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Interstitial cystitis - struggling to control it.

Swissgreys

Swissgreys

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Lucy is 3 and a half, and has been struggling with what we feel is Interstitial cystitis for over a year now.

She is such a sweet piggy, and it is breaking my heart to see her suffer like this.
In the past 12 months we have tried courses of both Baytril and Sulfitram, and neither have made the slightest difference.
X-rays and an ultra sound came back clear for sludge and stones, and her urine samples are fine - no blood or bacteria.
Her urine is not gritty at all.

But she squeaks badly every time she urinates, and it is getting worse.
It is just devastating to witness.

She is currently on Cystease (one capsule per day) and the maximum dose of dog Metacam twice a day, and only seems to be getting worse.

I have cut practically everything out of her diet, and her daily diet consists of:
A small amount of Versele Laga pellets (grain free, low calcium)
a green bean
a slice of pepper
a piece of fennel
a piece of celery (no leaves)
a piece of lettuce
and unlimited hay.
Her water is filtered.

I am considering cutting out fresh grass as well because maybe that is the culprit?

I have become neurotic about her diet, and make sure she never gets any treats or additional things at all, but nothing is helping.
Her endless squeaking while she wees is awful.
But oddly enough she hasn't lost any weight, and she seems quite perky within herself (except when she is weeing).

The vet (we see 2 - one is a specialist) has said there really isn't much more we can do, but I hate seeing her in pain.
It just doesn't seem right, but on the other hand she is still happy most of the time, so I don't know what else I can do.

Ideas?
Miracle cures?
Am I missing something her?
I just want to get this under control for my sweet Lucy.
 
Poor Lucy, Iggy sends his sympathies as he knows what it’s like. We have the same problems here, he’s also fine apart from painful wees.

Has she had a bladder flush at all? Iggy had that once and we were 6 months free of symptoms but it came back after that. I’ve been wondering whether to try it again but I need to look into it a bit to see how regular flushes might impact him long term.

Perhaps something worth asking your vet? He/she may have more info?
 
Swissgreys said:
Lucy is 3 and a half, and has been struggling with what we feel is Interstitial cystitis for over a year now.

She is such a sweet piggy, and it is breaking my heart to see her suffer like this.
In the past 12 months we have tried courses of both Baytril and Sulfitram, and neither have made the slightest difference.
X-rays and an ultra sound came back clear for sludge and stones, and her urine samples are fine - no blood or bacteria.
Her urine is not gritty at all.

But she squeaks badly every time she urinates, and it is getting worse.
It is just devastating to witness.

She is currently on Cystease (one capsule per day) and the maximum dose of dog Metacam twice a day, and only seems to be getting worse.

I have cut practically everything out of her diet, and her daily diet consists of:
A small amount of Versele Laga pellets (grain free, low calcium)
a green bean
a slice of pepper
a piece of fennel
a piece of celery (no leaves)
a piece of lettuce
and unlimited hay.
Her water is filtered.

I am considering cutting out fresh grass as well because maybe that is the culprit?

I have become neurotic about her diet, and make sure she never gets any treats or additional things at all, but nothing is helping.
Her endless squeaking while she wees is awful.
But oddly enough she hasn't lost any weight, and she seems quite perky within herself (except when she is weeing).

The vet (we see 2 - one is a specialist) has said there really isn't much more we can do, but I hate seeing her in pain.
It just doesn't seem right, but on the other hand she is still happy most of the time, so I don't know what else I can do.

Ideas?
Miracle cures?
Am I missing something her?
I just want to get this under control for my sweet Lucy.
Click to expand...

I don't have any experience with it, nor have any forum members been prescribed it yet so there is also no direct second-hand experience, but according to several posts by people on my facebook page about Breila's cystitis, recent research has obviously shown that cartrophen/pentosan injections can be used for IC in guinea pigs, too, and that according to the people having had a monthly injection for their IC piggy, it is much more effective than cystease.
It is another glucosamine based medication for athritic joints in dogs and cats, but it seems that is also more effective than cystease for the glucosamine treatment in bladder problems.
Wiebke's Tribe

Perhaps you could ask your vet to some research in that direction?
 
I’m afraid I don’t have any advise to add but Ellen sends her sympathy as she has been suffering with IC for 3 years now.

As you know, she is currently going through a flare that has caused her to lose a lot of weight :( She’s currently taking a course of sulfitrim which is helping but you say it doesn’t help Lucy :( It’s such a horrible illness for our little ones to have
 
Oh poor Lucy. Holly is having a flare again and sends her sympathies. And I send mine, as it breaks your heart to hear them cry when they wee - especially when they wee as many times a day as piggies do xx
 
I cant offer any advice but wanted to say thinking of you and poor little Lucy ... I hope she gets some relief very soon x
 
Hope you can get her feeling better very soon, never dealt with IC but bladder stones and UTIs with Rupert were a nightmare x
 
I have had some horrible issues over the years. My current girl had terrible recurrent cystitis and regular bladder infections. Sometimes losing a lot of blood. We tried everything. She then had a series of Cartrophan injections in the summer this year and they have made a massive difference. My vet is John Chitty, renowned for small animal work and not afraid to try something new. They are usually used for animals with cartilage issues but the cartrophan also lines the bladder I believe.

She also have a cystease tablet daily, with 10ml of liquid per day. So far all good! Worth speaking to your vet about?
 
Guinea Slave said:
I have had some horrible issues over the years. My current girl had terrible recurrent cystitis and regular bladder infections. Sometimes losing a lot of blood. We tried everything. She then had a series of Cartrophan injections in the summer this year and they have made a massive difference. My vet is John Chitty, renowned for small animal work and not afraid to try something new. They are usually used for animals with cartilage issues but the cartrophan also lines the bladder I believe.

