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I'm a bit worried...

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BellasMummy

BellasMummy

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about my piggie Paislee. She has been drinking quite a lot the last few days, I've seen her at her water bottle a lot.
I have also noticed that when I cleaned there cage out the last few weeks that there are a lot of white marks left on the fleece. I understand that white milky wee is normal but when does it become a problem?
I'm worried she may have an urinary infection or bladder stones. She is eating normally and seems well in herself, its just the excessive drinking that worries me.
I'm also worried I am feeding them too much calcium rich foods, the calcium ratio thing always confused me and I took to feeding them just what I thought.
She is only about 18 months old and I'm so worried that I am doing the wrong thing and they are going to get ill.
Any advice or info would be much appreciated.
 
By excessive drinking how much do you mean?

The white Calcium deposits are excessive calcium being expelled from the body.

It was only recently I was informed excessive drinking is linked to UTI - I'm not
convinced, my main indicator of an infection is squeaking when urinating. Does she do this?

A urine test will confirm if she has an infection or not.
 
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No I haven't heard her squeak when urinating. I don't really know exactly how much she is drinking but she is at the water bottle a lot, so much so that both me and my Mum commented on it.
When I cleaned them out yesterday there was quite a large calcium mark left on the fleece, I touched it to see the consistency and it was quite pastey. Is this something I should be worried about?
Will any vet do the urine test or would I have to go to a rodent specialist?
 
How often do you refill the bottle?

You may have seen Milo"s excessive drinking thread - although he has other symptoms to but it was the water intake I noticed first. Between 2 pigs - they are drinking 354mls every 12 hours. Now this is mainly Milo but of course Esme drinks some to.

I have had another pig that was diabetic she also got though 400 mls a day easily,

Any vet can do a urine test - my vet also does a urine analysis - he's able to do it in house. This also tests for crystal formation. A dipstick test will show up blood and infection.

Do you feed readigrass? - if so stop it, as it's high in calcium.
 
No I don't feed Readigrass anymore.
I have just filled the bottle up this morning so will see how quickly it goes down. She does still seem to be at the bottle very often but she doesn't seem to actually drink all that much each time from what I can see.
I will see how quickly the water goes down and if its very quickly I will get Paislee to the vets.
Thankyou for your help :)
 
3 out of 4 of my pigs have had suspected UTI/kidney stones etc. despite always being careful with calcium rich foods. The noticeable thing with all of mine was definately squeaking when weeing/pooing and I never really noticed and increase in drinking water (although I'm sure they're all different).

Doing my own research over the years my understanding is that the white/chalky deposits isn't always bad as your pig is actually expelling it themselves (please someone correct me if I'm wrong!)

I have noticed my pig Baby drinking more recently as she eats pellets but doesn't do the same when eating hay and other food. Could this be the same for your pig?

Either way if your still worried I am a strong advocate for getting them to the vet for a check over. It;s fairly straight forward for them to test urine (they may ask you for a sample) and recently my vet was able to do an ultrasound there and then.
 
Well after seeing that almost half the bottle of water has been drunk since yesterday morning, I have rang the vets. They are very busy so haven't given an exact appointment but we should be able to take Paislee tonight.
I happened to see Paislee wee the other day and she didn't appear to be squeaking at all, its just the excessive drinking that is worrying me.
Anyway I will see what the vet says later on.
 
How many hours did it take the water to go down? Did you check she's drinking it and not just playing with it? Could the bottle be leaking?


Out of curiosity where did you read a UTI is linked to Water Consumption?
 
It was less than 24 hours and yes she is drinking it as I can see the bubbles going up and the water level going down. The bottle drips a tiny bit but always has done.
I think I read somewhere on here that piggies who are drinking more could have a UTI or it could be something else. Either way my piggies mean so much to me and I want to get to the bottom of whats causing this.
 
BellasMummy said:
It was less than 24 hours and yes she is drinking it as I can see the bubbles going up and the water level going down. The bottle drips a tiny bit but always has done.
I think I read somewhere on here that piggies who are drinking more could have a UTI or it could be something else. Either way my piggies mean so much to me and I want to get to the bottom of whats causing this.
Click to expand...

I know what you mean - it's a change in behaviour and I would be the same. Do be careful they haven't adapted a new way of drinking. My Fred looks like he's drinking but then you see the water dribble out his mouth convinced he likes to play it or hasn't established how to drink without making a mess.


I only ask - as my vet said that to me recently and I have never read anything about it.
 
flintstones said:
I know what you mean - it's a change in behaviour and I would be the same. Do be careful they haven't adapted a new way of drinking. My Fred looks like he's drinking but then you see the water dribble out his mouth convinced he likes to play it or hasn't established how to drink without making a mess.


I only ask - as my vet said that to me recently and I have never read anything about it.
Click to expand...

It is definitely something I will check for. Its just that usually they both don't drink very much and I only have to change there water once every 6 days but just recently the water has been going down very quickly and Paislee seems to always be at the bottle.
Anyway I will see what the vet can suggest, I just really hope its not Diabetes.
 
So I took Paislee to the vets last night. All the vet could do was say that pretty much everything I'm doing for the piggies is wrong, apparently they should drink from a bowl not a bottle as sucking is hard to do(they don't suck from the bottle they lick it anyway), they should be on woodshavings not fleece as thats unnatural(I said about possible respiratory problems with shavings and she said as long as its clean that won't happen).
She didn't seem at all concerned that Paislee had almost single handedly drunk most of a 600ml bottle of water is less than a day.
She said that if I wanted then she could give Paislee some anti-biotics and left it at that. I could see that was all she was going to say, so I got some Baytril for her.
I mentioned about the fact that it could be a UTI and she didn't say anything about it at all. I'm so annoyed, she made me feel like I was making an issue out of something that wasn't a problem when in fact I think Paislee drinking almost a whole bottle of water in less than a day is a problem!
Just don't know what to do for the best at all now, the vet is useless :(
 
Oh love............ i'm really sorry to hear about Paislee :...

please give her some loving and healing wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeks from the girls and I XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

i'm a tad bit confuzzmled by the vets comments........shouldn't be housed on fleece? shouldn't drink out of a bottle cause it's hard to suck?
sheeeeeeeeeeeesh no wonder you came away so upset!!
They are supposed to be exotic vet's that have seen cavies?

HUGGLES TO YOU SWEETIE XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

sorry for the questions i just had to voice my distaste at their lack of compassion and honestly their integrity? :x

hope you can find another vet who'll discuss with you the real problems and diagnose and medicate appropriately ! :)
 
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