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Anxious Mess - IC or Stone

A

AnxiousPigOwner

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hi Everyone

New here - apologies if I am posting incorrectly.

I have a guniea pig who is 6yrs 8 months old.
She has had Sterile IC for a while now (maybe 2yrs). Squeaky wees etc are the norm for her.

She sadly lost her sister earlier this year after a 2nd stone removal surgery. This broke me and I feel like I have some PTSD from it. Since the I have been hyper vigilant.

In October my IC pig had what I assume is a major flare. Squeaking, back arching each time she did a wee. Around this time we had introduced a new veggie to her diet which she loved but assumed it was the change in diet that upset her. I increased her metacam and glucosamine and after about 10 days I saw an improvement and she seemed back to her "normal self", but because of the trauma of losing her sister earlier in the year I started collecting wee samples from her in the morning and evening, measuring the output and making notes on the amount she would squeak. For about a month we had a pretty good run, up until the past few days, her evening Output has be smaller but her morning Output has been normal and no squeaking. This morning is where it changed.
When she was out for her breakfast floor time it took 55 minutes for her to do her first wee which was a small Output, she over the course of the next hour she did 2 more small wees. In-between these wees it looked as though she was straining and lifting her bottom but nothing was coming out. There wasn't any squeaking.

She's eating and popping okay and her weight is stable and I have been offering her water from a syringe and letting her take what she wants to try to dilute her wee.

I put her back in her cage as she had been out a while and didnt want to stress her out and she did a bigger wee straight away, no straining, good flow, no squeaking.

I am terrified she has a stone. A part of me wants to get her xrayed/scanned, but don't want to put her through the stress if it is IC and not a stone as a trip to the vets really triggers her. If I do take her, and it is a stone, we have already decided as a family that we wouldn't put her through surgery because we just know she wouldn't cope well and it would be unfair.

I just don't know what to do, I am a mess, had a breakdown this morning and couldn't stop crying.

When she has an IC flare her wees are a bit stop start, sometimes with bum lifts and sometimes with straining, so it is normal for her to do this, but not normal for her to do this with nothing come out at all. But then she went and did a smooth flowing big wee when she went back to her cage.

There hasn't been any blood.
She purrs when being fussed.
Still eating
Pooping
Seeks out fusses.

For the most part she seems comfortable but occasionally she'll do the squinty eye thing which suggests discomfort.

Her sister had 3 stones in 3 years. 1st one she managed to pass with some help. 2nd two she had surgery for.

My IC pig last had an ultrasound in August and there wasn't any sign of stones then and *touch wood* she has never had one.

Sorry for the massive wall of text.

What are people's thoughts- do I sound crazy and over reacting and that this seems like typical IC or do you think I should be concerned about stones?

If you are interested this is the log for the past 5 days (she obviously wees more than this, these are just the ones I recorded)

10/12/2025
Weight- 1092
AM wee 1 - 2.5ml (no squeaking)
AM wee 2 - 2.3ml
PM wee 1 - 2.1ml (squeaked 3 times)
PM wee 2 - 0.5 (squeaked throughout) + 0.7ml (squeaking throughout)
Recorded a wee at 2:30am on 11/12/2025 - 2.2ml, no squeaking but there was some teeth chattering before hand.

11/12/2025
Weight - 1094
AM wee 1 - 2.9ml (no squeaking)
AM wee 2 - 3.2ml (no squeaking)
PM wee 1 - 1ml (no squeaking)
PM wee 2 - 0.8ml (squeaking)
PM wee 3 - 2.2ml (quiet squeaks)

12/12/2025
Weight - 1085
AM wee 1 - 1.4ml (no squeaking)
AM wee 2 - 2.5ml (no squeaking)
AM wee 3 - 1ml (no squeaking)
Mid morning wee 1 - 2.7ml (no squeaking)
PM wee 1 -1ml (no squeaking)
PM wee 2 - 1.1ml (no squeaking)
PM wee 3 - 1.1ml (no squeaking)
PM wee 4 - 1.2ml (no squeaking)

