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Pain when weeing

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Piggies2023

Teenage Guinea Pig
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My Nancy has been squeaking in pain when weeing since April. Previously had blood but glucosamine has stopped that but not the pain. She's had 2 x-rays, and an ultrasound they have shown nothing. I'm struggling to cope hearing her in pain, she's significantly worse. 😥 I just wish she was okay.
 
Hi Lucy,

That must be so hard indeed to hear her squeek in pain. Have you tried to lower her calcium intake before? (No pellets but dietary pellets, timothy hay, no tap water but water from a bottle, vegetables with low calcium)

My guinea pig had the same problem, and nothing showed up on scans either. When I lessened her calcium intake significantly, she started doing much better :)

I hope she'll be feeling better soon !
 
Is she on metacam?
 
Jerler said:
Hi Lucy,

That must be so hard indeed to hear her squeek in pain. Have you tried to lower her calcium intake before? (No pellets but dietary pellets, timothy hay, no tap water but water from a bottle, vegetables with low calcium)

My guinea pig had the same problem, and nothing showed up on scans either. When I lessened her calcium intake significantly, she started doing much better :)

I hope she'll be feeling better soon !
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Thank you.

Yes, she's on low calcium and struggling to find foods that don't make it worse so we stay the same.
 
:( I am sorry to hear this we had a bladder piggy that was on metacam for years due to inflamed bladder wall causing pain when weeing.

I presume urine has been cultured to rule out reoccurring infections?
 
sport_billy said:
:( I am sorry to hear this we had a bladder piggy that was on metacam for years due to inflamed bladder wall causing pain when weeing.

I presume urine has been cultured to rule out reoccurring infections?
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Yes, we've tried two antibiotics and she's had her urine sent off. She had infections earlier in the year which I think is what has set this off.
 
Did the antibiotics improve anything?
 
The vet did say she has crystals in her urine but that lots of guinea pigs have that without symptoms. And she doesn't have any sludge or anything on x-rays
 
Was septrin tried it is also known as cotrimoxazole and reaches the bladder well.
 
Lucy3733 said:
The vet did say she has crystals in her urine but that lots of guinea pigs have that without symptoms. And she doesn't have any sludge or anything on x-rays
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That is good news but leaves you and her with this awful issue of not being able to solves her pain.
Putt was on quite a high dose metacam daily it along with glucosamine, she apart from when she’d wee’d was happy, but it was always heartbreaking to hear
 
Lucy3733 said:
Yes, co-trimoxazole and baytril. So I feel we've tried the antibiotic route.
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Yep. If diagnostics reveal nothing then there is very little else you can do. X-ray and ultrasound should really have ruled out stones which are always a major fear.
Hoping one of our health and illness experts may be along on the morning with any further ideas..
 
Sounds similar to my Nancy. I put this video together for my vet in hopes it helps. She wakes me up multiple times in the night squeaking in pain
 
😭 It is so unfair and horrible when we can’t help them.
Your vet sounds like they are trying lots of diagnostics and treatment. Metacam should in theory help with inflammation and pain relief, possibly a dose tweak to see.

I seem to remember a piggy on here sound 10 years ago with chronic bladder issues caused by stones and crystals. I want to say his name was Patrick and he was the piggy of a lovely forum owner called flintstones piggy, it may be worth a forum search to see if any old threads throw anything up
 
Oh poor thing.

Staying the same regarding diet is a good thing. It seems IC is mostly triggered by changes to the diet not necessarily by the diet itself. Some piggies can be sensitive to certain items though.
 
sport_billy said:
😭 It is so unfair and horrible when we can’t help them.
Your vet sounds like they are trying lots of diagnostics and treatment. Metacam should in theory help with inflammation and pain relief, possibly a dose tweak to see.

I seem to remember a piggy on here sound 10 years ago with chronic bladder issues caused by stones and crystals. I want to say his name was Patrick and he was the piggy of a lovely forum owner called flintstones piggy, it may be worth a forum search to see if any old threads throw anything up
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Thank you. I will have a look. Nancy is on the highest dose of metacam my vet is happy with. Same dose the majority of vets give, though I'm aware one or two give more.
 
