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Cystease help

LaurenS

Junior Guinea Pig
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So I’ve read a lot of threads on Cystease and the dosage and everyone seems to say 1 capsule a day. When my guinea pig was first given it by the vet she prescribed 1/4 of a capsule a day but now this is sounding too little. My main question is does the dosage depend on weight at all? Peach is 1200g
 
So I'm assuming this is a bladder support thing. Suspected IC? People don't normally discuss weight when they use cystease so i don't think it's an issue - certainly she's a good adult weight. Have you already started the cystease at the lower dose and is she OK on that? If she's OK at the lower dose you should be fine to increase it. Lots of people use cystease although if they are using a higher dose I don't think they give it all at once, they spread it throughout the day, but I'm not the best person to advise. Someone else will be along tonight or tomorrow to confirm.

I did try it with my old boy but it didn't suit his gut... most people seem to have no problem though. Now, he'd been on antibiotics for a bit for UTI too so I think the cystease just put the tin lid on things for him. I went in with the full capsule but in 3 lots over 24 hours. There is 125mg glucosamine in a capsule (and some other stuff to help out). My boy was been having something called Oxbow Joint Support (like a little biscuit) for his arthritis which contains 95mg glucosmine each and he was happy on those but his appetite is off now. I tried switching to cystease when he started with bladder trouble too but like I say it didn't suit. Now I'm grinding up his biccie and mixing it in with his support mush. But you're worth it George 💕

Good luck Peach, I hope you can feel better soon x
 
Yeah it’s for suspected sterile IC, she never had any issues with the lower dose of Cystease but we stopped it after a few weeks at the advice of the vet and didn’t realise it was better to continue so we’re restarting it again. Yeah I have read people seem to give half a capsule every 12 hours. I also bought the oxbow support (wasn’t going to give both just one or the other) but she took one sniff of them and was like ew no thanks 😂 Thanks for your advice!
 
So I’ve read a lot of threads on Cystease and the dosage and everyone seems to say 1 capsule a day. When my guinea pig was first given it by the vet she prescribed 1/4 of a capsule a day but now this is sounding too little. My main question is does the dosage depend on weight at all? Peach is 1200g

Hi

The dosage doesn't depend so much on weight but on how bad the sterile IC is.

I would however try a full capsule until the IC settles down and then again during flares. You can even give 1 capsule twice daily (instead of 1/2 capsule twice daily) during a particularly strong flare up shortly for a few days. In between flares you can experiment how low a maintenance dosage he will tolerate. it is generally more effective to split the glucosamine and give it roughly every 12 hours instead of once daily in my own experience.

Please accept that sterile IC is actually a wide spectrum and that the online advice covers the lower to medium segment for the most commonly encountered cases.
Piggies with bad IC will need much stronger concentrations (cartrofen). At the very worst, even that will not be enough. But that is thankfully not the case with yours.

In my own experience with sterile IC, 1/4 of a capsule per day is too little to be effective for most cases. It is about the lowest maintenance I have been able to get away with in between flares in the mild or gradually petering out IC cases but never in order to get the IC under control - initially and during the regular flare-ups every few weeks/months.
 
Ive had two previous piggies on cystease.i use one capsule aday,mixed with one mls of water,you have to really mix well.when my piggie had increased pain and acute episode of ic,i gave two capsules aday until the acute episode ended.Cystease is a supplement ,so can be bought on line.
 
Hi

The dosage doesn't depend so much on weight but on how bad the sterile IC is.

I would however try a full capsule until the IC settles down and then again during flares. You can even give 1 capsule twice daily during a particularly strong flare up shortly for a few days. in between flares you can experiment how low a maintenance dosage he will tolerate.
Please accept that sterile IC is actually a wide spectrum and that th online advice covers the lower to medium segment for the most commonly encountered cases.

