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Bladder Stone - Advice Please?

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Guineapigs6

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Hi everybody,

I have a seven year old boar named Elven; over the weekend I noticed him passing large amounts of bloody urine and started antibiotics (thinking a UTI). Unfortunately, the bloody urine - and large amounts of it - is back again this evening and I'm now fairly sure it's bladder stone/s. He has no apparent signs of discomfort at the moment.

We have a good exotics vet (and I will do x-rays), but given Elven's age I'm hesitant to go down the surgery route ... he's a very geriatric pig, and I'm very worried about quality of life issues. If we do decide to put him to sleep, I'm wondering how I'll know when it's the right time (ie. as soon as the presence of a large stone is confirmed by x-ray, or can this condition linger on and should we wait until the stone's causing discomfort)? Does anybody have any bladder stone stories to help me learn more about this condition?

We've had a pig with a stone before so my boys are on a stone-prevention diet ... and I'm a bit baffled about how this happened. This is an extremely upsetting time and I'd greatly appreciate some advice. Thanks in advance.
 
Poor Elven. It's a horrible situation to be in. At least he doesn't seem to be in any discomfort. He is getting on a bit and the risks with a GA are going to be greater. As for putting him to sleep, it's a cliche, but you will know when the time is right. Find out if it is a stone first and discuss it with the vet.

I'm interested in stone prevention and am doing a bit of research into it. One thing I have found out that some pigs are just prone to stones, whatever diet they are on (could you tell me what your regime has been?). I don't follow a low calcium diet for my pigs and (so far) I've never had any cystitis or stones, but there are plenty of people on here that have lots experience with them. I'm sure they'll be able to advise you more.

Hugs to Elven (and you) x
 
I think pain and quality of life is essential. If the piggy is in pain (that cannot be adequately controlled with painkillers) and is not comfortable doing all the usual piggy things (eating, drinking and running around) then we have to think about what it is fair for the little one. Ultimately, as his owner you know him best, and you will know when he is not happy.

He is a very good age and I can understand your concerns about the operation. This is certainly something that needs to be discussed with your vet. It still may not be a stone, but a stubborn UTI, bladder sludge or cystitis. Only an x-ray and a culture will confirm this.
 
Hi, I am pretty new here (first post)

But a couple of yeas ago my Old Piggie (7years) went through the operation to remove his bladder stones. (Xray confirmed - he would double up in pain when passing urine and would squeak, with blood in the urine too)
The vet advised first of all, vitamin C tablets, crushed up and diluted, then syringe feed to him, the acidity could have broken down the stone. Unfortunately, he seemed to be in pain a week after trying this so I asked the vet to remove the stones. The operation went well, (this would be the fourth time he'd been under anesthetic)
and seemed comfortable on the pain relief they gave him, critical care syringe feeding x amount of times a day just so his digestive system stayed active... I did lose my little man about three weeks later.
Obviously the outcome will all depend on the size of the stones, the location and obviously the piggies health to begin with.

Although he passed away shortly after, after seeing him after recovery etc, I did feel I made the right decision.

Get an xray! You'll be able to see what the issue is. Fingers crossed its something minor and your piggie will be back to normal soon
xx
 
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Thank-you all - I'll definitely be doing further investigations before I make any decisions, and he seems comfortable for now. I'm just worrying about making the 'right' decisions.

We're in Australia; my boys are on a diet of low-calcium veggies, unlimited Timothy hay and grassy meadow hay in a ratio of 75%-25%, plus grass during 'outside time' a few days every week. I've re-jigged their diet many times with bladder stones in mind, trying to balance mineral concentrations in their food; I have also recently started an hour of direct sun each morning, and am thinking I may now need to look at our water.

The loss of our last piggy with a bladder stone was extremely traumatic, so I'm wanting to ensure I do everything possible to prevent the preventable stones ... though I do realise some piggies are just simply prone to developing them.

Thanks, SnuffBunny, for sharing your story - and I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your little pig. Always devastating to lose a piggy but I think it's so important to know you did all you could and made the best decisions - hence this post.
 
My pigs are also on a bladder diet and it has really helped as we have no calcium deposits, my Maddie did get a stone though as though we had changed the diet she had been on the old diet for so long that the changes were too late. Due to other health issues and the very tricky location of the stone she was PTS as we could not control her pain even on high doses of painkillers and the op would have been incredibly risky as she was a heart pig and I didn't want to put her through it.

I think with your boy it will be a matter of whether you can control his pain and the quality of his life that will force you to make a decision one way or the other.
 
Helen would it be a good idea to put our guinea pigs on a bladder diet to prevent problems in the future ?
 
I would recommend it yes but I know there are mixed views on here. Message me if you would like details. The diet was put together by Karen who runs the Piggy clinics at Vets and Pets in Broxbourne and has her own website (TKCC).
 
I have a pig with a bladder stone diagnosed a couple of years back via x-ray. The only symptom she has is on-and-off urinary tract infections. She is not in pain, she eats well, runs around, is a huge mooch, and is generally fine except for the presence of this stone on x-ray. It is not huge, but large enough that the vet thought that the risk of it lodging in the urethra was very small. We discussed surgery with the vet. In Canada, vet care of rodents is hard to come by. I have a great vet, but he freely admits he has not performed a lot of these operations, that it is high risk, and the cost was prohibitive (estimated at $1400 to $2000, plus follow-up appointments.) Due to the cost and the mixed prognosis, I decided to treat conservatively and see what her quality of life is like. About 18 months post-diagnosis, she is on a constant prophylactic dose of antibiotics to help to prevent urinary tract infections. She has occasional UTIs still, but so far we have been able to increase the dose and get them back under control before returning to the baseline dose. I am confident that she is not in pain because she also went through an abscess on her jaw and dental problems and was very obviously miserable from the pain at that time, hiding in the corner, not eating, not being active, etc. This has made me confident that I will know if and when the stone is causing her discomfort, and at that point we'll have to look at something else to treat her, whether it's attempting surgery or having her put down to avoid suffering. I used to second-guess my decision to hold off on surgery, worrying that she was in pain and hiding it, but after seeing her suffer with the abscess and how much it changed her behaviour, I am pretty confident now that she is in no pain. I'm sure it sucks when she gets a UTI flare (I have bladder/kidney issues myself so know just what it feels like!) but it certainly isn't suffering to the point that I hate my life, and hopefully it's the same for her.

At the time that she was diagnosed, I felt like even if I could give her a few months more of quality, I would be happy with that. It has now been about 18 months and she is still going strong... she was diagnosed around 2.5 years and actually will be celebrating her fourth b-day tomorrow with a big salad cake. She's a trooper.

We do have her on a low-calcium diet that the vet recommended for bladder pigs, but she was basically on that prior to developing the stone too. The vet states that some pigs, unfortunately, seem to be prone to them regardless of diet.
 
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