Hi,
We've had a poorly piggy who lost weight and had blood in his urine as well as straining and pain when he pees. After a few trips to the vet they said he's got calcium crystals in his urine, so he needs to have a low calcium diet - they gave me a list of foods to avoid and feed.
During this time he's had a course of baytril and metacam which got the infection under control, but his weight is still fairly low (he's dropped from a sticky 1400g to around 1100g at the moment) so we've kept this up with emeraid intensive care. However, emeraid has 1% calcium content, so is it a mistake to keep feeding this or is it low enough not to cause issues?
I'd just ordered 400g of the stuff, so hoping I've not just thrown 30 quid away!
Thanks for any help!
Hi and welcome
The highest amount of calcium comes by water and by your pellets. Has your vet recommended to filter your water and limiting any pellets to 1 tablespoon max per piggy per day? Even the pellets lowest in calcium contain more than the veg highest in it (kale).
When you are feeding emeraid, you are not feeding more than comes with the pellets and the veg you are not feeding. The weight will come back slowly when the body is ready and to the degree that there is no overweight. What you are looking for at this stage is to stabilise the weight.
Please be aware that a diet too low in calcium is as dangerous and damaging in the long term as is a high calcium diet.
Please follow the special diet advice in our guide; it is not a guick fix as it takes several weeks to kick in but they will work in the long term. All we can say about our diet recommendations is that they work in practice; our long term members haven't had bladder stone problems since they switched to filtering water and reducing the pellet amount - in my case that is now 7-8 years.
Make sure that the diet contains a mix of some higher nutrient green and a good amount of watery veg like cucumber, lettuce and celery to encourage regular pees and flushing of the bladder to prevent a build up of bacteria and cystals.
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
The best thing you can do for overall comfort in the urinary tract is to give supplementary glucosamine in order to support the natural glucosamine coating of the beleaguered bladder walls after the crystals have been banging into them. The glucosamine coat prevent the corrosive urine from attacking the tissue of the walls. It really makes a lot of difference with any of the bladder issues but especially when you are dealing with a cystitis (bladder infection), whether it is a one-off bacterial one or a recurring sterile (i.e. non-bacterial one that cannot be got on top of with an antibiotic).
The easiest way is by mixing the contents of 1 capsule of feliway cystease with 2 ml of water, shake it and wait until has dissolved; shake again before use. You can give either 1 ml of the solution every 12 hours or 2 ml every 24 hours.
Again, it is not an immediate quick fix but it will contribute to your boy feeling better in the medium turn and being able to put on weight again on his own. It will also help in case you are dealing with a sterile interstitial cystitis (i.e. a non-bacterial recurring cystitis) which has become a lot more common over the last decade but is a problem not much know outside vet circles that see lots of piggies. Glucosamine and metacam are key in managing the symptoms during the regular flare ups. If symptoms recur, then you are most likely to be dealing with sterile IC.