White powdery pee

[Charlotte4016]

My 4 year old guinea pig had a very large cyst removed over 2 weeks ago. He has recovered amazingly and was back to his normal self. However over the past 3 days he has been crying and leaving white powder after he has had a wee. We have reduced his calcium intake a lot and only giving him a small amount of red pepper a day.
However he is still crying and I don’t want him to be in pain. He is still eating and drinking fine. Has anyone experienced this before or have any suggestions?

 

[Piggies&buns]

Leaving white powder is excess calcium. Giving normal veggies/wet diet so the bladder is flushed is a good idea (you don’t need to restrict to just red pepper) but ensuring pellets are low calcium and kept limited (one tablespoon), drinking water is filtered (pellets and water can contribute most calcium to the diet) and that high calcium veg (kale, spinach, parsley) is kept limited (No more than once per week).
It takes several weeks for diet changes to have an effect on the calcium levels.
If he is in pain then he needs to see a vet.

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

 

[Charlotte4016]

Thank you I will get him some cucumber now. He has only just got over major surgery and multiple antibiotics and painkillers. I don’t want to put his body under any more stress. I will keep an eye on him tonight and see if there is any improvements. Thank you

 

[Siikibam]

Don’t wait too long if he’s squeaking while toileting. Pepper isn’t high in calcium - it’s actually one of the veg that can be fed daily - but it contains a good amount of vitamin c.

 

[Charlotte4016]

Should carry on with a reduced calcium in his diet or take him back to his old diet? As online it said that the white powder is due to the excess calcium

 

[Piggies&buns]

What was his old diet?
He can be fed normal daily veggies - lettuce, coriander, cucumber, peppers - anyway. You just need to keep pellets limited, water filtered and high calcium veg limited (which is the recommended diet for any piggies anyway - there can need to be other tweaks for some bladder piggies, depending on what their bladder issue is)

As I said, it takes weeks for diet changes to have an effect, so changing his diet is not going to make any improvement for quite some time and he is already experiencing pain so he does need to be seen. if are any issues with his bladder already, then diet changes won’t make any difference to that (it will only go towards preventing future problems) - but as he is in pain, then he needs to be seen by a vet to check the bladder (check there aren’t already stones/sludge and infection)/give pain relief

 

[Charlotte4016]

We have just slightly reduced his pellets and stopped celery which is his favourite. Okay thank you I will book him in for tomorrow

 

[Piggies&buns]

Keeping pellets limited to one tablespoon is best, as well as checking the pellets you use are as a low in calcium as possible and don’t contain alfalfa (which is high calcium) (although even the grain free/low calcium pellets (science selective grain free) still contain a lot of calcium hence the importance of keeping them limited)
Giving a wet leafy diet with herbs (not parsley as it is high calcium) is a good idea so the bladder is flushed through.
Let us know how things go at the vet

The guide I linked in in my previous reply is useful for a sample plate as well as managing the diet if your piggy is going to have bladder problems

 

[Free Ranger]

Where was the cyst - was it anywhere near his urinary tract? Or somewhere unrelated.

Is he peeing large amounts at one go or just dribbles... and is he wet round the bits as if he's dripping all the time? Usually they stay dry round here.
Also is he pooping normally or is he looking in pain and crying when he poops too. It can be hard to tell if they do both at the same time I know. If his urinary tract is inflamed it sometimes hurts to poop as the poop has to squeeze past everything.

It is worth getting metacam painkiller/anti-inflam. for him even if it is nothing more than him trying to clear some sludge from his tubes. If it hurts to pee they try and hold things in sometimes but you want everything to be flushing through and not hanging about.

Celery is a funny one. I had a girl with a stone once which she had to have removed, and the vet just asked if there was anything she ate lots of and that was celery. At that time I was filling the pellet bowl so it might have been nothing to do with it. But that vet had a pig with a stone and she'd been suspicious about celery too - but we've no evidence, it's all speculation. To this day I give celery but only a few thin slices and usually only once a week. Most of my pigs are adults when I get them so you don't know what's happened before they arrived anyway! But we're fans of pepper and have a good chunk every day. And cucumber is also popular!

