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Ruby - lots of questions r.e. cystitis, ovarian cysts

Pantalaimon said:
Ok thank you. I will stop with the mange tout.

I don’t give much more than a tablespoon of pellets each time, I just measure it with my hand. I have been cautious with suddenly reducing the quantity of pellets as at the rescue they just had a big bin of different types mixed together (whatever had been donated) and they got a decent scoop.

I will increase her cystease then if that is ok to do.
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Never worry about being cautious reducing pellets - they are the one part of the diet they actually don’t need at all and if they are being over fed the best thing you can do is reduce them.
Because most calcium comes into the diet via pellets there is never any benefit (only risks) with to giving more than necessary
 
Piggies&buns said:
Never worry about being cautious reducing pellets - they are the one part of the diet they actually don’t need at all and if they are being over fed the best thing you can do is reduce them.
Because most calcium comes into the diet via pellets there is never any benefit (only risks) with to giving more than necessary
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My concern was with the fact that she was already skeletal and I couldn’t risk reducing something that would be a large part of keeping her skeletal rather than dead. Now she has had the cysts removed the pellet quantity will go down.

I was a bit confused as I thought that the pellet calcium thing was a general thing bust most important for those with sludge or stones. She has cystitis which I didn’t think was related to calcium?
 
Pantalaimon said:
My concern was with the fact that she was already skeletal and I couldn’t risk reducing something that would be a large part of keeping her skeletal rather than dead. Now she has had the cysts removed the pellet quantity will go down.

I was a bit confused as I thought that the pellet calcium thing was a general thing bust most important for those with sludge or stones. She has cystitis which I didn’t think was related to calcium?
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Ok yes I can see your concern - the diet should never be a large part pellets but If she had not come from a balanced diet then I can see your concern.

You need to be very careful with calcium and oxalates for any piggy but you don’t want to risk anything to further make things worse for an already irritated bladder.
 
Piggies&buns said:
Ok yes I can see your concern - the diet should never be a large part pellets but If she had not come from a balanced diet then I can see your concern.

You need to be very careful with calcium and oxalates for any piggy but you don’t want to risk anything to further make things worse for an already irritated bladder.
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That makes sense then. I will continue to reduce her pellets. I’ve done a low calcium diet for the last four years or so because my pig who died at the beginning of the year had issues with sludgy wee. It never got worse than little powder blobs on the fleeces as I changed her diet in response. I have then just never given Pat a normal diet because he always had a low calcium one, so I would be cautious to suddenly introduce it later in life.

I’m lucky that here in Cornwall the water is possibly the softest in the country. So no filtering!
 
Just taken Ruby to her post-op check with a nurse. They did an ultrasound and it turns out that her strange side bulge was caused by the stitches/glue on the internal muscle breaking open and her intestines sticking through.

She’s still there now and they are rearranging their whole evening to do emergency surgery. I am veeeery anxious about her being operated on by a different vet but it needs to be done. So I will just sit at home and attempt to distract myself for the next few hours!
 
Thank you so much to all the support from people on here.

Just got Ruby home. They put her under, opened her side up and found that there was no hernia. The muscle wall was very thin and stretched due to surgery (I also suspect she may have had a litter or more in the past as she has very long nipples (sounds strange I know!)). They have then sewn her back up again, very messily and put her on antibiotics.

Her hair is covered in something crusty, she is quite scared and the new set of stitches is really messy. It is lumpy and there is a lot of excess glue.

I am very glad she didn’t have a hernia, but absolutely furious with this vet for putting her through this. I truly believe that if she had been seen by our usual vet (exotics veg with plenty of guinea pig experience) she would not have been out through this.
 
Poor Ruby, she’s been through quite an ordeal, hope she make a good recovery now 🤞
 
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