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People's Ic Stories

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Coco&Luna

Coco&Luna

Adult Guinea Pig
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I really don't understand interstitial cystitis (I didn't even know males could develop it!) and so I'm here to draw on people's knowledge and personal experience.

Can any one please give me information on:
> What it actually is.
> IC symptoms
> What needs to be ruled out before a diagnosis of IC
> How it is diagnosed
> How the guinea pigs carers can help (diet and General care)
> Treatment
> Inc. medication: how it works and how effective it is.
> Prognosis and whether it can be cured or is a chronic condition.

Thanks guys
X
 
Helen will answer this question in detail . What I can tell you is that owners of piggies prone to IC often refer to their piggies as bladder piggies.

I also know the veggie part of the IC diet is ...


1 french bean
a slice of capsicum pepper
a few slices of celery
a 1" sliver of spring green
1 sprig coriander
a slice cucumber


... this a portion for 1 pig and is given morning and evening

Helen knows the best pellets for an IC piggie
 
I have one IC pig - Amy. My late Phoebe had it too. It is basically inflammation of the bladder wall.

Symptoms:

Squeaky pees
Blood in urine (not always visible except on a test stick)
Uncomfortable when pooing
Can be more prone to UTI
Passing frank blood

Bladder stones, sludge needs to be ruled out first (Amy has just had an xray for this and she had a scan a couple of years ago too).

Amy was diagnosed by an ultrasound scan but an xray is good for ruling out stones.

Medication:

Anti-inflammatories - Amy only has these when needed
Glucosamine - Amy is on 250mg a day but a lot of vets dose at 125mg a day and prescribe either Cystease or Cystophan instead which also have 2 other active ingredients. Amy had just had Cystophan added in too.
Our vet has also made up a herb blend to give her

Prognosis is good as long as symptoms can be kept under control. For a female sometimes spaying can help though I have not got to this stage yet with Amy.

Diet - the IC diet @PiggyOwner has mentioned, which was put together by a lady I know who has done cast amounts of research into pigs with IC. She also recommends grainless pellets as grains can cause inflammation and the recommended brands are either Bunny, Vitakraft emotion or JR Farms grainless.
 
Thank you guys. Stanley's has an xray and an ultrasound this week. Both came back clear.
I'm on my way to pick him up, he's being prescribed metacam and cystease and another medicine for suspected IC, I'll know better when I get back. I've to get a urine sample to hand in this week too.
They said he has a little bit of sludge which may have to be flushed if his symptoms don't improve, but hopefully I can get his diet on track myself.
I'll start the IC diet today, I've just been to sainsburys and bought the veg. I'll also order the jr farms pellets today. I have the bunny pellets but they literally won't touch them at all.
Is there anything else you would recommend I can do to keep it under control?
 
So annoying with zoo plus, you only want a bag of £4.99 pellets, but then minimum orders have to be £9 and to reach that you end up having to go a few pounds over the £9, then there's £2.99 delivery fee. So £4.99 ended up being 15.99. How rude!
 
Ah see I don't have that problem as the £4.99 bag lasts about a day with my lot. Hope they like them.

Would be interested to know what the other medicine you are being given is?
 
oh God Helen, lol, do you have to buy those huge 5kg bags?

Aww, sorry, nah I must have misheard the woman, but I was so sure she said she was give me something that sounded like rimadel :S but I just got a new bottle of metacam and 7 cystease capsules though and too take him back and see how he gets on with it.
 
Rimadyl is another pain relief like Metacam. I've used it before on a piggy who had a bad reaction to Metacam :)
 
@Jaycey Ahhhh, that makes sense. I'm glad they didn't bother then, the Metacam works well for Stan the man for now.
I'm slowly developing an encyclopedic knowledge on guinea pig medical conditions these days with these hairy stress balls!
 
Coco&Luna said:
oh God Helen, lol, do you have to buy those huge 5kg bags?

Aww, sorry, nah I must have misheard the woman, but I was so sure she said she was give me something that sounded like rimadel :S but I just got a new bottle of metacam and 7 cystease capsules though and too take him back and see how he gets on with it.
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Yes I do. They last a while though.
 
Coco&Luna said:
@Jaycey Ahhhh, that makes sense. I'm glad they didn't bother then, the Metacam works well for Stan the man for now.
I'm slowly developing an encyclopedic knowledge on guinea pig medical conditions these days with these hairy stress balls!
Click to expand...

They do like to worry us don't they?! Little monsters ;)
 
Ok, so Helen, jaycey and Kerrie... since I've never had to deal with this, be prepared for a future onslaught of what, when, who, where, why questions regarding IC . AREN'T YOU LUCKY LADIES! ;)
Hahaha. X
 
Jeezo giving half a capsule is ridiculous. Emptying the capsule onto a mirror and using a bank card to devide it, then mix half with water and draw it up. I feel like a drug user hahahah. Maybe very slightly easier than working with tablets though.
 
Fun eh! I would find it easier to mix it all up with water, then just give half , and put the rest in the fridge for tomorrow.

One of my boys has a tablet which is tiny and needs to be cut into 8 pieces. No way Jose. Best I can do is quarters. I mix one of the quarters with 2ml of water and give him 1ml a day, the rest goes in the fridge for the next day. I have little pots (I think they're baby food containers, from Asda) to mix them in now, but it wasn't that long ago that I had urine collection bottles in my fridge with bits of tablet/capsule mixtures in them. I did get a few odd glances from friends who went in the fridge for something. XD
 
Oh, and if you want any if us to see your posts stick a @ in front of our name, like @Jaycey and then it'll tell us you've posted. Any questions just shout :D
 
Jaycey said:
Fun eh! I would find it easier to mix it all up with water, then just give half , and put the rest in the fridge for tomorrow.

