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Patrick - Crystal formation.

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flintstones said:
I feel awful for him and as this has been going on for 3 months I think something needs to give sometime soon!

What Antibiotic was your pig given for a UTI - might be worthwhile trying Septrin if you haven't done already.

Tonight I have removed everything Patrick is only being fed hay and grass when the other pigs get veggies in the hope I can find what's triggering his ongoing episodes but I'm seriously considering getting a Urine Cultures done although I fear it will tell me what I already know - no infection present :(.

Have you had a urine analysis to check if crystals are present?
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Hello, yes he was on septrin twice a day. He was on baytril previously a month ago and that along with pain relief sorted it immediately then we had issues with bloat for a week or so after but hes not had that since thankfully. At that time he had the conscious xray. This morning shes kept him in :... I know a lot go under GA but I cried on the way home! Its a first for me, only had my bunnies 3 years (in my adult life) and my piggies a year and this is the first time one has had GA. She says shell try ultrasound first and she also said she could feel a stone this morning so maybe its that with Pipkin. Poor Patrick, 3 months is terrible! That feeling when you hear them squeaking constantly is haunting as you feel so guilty. Ive only had it a week this time so far....I really hope you can get to the bottom of the problem. Ooh and yes she said shell try and take a urine sample while hes under but he was due a wee when I left him so she took him off to sit him in a plastic container so hopefully it wont be necessary...lots of get well wishes and love for Patrick xx
 
Cystaid sorted Darcy

Only just picked up on this thread folks.I sympathise completely the whole chronic bladder thing is upsetting.I had same problem,Darcy was on cystaid for 12 months for same issues and had no reoccurances.It coats bladder with protective layer.
 
Poor Patrick :( It is so distressing watching them struggle to wee. Connie went on like this for 5 months.

She also had crystals in her urine which were painful for her to pass :(

I know it may sound stupid but do you give him tap water? I only give mine bottled or filtered water now due to any crap that may be in normal tap water.

Has your vet mentioned a bladder flush? Although we sadly lost Connie, she appeared much better after a bladder flush xx
 
Thanks for the replies - The vet did say with cases like this we normally have to consider interfering surgically of course I don't want to do this if it can be helped.

Patrick is already on Cytease essentially Cystaid but without the alpha and has been for about 2-3 months. It's not helping release his symptoms he gets half a capsule daily.

I have him on just a hay and grass diet to see if I can isolate the triggers - I also give him vit C daily as well as pain relief when needed.

He was crying this morning and to top it off had soft poop - so have administered probiotic and the only thing in life that he gets as a treat ie grass is now removed. Poor sod!

Thanks for the suggestion Claire W his water is filtered.
 
Carolinemm said:
Hello, yes he was on septrin twice a day. He was on baytril previously a month ago and that along with pain relief sorted it immediately then we had issues with bloat for a week or so after but hes not had that since thankfully. At that time he had the conscious xray. This morning shes kept him in :... I know a lot go under GA but I cried on the way home! Its a first for me, only had my bunnies 3 years (in my adult life) and my piggies a year and this is the first time one has had GA. She says shell try ultrasound first and she also said she could feel a stone this morning so maybe its that with Pipkin. Poor Patrick, 3 months is terrible! That feeling when you hear them squeaking constantly is haunting as you feel so guilty. Ive only had it a week this time so far....I really hope you can get to the bottom of the problem. Ooh and yes she said shell try and take a urine sample while hes under but he was due a wee when I left him so she took him off to sit him in a plastic container so hopefully it wont be necessary...lots of get well wishes and love for Patrick xx
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Healing vibes to your little one - let us know how he gets on. X
 
You know Gizmo's story Jo and removing the veg to find the triggers worked for him and i now know what veg triggers an episode of his IC. He also gets a full capsule of the cystease daily. When i took away the veg i still gave hay,grass and small amount of dry food, then slowly introduced bland watery veg lettuce (NO COS, ROMAINE) cucumber, peppers and coriander. Took a while but we got there in the end.

