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4 year old pigs with no bladder problems, if you have one open this thread! :)

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Pebble said:
in the mean time can I please ask anyone posting about their[*] boars[/*] on this thread to

a) indicate if they are fed filtered or tap water...and the geographic location by first half of postcode only (I can check for hardness of tap water levels from this)
ALSO
b )indicate if and when they were neutered....as this could be VERY important for certain types of boar condition associated with urinary issues.
c) please be accurate about the veggies...I have some pigs who are denied veggies because of thier urinary condition...the most important thing here is accuracy so we can be comfortable that the info we have is valid......
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3 boars here, all neutered.

Boxy and Big Dave - 3 and a half to 4 years old (had these in my care for 2 and a half years) and Jeff is about 3 (rescued about 9 months ago).

Boxy - Neutered before I got him, apparently at about 1 year old
Big Dave - Neutered 2 and a half years ago when I got him
Jeff - Neutered 9 months ago when I got him

My boars have always been drinking tap water (with me and I assume their time before me - they certainly didn't come from the kind of people who would filter their water!), until about a month ago, when I switched to filtered.

Post code areas they have lived in - Big Dave and Boxy originally came from BS23, not sure about Jeff but he was local to Bristol (BS1-BS9). Since in my care, all boars have been living at BS6 and BS8.
 
I feed my piggies burgess excell, farm hay, whatever veg is in season and lots of greens (grass, hazel, clovers, cleavers etc) and not had problems :D they get loads of farm hay too

but, until a while ago I was feeding gerty guinea pig, and I did have a lots more problems, and 2 who had cystitis (cleared up with drugs and when I swapped to burgess!) pow-pow
 
My piggies are all too young to be included in this but wanted to say what a great thread this is and will also be keeping a close eye on it :)
 
we have pepper an unneuterd boar, 5 in march, no bladder probs, given tap water, does drink a lot now he is older, he is fed nuggets excel at the moment but that does change to other brands, his veg is usually some sort if greens everyday (spring greens, curly kale cauli leaves ) some type of fruit (apple plum pear grape occasionlly melon) pepper 3 times a week, carrot every other day, cucumber 2 or three times a week broccoli celery most days x parsley coriander other herbs two/ three times a week
 
I have had Guinea Pigs for 8 years now, up to 6 at some times. I never had any bladder problems, may be good luck or diet. This is what they usually get daily lots lots of hay, grass (or readygrass in winter), carrot, cucumber, spring greens, kale, leafy greens, 1 cherry tomato for Milly my senior piggy, and everything that is left over from our own veg or salad dishes. Milly is over 7 years and drinks very much but she is fine otherwise. They get burgess Excell with Blackcurrant &Oregano or Bunny nature Guinea pig dream only twice a week, usually a handfull into their hay after I cleaned the cage - as a treat really. I always make sure they have fresh water every day. Good luck ;)
 
no known bladder probs here, speedo is approx 4.5yrs, drinks tap water, hay from a farm bale, egg cup full of spillars museli, veggies once a day of 6 slices of carrot, 5slices of cucumber, half a stick of celery, half a romaine leaf and a treat of either sliceof apple, broccoli or 6leavesof spinach. I have to be exact with so many piggies here.
 
Because we have so little available to treat guinea pgs, or even diagnose what the problem is, then it is very tempting to turn to diet as the panacea of all ills. I remain very unconvinced about all this stuff about calcium and phosphorus in various foods. It sounds like some very out of date stuff about what causes bladder/kidneys stones and what is necessary for bone health in humans that has since benn replaced with a robust evidence base.

Vegetables, in particular, are nearly all water and so their mineral content is unlikely to make any significant impact compared to the fortification of pellets. I use Burgess pellets, but I suspect there is even less regulation about the quality of materials used in animal feed than there is for humans.

Anyhow I try to do the following:

Most important is lots and lots a good quality meadow hay - keeps their teeth in good condition and prevents them getting too fat. Keeping a healthy weight is one of the most important thing in small animals or they get a range of health problems the same as us. (Please don't look at the pictures of Marmaduke at this point - he seems to be able to get fat on air).

As much time as possible out on the lawn in summer - grass is what they are designed to eat. But they need supervision because of foxes.

Fresh vegetables daily - a range of coloursvbut frequent dark green leafy veg which are high in phytonutrients etc.

Enough burgess pellets so that they last about 1/4 the day for healthy younger gps - the old girls are 6 and get a bit more.

