Extreme squealing when urinating - post bladder stone op

[annachristina_piggies]

Tommy had a successful bladder stone removal surgery three weeks ago. 2 weeks post op he was doing well, however in the past week he has been squealing again ALOT, extremely loudly and it is breaking my heart every time he tries to urinate. The vet has prescribed a different set of antibiotics and some stronger painkillers, but neither seem to be helping or reducing the squealing noises. The vet suspects either the bladder hasn't healing properly or stones have formed along the stitches internally. ANY advice of experiences of this or thought on what it could be would be greatly appreciated! The vet is going to do another xray next week to find out more, but if there's more stones then we can't operate again so soon after the previous operation
My heart is breaking, I don't want him to be in pain but he is such an energetic and normal piggy when he isn't trying to go to the toilet!

 

[Eriathwen]

When Leonard had his bladder stone removed, he was fine for a couple of weeks but then began squealing again. In the end it took an 8 week course of antibiotics to kick the infection. He was squealing so loud I could hear him from downstairs every time he urinated and it was awful. Slowly but surely though he did begin to recover and stop. It's great he is getting an x-ray to be sure no more stones have formed. Sometimes UTI can be extremely stubborn and just take time, so fingers crossed it's is just that, not another stone.

 

[annachristina_piggies]

Ah that does give me hope that it is just a stubborn infection! Thank you for sharing your experience!

 

[LucyP]

I hope it’s an infection and it clears up soon, poor thing. Is he the one in your profile pic? That’s some serious cuteness!

 

[Wiebke]

Tommy had a successful bladder stone removal surgery three weeks ago. 2 weeks post op he was doing well, however in the past week he has been squealing again ALOT, extremely loudly and it is breaking my heart every time he tries to urinate. The vet has prescribed a different set of antibiotics and some stronger painkillers, but neither seem to be helping or reducing the squealing noises. The vet suspects either the bladder hasn't healing properly or stones have formed along the stitches internally. ANY advice of experiences of this or thought on what it could be would be greatly appreciated! The vet is going to do another xray next week to find out more, but if there's more stones then we can't operate again so soon after the previous operation
My heart is breaking, I don't want him to be in pain but he is such an energetic and normal piggy when he isn't trying to go to the toilet!

Hi!

I am very sorry; squeaking piggies are not fun at all!

Have you or your vet considered whether glucosamine may help with the comfort of the beleaguered bladder walls. The urinary tract has a natural glucosamine coating to protect the walls from the corrosive urine. Cat bladder supplements like cystease (they are not classed as a medication) can often help with the healing. You mix the contents of 1 capsule with 2 ml of water, shake well and syringe either all together once daily or 1 ml every 12 hours.

There is also the potential that your boy has picked up a sterile interstitial cystitis, which a condition that has become a lot more common over the last decade but is not much known by vets that are not seeing lots of guinea pigs. Metacam and glucosamine are key for treating the symptoms, similar to feline sterile cystitis (FSC). Sterile IC cannot be healed and as it is a non-bacterial (i.e. sterile) condition will not react to antibiotics.
For guinea pigs with a very strong sterile IC, cartrofen injections are currently started to be used but there is not a consensus about how this should be best used and in which form (monthly or 2 weekly).