Bladder sludge

[Deleted member 144755]

I noticed what looks to be bladder sludge in my 1yr old female guinea pigs cage a few days ago.



Before this she sometimes would pee and there’d be white in the middle of the urine puddle, it wasn’t gritty or anything and I had done research and it sounded normal-ish. We’re calling the vet tomorrow to see if she can book us a appointment, but she isn’t a exotic vet. So I want to check to see if there’s any info I can get from here.

I’ve cutting out kale so now I feed her 1 and a half leaves of green leaf lettuce, 1-6th to 1-8th green or yellow bell pepper, 2 slices of cucumber 5 times a week, small piece of carrot 2 times a week, 2 sprigs of cilantro 3 times a week, 2 sprigs of parsley 2 times a week.
Oxbow natural science vitamin C tablet every morning, a handful of Oxbow hay blends western Timothy hay+orchard grass multiple times a day, less than half a handful of oxbow garden select adult guinea pig pellets. And filtered water, I refill the bottles everyday and I get the filtered water from our fridge.

I also have a 1yr old male guinea pig whose pee is sometimes a browny orange. I feed him the same things I feed my other guinea pig.

If you have any knowledge based suggestions please, please, please share them with me. Thx

 

[Piggies&buns]

Welcome to the forum

Both parsley and kale are high in calcium but I see you’re cutting kale out. Parsley is also high calcium so feed it once a week only.

Pellets - it would be well worth being more accurate in measuring them out. ‘Half a handful‘ could end up being too much. They need one tablespoon per day only. Pellets contain more calcium than the veg so keeping pellets limited to one tablespoon and water filtered goes a long way to keeping calcium intake where it needs to be. Even low calcium pellets contain as much calcium as kale (which is the high calcium veg).

Changes to the diet take a while to have an effect on calcium levels on their bodies though so you won’t see an immediate effect.

The brown/orange pee from your other piggy - urine oxidises when it comes into contact with air and turns a rusty colour. Is that what you are seeing?

Our diet guide is linked in below.

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

 

[Deleted member 144755]

Thank you so much. And yes I think your right about the pee, it starts out normal then dries into a rusty brown, I just wasn’t sure since when I looked it up it said it only happens very young guinea pigs

 

[Deleted member 144755]

My female guinea pig “pumpkins” vet appointment is booked for next Monday hopefully the vet can help me figure this out and treat it.

 

[Free Ranger]

It looks like you're doing all the right things and if she's not in any pain when peeing that's a good sign. There's a nice big wet patch so I'm assuming she's drinking well too and flushing it out. We had a phase of this recently with one of my new sows and in our case it was a combination of eating too many pellets/not drinking enough water. It actually sorted itself out after about 10 days (and more water bottles!) but I was watchful in that time. We had a new type of pellet that proved very popular. But they arrived with a new guinea pig which caused some rumbling and a bit of stress. A lot of factors. Hope you get it sorted x

 

[Deleted member 144755]

We just got back from the vet about an hour ago. Our vet did an ultrasound and a urine test, she said she didn’t see any signs of infection or any stones. And said that it looked like “pumpkin was flushing it out herself” the only thing they really noticed was some debris they saw from the ultrasound. So I’m just supposed to watch and make sure she’s not struggling to urinate & that there’s no blood ext.

 

[Betsy]

It's god that Pumpkin is flushing out the bladder sludge by herself and also that there are no stones or infection. My Rainbow Piggy Velvet had bladder sludge cos she didn't drink very much. I had to syringe water into her to help flush out her bladder.

 

[David Piggie Lover]

Sorry about piggie botty probs, hope it and you get sorted,
I know I'm not helping but sending you and piggie tlc, vet great idea