Maximum painkiller dose ?

[Burns360]

Rolo has been struggling with painful blood wee for 2 weeks, she is now on 0.3ml co- trimoxazole and 0.66ml dog loxicom once a day but this seems to be doing nothing for the pain, is this the maximum she can have? The vet says yes. She now weighs 985g

she has lost 100g so I am syringe feeding also, but is still eating by herself and running around. Basically the vet has said to try this antibiotic but if she gets worse or no improvement in 2 weeks she will need to be PTS. I can’t bear to listen to her cries when she wees

 

[Piggies&buns]

Has she been given any X-rays or scans to check for stones?
Was her urine tested and bacteria confirmed?
Is the antibiotic helping at all? If a bacterial infection and stones have been ruled out then the other option is a condition called sterile cystitis which is not bacterial therefore antibiotics won’t work. It’s a condition which affects the lining of the bladder and is painful as urine is touching raw bladder walls. It cant be cured but can be managed with pain killers and glucosamine to help improve the bladder lining. It is similar to the condition seen in cats.

Pain relief wise, only a vet can advise on dosages but it is best for piggies to have their pain meds given twice a day. They metabolise them in around 12 hours so once a day usually isn’t enough.

 

[Burns360]

Has she been given any X-rays or scans to check for stones?
Was her urine tested and bacteria confirmed?
Is the antibiotic helping at all? If a bacterial infection and stones have been ruled out then the other option is a condition called sterile cystitis which is not bacterial therefore antibiotics won’t work. It’s a condition which affects the lining of the bladder and is painful as urine is touching raw bladder walls. It cant be cured but can be managed with pain killers and glucosamine to help improve the bladder lining. It is similar to the condition seen in cats.

Pain relief wise, only a vet can advise on dosages but it is best for piggies to have their pain meds given twice a day. They metabolise them in around 12 hours so once a day usually isn’t enough.

Yes she has had X-ray it showed no stones or ovary issues but enlarged kidneys. She has just had a week on baytril but no improvement so now she is on a different one. I have been giving her painkiller half dose twice a day but no improvement.

They haven’t tested her urine, they basically said apart from the antibiotics there isn’t any treatment they can give her and to think about euthanasia. They looked at the urine and said it was blood and concerning

 

[Wiebke]

Hi

Have your vets heard of sterile interstitial cystitis, which is similar to feline sterile cystitis (FSC), including treatment with oral glucosamine in milder or cartrofen (or both) in more severe cases which you seem to be unfortunately dealing with?

'Sterile' means non-bacterial; any antibiotic cannot work on it (since it is designed to kill bacteria) or - in milder forms - only suppress it temporarily. Sterile IC is characterised by the absence or low count of bacteria. It can run the whole spectrum from the very mild to the very severe end (which is unfortunately not yet treatable). Research into cartrofen has found that it also works for guinea pigs with medium to more severe sterile IC and we have just had feedback from a severe case where the combination of both cartrofen and glucosamine seems to be working where cartrofen on its own was not enough.

The illness is generally only diagnosed by default after all other potential problems in the urinary tract have been ruled out. It is not much known outside vet circles that see guinea pigs on a very regular basis. Sterile IC seems to affect mostly guinea pigs with a high stress level as their default setting, which happens while still in the womb of a stressed out mother. The current mass production of for sale pets is sadly promoting it and the illness has become a lot more common over the last 15 years.

Links - Interstitial Cystitis - Guinea Lynx Records
Strong Cystitis, Cartrophen and Glucosamine

In view of other potential problems having been ruled out and the antibiotic treatment not working, I would recommend that you try to pursue this avenue before giving up.

The metacam dosage sounds like it is at the upper end for a piggy with a weight that is a bit lower than 1 kg? The next step up would be a stronger non-licensed painkiller like gabapentin, tramadol etc. in combination with the metacam.

I am keeping my fingers firmly crossed!

 

[Burns360]

Hi

Have your vets heard of sterile interstitial cystitis, which is similar to feline sterile cystitis (FSC), including treatment with oral glucosamine in milder or cartrofen (or both) in more severe cases which you seem to be unfortunately dealing with?

'Sterile' means non-bacterial; any antibiotic cannot work on it (since it is designed to kill bacteria) or - in milder forms - only suppress it temporarily. Sterile IC is characterised by the absence or low count of bacteria. It can run the whole spectrum from the very mild to the very severe end (which is unfortunately not yet treatable). Research into cartrofen has found that it also works for guinea pigs with medium to more severe sterile IC and we have just had feedback from a severe case where the combination of both cartrofen and glucosamine seems to be working where cartrofen on its own was not enough.

The illness is generally only diagnosed by default after all other potential problems in the urinary tract have been ruled out. It is not much known outside vet circles that see guinea pigs on a very regular basis. Sterile IC seems to affect mostly guinea pigs with a high stress level as their default setting, which happens while still in the womb of a stressed out mother. The current mass production of for sale pets is sadly promoting it and the illness has become a lot more common over the last 15 years.

Links - Interstitial Cystitis - Guinea Lynx Records
Strong Cystitis, Cartrophen and Glucosamine

In view of other potential problems having been ruled out and the antibiotic treatment not working, I would recommend that you try to pursue this avenue before giving up.

The metacam dosage sounds like it is at the upper end for a piggy with a weight that is a bit lower than 1 kg? The next step up would be a stronger non-licensed painkiller like gabapentin, tramadol etc. in combination with the metacam.

I am keeping my fingers firmly crossed!

Thanks for your helpful reply

She does however have calcium in her wee as I’ve also seen dry powdery wee so Ive cut out high calcium veg and filtering drinking water. I did mention IC to my vet who hadn’t heard of it and dismissed me. Unfortunately they aren’t exotic specialist and I’m still on a long waiting list to see Craig and chine house in sileby,

I want to try anything I can to help her, she is still managing to eat by herself along side the support feeding I’m doing but she won’t drink from her water bottle, she is alert and begging for food which is good it’s just the more frequent, painful wees that’s the main issue. I do have some cat cystease capsules i have been giving 1ml of the capsule every 12 hours but not sure if I should increased this, and I’m not sure if my vets would prescribe cartrofen as they are pretty dismissive about the cystitis being the cause

 

[Piggies2023]

Thanks for your helpful reply

She does however have calcium in her wee as I’ve also seen dry powdery wee so Ive cut out high calcium veg and filtering drinking water. I did mention IC to my vet who hadn’t heard of it and dismissed me. Unfortunately they aren’t exotic specialist and I’m still on a long waiting list to see Craig and chine house in sileby,

I want to try anything I can to help her, she is still managing to eat by herself along side the support feeding I’m doing but she won’t drink from her water bottle, she is alert and begging for food which is good it’s just the more frequent, painful wees that’s the main issue. I do have some cat cystease capsules i have been giving 1ml of the capsule every 12 hours but not sure if I should increased this, and I’m not sure if my vets would prescribe cartrofen as they are pretty dismissive about the cystitis being the cause

Have you looked at the recommended vets list on here to see if one is nearby? It can make a huge difference seeing a savvy piggy vet.
Cystease wise how much of a tablet is she having a day?

You could ask your vet to allow you to give metacam twice a day instead of once? Though they would probably half the dose for that to give the same total dose she's in a day already. There are also other painkiller options ( my piggie is on gabepentin too for pain when weeing but she is seeing a piggy savvy vet). But with enlarged kidneys you would need to be careful about pain meds.

Did they do any bloods when they did the x-ray considering she has an enlarged kidney?