Absolutely no crappy pet shop treats like seed sticks or yoghurt drops - full of sugar and too fattening. I do use things like the naturals range that are dried herbs though - dandelion delight is very popular - I sprinkle this and occasionally a small amount of coarse oats around the cage and they dig merrily all day for it.

As much exercise as is practical - again the evidence for physical fitness and health is overwhealming. This is easy in the summer, but less easy in the winter - two of mine will just sit in one place for half an hour out indoors.

Exposure to natural light - basically out in the lawn in summer. We also use a uv bulb in the rodent room. My vet recommends this for bone and teeth health.

No vitamin and mineral supplements - there's enough in the pellets and there is increasing evidence of problems caused by overdose. I am particularly concerned about the practice of big doses of vitamin c as it can cause stomach upsets and guinea pigs need a healthy gut flora.

Paula
 
I must say I am finding this thread very interesting- Paula, your light is this the same as the sad light?

I am currently working with my vet as I have a guinea pig that manu-factors crystals and currently has 3 small bladder stones which we are hoping to dissolve.
 
My guinea pig Jake is coming up to 4 years old (in March). Never had any bladder problems.

He is fed Gerty guinea pig once a day, hay that we get from the local farmer, has tap water, and veg such as carrots, celery, baby sweetcorn, odd grape, romaine lettuce etc

The only thing he does get is impaction.
 
I have one girl who's 4 1/2 and have had two other elderly piggies (don't know exact ages as they were rescued without complete documentation). None of them have had any bladder problems, thank god.

They get unlimited hay, a tablespoon of Oxbow Cavy Cuisine pellets a day each, lots of corn husk, quite a lot of capsicum, intermittently large amounts of kos lettuce (but not any more now that I've found out it's high in calcium), intermittently large amounts of banana skin (again, not any more since I've found out it's high in potassium), and small amounts of carrot and of all sorts of leafy greens.
 
Re: Pebbles Q's

Pebble said:
in the mean time can I please ask anyone posting about their
[*] boars[/*] on this thread to

a) indicate if they are fed filtered or tap water...and the geographic location by first half of postcode only (I can check for hardness of tap water levels from this)

They are only fed tap water - we are a ahrd water area (PE28)

b )indicate if and when they were neutered....as this could be VERY important for certain types of boar condition associated with urinary issues.

They are un-neutered.

c) please be accurate about the veggies...I have some pigs who are denied veggies because of thier urinary condition...the most important thing here is accuracy so we can be comfortable that the info we have is valid......

"fresh grass supplied daily. Rather than veg every day i try and do the majority of the week on fresh picked leaves, raspberry, srawberry, blackcurrant blackberry and apple leaf tends to make the staple, along with wild geranium as a treat when it's growing. Avoiding dandelion as it is a calcium rich plant, so i've read. Veg wise still on leafy greens like letuces and bell pepper. I try to only feed carrot,kale & spinache once every few weeks. "
Click to expand...
 
Now this is a very topical thread as I've just brought Dory home from the vets complete with pea size bladder stone. (will put a separate thread with amazing pics on).

I've never had a pig with bladder issues until now. I've had Dory for 1.5 years and he's 6 1/2 now, so I have no idea what his diet was before hand. Now I feed burgess excel pellets (bowl kept full so he can have as much as he wants). Hay hay hay, more recently from a farm but nice quality stuff. Always has hay. He gets veg once a day in the morning, cucumber slice, brocolli floret, bit of carrot, spring greeen leaf or celery generally. I live in GL51. He's given tap water and he's always drunk alot.

Other pigs that I've had however haven't had any bladder problems but then i've been living in DT4 and YO30. I'm wondering if it is something to do with water? My friend Sarah who lives in GL5 has had a couple of pigs now with bladder problems...

Perhaps we should set up a more scientific survey for this issue to try and get to the bottom of it? x
 
I have a question, floortime - pigs with bladder issues where does floortime happen?
 
Lisajazz said:
I have a question, floortime - pigs with bladder issues where does floortime happen?
Click to expand...

I honestly don't think floortime effects it but Patrick get's floor time in my bedroom on the wooden floor I put down a fleece and incontinence pad.
 
You're probably right - I was just thinking of germs rubbing against the privates of the pigs - maybe cleaners, that kind of thing.

But you're probably right probably a shot in the dark.
 
I've read all this with great interest and some trepidation - my lot at this time are only coming up to 1 & 2 years :...

I'm now glad I do feed the Meadow hay that smells great but is very stalky and yellow and the top quality "green" hay every other day.