13/12/2025
Weight - 1077
AM wee 1 - 2.7ml (no squeaking)
AM wee 2 - 0.6ml (no squeaking)
AM wee 3 - 1.2ml (no squeaking)
PM wee 1 - 1ml (no squeaking)
PM wee 2 - 1.3ml (no squeaking)
PM wee 3 - 1.7ml (no squeaking)

14/12/25
Weight - 1072
AM wee 1 - 0.9ml (no squeaking, some straining)
AM wee 2 - 1.8ml (no squeaking, lots of straining)
AM wee 3 - 1.2ml (no squeaking, stop start)
AM wee 4 - 2.7ml (no squeaking, no straining, completely smooth flow)
 
*Update*
She continued to strain whilst trying to wee, with nothing coming out.

Her back end is very wet, and she seems to be leaking urine.

Still no squeaking, eating nornally, pooping normally and still purring and giving kisses.

Took her to our out of hours vet - Queen Mother Hospital in Potters Bar (who I am not a fan of).

She had an ultrasound.. but not a full ultrasound.. and couldn't see any obvious stones and her bladder was a normal size. We asked for a conscious xray and they said the wait time is really long and would likely be better for my piggies welfare and stress levels to take her home and go to the normal vet tomorrow.We took a urine sample with us which they apparently don't have the ability to test..

We are coming home with a higher dose of metacam and antibiotics. We are going to call our normal vets first thing in the morning and ask for an xray etc.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this. Does it really sound like a UTI?
 
Welcome to the forum.
So sorry that you are in such a difficult situation.
You have done the right thing in getting her to a vet and the Metacam and antibiotics should help.
If she’s free of pain she should be more relaxed until you can get her to your normal vets.

We are not vets so can’t diagnose what is wrong.
Hopefully you will be able to see your vet tomorrow and get more clarification.

I can understand from your past experience why you would be reluctant to put her through surgery.

I’m impressed with your record keeping and that information will be helpful for a vet.
It’s good that you are weighing her daily and that she’s not showing any worrying weight loss.

Let us know how you get on.
Hugs 🤗
 
Merab said:
Welcome to the forum.
So sorry that you are in such a difficult situation.
You have done the right thing in getting her to a vet and the Metacam and antibiotics should help.
If she’s free of pain she should be more relaxed until you can get her to your normal vets.

We are not vets so can’t diagnose what is wrong.
Hopefully you will be able to see your vet tomorrow and get more clarification.

I can understand from your past experience why you would be reluctant to put her through surgery.

I’m impressed with your record keeping and that information will be helpful for a vet.
It’s good that you are weighing her daily and that she’s not showing any worrying weight loss.

Let us know how you get on.
Hugs 🤗
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Hi

Thanks for your reply.

Appreciate you guys aren't vets but just wondered what other people's thoughts and experiences were.

It seems to far fetched to me to be a uti with the straining and having 0 output. I started her on higher dose of metacam and antibiotics last night and she didnt wee or poop until about 11pm when she did a wee and 1 poop. I then got up at 1am to check on her and she did a 2.2ml wee and a 1.3ml wee after I gave her some support feeds and bio lapis fluids.

I then got up at 3am to check on her and she did a 2.4ml wee after a recovery feed and bio lapis fluids.

I then got up at 5:30, she ate her brekkkie veggies, had her recovery feed, bio lapis fluids, metacam and antibiotics and she did a 2.4ml wee followed by a 1.35ml wee 30 mins later.

With these readings she obviously is no longer blocked which is a relief, but I'm having this constant argument in my head, pain relief won't have moved a stone so it must be a uti but then as far as I know utis don't cause blockages (unless it's inflamed?) So it must be a stone. This is torture! I just wish we could have got the xray yesterday- now having to wait until 9 to contact our normal vet and then stew and stress until her appointment. I feel so sick.
 
