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Bladder stone surgery?

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maddiespiggies

maddiespiggies

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My little Ella has a bladder stone and I am having trouble deciding what to do about it... About a month ago I noticed she was walking funny so I picked her up and saw that she had a stone blocking her from urinating. The vet was able to get it out without surgery and I thought everything was fine! Two weeks later I noticed her urine was red and after another trip to the vet another stone was found. The vet suggested waiting it out to see if she could pass this one like the other one. He prescribed antibiotics and gave her fluids under the skin. Within a few days her urine was clear again. I switched her to a food based on timothy hay instead of alfalfa to prevent anymore stones and for a week she was perfectly fine. Last night I saw red urine again and today she is not her normal self. She usually loves to run around and explore when she is out of her cage but today she laid down and didn't do anything... She is squeaking when she urinates and is having bad diarrhea. Seeing her like this is breaking my heart! The vet suggested that we start looking at surgery when she starts to go downhill so that's where I'm at right now... She is 6 so that makes a complicated surgery even more risky and I really need some advice! My other guinea pig, Weezy, passed away about a week before I noticed the first stone (very unexpected, she was only 2 and seemed perfectly healthy!) and I can't handle losing another one. Any advice regarding surgery and her diet/medication to prevent more stones?
 
Sorry to hear about Ella. I dont have bladder stone experience but hope by bumping this up someone else will see it that does. Hope everything goes well for her.

RIP Weezy

x
 
oh gosh, its a tough one, i have been through bladder stones but with my boy so it had to be an op for us, plus he was only 2 1/2.

How about asking for an xray to see where the stone is and even if there are more and make your decision based on that?

Fingers crossed for you and Ella, and sending some comforting soothing vibes for her xx
 
Hi,

I can understand what you are going through my boar has suspected uti but antibiotics haven't cleared it up and I suspect stones.

I would suggest asking your vet for an x ray that's what I'm going to do and then if stones are found surgeryx
 
Please have an x-ray done to see whether there are more stones or bladder sludge. You can try non-op treamtents first, but they do not work in all cases and an operation may still be inevitable. But you need to act now because the problem is only going to get worse and won't be going away on its own!
http://www.guinealynx.info/stones.html

Please change Ella's diet to either a low calcium diet or a balanced calcium:phoshporus (ca:ph ratio) diet; don't forget the calcium content (hardness) of your water! http://www.guinealynx.info/chart.html

You can also discuss the use of cystease, a bladder lining food supplement for cats, which can protect the walls of the bladder somewhat - it is NOT a cure, but it can reduce the impact of the stones on the soft tissue. It is given by some vets to piggies with bladder stone or chronic cystitis problems.

PS: I have had a bladder stone piggy myself, who has made it through two operations, 14 months apart.
 
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Wiebke said:
PS: I have had a bladder stone piggy myself, who has made it through two operations, 14 months apart.
Click to expand...

how lucky you are i find it really inspiring to hear positive stories about bladder stones and not just the negative ones, my poor baby had the op and months of soreness and i still lost him. You just never know do you...
 
Sadly I also have experience of bladder stone piggies.

Roxy our first sow to suffer with bladder issues never actually developed a stone, but her bladder was full of sludge and she had to have surgery to flush/clean it out. She lived for another year after her surgery, but we finally lost her when her bladder perforated and we sadly had to help her to Rainbow Bridge at the age of about 4 1/2.

Tetley had shown no signs of bladder issues until a couple of days before his symptoms presented. He had surgery to remove stones but sadly more had formed within a matter of weeks and he hadn't recovered well from the initial op so our vet at the time felt it was kinder to PTS - he was only about 3 1/2.

Curly was a huge rex boy of about 3 when he suddenly started to exhibit the usual symptoms of stones. An x-ray showed a large stone and surgery to remove it was successful and he went on to live a long and happy life and was never troubled with stones again.

My latest patient is an almost 5 year old neutered boar called Jazz. He was found to have a large stone lodged in his urethra tube. Sadly my vet couldn't get to the stone so took the decision to cut through the tube to remove the stone and then she formed a stoma to allow Jazz to wee. It is early days but so far he is coping remarkably well, we are about 3 weeks post op. He is still on Septrin, but is eating by himself and has made a very good recovery from the surgery, our only worry is whether the stoma is going to hold up long term.

Smudge is about 6 years old and she has been troubled by bladder sludge and stones for years. So far we have avoided open surgery to remove the stones as my vet has been able to extract them or flush them through. She is currently on Zithromax (antibiotics) for the first time to try and clear up a stubborn infection and so far is responding very well.

I can't tell you what to do, but I would strongly recommend x-rays to see if any stones are present. If the stones are small enough your vet may be able to remove them with forceps/flush them out. It may be that your piggy has an on going infection in which case a longer stint on antibiotics may be worth a try - the usual AB of choice for bladder issues is Septrin. In Smudge's case she has been on 0.7ml twice daily for up to a month in the past. I also found that by giving her Metacam (pain relief) to help her through the first few days made a huge difference as she would continue to eat and apart from squeaking when weeing/pooing didn't seem unwell.

