Bladder Stone Post Op Recovery

[RyanK]

Hi All,

Our 4 and a half year old pig Bertie had quite a large bladder stone removed on Tuesday (3 days ago) and the surgery didn’t quite go to plan as the bladder had become inflamed and attached itself to the stone.

This meant that when removing the stone the bladder wall was damaged (although to what extent I’m not sure).

The vet gave us the option of putting Bertie to sleep because they weren’t sure how he/his bladder would recover. However we didn’t feel this was enough of a reason to put him to sleep as it sounded to us that it was almost 50/50 between recovery or not.

Since coming home Bertie has shown relatively little improvement, he’s on antibiotics which the last time round (due to a UTI) completely wiped his appetite and 0.4m twice daily of Loxicom for the pain.

He’s not around moving much, and showing little interest in food and no interest in water. We’re therefore syringe feeding him food and water every couple of hours, but I just don’t know if this is at all normal under the circumstances or if we’re delaying the inevitable.

I hate the thought of Bertie potentially being in pain. On the positive side, he’s not squeaking when passing urine (or tiny poos), he’s not chatting his teeth or showing signs of pain when he does move around and there’s no longer blood in his pee.

Therefore I just wondered if anyone else had experience of pigs recovering from surgery that didn’t quite go to plan, or where the bladder walls have been damaged and if so, how long the recovery took?

Planning a follow up call with the Vets, but they just didn’t seem to know how or when he would recover and was told to monitor him. So any advice from anyone with a similar experience would be really appreciated!

Ryan.

 

[Claudia Ashdown]

One of my piggies had surgery for an abscess just above his groin on his belly, and his recovery for the first few days was horrendous because we discovered he was intolerant to Baytril which the vets had prescribed. He had little to no energy, wasn't interested in food or water, and lost a TON of weight.

As soon as he came off the Baytril his appetite improved massively, and now almost 3 months later you wouldn't know that there was anything ever wrong with him! I've seen online that guinea pigs can develop anorexia if on certain antibiotics, but to me, if there's no further blood in his urine that is a sign of improvement!

See how he goes the next few days and if his appetite still hasn't gotten better, maybe consult with your vet to take him off the antibiotics to see if it makes any difference? Wishing you the best of luck!

 

[DougalandDiego]

My guinea pig who has suffered with interstitial cystitis since last year recently developed bladder stones which we found during an ultrasound in June this year. He took a good week before he started eating for himself and id say took two weeks before he was more active/waiting at the bars for veg and treats and still required top up feeds. He still has sore, squeaky pees but the vet I see who is an exotic specialist thinks that he is still sore from the bladder trauma from the op, along with his usual IC symptoms. I was surprised at how long it took him to recover, all guinea pigs are different but he did require a lot of support after his op.

Has your vet suggested probiotics to take alongside the antibiotics? Antibiotics can wipe all of the good bacteria away in the gut and the probiotics help to prevent this. Your account doesn’t say where you’re located but pets at home in the uk sell vet ark which is a power probiotic you mix with water.

Hope this helps - sending your guinea pig healing vibes!

 

[DougalandDiego]

I wouldn’t suggest taking your guinea pig off antibiotics, they’re really important after an op to prevent infection. My guinea pigs didn’t tolerate baytril very well so my vet now prescribes them sulfatrim, which is another antibiotic (Don’t quote me, but I think that baytril is the only licensed antibiotic and that’s why they initially prescribe this over sulfatrim). It might be worth discussing with your vet if you don’t see an improvement after introducing the probiotic.