I'm sorry you're going through this, and that your original post was missed yesterday. Unfortunately our main medical experts aren't able to be on much at present and the rest of us can only give our experiences.
I'm linking the relevant guide in case you haven't seen it already. https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/wiebkes-guide-to-pees-and-stones.209191/

i had one piggy who had a stone and later a sow who got a UTI towards the end of her life.
The main symptom of the stone (other than weightloss) was that he was doing squeaky wees. I wasnt observing him as closely as you, but didnt see straining etc. But my understanding was that they avoid peeing because it is painful and only go when they have to because the bladder is full. So maybe your piggy was holding on to her urine because of the pain (of IC, or possibly a uti) and the metacam is relieving the pain enough for her to pee more.

However I'm certainly not an expert, and only a hands-on vet will be able to ascertain what is the problem- feel a stone if there is one and maybe manipulate it out. I hope you can get her seen soon and your vet is able to help her and you. :hug:
 
Thanks for the messages everyone.

Had our appointment, couldn't feel anything obvious when feeling her tummy. They have kept her in and plan to do an xray this afternoon.

I want to be happy that the ultrasound didnt show anything obvious and they can't feeling anything obvious but I am just waiting to hear those words that its a stone. It will be utter heartbreak for us.

Hoping and praying its a bad UTI and IC flare up combined but my logical head is telling me its likely to be a stone 😭.

Feel like we have done so much waiting around the past 2 days I just want an answer.
 
*Update*

She had an Xray - no signs of any stones (phew!) But they did express quite a bit of what she called sludge but its very runny and not gritty, kind of just looks like watery milk (image attached). The vet said there is still a little bit in there but they didnt want to push her too much (we didnt want any sedation) so the goal is to really step up on the fluids and she is going to go back in Friday afternoon for an ultrasound to check the "sludge" and express more if needed, with a view of another check next week.

They are going to send the sludge sample off to the lab for testing but we should continue with the antibiotics and the higher dose of metacam.

Much better results than I expected but am annoyed about this sludge substance, though it is better than a stone!

When we got home she took 7ml of bio lapis water (which she is on for tummy support for the antibiotics), some recovery food, she ate her dinner veggies, been munching on hay and she loves the harvest festival stem things, specifically the oaty parts so she has had some of those as well this evening. She's tucked up in bed on her heat pad at the moment.

Fingers crossed we can get on top of this sludgy stuff and get it all out of her.
 

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I'm glad she doesn’t have a stone

Sludge is crystals which haven’t formed together. when crystals do form together they do make stones. It’s to do with the calcium absorption process in her body and/or her diet (either too high or too low in calcium).

I’ve added a guide below which explains more

Wiebke's Guide to Pees and Stones
 
Piggies&buns said:
I'm glad she doesn’t have a stone

Sludge is crystals which haven’t formed together. when crystals do form together they do make stones. It’s to do with the calcium absorption process in her body and/or her diet (either too high or too low in calcium).

I’ve added a guide below which explains more

Wiebke's Guide to Pees and Stones
Click to expand...
Thank you for then info, I have had a read through and it makes sense.

We do try to keep a low calcium diet. Volvic bottled water (lowest calcium water we could find), veggie wise she gets 1 small lettuce leaf, 1 small chicory leaf, 1 tiny bit of celery and occasionally a tiny bit of pak choi. Ive tried pepper, tried all the colours and its a no no. Cucumber was tolerated for a short while and then I just ended up throwing it away every day. She has a combo of pellets, she has Protexin pro fibre pellets with some Burgess pellets (the lowest calcium ones they do, cant remember the name), we did try the piggie parcels ones but they weren't too popular 🙈. The serving is probably about 15 pellets max and there is never an empty bowl, so they don't all get eaten. She also has copius amounts of hay, we used to get Little Hay Co silky soft as bedding hay, but thats awful now so we get Haybox soft timothy hay for bedding, she then also has access to orchard hay, 1st, 2nd and 3rd cut timothy hay which we top up 2 or 3 times a day.

She's not the best drinker, but I think I might get a few extra bottles and dot them around the cage so if shes having a lazy day and doesn't want to get out of the warm hay she can still have a drink, at the moment she has to come out into the main enclosure area to have a drink.

