Dilly's Piggies
Teenage Guinea Pig
2 of my sows have assumed interstitial cystitis, they've had intermittent blood in their urine for a very long time now which comes and goes, accompanied by grumpiness, pain and squeaky pees. A round of Septrin and Metacam really helps them and seems to cure them but the problem always comes back shortly after stopping the course. Both pigs have had ultrasounds which revealed no abnormalities, stones or sludge, both have also been urine cultured with no bacteria or crystals found, only blood. I feel useless and I could really use some advice on what you would do if you were me and these were your pigs.
Their diets are very strictly controlled and have been for a year now, very low calcium with filtered water, I also give urinary support supplements. It seems like I have to keep them on antibiotics and pain medication permanently and I have many concerns about doing this, they are only 2 years old and I don't want them to have problems later in life from being on these medications for so long, but then again I know I would rather they had a comfortable life that was cut shorter compared to a longer, miserable life, but surely this is not the answer, there must be a better treatment out there.
I just keep questioning everything, they are both bright, active, happy pigs most of the time but only because they've spent most of their lives on medication, when I see them on their bad days it breaks my heart to see them in pain, they fall out with their cagemates because they are in pain/grumpy, they cry when they go to the toilet, they don't want to move, they don't eat as much, it just seems like torture for them and I feel like I'm torturing them because I don't have the answer, all I can do is give them pain meds and hope it helps.
I keep thinking maybe the ultrasound missed something, maybe the culture wasn't done right, maybe they have UTI's that are intermittent and a different antibiotic can fix this, maybe an xray will give a better picture, maybe it's not even a urinary problem and it's reproductive or digestive etc. I'm losing my mind over this, has anyone else been here?
Their diets are very strictly controlled and have been for a year now, very low calcium with filtered water, I also give urinary support supplements. It seems like I have to keep them on antibiotics and pain medication permanently and I have many concerns about doing this, they are only 2 years old and I don't want them to have problems later in life from being on these medications for so long, but then again I know I would rather they had a comfortable life that was cut shorter compared to a longer, miserable life, but surely this is not the answer, there must be a better treatment out there.
I just keep questioning everything, they are both bright, active, happy pigs most of the time but only because they've spent most of their lives on medication, when I see them on their bad days it breaks my heart to see them in pain, they fall out with their cagemates because they are in pain/grumpy, they cry when they go to the toilet, they don't want to move, they don't eat as much, it just seems like torture for them and I feel like I'm torturing them because I don't have the answer, all I can do is give them pain meds and hope it helps.
I keep thinking maybe the ultrasound missed something, maybe the culture wasn't done right, maybe they have UTI's that are intermittent and a different antibiotic can fix this, maybe an xray will give a better picture, maybe it's not even a urinary problem and it's reproductive or digestive etc. I'm losing my mind over this, has anyone else been here?
