have a look at that thread piggieminder)
 
Oh god, poor guinea pig in that thread! My boys’ stone is/was 3x2mm so not as big. There’s no way of knowing whether he actually passed it or not but it’s all we can assume at the moment. It’s just so rare for a boat to pass a stone, especially as it was at the top of the urethra only on Wednesday.
 
I was also wondering if it’s normal for a guinea pig to drink a massive amount of water when passing a stone. He’s drank many times more water than normal in the last 24 hours and I was wondering if this was normal?
 
I've not noticed mine (3) drink more when they've got stones but I had a boar who drank more than normal for a couple of hours and then passed a huge amount of sludge. I wondered how he knew to do that but it certainly worked, the vet said his bladder was clear when we saw her the next day and he never had a bladder problem again.
 
Ooh that’s interesting. I’ve noticed a little sludge, nothing major but his puppy pad under the fleece is completely saturated with clear wee within 24 hours.
 
Hi there. George was my lovely boy - but don't be too sad, he had a good life and was very cheerful most of the time.
George says HI.jpg He was always looking for treats!
It's a tricky one to know exactly what has happened to your boy. I had a sow once who was x-rayed and the vet saw 'a stone' right in the bladder at the entrance to the urethra. It certainly looked stony - it lit up bright white although the edges were a bit fuzzy. The urethra is a bit bigger in a sow. My girl had an opioid injection (which stoned her out of her tree - it was upsetting for me to see) and a huge fluid bolus injected under her skin. Over the next several hours she peed her head off. By the time we went back to the vet the 'stone' had gone but I never found anything. The vet said that either she'd passed it or it wasn't actually a solid stone but maybe just an accumulation of sludge at the exit of the bladder. A bit like sink scum accumulating round the plughole I guess. And all that fluid flushed everything through. We'll never know for sure but my money's on the second one - and the bright white dot was definitely gone on the next x-ray. Or perhaps your vet did ultrasound? Everything looks a bit fuzzy on there!

George had recurrent UTI and stones in the last 6 months of his 6 years. He did develop a raging thirst and I think it was nature's way of dealing with one or the other problem, or both. Even when he had UTI symptoms he had negative bacterial cultures - but we knew there was an infection because antibiotics cured it. It's quite possible to have a bladder stone and a UTI together... it's not just one or the other. If your vet decides your 'stone' has gone you should still keep an eye on him for the next week or so until this drinking calms down because he could be vulnerable to a recurrence of either sludge or infection - whichever one was the original cause of his issues. Good Luck little fella x
 
He was originally on 0.4ml x2 daily enrocare (which i think is a brand of baytril) for a suspected UTI and was taken off of it on Wednesday for one day when an X-ray showed the bladder stone. When the vet tried to remove it and there was nothing there, she used a catheter and he was put back on enrocare (0.3ml x2 daily) to make sure he didn’t develop and infection from the catheter. Hopefully if he also has a UTI, the antibiotics he is on now will help in addition to ensuring he doesn’t get an infection from the catheter.

Isn’t it so crazy how quickly things can change with our guinea pigs and problems can arise so quickly. Hope your guinea pigs are doing well now and hopefully it was just an accumulation of sludge with my guinea pig! I never got shown his X-ray to be able to see what it looked like
 
UPDATE:
We went to our follow up appointment at the vets and the vet confirmed that the stone was passed after getting in touch with the Royal Veterinary College. She said it was the first time she’s ever heard about a boat passing a stone! I’m so relieved now:)
She told us to keep him hydrated with filtered water and reduce/stop feeding high oxalate veggies.
 
That is such great news!

The advice about the filtered water and the veggies is good advice. Also ensure you keep pellets limited to one tablespoon.
 
Excellent. It takes several weeks for diet changes to have any effect on the calcium levels in the body but reducing pellets is a positive move
 
Fingers crossed for your lovely boy and that he makes a full recovery.

