Bladder stones: 4yo sow

[Pigmeister]

Hi, looking for some advice/experiences after our 4yo sow was diagnosed with bladder stones last week.
She has had cystitis since around 1yo so not a massive surprised this has eventually happened.
She has one larger stone and multiple small stones.

We saw the head vet at Holly House exotics so she is in good hands but they did advise we could either treat her with medication as long as she seems comfortable enough; or surgery to remove them but that obviously may not be successful.

I's been 5 days on medication (metacam and paracetamol) now and there is some improvement - but we're not sure what to expect if the medication is working to continue with this option.

She had a couple of days losing weight but has gained a bit overnight (1090g). She had been 1250g, went down to 1060g.
She's still interested in food and still drinking water.
Squeaking while toileting has reduced but not gone away.
She is wetting herself and getting smelly with some redness on her feet.

What would be signals that we could continue just on the medication path - we're aware she won't be fully 100% comfortable. Is it enough she maintains weight and interest in food? If she continues being wet and affecting ehr feet is that a signal this isn't working well enough?

Would appreciate any thoughts / experiences as it's a hard decision. Don't want to put her through surgery unless it's really necessary - or even if we can put it off a while ... but also don't want her to continue being uncomfortable.

 

[Truffolo]

I am sorry your piggy is struggling with bladder stones. I am just wondering, if she keeps losing weight, she may not be in good enough health soon to have the operation. I would keep a close watch on her weight as losing a lot of weight might be a critical factor in whether she can have the stones removed. It is a very difficult decision to make. Wishing you comfort and strength

 

[Pigmeister]

I am sorry your piggy is struggling with bladder stones. I am just wondering, if she keeps losing weight, she may not be in good enough health soon to have the operation. I would keep a close watch on her weight as losing a lot of weight might be a critical factor in whether she can have the stones removed. It is a very difficult decision to make. Wishing you comfort and strength

Thank you. Yeah we're keeping a close eye on her weight and was happy to see if go up even if a little today. We'll see tomorrow where it is again but agree, we don't want to leave it so she's lost more weight and has less reserves to deal with surgery for sure

 

[Viennese Furbabies]

Kylie had a bladder stone operation in March.
Before that she has continously lost weight. She was on pain medication and was still in pain. I didn't realize in how much pain she must have been in until I saw her behaviour change after the operation.
In Kylie's case, the stone was attached to the bladder wall. This might be the reason for her intense pain.
But for her the operation was the only option. My vet is very experienced and she sailed right through the whole procedure.

I hope all will go well for your girl!

 

[Pigmeister]

Kylie had a bladder stone operation in March.
Before that she has continously lost weight. She was on pain medication and was still in pain. I didn't realize in how much pain she must have been in until I saw her behaviour change after the operation.
In Kylie's case, the stone was attached to the bladder wall. This might be the reason for her intense pain.
But for her the operation was the only option. My vet is very experienced and she sailed right through the whole procedure.

I hope all will go well for your girl!

Thank you - yeah our vet did say with multiple stones there's no guarantee they can get them all etc. but her weight has been down a bit again this morning, she's getting red paws. I think we're leaning more to surgery now. She seems more uncomfortable so it feels like surgery, even if we don't know how it will go, gives her a chance of being fully comfortable again afterwards.

Glad to hear Kylie did so well from it.

 

[Roselina]

I’m sorry to hear about your piggy
It sounds like the decision is being made for you
Wishing your piggy and you all the best

 

[RosieLily]

I am so sorry, I still get chills reading about bladder issues and stones due to my own journey with Rosie.

Rosie had her surgery just over a year ago now. She's had bladder/calcium issues all her life, eventually we found a stone. At discovery it was around 7/8mm, we also tried the medication route because piggies do pass these nasty things, so we figured we'd try. Rosie is an older piggy.

We saw no change and suddenly the stone started growing aggressively, at removal it was 11mm. It had buried itself into Rosie's bladder wall, something we could not have seen via ultrasound. I am not writing this to scare you, but to echo what you and another commenter said; really do pay attention to how she's feeling. When Rosie went in for surgery (a last second decision on my end, at first I thought it was best to let her rest), her weight had dropped dramatically and she was not feeling good. That night she was grumpy, wasn't grooming herself. The same midnight we went to the clinic and had the surgery.

Rosie came out of the surgery WONDERFUL. She is not good with anesthesia so I stayed home to comfort her, but she recovered quickly and we have had no issues since. It was the best decision I could have made, Rosie has had a wonderful year since that incident.

She is on glucosamine that I mix with water and the smallest bit of CC for flavour. We do this everyday, that way I can get her to drink a lot and to keep her system moving to avoid anything settling inside her kidneys or bladder.

Wishing the best for you and your pigwig. Sorry for the long text!

 

[Pigmeister]

I am so sorry, I still get chills reading about bladder issues and stones due to my own journey with Rosie.

Rosie had her surgery just over a year ago now. She's had bladder/calcium issues all her life, eventually we found a stone. At discovery it was around 7/8mm, we also tried the medication route because piggies do pass these nasty things, so we figured we'd try. Rosie is an older piggy.

We saw no change and suddenly the stone started growing aggressively, at removal it was 11mm. It had buried itself into Rosie's bladder wall, something we could not have seen via ultrasound. I am not writing this to scare you, but to echo what you and another commenter said; really do pay attention to how she's feeling. When Rosie went in for surgery (a last second decision on my end, at first I thought it was best to let her rest), her weight had dropped dramatically and she was not feeling good. That night she was grumpy, wasn't grooming herself. The same midnight we went to the clinic and had the surgery.

Rosie came out of the surgery WONDERFUL. She is not good with anesthesia so I stayed home to comfort her, but she recovered quickly and we have had no issues since. It was the best decision I could have made, Rosie has had a wonderful year since that incident.

She is on glucosamine that I mix with water and the smallest bit of CC for flavour. We do this everyday, that way I can get her to drink a lot and to keep her system moving to avoid anything settling inside her kidneys or bladder.

Wishing the best for you and your pigwig. Sorry for the long text!

I really appreciate the long text and good to hear another successful result.
It's been 4 or 5 days now with medication and while there is some improvement and no dramatic deterio0ation she also doesn't look comfortable so we are booked on surgery this week now.

 

[Truffolo]

I really appreciate the long text and good to hear another successful result.
It's been 4 or 5 days now with medication and while there is some improvement and no dramatic deterio0ation she also doesn't look comfortable so we are booked on surgery this week now.

Sending support, I hope all goes well. Let us know about how she is going

 

[RosieLily]

I really appreciate the long text and good to hear another successful result.
It's been 4 or 5 days now with medication and while there is some improvement and no dramatic deterio0ation she also doesn't look comfortable so we are booked on surgery this week now.

Sending much love to your girl! Hope all goes well!