Possible bladder stones/uti - Any advice appreciated

[Guineasqueaks]

Hi. We are a worried family who are currently nursing our 3 year old Nutty and we were looking for any experience/advice you lovely people may have.
We took Nutty to Robert at Medivet, Lower Earley on Wed night (exotic specialists) and he diagnosed possible bladder stones/uti as she was hunched, poo is loose and she was just not herself and not eating much. She is usually 2nd in command of our troop of 7.
On Wed night she had (1) pain killer injection at vets followed by (2) 0.35ml dose Loxicom twice daily (3) 0.15ml dose of antibiotic Sulfatrim (continuing twice daily) and (4) syringe feed of Burgess prebiotic support which I continued every 2 hours in day and at 11pm, 3am and 6.30am continuing. On Thurs morning she seemed brighter and we even had her back with the others in the shed for an hour and she was eating grass and bamboo leaves. She seemed keen to go down ramp and graze on lawn so we let her. Everything was on the up and even today we alternated her indoors to rest and feed and then back to see the others and she was happy grazing. She progressed to eating hay, green beans, cucumber etc and she just loves the critical care letting me put in in her mouth and keep it there.

Everything was looking up until tonight when she has started whimpering at the back of her cuddle sack. It is really upsetting to see her obviously in pain. I have been with her nearly all day and it is unbearable not knowing what to do. I can't bear the thought of leaving her while we are in bed.

Do we let time pass and see how she is as things go up and down or is it likely to be Kidney stones that will require an op. TBH not sure that we want to put another guinea through an op as we had a terrible experience 2 years ago with our best ever boy as he had heart failure after a neutering. 3 days of non stop nursing and although I knew in my heart Pickle should have been put down, the vet (not Robert but an inexperienced general vet) kept trying more and more things that just prolonged his agony. I can't watch another animal suffer like than again, I still haven't got over it.

Hoping that it will be a UTI and it will clear up but not sure how these things play out. Any help appreciated...

 

[Wiebke]

Hi. We are a worried family who are currently nursing our 3 year old Nutty and we were looking for any experience/advice you lovely people may have.
We took Nutty to Robert at Medivet, Lower Earley on Wed night (exotic specialists) and he diagnosed possible bladder stones/uti as she was hunched, poo is loose and she was just not herself and not eating much. She is usually 2nd in command of our troop of 7.
On Wed night she had (1) pain killer injection at vets followed by (2) 0.35ml dose Loxicom twice daily (3) 0.15ml dose of antibiotic Sulfatrim (continuing twice daily) and (4) syringe feed of Burgess prebiotic support which I continued every 2 hours in day and at 11pm, 3am and 6.30am continuing. On Thurs morning she seemed brighter and we even had her back with the others in the shed for an hour and she was eating grass and bamboo leaves. She seemed keen to go down ramp and graze on lawn so we let her. Everything was on the up and even today we alternated her indoors to rest and feed and then back to see the others and she was happy grazing. She progressed to eating hay, green beans, cucumber etc and she just loves the critical care letting me put in in her mouth and keep it there.

Everything was looking up until tonight when she has started whimpering at the back of her cuddle sack. It is really upsetting to see her obviously in pain. I have been with her nearly all day and it is unbearable not knowing what to do. I can't bear the thought of leaving her while we are in bed.

Do we let time pass and see how she is as things go up and down or is it likely to be Kidney stones that will require an op. TBH not sure that we want to put another guinea through an op as we had a terrible experience 2 years ago with our best ever boy as he had heart failure after a neutering. 3 days of non stop nursing and although I knew in my heart Pickle should have been put down, the vet (not Robert but an inexperienced general vet) kept trying more and more things that just prolonged his agony. I can't watch another animal suffer like than again, I still haven't got over it.

Hoping that it will be a UTI and it will clear up but not sure how these things play out. Any help appreciated...

Hi!

Guinea pigs can have bacterial urine infection (UTI, caused by faecal bacteria getting into the urinary tract), a bacterial cystitis (often as a result of stone or sludge damage) or increasingly sterile interstitial cystitis (i.e. a non-bacterial recurring bladder infection that cannot be cured by antibiotics and that can only be managed with glucosamine and metacam until goes away on its own).
Sterile IC is not much known outside vet circles that see lots of piggies; it seems to particularly affect the natural glucosamine coat of the urinary tract walls that prevent the highly corrisive urine from coming into contact with raw tissue.