Piggies&buns said:
Oh poor thing.

Staying the same regarding diet is a good thing. It seems IC is mostly triggered by changes to the diet not necessarily by the diet itself. Some piggies can be sensitive to certain items though.
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I thought this and asked about cartrophen. But my vet said her ultrasound showed a normal bladder lining so it was a no to that.
 
Oh right, I assumed that as antibiotics hadn’t worked that you were dealing with IC.

So it’s not stones or sludge. It’s not bacterial but also not IC.
Crystals can be painful though - although she is on good pain relief - as they can be the precursor to stones.
Are there a lot of crystals?
Have you asked the vet about flushinf the crystals out?

Is there a chance the diet is now too low in calcium? A diet too low can cause as many bladder issues as one too high.

I'm just thinking out loud really - the fact stones, bacteria and IC are all rules out doesn’t leave much left I shouldn’t think
 
Piggies&buns said:
Oh right, I assumed that as antibiotics hadn’t worked that you were dealing with IC.

So it’s not stones or sludge. It’s not bacterial but also not IC.
Crystals can be painful though - although she is on good pain relief - as they can be the precursor to stones.
Are there a lot of crystals?
Have you asked the vet about flushinf the crystals out?

Is there a chance the diet is now too low in calcium? A diet too low can cause as many bladder issues as one too high.

I'm just thinking out loud really - the fact stones, bacteria and IC are all rules out doesn’t leave much left I shouldn’t think
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Can it be IC even if bladder lining looks okay on scans?

I'm not sure how many crystals, nothing has shown up on scans which makes me think not that much.

Yes, I think her diet is too low in calcium. But everytime I try and change it she gets worse. She has round lettuce, green pepper, mini cucumber in the morning. And then romaine lettuce, red pepper and mini cucumber at tea. And then some more normal cucumber at dinner. They have mainly Timothy hay, with some meadow. And about a teaspoon of pellets a day was about a tablespoon but stopped it- seemed to make a massive difference for three days and we reduced gabapentin down to 0.2ml twice day instead of 0.3ml twice a day incase its doing long term issues. And then her squeaking got significantly worse on a lower dose.

I've tried to introduce corinador but she seemed to react but maybe I should try again
 
This sounds exactly how my boy is. He sounds like this when his sterile IC flares up. His had antibiotics, x rays and urine tests. After all clear his been diagnosed with sterile IC. His flares are due to stress, changes in environment when going outside in his pen. And his bladder wall is slightly inflamed. We have managing this for 3 years. He has no root vegetables. Only peppers, lettuce, grass, sweet corn, basil, cucumber and celery, long green beans and chicory . Cabbage once a week for magnesium. His had catrophen injections but the last course didn’t help. When he has flares he is on one capsule twice a day for three days of Felieway cystease mixed with water and then I reduce this to half a capsule twice daily everyday. His on daily of 0.6 mls of dog metacam twice daily. And twice daily of potassium citrate to reduce the acid in his wee. Also prebiotic to help with stress. This is helping. I would ask your vet if you could try this medication? The glucosamine feliway cystease takes about a month to work as it coats the bladder wall. Hope this helps. And your vet can help too.
 
No vegetables high in calcium. Sterile IC can only be managed. It may go for 2 years then it can come back again. My boy still cry’s. When weeing but is still pop Corning and enjoying life.
 