She gets glucosamine twice a day and also Sherwood prevention tablets (supposed to be good for tummies and joints) and also a Sherwood urinary tablets. I know they aren't scientifically proven to work but am hoping they aren't doing any harm!

She gets "an hour" of floor time in the morning to really stretch her legs, I say "an hour", shes out for an hour but its more like 15mins eating, 15mins movement, 30mins cuddles so I should really try to get her moving more so might also do an evening floor time to.

If anyone has any suggestions on what I can add, change, remove etc I would be so grateful. I do have to be careful with any sudden changes because of her IC but am open to suggestions of things I can slowly try if it helps my baby.

Thank you!
 
I took celery away from my stoney pigs as it is very high in calcium, which is a shame as it's a favourite.

We give our sludgy pigs cystark as well, which does seem to cause more sludge to pass (better than a stone I guess?). Not scientific, but most pigs don't mind it and it's not expensive.
 
GuineaDobbin said:
I took celery away from my stoney pigs as it is very high in calcium, which is a shame as it's a favourite.

We give our sludgy pigs cystark as well, which does seem to cause more sludge to pass (better than a stone I guess?). Not scientific, but most pigs don't mind it and it's not expensive.
Click to expand...
Oh I didnt realise celery was high - I thought it was only a little bit higher than lettuce based on the attached photo?

What is Cystark and how does it work?
 

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*Update*

This morning her weight was down a tad. She usually sits between 1070 - 1090 but was down to 1055 so I have given some support feed.

She has also done a red wee this morning 😞 (photo attached). Does anyone think this should be cause for concern?

She occasionally does red wees with her IC but not often.

We have kicked up her fluid intake and have seen quite a lot of sludge come out.

Also waiting to hear back on if it definitely is just a uti (she is already on antibiotics) or if the problem was always just sludge.

Freaking out a bit now
 

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*Update*

I finished work early today so had cuddles from 1-2pm and she did a "normal wee" (ie no red but still a bit stop start), I had her out for another cuddle with syringe fluids 4-5pm and she did 2 "normal wees" (ie no red but still a bit stop start).

Her hind end also seems to be drier than it has been the past few days.

Should I be concerned about the red wee from this morning or is this all part of the potential uti and sludge purging process?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Ps we do have a vet appt at 4:30 tomorrow for a check and ultrasound as a follow up visit from earlier this week.
 
Red wee can be blood or it can be porphyrine which is common during an IC flare
 
*Update*

Her weight is back up this morning but she has also done another red wee - this time it does look like blood (see photo)

She did this red wee at the same time as yesterdays and all other wees throughout the day yesterday were "normal".

The xray showed no stones.

Could this be caused by the uti and or sludge? I was only given 5 days work of Bactrim which I just gave her the last dose.

I have a vet appt at 4:30 today with an ultrasound.

Please, if anyone has any advice, comments other experience I would be really grateful to hear it whilst I wait for the appointment.

Thanks!
 

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Yes it could be from sludge - sludge is small crystals (that if they had formed together would have made stones) so those pieces can cause abrasions in the bladder and bleeding. The appointment will shed more light on it though as we can only guess what is causing it.
 
Merab said:
Hope the vet appointment goes well and you get some answers
Click to expand...

Thank you.

So we didnt do the ultrasound today because the vet we saw wasnt the vet from Monday so he didnt see the original ultrasound so he couldn't compare (bit annoying). He felt her bladder and while she did do a small squeak she didnt tense and it was soft. On Monday it was quite tense.

Discussed the lab results from the sample taken on Monday.
Red cell count was 5.
White cell count was 100!
No bacteria found.
"Abundance" of calcium.

I'm not 100% sure but I think the vet from Monday expressed the calcium and the sample sent to the lab was more sludge than urine, so it might explain why the readings are so high.

Have been told to stop the antibiotics due to the abscence of bacteria and he suspects the high white count is due to inflammation..

