Bladder stone

[Nicki77]

Hi my 2 year old sow tinkerbell has been on baytril for the last 3 weeks as she had blood in her urine it did initially clear but not fully so I kept giving her the antibiotics as instructed by vet then on sat morning she had lots of blood in pee again i rushed her to vet an he said needed to do xray (which he has done today) and gave more antibiotics.. During sat she passed what looked like a blood clot (vet said was probably a stone) and since then pee is clear.. Xray today showed a small stone so vet said his feelings are to continue antibiotics and see how she goes as she is eating and drinking normally and running round like her usual self.. My questions are.. should she now be on restricted calcium diet and if so should my other 2 piggies that she lives with b on it too or should I somehow separate her to feed her... Can she eat grass(she loves grass ) ... Can she eat kale at all(I know it's bad for bladder piggies and only feed it to any of them 2 x week max but its her favourite )
Sorry for long post xx

 

[Guinea Newbie]

Oh no poor Tinkerbell! We re-homed my piggies in October and 10 days after we got them they started with UTIs. This was a back and forth to the vets scenario for about 8 weeks with on and off antibiotics and metacam. It all finally cleared up so we haven’t had them x-rayed, so don’t know if stones were the problem. Their previous owner fed them a lot of spinach and kale. I have now totally cut out spinach and kale and follow the diet plan for piggies with bladder issues. We had such a time initially with them I don’t want to risk setting it all off again, they also lost a lot of weight too.
In our case we just don’t feed anything with high calcium and have cut out lettuce and root veg which can be triggers for piggies with sensitive bladders.
Maybe someone with more ‘stone’ experience can also advise but we just didn’t want to risk it with the kale and spinach.

 

[sport_billy]

Hello, welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear this, sending lots of love to little Tinkerbell.

Sometimes small stones can possibly break up or pass the danger is it can get stuck which then becomes a medical emergency. Can I ask where you are located please? We may be able to suggest a cavy savy vet. There maybe a good one in your area, for further advice.

I would cut down the calcium massively now in the diet.

 

[sport_billy]

Here is a link to the diet thread which gives further info on low calcium Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

It might be worth looking at a pellet switch also, Science Selective Grain Free nuggets get a lot of love from people

 

[Merab]

Welcome to the forum.
So sorry to hear about poor Tinkerbell.
Hope the advice given here and treatment from your vet help her recover quickly

 

[Nicki77]

Thanks guys x lots of really helpful info on the diet threads xx
So would all 3 off my piggies be OK to swop to the science selective grain free nuggets as they all live together and are currently on burgess excel pellets, Meadow hay, oat hay readigrass and a variety of veggies.. Looking at diet thread I'm thinking swop pellets, change to Timothy hay, follow suggested veggies and feed tinkerbell her veggies separately to make sure she isn't having any high calcium ones at all... Does this sound suitable?

Location wise I am near chester/Liverpool
Thanks x

 

[Merab]

I’m not far from you - I live in the Wirral.
If you go into your account details there is a space there to fill in your location so that it comes up with every post.
Location is helpful in guiding people to good vets, rescues etc easily

All of mine eat the grain free nuggets.
I switched because having read a lot of forum posts I thought the grain free would be better for them.
Mine love the grain free nuggets and have usually eaten the lot by breakfast time next day.

 

[Hath]

Sorry about your piggies. I know it can be difficult with issues like these! All my piggies are rescue and didn't have good care. Unfortunately, I lost one of my boys due to bladder stone few months ago so now extremely paranoid about what I am feeding. Only thing I could see that could've been an issue was Water (so now filtering that), as never fed high calcium foods.

But wanted to ask if anyone know if oat hay is OK? It's not readigrass and no calcium is mentioned on the content. However, really worried about what I give them and looking for safe treat. Couldn't find it mentioned on the care for piggies with existing condition info. Thanks

 

[Zinnypig]

Thanks guys x lots of really helpful info on the diet threads xx
So would all 3 off my piggies be OK to swop to the science selective grain free nuggets as they all live together and are currently on burgess excel pellets, Meadow hay, oat hay readigrass and a variety of veggies.. Looking at diet thread I'm thinking swop pellets, change to Timothy hay, follow suggested veggies and feed tinkerbell her veggies separately to make sure she isn't having any high calcium ones at all... Does this sound suitable?

Location wise I am near chester/Liverpool
Thanks x

We've recently taken our piggy of Burgess as it contains Lucerne also known as alfalfa. Even the vet said today to not feed this to our piggies. We've also recently changed to oxbow western Timothy hay. I'm still trying to figure out which veggies we should give our piggy has he is extremely fussy.

 

[Siikibam]

Sorry about your piggies. I know it can be difficult with issues like these! All my piggies are rescue and didn't have good care. Unfortunately, I lost one of my boys due to bladder stone few months ago so now extremely paranoid about what I am feeding. Only thing I could see that could've been an issue was Water (so now filtering that), as never fed high calcium foods.

But wanted to ask if anyone know if oat hay is OK? It's not readigrass and no calcium is mentioned on the content. However, really worried about what I give them and looking for safe treat. Couldn't find it mentioned on the care for piggies with existing condition info. Thanks

Oat hay is fine to feed. Sorry for your loss.

 

[Hath]

Oat hay is fine to feed. Sorry for your loss.

Thank you. It feels like a minefield and the do's/dont's list is endless. I hope it'll settle as I reached a point when I just can't adopt more piggies purely because I am so scared they would have the same issue (because it's so common). I wouldn't put another piggie through that surgery. Hopefully it's just the shock and grief talking and I'll reach point when I can enjoy having piggies like before and feel comfortable to open my heart to a new rescue.