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Cystaid?

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Fortheloveofpig

Fortheloveofpig

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Hi All,

First ever post...wish it was under better circumstances. Our beautiful little boy (3 years old) has been suffering with reccurent urinary problems for the last 2 years. We have treated with baytril and metacam a number of times, which each time has worked temporarily but not for very long. Instances used to be about every 6 months but are now almost every month

He has had an xray which was all clear and last month had an ultrasound. Bladder wall looked ok and no stones present but some minimal sludge found. We have since changed him to a low calcium diet and are planning on buying a brita water filter next week but he still seems to suffer...we feel like we have tried everything - its soul destroying. We just want him to be happy and well.

Has anyone tried CYSTAID as ive heard that it works very well for pigs which suffer from recurrent issues like this. I doubt my vets will have heard of this (as good as they are) so I was considering buying online but dont know what mg to buy or how to administer...I certainly want to make sure I know what I'm doing first so I dont make him worse or hurt him.
If anyone has any views or advice on CYSTAID or on where to get it and how to administer, i'd be really grateful.

x :wub:
 
I am very sorry; it sounds like your boy is suffering from interstitial cystitis (recurring inflammation of the bladder walls), which you can only control, but not cure. It often eventually disappears on its own after a few years, but not after having blighted a piggy's life for a vey long time.

Cystaid, cheaper cystease or similar products usually come in capsules. Empty the content of of one capsule into a small medicine bottle you can get from your vets or a pharmacy. Mix in 1ml of water and shake well. for the first week, you give a full capsule, then you halve it. Keep any leftover mix in the fridge and shake well before use. You may not necessarily see an improvement, but the wall coating glucosamine in the cystaid or cystease will help to bolster the effect on the bladder nevertheless.
 
Thank you Wiebke. Yes I think he does have IC :( When buying Cystaid are there different mg capsules? That is my concern that I buy something too strong mg wise. Also i've heard Cystaid is dissapearing and being replaced by Cystaid Plus which has some concerning additional chemicals...? I probably will still give it a go as willing to try anything at this point, just want to protect his other organs too if I can, especially the kidneys.

He is a complete stressy wriggle bum so trying to force water/meds down him will be interesting to say the least...when we've had baytril in the past i've had to dropper it onto bits of veg to get it in him. Is sprinkling cystaid on food not an option?

Thanks xx
 
125 mg capsules are the norm; sadly, you hardly get any plain mix now.

You can sprinkle it on veg, but I have found that mine will eat neatly around the powder and leave it, so I have started to mix it with water and syringe in order to ensure that it all goes in. Several of my piggies have actually got so used that they will come up to the bars and take their syringe eagerly. :)
 
Ok, thank you so much. Will give it a try. I really hope this is the answer we've been looking for to make him happier. We are also going to get a brita water filter for him - god he costs us a small fortune! Lol. Dread to think what we've spent on diet, meds and vet bills so far. Good job I love him so much :)

Xx
 
Fortheloveofpig said:
Ok, thank you so much. Will give it a try. I really hope this is the answer we've been looking for to make him happier. We are also going to get a brita water filter for him - god he costs us a small fortune! Lol. Dread to think what we've spent on diet, meds and vet bills so far. Good job I love him so much :)

Xx
Click to expand...

Filtering hard water will help a lot with the build-up of sedimentation in the bladder.
 
Excellent advice on giving it from Wiebke. I would steer clear of one of the brands as it is chicken flavoured (they are mostly manufactured for cats) and the piggies don't like it much. I think it was Cystaid that I had from the vet that they didn't like. The Feliway Cystease I have is neutral flavoured....

I have two bladder pigs who take cystease daily. Angus has one full capsule and Struan has it intermittently but I really should give him it more regularly. Angus is no problem to give pills to so he just crunches up his capsule every morning if you put it in his mouth. Struan isn't so good but will crunch it up too if he doesn't spit it out. They both have regular Vitamin C too. I use Oxbow Vitamin C and they love them.

I also filter my water and try to stick to low calcium veg although it's tricky when they are fussy eaters. I am trying out different pellets at the moment too as the ones they prefer are rather higher in calcium than I would like but not having any joy getting something else they will eat yet. I am reducing their pellet portion and giving more hay instead.
 
I have a girl who suffers from bladder sludge. It started with squeaking and pink wee. She had a course of baytril and metacam for 2 weeks and the problem seemed to sort itself out. Fast forward a month and the problem returned. This time she had an x-ray which showed sludge. She was put on baytril and metacam as well as a product called nutracys +. I stopped the baytril and metacam after 2 weeks but continued with the nutracys for another 2 weeks. She then had another x-ray and it showed the sludge had gone. She continues to have 1 nutracys capsule a day (mixed with fruit baby food) and she has had no further problems. She does have a low calcium diet as well as plenty of different forage.
 
Hi all, just thought i'd update. Got him some Cystease capsules a few weeks ago. I have been sprinkling on his food as he wont have it mixed with water in a syringe as its far too suspicious to him! Lol.

Basically, wow, what a difference! He has been popping again (he'd pretty much stopped altogether), he is far less irritable in general and wants to play again instead of just being a grumbly pants in his cage all the time. We are over the moon with how it has helped. Thank you so much to this forum for the advice. The one thing though I wanted to ask was yesterday he had an accident on his cushion and I could see the urine was absolutely white with calcium grit. I didnt know if this was a good thing (the cystease is 'flushing it out') or if it means his sludge is increasing to a point where its way more obvious in his urine :S Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thanks x
 
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