Cystease Dosage?

[Dilly's Piggies]

Hi! People have recommended me to try Cystease by Feliway for my 2 sows that have intermittent blood in their urine, I've spent hundreds of pounds at the vets trying to find out what's causing it and after numerous tests that have all come up inconclusive, I've come to realise that they may just have interstitial cystitis and this is something that will just happen. They're already on a low calcium diet with filtered water, I also give them Oxbows urinary support tablets daily. My Cystease arrived this morning and I'm not sure how much I should give them and also how I should give it to them. Both sows are otherwise in perfect health and 1100g in weight, any help is much appreciated, thank you!

 

[Wiebke]

Hi! People have recommended me to try Cystease by Feliway for my 2 sows that have intermittent blood in their urine, I've spent hundreds of pounds at the vets trying to find out what's causing it and after numerous tests that have all come up inconclusive, I've come to realise that they may just have interstitial cystitis and this is something that will just happen. They're already on a low calcium diet with filtered water, I also give them Oxbows urinary support tablets daily. My Cystease arrived this morning and I'm not sure how much I should give them and also how I should give it to them. Both sows are otherwise in perfect health and 1100g in weight, any help is much appreciated, thank you!

You give half of a cat tablet/capsule per piggy per day. I find it most useful to mix one capsule with 2-4 ml of water and syringe that in order to get a fairly even dosage.

 

[Dilly's Piggies]

You give half of a cat tablet/capsule per piggy per day. I find it most useful to mix one capsule with 2-4 ml of water and syringe that in order to get a fairly even dosage.

Oh right okay, since I have 2 piggies to give it to I can just mix up 1 tablet with 4ml and syringe 2ml to each piggy, right?

 

[Claire W]

I currently have two sows taking cystease for the exact same reason as you after bladder stones, sludge, UTI's and reproductive problems etc have been ruled out.

I am mixing four cystease tablets with 8ml of water (using a 1ml syringe) and giving each piggy 1ml of the solution per day. I am keeping the solution in the fridge which is lasting me four days.

You can of course mix four tablets with 4ml of water and give them 0.5ml of the solution if you wish as they would still be getting roughly the same amount of cystease still lasting four days.

They were originally having one full capsule per day but my vet has given me the go ahead to try them on half a capsule and see how they get one.

 

[Dilly's Piggies]

I currently have two sows taking cystease for the exact same reason as you after bladder stones, sludge, UTI's and reproductive problems etc have been ruled out.

I am mixing four cystease tablets with 8ml of water (using a 1ml syringe) and giving each piggy 1ml of the solution per day. I am keeping the solution in the fridge which is lasting me four days.

You can of course mix four tablets with 4ml of water and give them 0.5ml of the solution if you wish as they would still be getting roughly the same amount of cystease still lasting four days.

They were originally having one full capsule per day but my vet has given me the go ahead to try them on half a capsule and see how they get one.

Have you found that Cystease helps your girls? I've never used this before but heard lots of good things about it on here. My vet doesn't have any suggestions for my girls, he is adamant it's just discoloured urine but that's not good enough for me!

 

[DM030819]

My boar was on 1/3 capsule a day. I mixed 1 capsule with 3ml of water and gave him 1ml per day.

I can't really comment on it's helpfulness as he was on other med's too for his bladder sludge. But, I can say that he was stone free for two years whilst on that combo and a restricted diet.

 

[Wiebke]

IC is an inflammation of the bladder wall; this is coated by a natural coat of glucosamine. By giving glucosamine based cystease, you are supporting this coat.

My Nerys had IC for about 2 1/2 - 3 years (ca. 2010-2013). With the help of cystease, she went from having months of chronic UTI symptoms to being symptom-free for the duration. Symptoms would only recur as soon as I tried to take her off or whenever I was fiddling round with reducing the daily dosage to 1/4 of a capsule. Nerys lived another 3 years without ever having another UTI or IC until the ripe old age of 8 years (RIP August bank holiday 2016).
My Caron had IC for about 1 1/2 -2 years, but lived symptom-free afterwards for the rest of her life (another 2 years).