Also he has vegetable juice as a treat, he loves it and sometimes i mixed his cystease with that and he adores it. Joey likes it too. The vet said it was ok to give and if that also encouraged him to drink the better. I do water it down.
 
Patrick's pellets are back to normal, although he's still squeaking despite pain killers. He also has a fairly annoying bar biting habit!

Almost 24 hrs without veggies - hopefully the squeaking will stop soon and we can start operation find the cause!
 
Just catching up on this thread. Some good info!

Last time flash was at the vet's they found crystals in her wee would cystese help her? If so how much should be given and where can you buy it?
 
Poor Patrick - Hope he feels better soon. I have no experience with this type of piggy problem
 
Someone on another forum told me this yesterday.

' if you take the sample of urine yourself and allow it to cool there may be more crystals (the process of cooling encourages them to precipitate out) worth remembering when going to the vet to have urine tested.
 
EmJ said:
Just catching up on this thread. Some good info!

Last time flash was at the vet's they found crystals in her wee would cystese help her? If so how much should be given and where can you buy it?
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You can buy it from VetUk - but I would discuss with your vet before administering if your pig isn't having problems urinating I wouldn't bother - Patrick has chronic bladder problems.

Pat : I'm sorry I didn't reply to your question re gout - I don't know the answer I don't think it's the same I think Patrick has something along the lines of Chronic Cystitis but then the crystals can't be helping - it'd be nice to know what's going on.
 
Pat Shields said:
How is it served, meaning is it in a bowl or a water bottle?
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I gave mine via syringe, i use a 10ml syringe and put the juice into a little medicine measuring pot, mix with water normally 50-50 and then syringe them as much as they want. They can take 10-40 mls each and i normally do this every other day so I'm happy they are getting extra fluids.

I get the V8 juice which is in the juice section. Its this one.
http://www.auravita.com/product/Cam...Juice.NAST11809.html?RefId=220&adid=NAST11809

In asda i pay £1.78 i think and i do drink some myself as its rather alot of two piggys :))
 
Joey&Gizmo said:
I gave mine via syringe, i use a 10ml syringe and put the juice into a little medicine measuring pot, mix with water normally 50-50 and then syringe them as much as they want. They can take 10-40 mls each and i normally do this every other day so I'm happy they are getting extra fluids.

I get the V8 juice which is in the juice section. Its this one.
http://www.auravita.com/product/Cam...Juice.NAST11809.html?RefId=220&adid=NAST11809

In asda i pay £1.78 i think and i do drink some myself as its rather alot of two piggys :))
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Just thought i would add the veg that sets Gizmo's IC off, i know all pigs will be different but just to give you a idea. So here's the list:

Dill
Parsley
Kale
Chicory
Cos and romaine lettuce
Sweetcorn
Pak choi

When i feed the above he has his IC episodes, so obviously i dont feed the above anymore. Gizmo is also on long term cystease and has been taking it since October 2010.

I also changed to glass water bottle and since doing this both my pigs drink more.

:)
 
Hi Sam -

Really appreciate the information! Patrick is still on just grass and hay he is either urinating less or the squeaks aren't occuring with every pee/poo - which is better.

He is in a nice routine now - where he comes out has a little bowl of grass well everyone else has there veg - he also gets Cystease and Vitamin C tablet ( Patrick thinks it's a sweetie).

His weight hasn't changed, as this morning he wasn't in the same discomfort as he was previously I have held off the pain killers will see how he is tonight.

I'm hopeful by Saturday - I can maybe introduce pellets provided the squeak is gone if not I might speak to the vet about another course of Antibiotics as that always seems to help!

Do you syringe Gizmo water daily, if so how much?

Thanks again everyone for the healing wheeks and the advice.

x
 
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flintstones said:
Hi Sam -

Really appreciate the information! Patrick is still on just grass and hay he is either urinating less or the squeaks aren't occuring with every pee/poo - which is better.

