Need help getting the diet right to combat gritty urine

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morumotto

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Hey! I'm having some issues balancing my piggies' diets. One of my piggies in particular is having gritty urine (sterile cystitis) and I'm not sure how I need to adjust my diet to better help her. This is what they each get (typically) now:
  • Purified (reverse osmosis) drinking water (I buy gallon jugs at the store)
  • 1 tbsp Oxbow Adult Guinea Pig Pellets
  • Unlimited Timothy hay
  • 1 slice of pepper (usually yellow or orange, about 15 - 20g)
  • A sprig of cilantro
  • Half a dandelion leaf (diuretic to help encourage drinking / passing urine; these are big leaves so I only do about half a day)
That is usually what they get each day, and is what their diet is currently. Sometimes the cilantro gets rotated out for romaine lettuce (one leaf split three ways) or more recently a slice of cucumber (I don't feed this as often because one of my other piggies has chronic gas and I had heard cucumber can exacerbate that).

I should also note that my girl with the gritty urine is currently on Cosequin twice a day (switches to once a day tomorrow) and gets Meloxicam whenever she has a bad episode.

Does this diet look correct? Is there any adjustment I need to make? I try to keep them all on the same diet because that's easier for me to keep track of, but if they need more specialized, individual diets I can certainly do that. Anything to avoid another hefty vet bill! I have already checked out the Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets guide, but I'm sure there's something I'm missing.
 
Hey! I wanted to bump this back up. My girl piggie is having gritty urine after not having it for a couple of weeks so I want to revisit this.

I've adjusted her diet slightly, so now it's this:

MON: Cilantro, Cucumber, Bell Pepper
TUES: Cilantro, Dandelion Greens, Bell Pepper
WED: Romaine Lettuce, Cucumber, Bell Pepper
THURS: Cilantro, Cucumber, Bell Pepper
FRI: Romaine Lettuce, Dandelion Greens, Bell Pepper
SAT: Cilantro, Cucumber, Bell Pepper
SUN: Cilantro, Romaine Lettuce, Bell Pepper

EVERYDAY: Purified (reverse osmosis) drinking water, 1 tbsp Oxbow Adult Guinea Pig Pellets, Unlimited Timothy hay
MEDS: Cosequin, Meloxicam as needed

Basically the difference from before is that I cut down on the dandelion greens. I know it might be a bit much to schedule out like this, but I'm trying to figure out a diet that works for her. Does anyone have any advice?

Some extra background info: She was suspected to have a UTI two months ago and was treated for it. She went into GI stasis during this time. Less than a month later she started having painful urination again and this time had a culture taken. It came back sterile so she was diagnosed with cystitis. A month later she had one instance of gritty urine (June 10th). It calmed down, and then on Monday of this week she started squealing again and tonight passed more gritty urine. I've never dealt with cystitis before, but I am assuming this is a normal part of a flare up and am treating it as such by trying to correct her diet. If this is incorrect (or if this post in general is more suited for the Health & Illness section of the forum) let me know.
 
It is a case of working out what works for her and what her triggers are, but the guide below has a section on the veg portion of feeding bladder piggies. Personally I would give cucumber every day due to its water content as it can help keep the bladder flushing through (important if she is having gritty urine).

It may also help to reduce her pellets down/not give them every day if any other changes dont help going forward

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
 
Piggies&buns said:
It is a case of working out what works for her and what her triggers are, but the guide below has a section on the veg portion of feeding bladder piggies. Personally I would give cucumber every day due to its water content as it can help keep the bladder flushing through (important if she is having gritty urine).

It may also help to reduce her pellets down/not give them every day if any other changes dont help going forward

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
Click to expand...

Thank you for replying! I will do as you suggest and do cucumber everyday and lessen the amount of pellets. Hopefully this helps 🤞
 
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