• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Bladder Stone Surgery & Recovery

Status
Not open for further replies.
CoCO

CoCO

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Sep 12, 2009
Messages
35
Reaction score
1
Points
130
Location
Ohio USA
Our little Lenny just came home from a 5 day stay with the vet. He had a bladder stone stuck in his urethra that required surgery to remove. He is really warn out and sleeping a lot. He has eaten very little but he did take a nice long drink from his water bottle. He is also on Metacam. I was wondering if anyone has any insight as to what to expect during recovery. He is still swollen around his back side and is weakly. I am feeling very sorry for him, poor little guy. Thanks.
 
Hi, my boy is on day 7 from his bladder stone op and his recovery has been good altho his stone was in his bladder and not his urethra so it is different.

I'm sure someone will come along who has experienced your particular thing but just wanted to send Lenny some healing vibes xx

I don't know if you want to check my thread Little Rodney as there is lot of advice in there on diet, fluids and supplements which may help xx
 
Hi! I am very sorry for the ordeal he has been through. Urethral bladder stones for boars can be life threatening because of the length of a boar's urethra and the fact that they have got an inglenook, so he been likely through a major operation.

He is obviously still in major pain, which is causing loss of appetite. It is important that you hand feed him to keep the guts and his strength going. You can give him extra vitamin C, too. I assume that he is also on an antibiotic, for which we recommend to give a pinch of probiotic about 1-2 hours later in order to bolster the effects.
Post-op guinea pigs often like to stabilise their guts with very rough and nutritionally poor fibre, so a toilet roll inners or some other brown cardboard would be ideal for him to gnaw on. Make sure that you weigh him daily at the same time in the feeding cycle to keep an eye on his actual food intake.
See your vet as an emergency if there is a sudden change for the worse or if there is no improvement over the next few days.
Here is our complete hand feeding guide: http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/complete-hand-feeding-guide.115359/

You may also want to think about a low calcium bladder stone diet. Some people prefer the the ph : ca diet, but it has never worked for me. You can find tips for either diet in our Caring for an Ill Piggy section. Filtering the water can help quite a lot towards preventing the build-up of a stone, too, as well as limiting any alfalfa-based pellets that are quite high in calcium once he is eating normally by himself or he is on proper recovery food.

We also recommend to give vegetarian glucosamine as a food supplement to coat the walls of the urinary tract.

Wishing your poorly boy all the best and a good recovery.
 
Thank you for the replies. I’m am so sick of these bladder stones. Out of the 5 piggies that we have had over the years, all but 1 has gotten bladder stones and all them required surgery to remove the stones. With Lenny, we have only fed him timothy hay based pellets and vegetables recommended by the vet in an attempt to avoid bladder stones. Today we started to feed him critical care. I guess I was expecting him to be in better shape than he is in. He had the surgery last Monday and was under direct vet care up until Friday which is when he came home. The vet requested that we call him on Monday to talk about Lenny’s progress. He is currently only taking Metacam. He was on antibiotics for 5 days but not currently. Again, thank you.
 
CoCO said:
Thank you for the replies. I’m am so sick of these bladder stones. Out of the 5 piggies that we have had over the years, all but 1 has gotten bladder stones and all them required surgery to remove the stones. With Lenny, we have only fed him timothy hay based pellets and vegetables recommended by the vet in an attempt to avoid bladder stones. Today we started to feed him critical care. I guess I was expecting him to be in better shape than he is in. He had the surgery last Monday and was under direct vet care up until Friday which is when he came home. The vet requested that we call him on Monday to talk about Lenny’s progress. He is currently only taking Metacam. He was on antibiotics for 5 days but not currently. Again, thank you.
Click to expand...

Members on the forum here can help you work out a diet that will hopefully help you avoid any future stones, or at least reduce the likelihood of them. You may want to start a new thread for that. ;)
 
I never realised bladder stone were so common til I recently have been reading about them as Rodney had one.

To be honest I don't think I could get pigs again, it's all too heartbreaking!

Wishing your boy a speedy recovery xx
 
PAMELAKT said:
I never realised bladder stone were so common til I recently have been reading about them as Rodney had one.

To be honest I don't think I could get pigs again, it's all too heartbreaking!

Wishing your boy a speedy recovery xx
Click to expand...

So sorry Rodney had this issue with bladder stones..they are horrible. We had already decided that Lenny was going to be the our last pig, at least for awhile, even before this issue arose. It is heart heartbreaking. This surgery has been really hard on Lenny & I'm hoping he comes around OK. I hope things go good for Rodney - I can tell how much you care for him..Best wishes to you & Rodney.
 
Last edited:
CoCO said:
So sorry Rodney had this issue with bladder stones..they are horrible. We had already decided that Lenny was going to be the our last pig, at least for awhile, even before this issue arose. It is heart heartbreaking. Hope things continue to go good for Rodney - I can tell how much you care for him..Best wishes.
Click to expand...

Thank you, he's a special boy. They are just so complex to look after really people don't realise do they. Good luck with your little man, I hope he turns a corner soon X
 
Unfortunately, we lost Lenny today. He bounced back from the surgery..but came down with a bad bout of of diarrhea yesterday. We got him to the vet and was told that he had an Ecoli infection. He was doing so well after surgery...very upset about this. Simply heartbreaking. No more piggies for awhile. We'll miss Lenny so much. Thank you all for the help and advice!
 
I am so sorry. I wish I hadn't clicked on this now, feel sad ;(

Love to you x
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top