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Low calcium piggy

H

HannahS

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hello,
This is my first thread though I have read many! I live in Chelmsford, Essex, UK. My georgous guinea pig Wilbur who I nearly 1 has had a few bladder problems and was found to have sludge, it was originally inflamed and had Spurs in them I think that's what the. Eg called them, they're now gone. He is having regular ultrasounds and is on metacam daily his next appointment is on Friday. I've done everything he's on special water and a low calcium diet everything seems fine although he is still squeaking sometimes when he goes to the toilet :( but I do like to treat him (he's not my only guinea pig I have 5) the problem is sooo many of the veg have high calcium so I was just wondering if anyone has any low calcium treat suggestions?
I apologise for the length of this 😂
Many thanks,
Hannah.
 
Hello and welcome to you and Wilbur.
Ever since I had my first piggy with a bladder stone I follow the guide Wiebke wrote (I’ll link it here Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets) I follow it for all my piggies including one with sterile cystitis.

I use grain free pellets, filtered water and follow the diet which together has really helped. I also give my bladder piggy cystease daily to help with the lining of her bladder.

For treats mine get coriander or dill which are low in calcium. Sadly kale is high in calcium so they no longer get that (they used to love it). It’s all about giving a balanced diet while avoiding trigger foods or those high in calcium.

We love photos. Any chance of a photo of Wilbur?
 
Hi and welcome

Please follow the diet advice for guinea pigs with urinary tract problems in @VickiA 's link. We have made good experiences with it. Be aware that more calcium often comes via hard water (filtering or low calcium bottled water will hopefully make a huge difference); the same goes for pellets. Please keep in mind that veg should only make about 10% of the daily food intake (we have a picture of a balanced sample diet of which the bladder diet is a slightly stricter version) and 1 tablespoon of grain-free pellets. The rest (over 80%) should be ideally timothy hay, which is the hay lowest in calcium.

The other thing you can do for your boy is to put him on cystease, as we recommend for all guinea pigs with ongoing urinary tract problems. This is a glucosamine based cat food supplement (other species prone to bladder problems) which helps to support the beleaguered natural glucosamine coating of the walls of the urinary tract. It is important for general comfort. You mix the contents of one capsule in 2 ml of water in a small medicine or other bottle, shake well and wait until the powder has dissolved. Give 1 ml twice daily. Keep in the fridge between syringing, shake well before use and make fresh daily.

Please be aware that the calcium absorption process is complex. Diet can make a huge difference, but it will take a while to work out all the excess calcium, so the effect is not instant in my own experience from when I ended up with several bladder stone piggies in the wake of experimenting with diets a number of years back. It also depends on what exactly is going wrong with the calcium absorption.
But our diet recommendations do generally work over the longer term. I haven't had any stones since 2013 after the last of the diet experiment stones had finally been got out.
Whether you can get away with just filtering or need to fully switch to bottled water (both Morrison's and Tesco's have a low calcium brand), depends on just how hard and mineral rich your local water supply is.

Please have him regularly monitored at the vet's for a recurring build-up of sludge and for cystitis (bacterial or sterile bladder wall infection - hence the glucosamine but a bacterial cystitis will also require antibiotics); the squeaking when peeing can be an indication of any of these issues.
 
Welcome to the forum.
Hope the advice helps you make Wilbur’s life easier.
We do love pictures of piggies
 
Hello,
Thank you so much for the kind advice I will look into all the links ☺️ Yes all my piggies get about one cup of veg a day. They are on excel orgegano and black currant at the moment and always have access to fresh Timothy hay. I try and give them different kinds to choose from to brighten their days lol. He is also on the lowest calcium water I could find which is from Tesco. Yes sadly kale was Wilbur's favourite as well :( poor thing I have got him onto coriander but it doesn't get him as excited as parsley used to but he's not allowed that anymore either lol poor boy. I will definitely ask the vet about cystease on Friday ! Because she mentioned she would ideally like him off the metacam being a young guinea pig but she did also say that it might not be possible X
 
HannahS said:
Hello,
Thank you so much for the kind advice I will look into all the links ☺ Yes all my piggies get about one cup of veg a day. They are on excel orgegano and black currant at the moment and always have access to fresh Timothy hay. I try and give them different kinds to choose from to brighten their days lol. He is also on the lowest calcium water I could find which is from Tesco. Yes sadly kale was Wilbur's favourite as well :( poor thing I have got him onto coriander but it doesn't get him as excited as parsley used to but he's not allowed that anymore either lol poor boy. I will definitely ask the vet about cystease on Friday ! Because she mentioned she would ideally like him off the metacam being a young guinea pig but she did also say that it might not be possible X
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When you see your vet, you could also ask her about the advisability of potassium citrate, which forum members with bladder stone/sludge problems have sometimes been prescribed by exotics vets. ;)

But I would really strongly recommend the cystease or comparable glucosamine based products. Please be aware that this is not a medication as such but classed as food supplement and easily (and much more cheaply) available online. It can help with the discomfort although I wouldn't stop with the metacam yet as long as their is any squeaking and always step back in if there is. Guinea pigs do thankfully deal much better with metacam even in much higher dosages than dogs or cats than those species; it doesn't seem to impact on their kidneys the same way in rodents. ;)

What dose of metacam is your piggy on (cat or dog)?
 
Thank you so much for all the advice! He is on the cats one and its to the 2kg mark on the syringe once daily. He was doing fine, every now and then he just has a bad kind of relapse where he squeaks a lot for about a day 😢 Breaks my heart. I think I am just going to have to be really strict with his diet and see what the next ultrasound shows. Fingers crossed all is clear 😁 Xx
 
Forgot to say I have tried dill and my two young girls loved it, I thought it was too high in calcium for Wilbur but I gave to my eldest teddy he's nearly 7 and he didn't even try it .... He's very particular 😂😂 doesn't like any changes lol X
 
HannahS said:
Thank you so much for all the advice! He is on the cats one and its to the 2kg mark on the syringe once daily. He was doing fine, every now and then he just has a bad kind of relapse where he squeaks a lot for about a day 😢 Breaks my heart. I think I am just going to have to be really strict with his diet and see what the next ultrasound shows. Fingers crossed all is clear 😁 Xx
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Hi! That is about as minimal a dose of painkiller as to be virtually ineffective. :(
You can safely give up to 1.2 ml of cat metacam/ 0.4 ml dog metacam twice daily in an emergency with real pain to an average sized adult guinea pig of around 1 kg. Please give any metacam every twelve hours because of the fast metabolism that guinea pigs have. In my experience, metacam start wearing off after 10 hours.

My 8 years old Hedydd is currently on that dosage for her advanced arthritis, as prescribed by the piggy savvy vet she's been treated by.
 
Oh maybe I should ask the vet if we can up the dose when he has a bad day 😢😢 hate to think of him in pain poor baby xx
 
HannahS said:
Oh maybe I should ask the vet if we can up the dose when he has a bad day 😢😢 hate to think of him in pain poor baby xx
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You can definitely dose up. Because of the faster metabolism, medical dosages for guinea pigs are generally noticeably higher than they would be for a cat or dog of comparable size.

Here is the link to our recommended UK vets locator (you can find it on our top bar): Recommended Guinea Pig Vets
 
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