One of my boys has a tablet which is tiny and needs to be cut into 8 pieces. No way Jose. Best I can do is quarters. I mix one of the quarters with 2ml of water and give him 1ml a day, the rest goes in the fridge for the next day. I have little pots (I think they're baby food containers, from Asda) to mix them in now, but it wasn't that long ago that I had urine collection bottles in my fridge with bits of tablet/capsule mixtures in them. I did get a few odd glances from friends who went in the fridge for something. XD
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This is exactly what we do.
 
I'm still worried about my boar :( He's lost weight, not loads, about 90g since he was last weighed at the vets which was on the 6th of October.

We're stopping his antibiotics because they obviously aren't helping and I'm wondering if it could be upsetting his tummy a bit, we have been giving him avipro as well.

He's on

2 x Sulfatrim per day (can't remember the dosage! My son usually does it)

Half a capsule of Cystophan

2 x 0.2 of inflacam per day

He's just gotten some Potassium Citrate which we will start him on today or tomorrow.
 
Kerrie74 said:
I'm still worried about my boar :( He's lost weight, not loads, about 90g since he was last weighed at the vets which was on the 6th of October.

We're stopping his antibiotics because they obviously aren't helping and I'm wondering if it could be upsetting his tummy a bit, we have been giving him avipro as well.

He's on

2 x Sulfatrim per day (can't remember the dosage! My son usually does it)

Half a capsule of Cystophan

2 x 0.2 of inflacam per day

He's just gotten some Potassium Citrate which we will start him on today or tomorrow.
Click to expand...
Oh no, what's the story with your boy anyway, what's been going on? Xx
 
@Coco&Luna Sorry I'm only just replying, I'm one of those lightweights that goes to bed early lol.

In around July he started to have blood in his urine and squeak/cry when passing poo/urine, so he was taken to the vets who put him on Baytril for 10 days, the blood cleared but he still didn't seem the same, so off he went to a vet in Derby along with Cesaro our himi boar who was going anyway, she said it could be the remains of the cystitis and put him on metacam for 10 days, he seemed ok for around 2 weeks after but then started passing blood and squeaking again, he went to a different vet who put him on Sulfatrim and Inflacam, again blood cleared etc. and again after the antibiotics he started squeaking, no blood this time! So off he goes to the PDSA who aren't really piggy savvy, she takes him off xrays him, says she couldn't see anything and then says it could be lack of vit C (LOL), so we took him back to the other vet near us who has put him on sulfatrim and inflacam for 21 days.

I sent an inbox to the vets in Derby who advised it could be lc and explained that antibiotics didn't really work and it's an inflammation of the bladder wall (I hope I go that right, I have a rubbish memory) and said they usually give metacam, 0.4ml per 1kg as he was only on 0.3 and mentioned cystaphan, the other vet was trying to help at the same time, she even spoke to Ellie at the vets in Derby to see what else she could do got Jericho, so he's now on cystaphan and today he'll be taking potassium citrate.

I really wish one of us could drive, we'd take him to see Ellie but I guess her advising Jessica is just as good :)
 
@Kerrie74 gods, what a run around. I can't believe the pdsa thought he had scurvy...fs. sometimes they'll say anything as long as it sounds like they're giving you an answer. Lol.
Sounds really like stanley. He stops passing blood while he's on abx, but within 24-48 hours after the course ends the blood starts again. Yay!
Are you following the IC diet and giving grainless pellets too? What does your boy weigh now?

It's such a nightmare trying to wrap your head and adjust to a new possible diagnosis. I'm starting to think I'll never own a guinea pig without ongoing health problems, this can't be normal! :(
 
helen105281 said:
Mine is on Glucosamine for life which is in Cystease.
Click to expand...
The vet said that he's to go back in two weeks if the symptoms persist after the cystease Is finished. Is it likely that when the course is over the symptoms come back? Is cystease safe to use long term? X

I've noticed less blood but more powdery deposits since the third dose I think.
 
He's 1068, he was just over 1.2kg.

We're switching them hopefully, ordered some grainless pellets, a small bag to see if they like it first, then I'll get the big bag if they do, will be changing the hay again at some point and I'm going to follow the diet Jaycey gave me as mine don't like the lc diet from the forums lol and I think I'm allergic to coriander doh.
 
Coco&Luna said:
The vet said that he's to go back in two weeks if the symptoms persist after the cystease Is finished. Is it likely that when the course is over the symptoms come back? Is cystease safe to use long term? X

I've noticed less blood but more powdery deposits since the third dose I think.
Click to expand...
It is safe to use long term, though some vets do only give it for a couple of weeks.
 
@helen105281 I think I'm noticing a difference, but I feel like if I'm more than 3 hours over the 24 hours between each dose of the cystease blood just starts straight away. Is this common? This was tonight's blood after being given the cystease 4 hours late. There is about 15 of these spots.
IMG_20151031_193213.webp

It still beats coming home to this covering the entire cage.
IMG_20151017_224103.webp IMG_20151017_224033.webp
But with only 4 doses to go I'm really not happy. And neither is he, he is passing fewer poops, they tend to be broken in half alot and he seems a slightly miserable and uncomfortable even with the metacam, which really isn't like him at all.
I feel so sorry for him, he's usually so boisterous, rough and ready. I'm feeling so sorry for him, he's not being his usual cheerful little self.
 
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