Bladder Stones

[AmyP&M]

My guinea pig is 2 years old, she has recently been x-rayed and we've been told she has a small bladder stone. Obviously this is common in guinea pigs, the surgery is costing £300.

Could people who've experienced this with their guinea pigs give us some advice on what its like on aftercare for her and whether you've been given similar prices for your piggies operation.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi and welcome!

I am very sorry about about your diagnosis. Thankfully bladder stones in sows is generally a rather straight forward operation with very good recovery chances. The price for the operation is at the higher end, but it is always a bit of a weigh up between using a piggy savvy specialist or a cheap general vet, and the amount of experience and post-operative care you get.
We have got a piggy savvy vet locator on the top bar for our UK members; it includes both specialist and general vets.

Please make sure that you have got recovery food and probiotics at home in case the operation recovery is not as smooth as wished. Weigh any freshly operated piggy once daily at the same time in the feeding cycle. Also ask your vet how soon after an operation your girl can have painkillers in case you need to see an emergency vet. See your vet or an out-of-hours vet if your girl is lethargic, quite obviously in pain or doesn't eat at all within a day of the operation. It takes about 2-3 days after a major operation for the body to settle down and start healing. The scars should knit within 10-14 days and your girl should be brighter and happier in herself with every passing day.
All information for syringe feeding and supportive products can be found in this link here: https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/complete-syringe-feeding-guide.115359/

For the long term care, we recommend to look at the following issues:
- using cystease (bladder coating glucosamine cat food supplement) or vegetarian glucosamine to help protect the bladder walls
- filter your water, especially in a hard water area
- switch to a low calcium diet, like the IC diet that we recommend under "daily veg" in our regular diet thread or look at more low calcium diet info in order to minimise the risk of a return of bladder stones.
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk...or-a-balanced-general-guinea-pig-diet.116460/
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/low-calcium-diet-for-bladder-piggies.105930/
- Switch to low calcium pellets like these (5 pellets per piggy per day): http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/small_pets/food/guinea_pig/bunny/195679

Not all factors of the complicated calcium absorption process can be necessarily controlled by diet, but it can go a long way.

As we have got members from all over the world, we find it very helpful if you please added your country or county to your details, so we can always tailor any advice to what is available where you are. As you can imagine, our advice especially with brands etc. can vary a lot. Click on your username on the top bar, then go to personal details and scroll down to location.

Please keep all questions and updates to this thread so we can refer back to what has gone on before and tailor any advice to what is best for you and your girl.

 

[JackJack1]

My guinea pig is 2 years old, she has recently been x-rayed and we've been told she has a small bladder stone. Obviously this is common in guinea pigs, the surgery is costing £300.

Could people who've experienced this with their guinea pigs give us some advice on what its like on aftercare for her and whether you've been given similar prices for your piggies operation.

I am going through a similar episode with my guinea pig Joe. He has a urethral stone and I have been quoted £240. However, this is the basics and I have been warned it may be higher depending on the amount of aftercare. This is for keeping him in overnight after the operation with the medication and aftercare he will need. I have been warned due to the nature of his operation, he may have to stay in 2 nights before he is allowed home. He has an operation scheduled for Tuesday and we are trying to build him up with critical care food before the operation, so I would do the same with your guinea pig to make sure he has al the nutrients to help him during and after the operation.

 

[JackJack1]

Just to add £300 sounds quite a bit, but when you consider this will include the operation, the drugs and all the aftercare, such as syringe feeding every few hours by the vet nurses to keep her going and post operative monitoring, as she will not eat on her own for some time after the operation and cannot be left (guinea pigs must have a steady stream of food going through their guts or they stop working).

Hope everything goes well and she is soon better. At least time is on your side as she is only 2 years old.

 

[Flutterby]

Sending healing vibes, I hope she comes through the surgery well and makes a speedy recovering!

 

[AmyP&M]

Thanks for your help, good luck for Joe,I wish him all the best!