She also have a cystease tablet daily, with 10ml of liquid per day. So far all good! Worth speaking to your vet about?
Click to expand...
Thank you for the reply, I’m going to the vet tomorrow and will show her your post.
 
yvette langford said:
Thank you for the reply, I’m going to the vet tomorrow and will show her your post.
Click to expand...

Recent research seems to have shown that cartrophen can help with persistent strong interstitial cystitis in guinea pigs.

It is not yet much used in the UK but it seems to help where the normal oral combo of glucosamine and analgesics fails to bring symptoms under control in the intervals between acute flare-ups or where flare-ups are particularly bad. You are looking at monthly injections in this case. It would be worth discussing with your vet seeing that the conventional options are not enough.

Glucosamine seems to be the key to treating IC symptoms; it works as much on the cartiledge of arthritic joints (including guinea pigs) as well as the natural glucosamine wall coating of the urinary tract in the two pet species that can get IC, cats and guinea pigs. Cartrofen is a stronger glucosamine-based medication.
 
yvette langford said:
Thank you for the reply, I’m going to the vet tomorrow and will show her your post.
Click to expand...
Yay, my vet has agreed to the cartrophen injections. How often did you get them? My vet wasn’t sure of the dosage so gave a dogs dose, she said it might not be enough,but she’ll do some research. I go back on Friday for a steroid injection
 
yvette langford said:
Yay, my vet has agreed to the cartrophen injections. How often did you get them? My vet wasn’t sure of the dosage so gave a dogs dose, she said it might not be enough,but she’ll do some research. I go back on Friday for a steroid injection
Click to expand...

As far as I know, once monthly (see my previous post).
 
I wanted to pop back on and add my own update to this thread.

We are starting to feel cautiously optimistic about Lucy and her IC.
With strict diet controls and daily Cystease we are slowly cutting back on her pain relief and things are looking ok.

We didn't try Cartrophen injections becasue while my vet was looking into this we made one other change to Lucy's diet - water.
Twice a day she has a lettuce leaf or handful of fresh grass quite wet with filtered water.
I just pour water from the jug onto this and shake off the excess before putting it in her cage.
It's such a simple thing but it really does seem to be helping.
It's only been a few weeks so far, but at this point I am happy to go with whatever works.
 
Swissgreys said:
I wanted to pop back on and add my own update to this thread.

We are starting to feel cautiously optimistic about Lucy and her IC.
With strict diet controls and daily Cystease we are slowly cutting back on her pain relief and things are looking ok.

We didn't try Cartrophen injections becasue while my vet was looking into this we made one other change to Lucy's diet - water.
Twice a day she has a lettuce leaf or handful of fresh grass quite wet with filtered water.
I just pour water from the jug onto this and shake off the excess before putting it in her cage.
It's such a simple thing but it really does seem to be helping.
It's only been a few weeks so far, but at this point I am happy to go with whatever works.
Click to expand...
How much cystease do you give daily? And exactly what do you feed? I so confused regarding the food lol
 
yvette langford said:
Yay, my vet has agreed to the cartrophen injections. How often did you get them? My vet wasn’t sure of the dosage so gave a dogs dose, she said it might not be enough,but she’ll do some research. I go back on Friday for a steroid injection
Click to expand...

Hiya

My little girl had three injections, once a week for three weeks. None since (fingers crossed) and this was in early Sept.
 
yvette langford said:
How much cystease do you give daily? And exactly what do you feed? I so confused regarding the food lol
Click to expand...
The exact diet I feed is listed in the first post on this thread.
However I think that it is different for every pig to be honest which is one o the things that makes this so hard to stay on top of.

I do know that Lucy has certain 'trigger' foods, and I did this by putting her on a hay and pellet only diet for several weeks.
After that I introduced 1 food every 4 - 5 days to try and work out what caused her IC to flare.
It was a very long process!
 
I
yvette langford said:
Hmmmm I’ll have to inform my vet as her plan was one injection a month. We go there on Friday for a steroid injection
Click to expand...

I think it was a series of them early on to get the cartrophen working quickly and then once per month after that if she needed topping up. So far so good!

Re the Cystease, I have had quite a few piggies with bladder issues and the ones which have done the best are the ones who have been happy to be syringed extra water daily. My current girl gets cystease twice a day in a minimum of 7 ml of filtered water twice a day without fail, even if I am away I get someone else to do it. Its noticeable how if I dont do this (I experimented in the early days) her cystitis can recur. This just seems to keep the bladder working and flushed through.

She really enjoys it as well as it gives her extra cuddle time over the others. She takes each syringe from me now and practically sucks the water out!
 
Oh and she is on a heavy dose of dog metacam twice a day 0.85ml x 2. This keeps the inflammation down. She is arthritic as well, so this is used for both purposes.
 
Guinea Slave said:
I


I think it was a series of them early on to get the cartrophen working quickly and then once per month after that if she needed topping up. So far so good!

Re the Cystease, I have had quite a few piggies with bladder issues and the ones which have done the best are the ones who have been happy to be syringed extra water daily. My current girl gets cystease twice a day in a minimum of 7 ml of filtered water twice a day without fail, even if I am away I get someone else to do it. Its noticeable how if I dont do this (I experimented in the early days) her cystitis can recur. This just seems to keep the bladder working and flushed through.

She really enjoys it as well as it gives her extra cuddle time over the others. She takes each syringe from me now and practically sucks the water out!
Click to expand...
Is that one cystease capsule in 7ml water?
I’m glad to hear she’s gotten used to the taste, mine has to be forced it at the moment. But I know from other meds they do get used to it eventually
 
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