Very slight possible factors:

I ONLY feed organic carrots - they are the one vegetable that has the most pesticides of all - I grew them on my allotment for 15 years and know what bothers them!

Also what do you wash your veggies and fruit in - or don't you bother? Pesticides may be another factor to add in to the survey.

I dare not say that none of my previous piggies ever had a bladder problem - for the fear that this lot will do - IFYKIM {:|

Jo x
 
Poppy 4 and a half - no problems, Annabelle 4 - no problems, Charlotte 3 and a half - has to be kept on a balanced diet and filtered water or she becomes sore round her bum. Charlotte has never developed stones or sludge despite having a noticeable white powdery build up round her bottom when the filter needs changing. Once this happens she can become very sore and needs cranberry juice every day and a dab of vaseline on her bum and it clears up.

Menu so far this week
For seven pigs, the quartet get a slightly bigger half than the trio.

1 orange pepper, 7 brussel sprouts, leftover heart of a little gem lettuce, 2-3 inches of cucumber, 1 large carrot, 3 savoy cabbage leaves, 3 sticks celery

1 green pepper, 2-3 inches of cucumber, leftover heart of celery, 7 round lettuce leaves, 5 savoy cabbage leaves.

1 red pepper, medium sized slice of swede, 2-3 inches of cucumber, 1 apple, 7 round lettuce leaves, two handfuls of kale.

It is not perfect but I try not to give too much high vit a like carrots and kale too close together and I try not to give too much dark green gassy veg each day, only one type or a little bit of two. I split up their teatime too, give them pepper, carrot, sprouts etc first because they don't like them so much, then cucumber, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce that they really like then whatever is high calcium. This prevents selective feeding and I know they have eaten all the lower calcium stuff not just filled up on kale and left the peppers. It also stops each pig from getting a different diet to the others because each one will pick something different first if all the food is given together.
 
Lisajazz said:
You're probably right - I was just thinking of germs rubbing against the privates of the pigs - maybe cleaners, that kind of thing.

But you're probably right probably a shot in the dark.
Click to expand...

I see where you're coming from .....I am actually starting to think that fleece is no good unless it is washed at 60deg C plus (preferably 90deg C) with an antibacterial disinfectant. The very fine fibres are a breeding ground for bacteria esepcially for our "low-slung" boars with their dirty bum-wiping habits.

I'm currently in the process of switching some of my problem pigs back to shavings overlaid with newspaper and hay

Go figure mallethead malletheadmallethead

x
 
After my pig Stripes had a bladder stone the vet and I did some research and put Stripes and his housemate Spike on the rate watchers diet and changed their pellets to Cavy Cuisine.

Stripes had a second stone a few months later and sadly didn't make it through the surgery. He was 2 1/2 when I adopted him and was only with me for a year so I don't know his history prior to this. Spike I've had since he was a baby and he is going to be 4 next month.

Not long after Stripes died Spike began squeaking when peeing so obviously my first worry was that he had a stone too. He was x-rayed and had an ultra sound straight away. There was no sign of any stones so he was treated with Baytril and Metacam. When this didn't work we switched to Septrin. 4 vets and 1 year later we were no closer to determining what the problem was or anything that helped. One vet even suggested it was behavioural! He didn't appear to respond to any antibiotics or pain medication. I tried cranberry juice, pearl barley, bottled water, filtered water, changed from washing powder to non bio liquid, everything I could think of. In the end Cystease was the only thing that seemed to take the edge off it for him. His squeaking never stopped but it wasn't so violent. Throughout this he'd always been active and had a good appetite so we came to the decision that we should not treat him any further with the assumption that at some point something would change, he'd either get better or there would be another sympton to give us a clue what was wrong.

I think it must be about 6 months ago I ran out of Cavy Cuisine and it was still two weeks til pay day, I was broke so I had to switch to Wagg Crunch as it was cheaper until I could afford to get some more. Spike stopped squeaking. I've never put him back on Cavy Cuisine, I've tried Excel, Science Selective and Wagg pellets and he squeaks when on all of them, the only thing he doesn't squeak with is the crunch muesli.

I told Jo (flinstones) about this discovery at the time but didn't post about it on the forum as I didn't want to scare all Cavy Cuisine feeders. Spike's housemate Bob had recurring UTIs and these also stopped. My other 2 pigs had never had problems and they had eaten exactly the same.

I do think Spike has a sensitivity to something in the pellet food which caused him problems which he was just passing back and forth to Bob rather than it being Cavy Cuisine in particular but it's certainly something to try changing for anyone who hasn't done already.
 
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