He is in a nice routine now - where he comes out has a little bowl of grass well everyone else has there veg - he also gets Cystease and Vitamin C tablet ( Patrick thinks it's a sweetie).

His weight hasn't changed, as this morning he wasn't in the same discomfort as he was previously I have held off the pain killers will see how he is tonight.

I'm hopeful by Saturday - I can maybe introduce pellets provided the squeak is gone if not I might speak to the vet about another course of Antibiotics as that always seems to help!

Do you syringe Gizmo water daily, if so how much?

Thanks again everyone for the healing wheeks and the advice.

x
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Sorry ive quoted you, but it isnt letting me just do a instant reply for some reason keeps going to quote!

Yes i do try and syringe him water daily but he prefers the veg juice watered down with water, so i give him that. He is so fussy and spits the water out so i just let him drink from the water bottle when he wants and i then syringe him the veg juice mix. He and Joey adores it and comes running as soon as they see it.

I talked to my vet about him having the veg juice and he said it wont harm him and if its helping with the intake of water then thats all the better. Like i said before i do mix it with water so it looks like red squash. My vet also said some people give vit c daily via syringe, not sure what though as i was more interested in the veg juice. But the oxbow vit c seems to be the best and aslong as he is having that then I'm sure that his vit c levels should be fine.

The veg juice ingredients are:
tomato (87%) carrot celery beetroot parsley lettuce watercress spinach. It does say salt&spice extract but a 150ml glass is 0.36 of salt and i give it watered down so I'm not worried that I'm overdosing with salt as there would be a tiny amount in the juice i give.

The juice seems to mostly be made up of tomato juice and even though it says it contains parsley and this is a trigger for Gizmo, the juice does not cause any problems at all. I'm thinking maybe as its such a small amount.

To me the juice mainly tastes of tomato and carrots. :)

So glad that Patrick hasn't lost any weight :))

I noticed once i got to the bottom of Gizmo's problem his weight increased and he weighs nearly the same as Joey now and he is quite heavy. But i did notice in the summer he does weigh less than the winter, he's always been like that so I'm not too worried about that as he stays the same weight all summer until October time when he seems to bulk up for the winter months.
 
flintstones said:
Do you know roughly how much veg juice you syringe a day?
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Yeah about 40mls sometimes more, it depends what moods they are in. But most days its 40mls as they love it, so really that would be 20mls water and 20ml veg juice mixed together.

They also drink from their water bottle and when i bring them grass i wash that too and just shake the water off so some water is on that too.

Hope that helps xx
 
Patrick was sat crying this morning continuously, In the hay - really worrying but when I brought him out his cage he perked up no end. I noticed he had blood in his urine yesterday - unfortunately I'm unable to take him to the vet but I have arranged for my mum to take him first thing for me. There isn't much blood in his urine today which is good new's.

Bless his cotton socks - I hope there's something we can do for him!
 
flintstones said:
Patrick was sat crying this morning continuously, In the hay - really worrying but when I brought him out his cage he perked up no end. I noticed he had blood in his urine yesterday - unfortunately I'm unable to take him to the vet but I have arranged for my mum to take him first thing for me. There isn't much blood in his urine today which is good new's.

Bless his cotton socks - I hope there's something we can do for him!
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:( poor little Patrick, so sorry to hear he isn't feeling great again, i too hope we can get this sorted out for him! Glad that there isn't much blood in his urine today, that's a good sign for you! Sending my healing vibes his way :laluot_29::laluot_29::laluot_29:
 
Awww. poor Patrick sending healing vibes his way...
 
Pretty sure Patrick is urinating blood :( - How the white towel/pad works!

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK9BlRmjKnE[/ame]
 
Oh no poor Patrick :( I honestly dont know how youve gone on for months worrying! I hope hes still ok generally tho, still munching his hay like a good boy? :) xx
 
Hope you get some answers for poor Patrick and he's feeling much better soon.
 
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