Update On Ben, Possible Bladder Problems (sorry Long Post)

[Piggiemum7]

Some of you have been helping me with my thread last week about Ben's breathing here.

Kind of keeping this as a sort of log for the past week...

• He's been having baytril, metacam, vit c supplements, probiotic and critical care recovery food.
• He was 1.2kg before and hit a low of 1.09 when the antibiotics gave his digestive system a knock, stopped eating (other than hay, spinach, fresh grass and celery and he's usually a massive piggy when it comes to veg but wouldn't touch anything else), pooping and drinking.
• Vet gave him rhinitodine (? i think) for his gut which helped him pass slimy wet poos not pellet shaped at all.
• He was very lethargic and wouldn't take much syringe feed, eventually we thought he wouldn't make it through the night.
• Did some reading and realised i needed to be giving him a lot more feed than I was so upped it to about 10ml every 3-4 hours (including 3am and 5am alarms -.-)
• He perked up the next day and then I went away for a week (got home today) have been receiving regular updates from mum.
• Since feeding every 3ish hours he's maintained his alertness and been active and the crackly noise has gone.
• I've come home and he seems almost back to his normal self, he now weighs 1.13 and is beginning to help himself to pellets and veg again, drinking lots and lots of water (with pro biotic + vit c supplements in) pooping proper pellets (darker than usual but better than nothing).
• 2 days ago mum finds a small gray stone in ben's cage and throws it away thinking it's a normal stone, the next day he pees bloody urine (which is still happening) so obviously he passed a small bladder stone, he's quite a big boy so thankfully he managed to pass it... would the blood be likely to continue this long after passing it or could there be more stones, (he's peeing full pees if that makes sense, not just tiny dribbles of pee like he's struggling to get it all out at once) he's had no signs of pain or tensing up when weeing like my rip piggy did when he had a bladder stone but he was definitely a runt pig and couldn't pass it himself. I would get another x ray but he had one just last week and everything seemed normal, although the focus was the lungs and not bladder area. Now his pees are blood tinged and drying white and crusty which I know is a sign of a high amount of calcium coming from the bladder, do you think this could be because he was fed a lot of spinach and celery last week (as it was all he would eat) as they are high in calcium, he doesn't like any low calcium veggies that we've tried him with like pepper.
• He's still on all meds and I'm worried that all the problems might come back when he's taken off them in a couple of days. Thinking of monitoring the blood situation and booking him in for a checkup on friday and seeing if the vet can feel any stones, can't really afford another x ray...

Any advice would be so helpful, thanks!

 

[Wiebke]

All the best for Friday! Please continue to weigh daily and to monitor him. Your vet may want to prolong the use of antibiotics in veiw of the new developments.

As to the bleeding/stone aspect:
- Please switch to syringing plenty of water (ideally up to 10-15 ml in one go, but that might be illusionary, so just try as much as he will take in one go, making sure that ever 0.5 ml have gone down safely before trying more). That will help to flush the bladder.
- Switch to a low calcium diet and filter the water. it is not just the calcium but also the minerals that can contribute to the build-up of stones. Filtering really seems to make a difference, according to a number of backfeeds.
- I would also recommend to additionally give cystease/cystophan or vegan/vegetarian glucosamine (the main active ingredient in the cystease etc.), which helps to rebuild and maintain the natural glucosamine coating of the bladder walls.
- Here are tips for a low calcium diet. We currently recommend to just follow the recommendations for the IC diet at the end, as it is balanced and tailored for guinea pigs with long term bladder issues.
Low Calcium Diet For Bladder Piggies

 

[Piggiemum7]

So the pee isn't as red as it was before however it's still pink. Also occasionally he does a really little wee and it dries crystallised with spots of blood. I know this is a sign of calcium in the bladder, I'll attach some photos. Should I have major concerns?

 

[TAN]

I have a pig who has had bladder stones and is currently being trialled on something called moduretic - which is a tablet used to help prevent the formation of bladder stones in humans - my vet has managed to get the instructions from the States to turn it into oral suspension form so it can be syringed fed to a piggy (0.2ml twicw a day)- he is also on 0.07ml of potassium citrate twice a day to make the urine less acid (I think that's what its for anyway) he is also on the cystophan in his water as Wiebke recommends - the modurectic is not expensive - cost me I think about £7 or £8 for a large bottle (10 tablets were ground down to make it from what I can see).
My vet is a piggy specialist who also has a herd of pigs of her own and is the official vet for Team GB's Dog agility team - she is more than happy to speak to other vets and give them the instructions to make up the moduretic - her name is Rachel Mowbray at Vale Vet referrals in Dursley - phone number of vets is 01453542092 - you can also go on their website and read her vet profile for further info - good luck with your piggy -

 

[Piggiemum7]

Hey! Thanks everyone for your helpful replies. We saw a different vet this time and she said he's recovered shockingly well from the suspected LRI and as he's already passed a stone (quite a big one at that, mum said it was about the size of a small pea!) there's hope that there are no more. Going to take in a urine sample and if the bleeding continues the vet was really up for doing another x ray or an ultrasound scan (all conscious of course) and if there is a stone he's quite a big and calm piggy so she said flushing it out through the urethra would be the first option (also conscious). He's been eating so well and is currently keeping me awake crunching away at pellets and drinking like he's never seen water before! He's almost finished his bottle just this evening?! I guess he knows he needs to flush out his bladder. Or he's doing it to tell us he doesn't want that syringe in his mouth! Has anyone ever had their piggies stones flushed out before?

 

[Piggiemum7]

Bit of an interesting turn of events...
Got a call from the vets saying the urine sample was almost clear of blood but it looked very red so the vet suggested it could be his diet, we have taken him off any red food and also have stopped his vitC and probiotic supplements. we ran out of baytril two days ago but he has just had a dose that we managed to pick up today. the funny thing is since stopping everything his crackly breathing and a snotty nose has started up again!?!?! I did some googling and found out that maybe lack of blood in his wee is because it might not have been blood after all, the probiotic he was on contained chlorophyll which can discolour the urine. also when he started vitC supplements his noise went away so I'm thinking maybe i should start up the vitC again but stay off the probiotic and continue monitoring his wee. one more thing is that his penis has become quite swollen/stretched looking (possibly from passing a stone? not sure) and the area above his genitals where the penis retracts to is pretty swollen too so he's been put back on metacam to hopefully sort that but no change yet other than the fact he was licking it like mad before and now he seems to be leaving it alone... all so very confusing! I have found an exotic vet in the area and sent them an email to see if they could advise my vet or maybe take a look at Ben. he's still maintaining 1.05 weight and is eating and drinking well, everyones a little bit baffled!