Hi,
Just got back from the vets and they gave her another course of antibiotics for another week, but they said that it’s unusual for cystitis to come back, but when I read online about it, most websites said that it’s quite common, so I’m not sure what to believe with that, also they said it could be a possibility of bladder stones, which if one got into her urethra she would have to be put to sleep as there would be nothing they could do, which was a bit worrying. Surely there would be treatments to get rid of the stone, (if she had one) out of the urethra?
She responded to the first round of antibiotics, as there was no more porphyrine coloured pees, but exactly a week after treatment stopped they came back, so I am pretty sure it is cystitis or an infection of some sort, well i hope it is, as the antibiotics seemed to clear up the coloured pees.
If she did have bladder stones would it just be constant porphyrine coloured pees? And the antibiotics wouldn’t have done anything to help, right?
There are two common infections of the urinary tract: a bacterial urine infection (UTI) more commonly seen in outdoors piggies or in Spring after putting indoors piggies out on the lawn when the ground is still too cold and damp for them (please test by standing with your own bare feet on the lawn for 5 minutes first).
The second is a non-bacterial recurring infection (a sterile interstitial cystitis, or sterile IC), which affects mainly the natural glucosamine lining that prevents the highly corrosive urine from coming into direct contact with raw tissue. Because it is non-bacterial, antibiotics won't work at or will in milder cases suppress symptoms temporarily. If a second course of antibiotics doesn't bring relief, then I would recommend to start considering sterile IC, which has become a lot more common in especially indoors piggies over the last 15 years. It is characterised by a lack or low count of bacteria in the urine (a low count usually means that there is some reaction to an antibiotic but the IC itself is not cured). Your vet will also have to exclude any other potential problems liks stones or sludge.
Sterile IC cannot be cured, only managed with glucosamine in order to replenish the glucosamine coating and meloxicam (metacam) to help with the pain and inflammation. Sterile IC runs the whole spectrum from mild to very severe. The milder forms will often eventually go away on their own and can be managed with oral glucosamine but you are looking at a matter of years rather than months. You will have to work out for yourself how low you can safely go with the maintenance dose during the intervals and how high you have to get on top of it initially (may take several weeks since the glucosamine needs time to build up in the body) and during the flares which happen every few weeks. Unless you are dealing with the extreme form (which you are clearly not), sterile IC is not deadly, doesn't cause stones and is more in the matter of a recurring nuisance. You can usually get a flare under control within a few days once you know what it takes with your own piggy.
The intense porphyrine pees are more characteristic for the onset of a sterile IC flare but please first do the next round of antibiotics in order to exclude a UTI. Sterile IC is usually not known outside vet circles that deal with guinea pigs on a very regular basis.
Here is more information:
Links - Interstitial Cystitis - Guinea Lynx Records
The third variety, a bacterial bladder infection, is generally the result of an infection/inflammation of the bladder from stones or sludge banging into the bladder walls and scratching them with every pee. It should respond to an antibiotic but can recur if the stone/sludge is not removed due to more damage to the bladder walls. In this case, supplementing with glucosamine is also recommended and any blood can be the result of damage to the walls of the bladder or the urethra if the stone passes in there.
All the best.
PS: If this problem is part of an ongoing issue, please use your original thread to keep all information about an ongoing case together. None of us is around all the time, can read everything or will necessarily be able to remember everything after a thousands of one-off cases and we cannot give you the appropriate advice without knowing what we are actually dealing with. Ideally you bookmark your Health/Illness to find it easily again for your own benefit and to save us any extra work. This forum is not part of social media. We do not rely on how many new threads are created, which means that we can provide long term personalised ongoing support and that we can keep a thread running for as long as needed. Please respect that we are all doing this for free in our own free time on top of a job, our own piggies and a private life.
I have merged your threads.
