Leilalouise
Junior Guinea Pig
Hi, I’ve not posted for a while but I could do with some advice on the situation I find myself in with one of my girls.
Briefly, Sinead is about 5.5 years old and has been plagued by problems for the past few years. She has been spayed for ovarian cysts, has long term bladder issues (sludge/IC managed with diet, Metacam & Glucosamine) and recently had surgery for an inner eyelid growth.
About a week ago she started being picky about her food and lost some weight. I monitored her weight for 48 hours but then took her to the vet as she started to have what looked like coughing/choking episodes and was dribbling food back out rather than swallowing. Vet looked at teeth and did an ultrasound which showed a fluid-filled mass in her abdomen so referred us to exotic vet.
Exotic vet examined her and carried out bloods and whole body CT. the results have come back as a myriad of problems:
Teeth-no problems
Chest-small nodule in lung, maybe scarring from previous infection or slight possibility of metastatic spread from liver/kidney lesion
Liver-cystic mass, probable benign cyst, small possibility of neoplasia
Left kidney-cystic mass, probable benign cyst, small possibility of neoplasia
Gallbladder-inflamed and possible gallstone
Bladder-very small, severely thickened with stone and sludge and some small stones present through tract
Spine-abnormality of 2 thoracic vertebra, probably congenital
Left shoulder-severe osteoarthritis
Both stifles (back legs)-moderate osteoarthritis
After a long discussion with vet he thinks the things that need action are her bladder and possibly gallbladder so we have 3 options:
1. Invasive surgery-remove the gallbladder entirely and go into bladder to remove stone and flush sludge.
2.Non-invasive surgery-bladder flush with catheter under anaesthetic.
3. Hyper-hydration - inject fluid under skin for several weeks which the body will absorb and use to flush system naturally. This will be combined with the use of Potassium citrate and additional painkiller such as Tramadol and Gabapentin.
Sooo, bearing in mind she is an older girl and has 3 anaesthetics in the last month already (2 in 2 days this week!) we have opted initially for the hyper-hydration for 3 weeks followed by ultrasound to look at progress as the vet said he has seen good results with this treatment. This should hopefully greatly impact her bladder and with a modified diet of no fatty or sugary food together with painkiller her gallbladder may settle down too. If the ultrasound shows no improvement we are thinking of the bladder flush as next option. We are going to vet on Monday to be trained in the Injection technique so I can carry out the procedure at home.
I suppose I just wanted to be reassured about my actions. She is an older girl but despite her problems she was active and cheerful until last week. She now seems OK on the painkiller and vet mentioned that she was bright so I don’t think her time to sleep has arrived yet. On the other hand I don’t think major surgery is an option so we’ll see if she responds and hope for the best. Any suggestions or comments would be gratefully received.
Finally, one note of caution to anyone with limited vet funds-please consider insurance or at least a very healthy savings pot-just this episode has cost in the region of £1200 so far with gloomy prospects of bills to come. This is on top of a post-neuter abscess in another pig and a long journey with a fatal pneumonia in yet another pig since lockdown. I’ve stopped looking at my bank statements! Not ideal but thank goodness for credit cards! Overtime please
Briefly, Sinead is about 5.5 years old and has been plagued by problems for the past few years. She has been spayed for ovarian cysts, has long term bladder issues (sludge/IC managed with diet, Metacam & Glucosamine) and recently had surgery for an inner eyelid growth.
About a week ago she started being picky about her food and lost some weight. I monitored her weight for 48 hours but then took her to the vet as she started to have what looked like coughing/choking episodes and was dribbling food back out rather than swallowing. Vet looked at teeth and did an ultrasound which showed a fluid-filled mass in her abdomen so referred us to exotic vet.
Exotic vet examined her and carried out bloods and whole body CT. the results have come back as a myriad of problems:
Teeth-no problems
Chest-small nodule in lung, maybe scarring from previous infection or slight possibility of metastatic spread from liver/kidney lesion
Liver-cystic mass, probable benign cyst, small possibility of neoplasia
Left kidney-cystic mass, probable benign cyst, small possibility of neoplasia
Gallbladder-inflamed and possible gallstone
Bladder-very small, severely thickened with stone and sludge and some small stones present through tract
Spine-abnormality of 2 thoracic vertebra, probably congenital
Left shoulder-severe osteoarthritis
Both stifles (back legs)-moderate osteoarthritis
After a long discussion with vet he thinks the things that need action are her bladder and possibly gallbladder so we have 3 options:
1. Invasive surgery-remove the gallbladder entirely and go into bladder to remove stone and flush sludge.
2.Non-invasive surgery-bladder flush with catheter under anaesthetic.
3. Hyper-hydration - inject fluid under skin for several weeks which the body will absorb and use to flush system naturally. This will be combined with the use of Potassium citrate and additional painkiller such as Tramadol and Gabapentin.
Sooo, bearing in mind she is an older girl and has 3 anaesthetics in the last month already (2 in 2 days this week!) we have opted initially for the hyper-hydration for 3 weeks followed by ultrasound to look at progress as the vet said he has seen good results with this treatment. This should hopefully greatly impact her bladder and with a modified diet of no fatty or sugary food together with painkiller her gallbladder may settle down too. If the ultrasound shows no improvement we are thinking of the bladder flush as next option. We are going to vet on Monday to be trained in the Injection technique so I can carry out the procedure at home.
I suppose I just wanted to be reassured about my actions. She is an older girl but despite her problems she was active and cheerful until last week. She now seems OK on the painkiller and vet mentioned that she was bright so I don’t think her time to sleep has arrived yet. On the other hand I don’t think major surgery is an option so we’ll see if she responds and hope for the best. Any suggestions or comments would be gratefully received.
Finally, one note of caution to anyone with limited vet funds-please consider insurance or at least a very healthy savings pot-just this episode has cost in the region of £1200 so far with gloomy prospects of bills to come. This is on top of a post-neuter abscess in another pig and a long journey with a fatal pneumonia in yet another pig since lockdown. I’ve stopped looking at my bank statements! Not ideal but thank goodness for credit cards! Overtime please