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2nd Bladder Stone In Guinea Pig

H

Heytayhey

Junior Guinea Pig
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So late May my guinea pig got diagnosed with a bladder stone. We went through and had him have surgery to get it removed. Everything went smoothly and he ate and drank fine. Just last night I noticed him hunching his back and squeaking trying to pee. This morning there was blood in his urine so we took him to the place who did his surgery and sure enough he had 2 new bladder stones. The vets there don’t have much knowledge with guinea pigs and we never were told that his diet could be a huge factor in the bladder stone. I also didn’t know that it is common for them to come back with weeks of surgery. My question is what is a good diet I can get him on? I had a poor diet for him unknowingly of Timothy hay, store bought mixed pellets, and one leaf of romaine lettuce. I didn’t change it up post operation and have a feeling that this could have been a big factor to it all.
 
@Heytayhey My Anselmo had two bladder stone surgeries.

Afterwards we cut out all calcium rich vegetables, stopped feeding any pellets, increased his water intake, added in some supplements and medicine after discussion with my vet and increased his exercise.
 
Jaycey said:
@Heytayhey My Anselmo had two bladder stone surgeries.

Afterwards we cut out all calcium rich vegetables, stopped feeding any pellets, increased his water intake, added in some supplements and medicine after discussion with my vet and increased his exercise.
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Did he end up getting any more bladder stones after that?
 
Heytayhey said:
We have one of those water tanks in my house that makes it purified. Would that be the same thing as something you would put on your water spout?
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Hi! it depends on what you put on a water spout; it should filter out calcium and minerals.

Most of the high calcium that comes with the guinea pig diet is from hard water and pellets high in calcium/overfeeding pellets. too much calcium rich veg is the third area. Guinea pigs have a naturally very alkaline urine, which makes them prone to bladder stones and urinary tract infections.

You can find dietary recommendations for guinea pigs with urinary tract problems in our diet guide.
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

I would also strongly recommend to include a glucosamine based cat food supplement like cystease into any treatment as it strengthens the natural glucosamine coat of the bladder, which after two stones must be rather battered! It is NOT a medication and easily available online.

Here are our post-op care tips: Tips For Post-operative Care

Calcium absorption is a complex process; a lot can go wrong and not everything can be addressed if it is a genetic issue. But in most cases we can massively reduce the occurrance of stones by a carefully balanced diet of either filtered or low calcium bottled water, low/no calcium pellets (1 tablespoon per piggy day) and a few carefully selected veg.
 
Heytayhey said:
Did he end up getting any more bladder stones after that?
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Nope. He was quite old when he had his first stone, around 5 and he lived for just over 2 more years after his second surgery.

Changing his diet and adding in the supplements and medication made a massive difference to him.
 
Jaycey said:
Nope. He was quite old when he had his first stone, around 5 and he lived for just over 2 more years after his second surgery.

Changing his diet and adding in the supplements and medication made a massive difference to him.
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I really hope the same can happen for my Tuck! He barely turned 2 and the vet basically told us that there is no point to do the surgery because it’s inevitable for this to come back in another month. You can probably guess how upset that made me. I am a first time guinea pig mom with the 3 I have and didn’t realize how much is needed for them. I’m willing to do anything for him though.
 
Heytayhey said:
I really hope the same can happen for my Tuck! He barely turned 2 and the vet basically told us that there is no point to do the surgery because it’s inevitable for this to come back in another month. You can probably guess how upset that made me. I am a first time guinea pig mom with the 3 I have and didn’t realize how much is needed for them. I’m willing to do anything for him though.
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Heytayhey said:
I really hope the same can happen for my Tuck! He barely turned 2 and the vet basically told us that there is no point to do the surgery because it’s inevitable for this to come back in another month. You can probably guess how upset that made me. I am a first time guinea pig mom with the 3 I have and didn’t realize how much is needed for them. I’m willing to do anything for him though.
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Jaycey said:
Nope. He was quite old when he had his first stone, around 5 and he lived for just over 2 more years after his second surgery.

Changing his diet and adding in the supplements and medication made a massive difference to him.
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Also what supplements and medications did you end up using?
 
Heytayhey said:
I really hope the same can happen for my Tuck! He barely turned 2 and the vet basically told us that there is no point to do the surgery because it’s inevitable for this to come back in another month. You can probably guess how upset that made me. I am a first time guinea pig mom with the 3 I have and didn’t realize how much is needed for them. I’m willing to do anything for him though.
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The vet I used was also very negative about Anselmo's future. But I wanted to give him the best chance I could. So I changed his diet and found a new vet who was willing to try things too and it worked. Other than him getting a bit grumpy over his limited selection of veg he was a happy healthy pig!
 
Heytayhey said:
Also what supplements and medications did you end up using?
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He was on a cystitis/glucosamine supplement for cats. The most common one is Cystease, but he had the cheaper Cystassist.

He also had a small dose of Potassium Citrate as we'd read that it can bind with calcium. My vet was skeptical of it being of any use as the dose would have to be massive to have any effect but that would causs serious problems. But the dose he was on wouldn't harm so we kept him on it.

He also had a diuretic called Bendrofluazide. He was a test case for it really as I'd heard that it had had great results for other species. It's impossible to tell if it was stopping stones forming but it seemed to be helping with his calcium deposits.
 
Welcome to the forum
Hope you can get your boy’s issue sorted - it’s worrying when one of our piggies is ill
 
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