Symptoms with problems in the urinary tract are very similar for all problems, so it is generally an elimination process.
If you are worried about stones in the urinary tract, please have an x-ray or scan done so you can make any informed decisions based on real evidence. Bladder and urethral stones in sows (the latter which often fetch up just before the opening by the genitalia and can in rare cases block the urethra, which is a life or death emergency) are comparatively straight forward operations with a very high recovery rate and the other three infectious issues are not fatal but the ones that react to antibiotics can take 3-4 weeks of medication to clear.

I hope that this helps you?

Guinea Lynx :: UTI

 

[Guineasqueaks]

Thank you. She is again on the up and spent an hour grazing on the lawn today. She can run ok and is eating greens and hay. We are continuing with critical care a few times a day as she is not eating pellets as often as normal, however her poos are quite frequent and getting back to normal in shape and consistency. Think we had a panic last night. Hopefully it is a UTI. I guess we will know more in a few weeks when the meds run out. I have read something about giving them cranberry juice?

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you. She is again on the up and spent an hour grazing on the lawn today. She can run ok and is eating greens and hay. We are continuing with critical care a few times a day as she is not eating pellets as often as normal, however her poos are quite frequent and getting back to normal in shape and consistency. Think we had a panic last night. Hopefully it is a UTI. I guess we will know more in a few weeks when the meds run out. I have read something about giving them cranberry juice?

Please don't. This advice is outdated but like so much other stuff is sadly still making the rounds online, mostly by people who haven't got any personal experience. Cranberry juice doesn't work for guinea pigs the way it does for humans. It's never changed anything for any of our own piggies when we tried it about a decade ago at the time it was handed out. That is the problem with transfer tips; far too many have long since debunked. Keep in mind that recovery formula is vitamin C enhanced, as are most food groups.

PS: Please keep on weighing once daily at the same time instead of the normal life-long health monitoring weigh-in. Around 80% of what a piggy eats in a day is hay and dog pee free fresh grass (the latter of which you need to introduce carefully to avoid a major tummy upset) - that is basically the equivalent of breakfast, lunch and dinner. And you can't judge it by eye and the poo output is running about a day or even two if the guts are slow behind the intake, so that doesn't give you an up to date monitoring tool.
Fresh green veg and herbs should be about in the region of a human afternoon snack and 1 tablespoon of pellets max in the area of dessert.
If your piggy struggles with pellets, odds are that they are also struggling with hay.
Weight - Monitoring and Management
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

 

[Guineasqueaks]

Thank you for your help. Noted no cranberry. She took herself outside the shed today despite the wind and is eating grass furiously about 4 times today for about 15/20 mins. Heater is on in the shed and we bring her in when it gets dark. Hay eating seems to be back to normal, green beans, coriander, lettice (recommended by vet), celery but still no pellets or peppers. Still syringe feeding her critical care and she loves it opening her mouth for more. She went down from 1250kg to 900kg but has now gained 80g in last 2 days but she is miles better thanks. No signs of pain today so fingers crossed.

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you for your help. Noted no cranberry. She took herself outside the shed today despite the wind and is eating grass furiously about 4 times today for about 15/20 mins. Heater is on in the shed and we bring her in when it gets dark. Hay eating seems to be back to normal, green beans, coriander, lettice (recommended by vet), celery but still no pellets or peppers. Still syringe feeding her critical care and she loves it opening her mouth for more. She went down from 1250kg to 900kg but has now gained 80g in last 2 days but she is miles better thanks. No signs of pain today so fingers crossed.

I would be careful re. putting her on cold ground after a frosty or near frosty nights - that can be a cause of UTI.

 

[Guineasqueaks]

Good Point but she virtually jumped down the ramp herself and we thought that she would know what was best to eat so we let her have the grass. Some of the other piggies joined her for a while but then put themselves away. They are free to come and go from a heated shed under supervision as we take it in turns to sit and watch for bird of prey. They have a 3 storey cage in the shed with fleece and various soft beds, hideys and hay in the bedrooms. It doesn't seem too damp although I wash the fleece/beds at least twice a week and I have a thick layer of shavings on the shed floor. Hopefully this is warm enough for her in the day. At night we are bringing her in kitchen on vet bed in a covered tunnel.