• PLEASE NOTE - the TEAS facebook page has been hacked, take extreme care when visiting the page, for further information visit here

Bladder problems and diet guides

Guinea Newbie

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Oct 17, 2019
Messages
132
Reaction score
85
Points
215
Location
UK
I am not sure if this is best on the food or the health/illness threads as they are both applicable.

To cut a long story short we adopted 2 boys 6 weeks ago and have been back and forth to the vets with both boys having two bouts of peeing blood. We’ve had Baytril / Metacam but symptoms seem to return. Next steps are x-rays.

But, I have also been reading that diet can play a part in piggies who are prone to bladder issues. They have a leaf of romain lettuce, a slice red or yellow pepper and slice of cucumber daily. They have each lost some weight so I had been giving sweet potato to try and help weight gain.

Having just read the diet guide for piggies with bladder issues it suggests that cutting lettuce and root veg could help. So I take it I should be cutting out lettuce and the sweet potato?

Would a daily veg plate be ok to include cucumber, red pepper, celery and coriander? What would a leafy substitute for lettuce be...?

They were fed lots of kale and spinach before we got them and I have switched to grain free science select and filter their water.

Advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
From my reading of the guide - celery, cucumber, coriander and pepper is fine to be given daily but no substitution for the lettuce should be given (the bit where it says no variations).
 
One more question - are the spring greens ok to give them too. Is it literally the sample veg plate minus the lettuce?
 
One more question - are the spring greens ok to give them too. Is it literally the sample veg plate minus the lettuce?

it’s the sample plate minus the lettuce. This is what my piggies get daily.
How old are the boys you’ve adopted?
 
They are 19 months old apparently.

Did the rescue centre give you any info about them eg whether they had seen a vet about this before?
Piggies are stressy creatures and can react to changes in odd ways. I often find when piggies come in that they will get a minor infection as the move and changes can affect their immune system. But a persistent problem like you’ve had from the start is unusual unless it’s a pre existing problem. Where did they come from?
 
Sorry to hear about this.
To add to the veggie recommendations other members gave you, I would add romaine lettuce on the list, mine eat it everyday.
 
Sorry to hear about this.
To add to the veggie recommendations other members gave you, I would add romaine lettuce on the list, mine eat it everyday.

Unfortunately lettuce is the thing that needs to be removed for a bladder piggy
 
Hi, they weren’t at a rescue centre. They were from someone who needed to sell them as she was ‘moving house’. I felt it was better to get some that needed to be re-homed than to buy babies. I do wonder if they had been ill before and that was why she no longer wanted them, but she said that they were fine health wise. They had very long, curled and overgrown nails when we got them so I don’t think she was very well informed about guinea pig care. They had been fed quite a high calcium diet and were in a 120x60 cage too.

Our vet said it’s possible that it’s stress related but I do wonder about other causes. The next step will be x-rays.

Crumble who has been off antibiotics for about 10 days now started squeaking and peeing small amounts with blood in again 2 days ago, but then all of a sudden stopped (by the time I narrowed it down to him) the vet said to ‘watch and wait’ and if it returns to obviously take him back in. I then also found lots of large wee patches in the cage. Is it possible it’s stones that are passing though and causing discomfort and or partial blockage? It also coincided with me giving them some sweet potato.

Trifle is on antibiotics at the moment after peeing blood again on Thursday.
We have got to the point of trying anything and everything that could help, hence the bladder issues diet, Although I do feel we need to do x-rays now though too.

Thanks all for you help.
 
Back
Top