I've had a couple of sows who unfortunately were terminal with bladderstones. I have a couple of adopted sows now who do horrendous amounts of calcium wee and a couple of times, Strawberry has done bloody wee. I really carefully monitor her and spoke to our vet who agreed that she was probably passing some gritty wee. I hasten to add that if I thought she was in any pain she would be whisked off to the vet asap.
I manage it by giving them a very low calcium diet - there are plenty of green leafy things that you can give them that aren't packed full of calcium: celery, pak choi, fennel, lettuce.
I also give them Oxbow Urinary Health biscuits (reccommended by the vet). They love them. It is beyond cute when I call Strawberry to have her biscuit and there she is in an instant with her paws on my foot!
 
BabyBears said:
Fingers crossed for your lovely boy and that he makes a full recovery.

I've had a couple of sows who unfortunately were terminal with bladderstones. I have a couple of adopted sows now who do horrendous amounts of calcium wee and a couple of times, Strawberry has done bloody wee. I really carefully monitor her and spoke to our vet who agreed that she was probably passing some gritty wee. I hasten to add that if I thought she was in any pain she would be whisked off to the vet asap.
I manage it by giving them a very low calcium diet - there are plenty of green leafy things that you can give them that aren't packed full of calcium: celery, pak choi, fennel, lettuce.
I also give them Oxbow Urinary Health biscuits (reccommended by the vet). They love them. It is beyond cute when I call Strawberry to have her biscuit and there she is in an instant with her paws on my foot!
Click to expand...
BabyBears said:
Just wanted to add that my other guinea Primrose (Rim-rims) has never done calcium wee. She is a re-homed brood sow and is 7.5 years old - she is a legend and I love her to bits. She gets a little bit stiff when the weather is damp but she has the appetite of a horse.
Click to expand...
 
So glad the stone's gone. Here's a photo of most of the stones Geezer and Rutto passed February to April. The two biggest ones had to be surgically removed. Keyboard for scale as I couldn't find anything handy. They do come out provided they're small enough and not too jagged, but they hurt and scratch. Hopefully your boy won't have any more! Good job little guy!
 
Yes, we’ll see how they manage with the low oxalate and calcium diet for a couple weeks. We’ve had no more blood in the cage although i am monitoring. I’m also focusing on high water intake to help but unfortunately the vet said it may be a genetic thing which we can’t control.
Thank you everyone!
 
LunaticPoodle said:
So glad the stone's gone. Here's a photo of most of the stones Geezer and Rutto passed February to April. The two biggest ones had to be surgically removed. Keyboard for scale as I couldn't find anything handy. They do come out provided they're small enough and not too jagged, but they hurt and scratch. Hopefully your boy won't have any more! Good job little guy!
Click to expand...
20230514_031706.webp Sorry I forgot the picture 😂it was late at night.
 
T&A said:
UPDATE:
We went to our follow up appointment at the vets and the vet confirmed that the stone was passed after getting in touch with the Royal Veterinary College. She said it was the first time she’s ever heard about a boat passing a stone! I’m so relieved now:)
She told us to keep him hydrated with filtered water and reduce/stop feeding high oxalate veggies.
Click to expand...
amazing news!
 
Oh my gosh that’s loads of stones LunaticPoodle! My boys’ stone was 2x3mm so not sure compared to yours how big that was but I’m so pleased your boys managed to pass some of those stones too!
 
T&A said:
Oh my gosh that’s loads of stones LunaticPoodle! My boys’ stone was 2x3mm so not sure compared to yours how big that was but I’m so pleased your boys managed to pass some of those stones too!
Click to expand...
Yes, that's pretty much the size they can still manage to pass I think. Good boy! Those stones belong to 2 piggies, but only 3 to Rutto. If I had kept all of Geezer's stones since Jan 2022 I'd have a nice pair of maracas 🤣
 
Hahaha yes! We don’t know what happened to his we couldn’t find it!
 
It's really good that you have a good vet who researches the RVC. I will not forgive myself for having Frances euthenised - my vet at the time said that nothing could be done for her re bladderstones. This was a lie. I've moved to a different town and am very fortunate in finding a knowledgeable (sorry, just can't spell that!) and experienced guinea vet (they are as rare as hens' teeth). This vet explained that it is a simple procedure to remove bladderstones. She is an amazing guinea vet and has recently performed successful caesarians on a couple of sows (those too late to give birth naturally) - and everyone survived!
 
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