Variety of symptoms, any advice?

[Teema]

Hi everyone,

We adopted one of our girls Pipsqueak in the middle of October. When we resuced her from SSPCA, we were told she had never had a friend and when we picked her up she was living in a small-ish cage alone, her vet report described a leg injury which had now healed - we noticed she had a large pile of kale which she hadn’t touched.
We took her home and all went well bonding her with our girl Penny. For the first few days everything was fine, she was eating loads and drinking and as expected very shy. However as the first few days went on we realised she was squeaking (it sounded painful) when peeing. We immediately took her to our vet where they gave her an ultrasound and did something to make her ‘express’ urine, her ultrasound showed sludge in the bladder. We were prescribed metacam and the vet told us to keep feeding her lots of kale and spinach.
A few weeks later we are still having issues with Pipsqueak. We were back at the vet the other day and were given more metacam. She is still squeaking while peeing and has been this whole time, she trembles/shakes when being cuddled (even although she definitely enjoys a cuddle and often does the typical guinea pig ‘pancake’ position and loves getting chin scratches) I think the trembling is related to her trying to pass urine. When she does pee it is small amounts, and when we have been cleaning the cage the urine smell is extremely strong and causes the woodshavings to become brick hard sometimes (this has never happened previously with our other pigs and only since we got Pip). Lastly, we noticed when we got her her fur is quite thin and coarse, it has improved slightly but at her back end and up one side of her there is some very thin patches where you can see right through to her skin (I have only ever owned short haired pigs who have very soft, very thick dense hair so unsure if this is normal as have no experience of long haired pigs such as Pip).
Overall, a slightly thin coat which is coarse/rough to the touch underneath and at her back end, still squeaking while peeing (although she has managed some really big pees tonight whereas before it has been tiny dribbles) and the trembling which is almost constant when we are holding her and I doubt it is from fear as she is so relaxed with us, you can almost feel the shaking coming from her back end and feel her wee muscles squeezing/tensing. She tenses up so much when she pees. She eats and drinks plenty, loves her hay, we have been focussing on giving her peppers and cucumbers and avoiding high calcium veg such as kale and spinach (she LOVES kale and although the vet initially said to feed this, I’m worried it may have been the cause of all these bladder issues and online advice regarding bladder sludge states to avoid high calcium veg).
I just don’t know what to do, I feel like our vet isn’t sure what is actually wrong or how to help, we have spent £200 already in vet fees and only seeing absolutely tiny improvements. I just want her to be comfortable, very worried.
Thanks

 

[Teema]

@JoeSuff88

 

[Pound Shilling & Pig]

Hi, I am sorry you are having these issues.
Is there an other vet you can take her to for a second opinion? Some vets are much more knowledgeable about piggies than others.
In addition to the bladder sludge she could have a bacterial bladder infection which would require antibiotics to clear it up. From my experience the strong urine smell can be associated with this.
For a low calcium diet peppers, cucumber, romaine lettuce and coriander are the best veg to feed and nuggets should be limited to one tablespoon a day or less, or not fed at all. I no longer feed my boy Arthur any nuggets since he had a bladderstone removed 18 months ago.
Hair loss can be due to a number of things, a piggy savvy vet will be able to identify the cause. As she is a long haired piggy and the fur is feeling coarse underneath this could be where new fur is growing back.
The crying and muscle tensing when she wees is due to pain/discomfort but general trembling is not associated with this. Piggies tremble when being held and cuddled due to fear. Although she appears calm and stays still this is part of their fight/flight/freeze response, ie staying very still until the predator has gone away. Given she has had a bad start in life and a lot of change, this is not surprising. I would suggest cuddling her for shorter periods and giving her a little treat when you do, such as a bit of coriander to help her learn it is a positive experience. Stress can also be related to bladder issues so anything that helps minimise it can be of benefit.