 

[AmyP&M]

Thankyou!

 

[gizzy]

Ouch that is expensive , though , on one ocasion I payed £380, but that was an emergency vet on a bank holiday; and that was just to remove a stone that was stuck in her vulva !

My own vet charges (depending on how much gas ect is used) around £180 - £300

Pre-op , I always encourage them to eat plenty of cucumber for a couple of days to build up the pig's fluid reserves as the GA can dehydrate them quite a lot .

Just a foot note: it is wise to ask your vet not to use a GA drug caled Dormitor ! A guinea pig's system is not able to disperse this drug, as quickly as it does others. The pig can lapse in and out of sleep for up to 24 hours after the op and if the pig is eating it can block the air ways and chock to death .
I very nearly lost a pig to Domitor once. I had to carefully syringe it till it was fully awake.

a friend of mine lost a pig to this drug . Her sory is guinea links , though you may have to go back a a few years

Safest bet is when a keeper takes a pig in for an op is to first tell your vet that you don't want this drug being used as an added precaution. Ask the vet nurse to write on the admission form no domitor please.

 

[lauraboara]

Well gizzy has totally confused me in that last post so I am going to skip over!

Back to the original question, the £300 for the op sounds OK to me and about what i paid for Pringle's op at Easter. As Wiebke has said, post operative care is important - i focused on pain relief, keeping Pringle quiet, warm and calm and even though he is 5, he recovered pretty well.
Pearl barley gloop went down well too - you simmer some pearl barley in water for a few minutes, strain, cool and then syringe the gloopy water with a 1ml syringe - Pringle loves it.

 

[JackJack1]

Thanks for your help, good luck for Joe,I wish him all the best!

Thank you.

 

[gizzy]

Hi lauraboard, yep it was just mentioned a a foot note !
An important peice of information, that could save a pig and
it's keeper a lot of distress, should the vet use Domitor

The drug is widely used in lage animal opps , and often a vet
may not know of the possible dangers this drug posses to guinea pigs
sorry for the misunderstanding

 

[AmyP&M]

Thankyou for your help, just one thing what is critical care food? I'm assuming its foods that have lots of goodness in them but I may be wrong.
Sorry if its a dumb question, my pair are my first guinea pigs and this will be the first operation.

 

[lauraboara]

Thankyou for your help, just one thing what is critical care food? I'm assuming its foods that have lots of goodness in them but I may be wrong.
Sorry if its a dumb question, my pair are my first guinea pigs and this will be the first operation.

Hi. It is a special food ground up to a fine powder - you get sachets from the vet or online. You add water to make up a loose paste and then syringe it - it stimulates the piggie to get back to eating normally, guts moving and helps keep them hydrated. Usually has extra vit c in the mix. There is a syringe feeding guide on the health and illness forum bit.

https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/complete-syringe-feeding-guide.115359/

 

[JackJack1]

Thankyou for your help, just one thing what is critical care food? I'm assuming its foods that have lots of goodness in them but I may be wrong.
Sorry if its a dumb question, my pair are my first guinea pigs and this will be the first operation.

We got Oxbow critical care from our vet. It contains all the vitamins and minerals a guinea pig needs if they are convalescing after an operation and cannot eat or they are poorly and won't eat. It comes in different size sachets. I think the smallest is 30 g, but goes up to a 400g sachet. You mix the powder with water and use it to syringe feed a guinea pig if the cannot or will not eat properly. It is expensive, but good and when a guinea pig will not eat, it keeps them going until they recover and start to eat themselves. There are other types of critical care food, but our vet uses Oxbow. This can be purchased from online or several other places, if you need it. It comes in different flavours so you can select one depnding on what your guinea pig enjoys. I have the original one, but I know you can get a banana flavour too. It is well worth keeping some in as a standby for those times, when you need to help their recovery and in line with vet advice and medication. I would ask your vet about it.