There is at the moment nothing that can cure IC; it will eventually go away on its own, but it is a matter of years rather than a matter of months. During that time, it pays to help ease the symptoms as much as a possible and to try and remove any trigger foods as far as we think there are (root veg; grains (including in pellets, which are ideally grain and calcium-free); high calcium veg as long as you respect the need for magnesium, which is only found in connection with calcium; it can also extend to eating lots of fresh grass). @helen105281 can advise you on a balanced diet that avoids these foods.

 

[Claire W]

Have you found that Cystease helps your girls? I've never used this before but heard lots of good things about it on here. My vet doesn't have any suggestions for my girls, he is adamant it's just discoloured urine but that's not good enough for me!

@Wiebke has given you a brilliant explanation.

To be honest, I can't give a definite answer on whether it is the cystease or luck but what I can say is I haven't seen any clots or 'pinky' urine from Emma since she started taking it regularly nearly 18 months ago.

It's still early days for Ellen as like I say, we have recently reduced the dose but *touch wood* I haven't seen any pinky wees from her for a few weeks now so I hope it is working

 

[helen105281]

What are you currently feeding at the moment veg wise?

 

[Tiamolly123]

Can cystease be used as a precautionary measure

 

[Dilly's Piggies]

What are you currently feeding at the moment veg wise?

They are already low calcium, daily they get bell pepper, cucumber, cherry tomato, celery, carrot, lettuce (romaine, little gem or curly) and green beans, they also get radicchio whenever I can find it, it's scarce in my local stores. I used to feed spring greens a month ago however I took that out and no more calcium deposits, hurray! They are fed unlimited Oxbow timothy hay, Oxbow adult pellets, they do not get 1/8 of a cup, they get half of that each, I've found they do just fine with this portion and I can keep it as low as possible without depriving them, my pigs aren't big pellet eaters anyway, they prefer veg and hay. They like their current veggies but any other low calcium veg that I can add would be nice, just for something different. All pigs get the urinary support supplement and Tizzie (one of the 2 IC girls) gets Oxbow vitamin C because all she will eat is cucumber, obviously! This is what they eat on a daily basis, hope it helps

 

[Adelle]

My sow with severe IC and a scarred bladder started on 1/2 capsule twice a day and increased until we saw a result.

She was already on Metacam, then we added 1 capsule Cystease a day which helped a little.. But 1 capsule twice a day has pretty much rid her of bladder inflammation. We tried dropping back to one capsule a day.. Which resulted in a huge bladder flare up and peeing blood clots.

Each capsule contains 125mg of n-acetyl glucosamine as well as hyaluronic acid. If you where to give glucosamine on its own, it's recommended to give 62.5mg- 250mg per kg pig per day, which is the equivalent of 1/2- 2 capsules glucosamine wise. The higher end is for more severe issues where the bladder lining is massively affected by inflammation or infection, which Crunchies was.

I Increase by 1/2 capsule every 2-4 weeks (granted the pig tolerates it well) and stop once you see a benefit, but obviously follow your vets advice and keep in touch with them.

Hope this helps x

 

[helen105281]

They are already low calcium, daily they get bell pepper, cucumber, cherry tomato, celery, carrot, lettuce (romaine, little gem or curly) and green beans, they also get radicchio whenever I can find it, it's scarce in my local stores. I used to feed spring greens a month ago however I took that out and no more calcium deposits, hurray! They are fed unlimited Oxbow timothy hay, Oxbow adult pellets, they do not get 1/8 of a cup, they get half of that each, I've found they do just fine with this portion and I can keep it as low as possible without depriving them, my pigs aren't big pellet eaters anyway, they prefer veg and hay. They like their current veggies but any other low calcium veg that I can add would be nice, just for something different. All pigs get the urinary support supplement and Tizzie (one of the 2 IC girls) gets Oxbow vitamin C because all she will eat is cucumber, obviously! This is what they eat on a daily basis, hope it helps

OK, the only extras I feed are coriander and a slither of spring greens. I don't feed any lettuce or tomato. They have an occasional treat of carrot but only a small piece.