Snowflake said:
This sounds exactly how my boy is. He sounds like this when his sterile IC flares up. His had antibiotics, x rays and urine tests. After all clear his been diagnosed with sterile IC. His flares are due to stress, changes in environment when going outside in his pen. And his bladder wall is slightly inflamed. We have managing this for 3 years. He has no root vegetables. Only peppers, lettuce, grass, sweet corn, basil, cucumber and celery, long green beans and chicory . Cabbage once a week for magnesium. His had catrophen injections but the last course didn’t help. When he has flares he is on one capsule twice a day for three days of Felieway cystease mixed with water and then I reduce this to half a capsule twice daily everyday. His on daily of 0.6 mls of dog metacam twice daily. And twice daily of potassium citrate to reduce the acid in his wee. Also prebiotic to help with stress. This is helping. I would ask your vet if you could try this medication? The glucosamine feliway cystease takes about a month to work as it coats the bladder wall. Hope this helps. And your vet can help too.
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Thank you. Nancy has a capsule of feliway cystease once a day. She's been on cystease since April. It stops the bleeding but not the pain. Does yours have pain without blood too? I would love to try cartrophen. Do you think potassium citrate helps?

I think Nancy reacts to sweetcorn. She's also on no high calcium veg.
 
Lucy3733 said:
Thank you. Nancy has a capsule of feliway cystease once a day. She's been on cystease since April. It stops the bleeding but not the pain. Does yours have pain without blood too? I would love to try cartrophen. Do you think potassium citrate helps?

I think Nancy reacts to sweetcorn. She's also on no high calcium veg.
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Grains such as sweet corn are best avoided (and even for non bladder piggies, kept to a minimum)
 
Lucy3733 said:
Thank you. Nancy has a capsule of feliway cystease once a day. She's been on cystease since April. It stops the bleeding but not the pain. Does yours have pain without blood too? I would love to try cartrophen. Do you think potassium citrate helps?

I think Nancy reacts to sweetcorn. She's also on no high calcium veg.
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Yes my boy still cries when passing urine. But not all the time. Potassium citrate makes the urine less acidy. It has helped him. But ask your vet first if she can have it. I get mine from the chemist as cheaper. My boy has had this for 3 years . With IC there is really no cure. It’s a case of managing it.
 
Snowflake said:
Yes my boy still cries when passing urine. But not all the time. Potassium citrate makes the urine less acidy. It has helped him. But ask your vet first if she can have it. I get mine from the chemist as cheaper. My boy has had this for 3 years . With IC there is really no cure. It’s a case of managing it.
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We are going to try cartrophen in hopes it helps
 
Nancy isn't doing well. I don't know what to do with her. She seemed to improve while on cartrophen for only for some of the week. She had a dose once a week for 4 weeks. But after 4th injection she was only okay for about 40 hours before starting squeaking again. I do question if hormones could make it worse as she has cysts and high estrogen are known to cause inflammation in the bladder. But then is it ethical to have her spayed. Should I be putting her to sleep 😭. But i saw some improvement on the weeks we did cartrophen but it didn't work. She eats and drinks etc. But she's in pain when she wees.
 
Have you tried increasing the Feliway capsules to 1 twice a day for 2 days then decrease to half again?
You could ask your vet to refer you to a specialist. Also I would ask vet for another x ray to see if bladder stones have developed ? As a specialist said to my vet that sterile IC can lead to stones which it did with my first boy with sterile IC. My boy when he was bad had 0.8mls of metacam twice daily. And 3 times a day had calpol 0.18 mls. Which helps with pain. But please discuss this with your vet first. My vet said that he could go a higher level of metacam if needed and calpol helps with pain. Hope she gets better or at least you can manage the pain control. She also may need a bladder flush in case she has sludge in bladder.
 
Snowflake said:
Have you tried increasing the Feliway capsules to 1 twice a day for 2 days then decrease to half again?
You could ask your vet to refer you to a specialist. Also I would ask vet for another x ray to see if bladder stones have developed ? As a specialist said to my vet that sterile IC can lead to stones which it did with my first boy with sterile IC. My boy when he was bad had 0.8mls of metacam twice daily. And 3 times a day had calpol 0.18 mls. Which helps with pain. But please discuss this with your vet first. My vet said that he could go a higher level of metacam if needed and calpol helps with pain. Hope she gets better or at least you can manage the pain control. She also may need a bladder flush in case she has sludge in bladder.
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Thank you. She is seeing a vet recommended on here, and she's very good. Nancy has had one of her ovaries out yesterday as she has cysts. In hopes that it helps
 
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