Free Ranger
Forum Donator 2023/24
Ooh you beat me to it Claire - but I'll post this anyway now I've typed it!
Stones are something vets have to think about but it's not a death sentence. Smaller ones can be quite 'do-able'. And sows have a much better chance than boars as their urethra is a bit wider.
A bit of terminology: a pig has 2 kidneys and a bladder. Between them is a tube called a ureter, so pigs have 2 of those, 1 from each kidney going into the bladder. Then you have another single tube called the urethra going from the bladder to outside. Remember it with You-wee-thra your U-re-thra!
Stones often form in the bladder and just bomp around in there. Small bits of grit or sludge (a mass of sandy, gritty solids) can pass through the urethra although some pigs can get a bit bunged up. Stones which are too big to leave the bladder must at some point be surgically removed unless piggy is too old or has a history of repeated stones forming (that was my old boy) in which case, if they can be kept comfortable with painkiller and glucosamine food supplements, they live with it. And that can be fine for quite a while for as long as there are no other complications.
A stone stuck in a piggy ureter is a difficult situation, but much more commonly we have people posting about stones further down in the bladder or urethra. They can be identified by x-ray, and this doesn't necessarily mean anaesthetic. My vet swaddles piggies firmly in a towel to get the shots. Stones light up bright white. Sludge can look similar. An infection does not mean you must also have a stone - and a stone does not always mean there's infection BUT you can have both. The thing to watch out for is forgetting all about any infection because you've seen a stone on an x-ray and they get everyone all worried. You've had antibiotics which seemed to clear up Toffee's symptoms within the first few days. To me that would suggest they were killing off a bacterial infection. The timing is about right - if they're going to work they generally work fast. If her problems were caused by a stone and no infection the AB shouldn't have made any difference. If you just need a longer course you should still see a quick improvement again as most of the bugs are killed off - it's just the last 1% that have survived and multiplied back up.
I've had a couple of incidents with stones and grit in girls. One girl chirped when she peed and there was blood. She was white, and looked like she had a dirty bottom all the time because she was dripping pee and muck stuck to the wet fur. Her stone was found by the vet just by feeling round her lady-bits and was actually extracted with a pair of forceps and it was a hooching spiky monster! Easily 4 or 5mm in places. It had probably started as a smaller stone which got wedged in the urethra and grew bigger as she couldn't get a good flow going past it. On another occasion a girl suddenly started peeing what looked like neat blood and we think she must have passed a stone. On x-ray there seemed to be either another small stone or a collection of sludge at the exit of the bladder. The vet reckoned she might pass it without surgery (they need a good eye to be able to tell) and gave her an opioid injection for pain and a big sub-cutaneous fluid bolus (where they injected about 10ml or more of fluid under the skin of the shoulder like a giant blister). She was stoned out of her gourd and it was a real shame for her but she peed that fluid out like a tap and the next x-ray was clear. She didn't eat for hours until the stuff had worn off though. I've had two in boys that has meant a surgery. I lost Panda (4-ish we think) to the anaesthetic but George (6) came through with flying colours - and promptly formed another one. My vet has an old boy herself who is living with his comfortably enough. So there are ways to manage these things depending on whether you have boys or girls and where any stone happens to be sitting. It's just part of some piggy's lives.
If the blood clears up in the first few days again my money's on some sort of infection BUT looking at the trail of drips I'd also be thinking about an x-ray. The blood-tinted pee that happens with a pure infection tends to be less 'blood' looking. People will typically post a pic on a white towel and we're all squinting at it to work out whether it's a dried puddle of pink-y (worrying) or orange-y (normal) pee. But one step at a time...
PS: did she get either metacam or loxicom painkiller?
Stones are something vets have to think about but it's not a death sentence. Smaller ones can be quite 'do-able'. And sows have a much better chance than boars as their urethra is a bit wider.
A bit of terminology: a pig has 2 kidneys and a bladder. Between them is a tube called a ureter, so pigs have 2 of those, 1 from each kidney going into the bladder. Then you have another single tube called the urethra going from the bladder to outside. Remember it with You-wee-thra your U-re-thra!
Stones often form in the bladder and just bomp around in there. Small bits of grit or sludge (a mass of sandy, gritty solids) can pass through the urethra although some pigs can get a bit bunged up. Stones which are too big to leave the bladder must at some point be surgically removed unless piggy is too old or has a history of repeated stones forming (that was my old boy) in which case, if they can be kept comfortable with painkiller and glucosamine food supplements, they live with it. And that can be fine for quite a while for as long as there are no other complications.
A stone stuck in a piggy ureter is a difficult situation, but much more commonly we have people posting about stones further down in the bladder or urethra. They can be identified by x-ray, and this doesn't necessarily mean anaesthetic. My vet swaddles piggies firmly in a towel to get the shots. Stones light up bright white. Sludge can look similar. An infection does not mean you must also have a stone - and a stone does not always mean there's infection BUT you can have both. The thing to watch out for is forgetting all about any infection because you've seen a stone on an x-ray and they get everyone all worried. You've had antibiotics which seemed to clear up Toffee's symptoms within the first few days. To me that would suggest they were killing off a bacterial infection. The timing is about right - if they're going to work they generally work fast. If her problems were caused by a stone and no infection the AB shouldn't have made any difference. If you just need a longer course you should still see a quick improvement again as most of the bugs are killed off - it's just the last 1% that have survived and multiplied back up.
I've had a couple of incidents with stones and grit in girls. One girl chirped when she peed and there was blood. She was white, and looked like she had a dirty bottom all the time because she was dripping pee and muck stuck to the wet fur. Her stone was found by the vet just by feeling round her lady-bits and was actually extracted with a pair of forceps and it was a hooching spiky monster! Easily 4 or 5mm in places. It had probably started as a smaller stone which got wedged in the urethra and grew bigger as she couldn't get a good flow going past it. On another occasion a girl suddenly started peeing what looked like neat blood and we think she must have passed a stone. On x-ray there seemed to be either another small stone or a collection of sludge at the exit of the bladder. The vet reckoned she might pass it without surgery (they need a good eye to be able to tell) and gave her an opioid injection for pain and a big sub-cutaneous fluid bolus (where they injected about 10ml or more of fluid under the skin of the shoulder like a giant blister). She was stoned out of her gourd and it was a real shame for her but she peed that fluid out like a tap and the next x-ray was clear. She didn't eat for hours until the stuff had worn off though. I've had two in boys that has meant a surgery. I lost Panda (4-ish we think) to the anaesthetic but George (6) came through with flying colours - and promptly formed another one. My vet has an old boy herself who is living with his comfortably enough. So there are ways to manage these things depending on whether you have boys or girls and where any stone happens to be sitting. It's just part of some piggy's lives.
If the blood clears up in the first few days again my money's on some sort of infection BUT looking at the trail of drips I'd also be thinking about an x-ray. The blood-tinted pee that happens with a pure infection tends to be less 'blood' looking. People will typically post a pic on a white towel and we're all squinting at it to work out whether it's a dried puddle of pink-y (worrying) or orange-y (normal) pee. But one step at a time...
PS: did she get either metacam or loxicom painkiller?
. Can Guinea pigs live with stones, or it is it just kinder to put them to sleep? And it it normal to cost this much?
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