It is definitely worth looking at diet/water hardness etc. We are now filtering all our water and have been avoiding his calcium foods for several years now. I am also looking into introducing cistease to my stone piggies. I used to feed Cavy Cuisine pellets but have read on Guinea Lynx (an American forum) that bladder stone piggies tend to do worse on CC so we have switched back to Excel pellets, but only a small amount daily and I have introduced more mixed hays which the pigs love.

Good luck and keep us posted.
 
My beautiful and very loved boar had a stone removed the end of June after 3 weeks 24/7 of absolute hell for him and us - he was sooo poorly, I willed him to go to the bridge one particularly terrible day as he was in so much pain 8...His surgery was successful and he is the loony piggy he was before and has pumped the weight back on :(|) We had to syringe him with critical care quite intensely over a weekend period to get him strong enough for his op on the Tuesday so was as scary for us as it was him :(
He has his daily cranberry juice diluted with water (Ocean Spray) into his bottle with 1/4 of a capsule of Cystease, low calcium diet now and I am more obsessive than ever about cleanliness in his pen, constantly monitoring his poos and for any bloodstaining mallethead He just looks at me as if I'm bonkers rolleyes
Bloody nuisance these stones and pray he never has another so pull the plug out to help reduce any possible reoccurence - also the experience made me more aware of things and how quickly a piggy can deteriorate when not well 8...
Hope Ella can pull through this, understand your worries totally and sending hugs to you both xx>>>
 
My Harvey didn't fully recover from his bladder stone operation. I knew the risks - especially he'd lost a lot of weight in the days before and was quite old at 5 years four months - but as my vet had said, the stone had to be removed to give him any chance so it was a risk worth taking and, despite the heartache, in similar circumstances I would do so again with China or any other pigs I will own in the future.

Until very recently I hadn't been aware that bladder stones are such a common problem in pigs - and this isn't only a problem in older pigs - and alarming to read how new stones can form in just a matter of a few weeks.
 
I did switch her food to timothy based pellets as opposed to alfalfa to lower the calcium in her diet. She also has had 3 x-rays since the first stone was found so the vet is certain that she has one right not, but took her to the vet this morning and he thought that she might have something else going on besides the stone. He felt around in her abdomen and expected either a tumor or an infection in her uterus that wouldn't respond to antibiotics. We talked about our options at that point and felt that her best shot was to start the surgery for the stone and if he found a tumor he thought was cancer, he wouldn't finish the surgery. If her uterus was infected he would remove it. We were happy to find that she didn't have a tumor or an infected uterus! The surgery went very well and he successfully removed the stone. When they started to wake her up her heart stopped beating. :( They tried their best but they couldn't bring her back. The vet didn't know what happened to her and wanted to give me answers so he asked my permission to open her up again to take a look at her heart and other organs. He found cancer on her lungs and liver. There was nothing anyone could have done for her. Her little body just couldn't take it anymore and although I am extremely upset, it helps to know that she isn't in anymore pain. She will always be my baby and I know that I did everything I could to help her and gave her a great life. Rest in peace Ella, I'll always love you.
 
oh my...i did not expect to read that...i am so sorry, poor little Ella.

Rip little lady, sleep well x

(feel free to write a special tribute in the Rainbow Bridge section if you want to)
 
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Oh lord - another little who has one crossed the bridge :0
So very sorry to hear little Ella didn't pull through, heartbreaking :0
Run free little sweetie with the others who left us today x>>
Hugs to you too for being so brave and sharing your sad experience with us x
 
BIG HUG

I am so sorry to hear this; you must feel so gutted! It will probably take some days until it sinks in fully and longer to get over it; at least it took me quite some time when one of mine (not my bladder stone girl) didn't wake up from an op.

At least you know that you have done nothing wrong and that you and your vet have tried everything to make Ella well again. You have not failed her in any way!

Popcorn free of pain again, Ella!
 
OMG I am sobbing reading this story :0

Poor little Ella, how heartbreaking for you all :(

Bladder stones are horrible horrible things, theres quite a few on here lost piggies with those (including me).

I am so sorry to hear of your loss

RIP Ella
 
Oh poor Ella, so sad RIP little girl. I am so sorry for you.

I lost a girl in November after a bladderstone op, we tried for ages to avoid it. It was one of the hardest things I have been through and I pray never to have to go through that again.

Hopefully they are up there together popcorning and running free with all their friends. RIP little Bonnie we still miss you more than you'll ever know.
 
Bladder stones

I lost my lovely Fudge in February this year two weeks after bladder stone removal. He was almost 4 years old. 2 years earlier he had had a successful operation to remove mammory gland tumours. He got through it just fine.

The vets opinion re the bladder stone op was that he reacted to the suture material. God Love him. He suffered terribly and I vowed then that I would never put another Guinea Pig through that operation.

We have a rescue pig now who is 14 months and my decision still holds good. I would NEVER go for the operation ever again. There is just too much suffering involved or maybe yet again, we were just unlucky. One thing I did discover after the event was that the vet who performed the operation had never done that kind of op before. Maybe it made the difference, maybe not. We will never know. R.I.P Fudge.
 
Unfortunately I am going through the same thing with Scratchy at the moment. He is booked in for his scan at 8:40 on wednesday morning. I'm 99.9% sure he has stones and slightly worried as he is roughly 6 1/2 years old and not sure if he can handle an operation. I'm hoping for the best :) x
 
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