 

[Charlotte4016]

One vet said it was a cyst one said it was a tumour however it was very large and infected so we had it removed straight away. No it was near his leg and has healed amazingly and he went back to his normal self very quickly. He wet around the bits last week however we thought that was due to all the medication he was on, but that has stopped now. He is pooing fine and sometimes large amounts of wee sometimes a dribble it’s hard to tell as he has been held a lot today. He became so skinny before his operation so we tired to increase his weight to help him through the op and after the op we also increased his food as he was very skinny due to the lump. Yes we have stopped the celery for now even though it is his favourite. He loves to eat and is a very chatty pig and extremely tame due to the amount he has been held before his op to keep him comfy and calm. We can’t tell if it is his wee hurting or poo the only indication was the white powder he has left

 

[Charlotte4016]

He is booked in for 9am tomorrow! He had a low chance of coming through the last op so have been so happy to have him back. Just hoping this can be cleared up quickly so he doesn’t have to be in pain bless him

 

[sport_billy]

Urinary tract infections or stones can present the same way, crying when weeing or pooing or signs of blood. Definitely needs checking out.

Wee coming out is good as if a stone was blocking there would be no wee and it would be an emergency.

I would ask for a scan and a good examination to check for bladder stones, and if a UTI be expecting an antibiotic like Septrin and Metacam for pain relief/inflammation

Please let us know how your handsome little chap gets on. Sending healing vibes and good luck tomorrow x

 

[Charlotte4016]

There has been no sign of bloody so just hoping it’s not stones as I don’t know if his little body can take anymore. He has gone through so much I just want him to recover quickly and go back to his normal happy self. He’s been on two lots of antibiotics already for a very long time so I’m unsure if they would give him more. And I don’t think they would operate on him again as he has only just got over such a big one. Thank you so much!

 

[Free Ranger]

It might just be something in how his body reacted to his other issues - I would be hoping it can clear itself out with painkiller to help him pee easily.

I wonder if you could get a bit of a urine sample before you go in tomorrow? Not sure what you could put in in to take... a little pot? Or wash out an old syringe? I got one from George by putting him in a washing up bowl with some lettuce, covering him up with a tea towel and waiting 20 minutes! But we had a plastic vial and pipette left over from a year back when I was trying to get one from another piggy. It would mean an early start but it would help them a lot.

One of my sows once had a fluid injection just under the skin on her back to make her pee. It was between 5 and 10 ml of fluid so it made a massive lump, poor girl. She also had an injection of an opioid painkiller that stoned her completely - seriously, she was like the walking dead. I don't think it was a good experience, but she peed an absolute ton while she was out of it because the fluid absorbs into the body and passes out naturally. I've never had any of these 'bladder flush' that people have mentioned for sludge so I can't comment on how they do them or how effective they are but once my girl had come round - which took a few hours of awful nerves on my part - she seemed back to normal, if a bit confused, and started eating again. I chose not to repeat it and her next x-ray was clear (something small and stone-like had showed up before).

Good luck at the vet x

 

[Charlotte4016]

Just got back from the vet, they found tiny crystals in his urine so he’s on a painkiller and the vet is going to give me a call later once he’s done some more research to see if there’s anything else they can do for him to help them pass and reduce them forming a stone but he is happy eating cucumber Right now and having some cuddles

 

[sport_billy]

Thanks for the update, the painkiller will make him more comfortable. Maybe a ultrasound at some point or xray to check for stones, no obvious ones is a good sign though as is no blood.

 

[sport_billy]

what is his name?

 

[Charlotte4016]

Unfortunately we have now noticed some weak bloody discharge coming from his nipple when cutting his nails so have just booked an appointment at the vets. Hoping it’s just an infection as he has been to the vets so much recently and held so much we would have noticed it if it had been there a while

 

[Free Ranger]

Aah I'm so sorry about this - he's really going through the wars. He's lucky he has such caring and observant owners looking after him. This is not something I have ever seen so I can't offer anything but sympathy. At least he's got him painkiller from the last visit. Good luck you brave boy

 

[Charlotte4016]

Thank you so much! He has received lots of cuddles today and is now eating a pile of grass with his brother The lump hasn’t got any bigger and has not leaked anymore blood so that’s a good start I suppose