Food to help or hinder a piggy with a bladder stone!

[Hamishsmum]

Hi All, Hamish has a bladder stone- again! He had one removed in 2011, but now, aged 6 and a bit, the vets are keen to manage his condition without resorting to surgery yet as he doesn't appear to be in any discomfort, (he has red in his wee though) and he's having baytril and metacam, with a view to keeping him on metacam for the foreseeable future. Does anyone know of any foods that would help his condition- and also, any that may hinder him, and should be avoided? Thanks for any help guys!

 

[sport_billy]

Hi you, Glad you made it on here

Low calcium foods will help as it is considered low calcium foods are better for bladder health in general. Here is a link to a sortable chart on Guinea Lynx which is an excellent medical website. You can order it by clinking on a heading such as calcium to see what foods are high and which aren't http://www.guinealynx.info/chart.html

Have a look at this thread also halfway down it gives you an idea on feeding frequencies of foods based on Calcium to phosphorous ratio http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/...sphorus-Ratios-Explained-Diet-Advice-included

Our girls eat fairly low calcium we feed like this

Breakfast
Piece of Pepper
Cucumber
Celery

Tea
Cucumber
Lettuce (3 times a week) or Coriander (1 per week) or Parsley (2 per week) or Savoy Cabbage (1 per week)
Occasional Broccoli or Carrot or green beans

 

[Jerrybelly]

In addition to the above, cutting out/restricting/changing nuggets can also help. The majority of calcium that piggies take in comes from their dry food.

Oxbow Cavy Cuisine and Vet Care Plus Multi-Modal Formula (http://www.vetuk.co.uk/guinea-pig-f...6/vetcare-plus-multi-modal-formula-1kg-p-9415) are two of the lowest calcium nuggets that I've come across (I've also got a 'bladder piggy' who is on long-term Metacam)

If your vet hasn't already mentioned it, then a glucosamine supplement can also help. These come in various forms, but Cystaid, Cystease and Cystophan are the most common, and are used to line the bladder walls to help against irritation. It may be worth speaking to your vet about it.

If you live in a hard water area, you may also consider filtering the water that you give to your boy. I bought a water filter, and now only give my piggies filtered water (my friends think I'm crazy!)

 

[gingersusie]

my piggie sow is prone to bladder sludge and was squeaking while weeing, the vet couldn't find anything wrong e.g. a stone so we went down the diet route, i cut out peppers from her diet and now she's fine .. i feed them coriander, cress, cucumber & carrots occasionally. this seems to work for me , they also like melon and apple which i feed in small quantities, they have pets at home nuggets and just meadow hay

 

[pelicano]

I have an elderly sow with huge calcium issues in her bladder. What I've found to help her is using Deeside bottled water (it's very low calcium, and my filtered water is much higher in calcium here), low calcium veggies and now I've actually cut out dried food altogether.

I don't rate Oxbow Cavy Cuisine, as it has limestone in it - ie calcium carbonate that most stones are made of! It did last time I checked the label, anyway.