 

[Teema]

Hi there, thank you so much for your reply. Although the vet we saw that day is a small animal vet, she contacted an exotic specialist for us.
I probably should have cleared up the trembling stops when she has mananged to pass urine which is why I believe it is only related to her straining to pass. She doesn’t remain frozen still when sat with us, she is relaxed and genuinely enjoys interaction, she moves around, gets fed when sat with us and often stretches out in the pancake position and has drifted off to sleep on us, she is confident in taking veg from our hands etc…her behaviour now is massively different to when she first arrived where she was constantly in hiding in the cage sitting still as a statue. It’s not an all over body vibration, it’s more at her back end (if you can imagine lifting something really really heavy and you feel your arm trembling? Same idea I think?). Once she has passed the trembling stops.
We are on a low calcium diet just now (although wasn’t sure about coriander? I have heard mixed reviews about this being high/low in calcium so just omitted it completely for now), exactly as you said she has been having peppers, cucumbers and romaine, just hope she doesn’t get fed up with this as it has been a couple weeks now of this same veg.
She gets Timothy Hay from the Haybox and Burgess dry food, if we switch to a low calcium dry food (any suggestions?) I worry about how this may impact my other or would it be okay as they are still on their normal diet and getting their other veg such as kale and spinach.
Thanks for the advice and the advice about her lovely coat, I don’t see her grooming herself as much as my other two girls so just want to make sure we keep it in good condition and it’s not a sign of any other health related problems.
Can’t think of anything specific that could be causing stress, they have a 5x3 C&C cage, plenty of hideys, blankets, tunnels, good quality hay, she has a good bond with her sisters and we have a very quiet life, no excess noise near them or anything like that, it is just me and my fiancé. (The only excess noise is her sister Penny screaming for food at 6am in the morning waking up the entire house!)
We are going to get her back into the vet before Christmas but just wanted to see if anybody had any ideas so thanks for the info, might have to go down the route of Baytril in that case, glad to know the coat could be new fur growing in (I did have to cut out a piece of matted fur when she first arrived). We are hoping to get her booked in at Ayr Guinea Pig Rescue for a grooming session, I do feel she needs a wee bath and trim/tidy up (I understand there is little need to bathe pigs, I have never bathed any of my others but just feel around her back end and with the urine smell being quite strong she could do with a freshen up) but this is something I want to leave until she is better as don’t want to cause her any stress.
Thanks so much x

 

[Teema]

**
After checking the comparison chart, I wonder if we should switch to Selective Naturals Grain Free? Seems to be the lowest calcium content and made with Timothy Hay which the girls get anyway.

 

[Pound Shilling & Pig]

Thank you for explaining more about the trembling, she sounds like a happy piggy.
Even low calorie nuggets are high in calcium compared to high calcium veg and should still only be fed in very small amounts. I personally only feed nuggets to all my pigs twice a week and to Arthur who had the bladder stone, not at all but I give him one Oxbow urinary support biscuit once a day (and he is on long term daily metacam and potassium citrate as per my vets instruction). Feeding less nuggets enables me to feed more veg while hay remains the bulk of their diet. A wetter diet is helpful for pigs with bladder issues (and can help prevent them in the first place)
Unfortunetly there is a lot still unknown about causes of bladder issues and the best way to proceed. Too little calcium in the diet can also result in bladder issues. I still give Arthur small amounts of higher calcium veg a couple of times a week as they contain other important nutrients.

 

[Teema]

I realise how that sounded now as though my poor wee pig is shaking in fear and we’re just ignoring her like ‘you love a cuddle!’ Ha ha. But yeah she definitely stops as soon as she’s passed, we try to get her to do wee on a blanket with us so we can look at it (don’t you just love being a pig parent!?) but nothing seems to be drying white, sometimes a little bit but not much, she managed to do two really big pees last night, definitely not a dribble like she has been doing so that was a bit of a relief.
Arthur, what a sweet name! I had no idea about the urinary support biscuit so we will definitely get some of those, as you mentioned with your Arthur my real concern was bladder stones but the vet said definitely none after she ran some tests of her urine and completed the ultrasound. I think we will switch to a lower calcium pellet in that case and reduce her pellet intake and increase the peppers/cucumber/romaine (good thing is her poos look really healthy, was worried she would start getting diarrhoea but all good at the moment).
How do you feel Arthur is now? Is this something that will be for life or just temporary? I know some pigs are prone to bladder problems as you say so just want to prepare for the future with Pipsqueak and make sure we are consistent with treatment.
Thanks so much again you’ve gave us some really good info especially about pellets and the little biscuit will need to place an order for those - I have never had pigs with bladder issues at all, only respiratory in the past so this is really new to us. Generally speaking she seems happy enough, she likes the company of her sisters, she gets excited for her veg and even more so her hay, she does sleep a lot but I’m not sure if this is because of her Metacam or if she’s just lazy, we’re still getting to know her as she’s only been with us around six weeks now.
Thanks again so much for taking the time to reply and give us some really good advice xx