She hasnt done any more red wees after the 3 she did this morning and there are still small flecks of calcium coming out in the urine but she did a 3.2ml wee earlier (her highest in a while).

She has been really active this evening, she was out for floor time for about 70 mins whilst I cleaned out her cage - I was expecting her to go to bed and that be it but shes been out and about munching on her hay and even drinking out of her water bottle which she hasnt done all week.

She seems a lot more like her normal self this evening which makes me so happy.

Going to continue with the pain meds, extra syringe fluids and some recovery food over the weekend. We are due to go back Monday to see the vet who did the scan and bladder expression on Monday, fingers crossed we will have cleared alot more of the sludge.

I have felt so panicked and overwhelmed, I'm really hoping we are turning a corner (just hoping we don't get any more blood wees as they make me have a breakdown!) - all exacerbated by having a puncture in my car tyre this morning too 🙄
 
*Update*

Bleeding stopped on Monday last week which is good.

Had an ultrasound at the vet today and there is just under 1/4 left - we have been giving her syringes of water throughout the day and capturing her wees to see how much sediment comes out and its been coming out well which is good. The vet has said its like light free flowing, its not thick compressed sludge (thank god).

He has suggested that we order some Potassium Citrate to try - he has given use the dose but I have no idea what I'm ordering?! He said to look it up and email him before we order but I dont even know where to start, I have seen liquid and tablets online.. Has anyone got any experience or advice on this? We will of course email the vet with any suggestions before we order.

Thanks
 
I know some people order pet medicine from Hyperdrug so you could start there looking for the Potassium Citrate.

It sounds a bit more positive than last week which is good.
You are doing a wonderful job caring for her but look after yourself as well.
 
Merab said:
I know some people order pet medicine from Hyperdrug so you could start there looking for the Potassium Citrate.

It sounds a bit more positive than last week which is good.
You are doing a wonderful job caring for her but look after yourself as well.
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Thank you so much for coming back to me.

Had a look on there and cant see any potassium citrate (only in cat food! 😞), I'll carry on looking online.

You're very kind, thank you.
 
It looks as if you can buy Potassium Citrate powder online from Amazon, however I would check with your vet before ordering to make sure this is the right stuff.
 
Hello I'm a new member here but have used this forum as a resource of info for many years.

I wanted to help you with regards Potassium Citrate as it is hard to know what is safe to use, and my guinea has it on the advice of my exotics vet. My guinea pig has a life long condition which affects his urinary system and he is on a lot of meds. He has liquid potassium citrate mixture which you can get from Chemist4U. He has 0.1ml twice a day for life, which is the standard dose for GPs.

I had another piggy with stone problems and he was on the same dose, also for life.

All my bladder piggys have half a capsule of cystease daily for maintenance. I have had two piggies with intermittent blood in urine, all sorts of tests, nothing found. So it was assumed to be calcium irritation. Both given cystease daily and Metacam once or twice just when showing blood.

I also boil up pearl barley and give them the water to drink as this is soothing for the bladder.

Hope that is of some help.
 
Goblins707 said:
Hello I'm a new member here but have used this forum as a resource of info for many years.

I wanted to help you with regards Potassium Citrate as it is hard to know what is safe to use, and my guinea has it on the advice of my exotics vet. My guinea pig has a life long condition which affects his urinary system and he is on a lot of meds. He has liquid potassium citrate mixture which you can get from Chemist4U. He has 0.1ml twice a day for life, which is the standard dose for GPs.

I had another piggy with stone problems and he was on the same dose, also for life.

All my bladder piggys have half a capsule of cystease daily for maintenance. I have had two piggies with intermittent blood in urine, all sorts of tests, nothing found. So it was assumed to be calcium irritation. Both given cystease daily and Metacam once or twice just when showing blood.

I also boil up pearl barley and give them the water to drink as this is soothing for the bladder.

Hope that is of some help.
Click to expand...
Welcome to the forum and thank you for sharing your experience with stones.
@AnxiousPigOwner this would be worth sharing with your vet in discussing future treatments
 
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