Piggies with bad IC will need much stronger concentrations (cartrofen). At the very worst, even that will not be enough.
In my own experience with sterile IC, 1/4 of a capsule per day is too little to be effective for most cases. It is about the lowest maintenance I have been able to get away with in between flares in the mild or gradually petering out IC cases but never in order to get the IC under control - initially and during the regular flare-ups every few weeks/month
Hi

The dosage doesn't depend so much on weight but on how bad the sterile IC is.

I would however try a full capsule until the IC settles down and then again during flares. You can even give 1 capsule twice daily during a particularly strong flare up shortly for a few days. in between flares you can experiment how low a maintenance dosage he will tolerate.
Please accept that sterile IC is actually a wide spectrum and that th online advice covers the lower to medium segment for the most commonly encountered cases.

Piggies with bad IC will need much stronger concentrations (cartrofen). At the very worst, even that will not be enough.
In my own experience with sterile IC, 1/4 of a capsule per day is too little to be effective for most cases. It is about the lowest maintenance I have been able to get away with in between flares in the mild or gradually petering out IC cases but never in order to get the IC under control - initially and during the regular flare-ups every few weeks/months.
Yeah I never knew if the 1/4 even done anything at the time because she was also on antibiotics and two painkillers so it might have not even worked for all I know. Thanks for the advice I’ll definitely up the dose for now and figure out what she needs for a maintenance dose and see how we go ☺️
 
Yeah I never knew if the 1/4 even done anything at the time because she was also on antibiotics and two painkillers so it might have not even worked for all I know. Thanks for the advice I’ll definitely up the dose for now and figure out what she needs for a maintenance dose and see how we go ☺️

See first whether the higher cystease dosage od 1/2 capsule every 12 hours or so is making a difference in bringing symptoms under control.

A recurring URI is very often sterile IC because in milder cases an antibiotic can temporarily suppress acute symptoms but it doesn't heal the IC. 'Sterile' means that IC is NOT bacterial and that antibiotics won't help. IC is usually charactised by very low or no bacteria in the urine and the absence of any stones or sludge in the urinary tract.

You can play around with the maintenance levels in between flares only later on once you have the recurring bouts of symptoms sussed out and know how high you have to go to get a flare under control.

It will take several weeks for the glucosamine to build up in the body so initially progress is somewhat slow and you need to stay on a higher level for quite a while until symptoms settle down.

Sterile IC seems to particularly affect the natural glucosamine coating of the walls of the urinary tract that acts as an insulation layer to keep the highly corrosive urine from coming into very painful contact with raw tissue. Hence the squeaking. In my own experiments I have found that it has been more effective to up the glucosamine dosage shortly in order to bring a later flare under control than upping the metacam dosage but ideally you want to do both.
 
See first whether the higher cystease dosage od 1/2 capsule every 12 hours or so is making a difference in bringing symptoms under control.

A recurring URI is very often sterile IC because in milder cases an antibiotic can temporarily suppress acute symptoms but it doesn't heal the IC. 'Sterile' means that IC is NOT bacterial and that antibiotics won't help. IC is usually charactised by very low or no bacteria in the urine and the absence of any stones or sludge in the urinary tract.

You can play around with the maintenance levels in between flares only later on once you have the recurring bouts of symptoms sussed out and know how high you have to go to get a flare under control.

It will take several weeks for the glucosamine to build up in the body so initially progress is somewhat slow and you need to stay on a higher level for quite a while until symptoms settle down.

Sterile IC seems to particularly affect the natural glucosamine coating of the walls of the urinary tract that acts as an insulation layer to keep the highly corrosive urine from coming into very painful contact with raw tissue. Hence the squeaking. In my own experiments I have found that it has been more effective to up the glucosamine dosage shortly in order to bring a later flare under control than upping the metacam dosage but ideally you want to do
I said antibiotics but that was a mistake, when she was first suspected to have sterile IC they did rule out stones etc through ultrasound and she was just on the two painkillers and the cystophan and then more recent times different vets keep prescribing antibiotics despite what her notes must say. Thank you again that’s all very helpful I’ll do that
 
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