Guinea pig with bladder stone

[Luckykmj]

Hi all. This is my first time posting here and I currently live in the US. For the last two months my 2 year old female guinea pig has had some light pink blood in her urine. She did not seem to be in pain but we took her to the vet as soon as we saw it. The vet did an X-ray and at the time didn’t see anything, diagnosed her with a UTI and gave her some antibiotics. The bleeding continued after she finished the antibiotic so we took her back but again they didn’t find anything after doing another X-ray and ultrasound so we took her to another vet who also couldn’t find anything on the ultrasound and sent us home. Last week, we noticed that she was crying when urinating and there was a lot more blood in her urine. We took her to a third vet 2 hours away that we previously went to before moving and who we absolutely loved. Finally they found a very small single bladder stone! The vet was concerned that she did have an ovarian cyst based on the uterus pushing against her bladder. We had her sedated for a CT scan on Thursday and thankfully she doesn’t have a cyst and just has the single small stone with some more possibly forming in her kidneys. The vet is hopeful that she will be able to pass it on her own and prevent the formation of new stones by using potassium citrate. She is also on metacam, enroflaxcin, and gabapentin. The vet wants a repeat X-ray in a few weeks to check the progress. Since the sedation she hasn’t been herself but continues to eat and drink when we bring her food. She is still crying in pain though from the stone and is not herself. We have done everything we can for her so I’m just posting this to see if anyone else has had a similar experience. Anything is appreciated! I just want my girl to feel better.

 

[Qualcast&Flymo]

Hi and Sorry your piggy is suffering with a bladder stone.
I'm not an expert but I did have one pig (a boar) who had a bladder stone.

Stones are very painful so she needs a decent dose of metacam or other pain relief to deal with that. (Here in the UK most vets prescribe what the makers recommend which is in reality way too little for anything but the mildest pain). You can also try giving her a glucosamine supplement which will help reline the bladder walls - in the UK Cystease is the easiest to get, not sure what is available in the US. Also check her diet, make sure she is not having lots of high calcium foods (including nuggets) and use filtered water especially if you live in a hard water area.

I hope this helps, and a medical expert will have more advice in the morning.

 

[Qualcast&Flymo]

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

this is the link to the diet advice pages in the "Food" subforum

 

[Luckykmj]

Hi and Sorry your piggy is suffering with a bladder stone.
I'm not an expert but I did have one pig (a boar) who had a bladder stone.

Stones are very painful so she needs a decent dose of metacam or other pain relief to deal with that. (Here in the UK most vets prescribe what the makers recommend which is in reality way too little for anything but the mildest pain). You can also try giving her a glucosamine supplement which will help reline the bladder walls - in the UK Cystease is the easiest to get, not sure what is available in the US. Also check her diet, make sure she is not having lots of high calcium foods (including nuggets) and use filtered water especially if you live in a hard water area.

I hope this helps, and a medical expert will have more advice in the morning.

Thank you so much! This is very helpful. I feel like I should be doing more but after 5 vet visits I can only do so much. The vet was very confident this treatment would work and we only started the potassium citrate on Friday so I’m trying to give it time. The vet was able to get a sterile urine sample while she was under sedation so we are waiting on the results. It’s possible the current antibiotic she is on isn’t the right one if she does have an infection. We went over her diet with the vet and it seems like her diet is okay. The vet also asked if we were using town or well water because well water can cause many bladder stones but thankfully ours is town water. What worked for your boar?

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m sorry to hear this.

Stones are very painful. What dosages of the painkillers is she on?

Potassium citrate might help prevent more forming but it isn’t a guarantee and won’t do anything for any stones she already has.

I agree about the glucosamine.

Whether she can pass it, only time will tell. As more are forming in the kidneys, this won’t have a quick resolution.
Sows can have a slightly higher chance of passing stones (boars almost always need surgery due to the angle in their urethra) but you will need to make sure it doesn’t get caught when she is trying to pass it.

Most calcium comes into the diet via pellets and water. Make sure pellets are kept limited to one tablespoon per day. Make sure water is filtered.
You then also have to check the veg element of the diet and ensure you aren’t feeding high calcium, nitrate or oxalate veggies.

While she is unwell, you must make sure you are weighing her every morning to ensure she is still eating enough hay independently. If she loses 50g or more in weight then she is not eating enough hay and you must step in with syringe feeds.

I hope she is ok. The guides below detail further

Thread 'Wiebke's Guide to Pees and Stones'

May 29, 2024

1 The Urinary Tract
2 Pees
- Water intake changes
- Pee discoloration
3 Infections
- Bacterial urine infection (UTI)
- Bacterial cystitis
- Sterile cystitis (interstitial cystitis or IC)
4 Stones, Sludge and Crystals
- Crystals, stones and sludge
- Stone and sludge removal
5 Kidneys and Bladder Cancer
-...

• Wiebke
• Replies: 3
• Forum: Wiebke's Home Care Support Guides

Thread 'Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support'

Jun 20, 2024

1 Weight and Weight Loss
- Why regular weight monitoring matters
- How weight changes over a lifetime
- How to weigh on your kitchen scales (with video)
- The weight loss rules
- How critical is the weight loss for my piggy?
- Possible causes for weight loss
2 Body Mass Index (BMI) or 'Heft'
- Why is understanding your piggy's weight so important?
- 'Average' weight vs. individual weight - the big trip up
- How to check for the BMI
3 The...

• Wiebke
• Replies: 5
• Forum: Health & Illness

• 

 

[Luckykmj]

Thank you so much for the information. Currently she is on 0.3 ml of metacam which we give her at night and 0.2 ml of gabapentin which we give her in the morning.

I have heard that they can get caught. I work during the day but when I am home I am always listening to see if she is in pain. How would I know if it is caught for sure? Will she be constantly crying in pain and not eating?

My vet said she has had success with this treatment so I’m hoping she is right. She specifically sees just exotics which is why we drove so far to take her to the vet. I have attached her xray and circled the stone for reference. Thank you again for all the information!

 

[Piggies&buns]

She would be in pain and you might see swelling in her general, the potential for reduced urine flow depending on the size of the stone

 

[Luckykmj]

I’ll definitely look out for this. She doesn’t cry in pain every time she urinates but still does sometimes. Today I did watch her and I saw blood again so I’m assuming urine is still flowing. She also ate her lettuce this morning like she normally does. I attached the xray from her visit last week. You can barely see the stone but it’s definitely there! The vet thinks waiting for it to pass is the best option and would like to avoid surgery since it is so small

 

[Luckykmj]

Hi all. Just thought I would share an update. After her CT scan she seemed to improve a little bit and would come out for her veggies and hide most of the day. Every day she seemed to do a little worse and stopped coming out to drink. She was crying in pain and barely pooping. We took her to the vet yesterday where her temperature was low from the pain and it became a critical situation. After trying to be conservative the vet said she needed the surgery to remove the stone. Today she had the surgery and I’m happy to report that the surgery went well! The vet removed a single stone and found that she had an ulcer in her bladder which she was able to clean up a little while in there. She said that the ulcer was most likely causing her the pain because the stone was small but the stone caused the ulcer. They are keeping her tonight because she was still groggy so they will give her pain meds and some injections. I’m hopeful that she will make a full recovery!