Possible Kidney Problems - Advice Needed

[PiggiePenthouse]

Hi there,
I have a rescued neutered male called Rufus who is approx 2.5yrs old. He has been losing weight over a period of months and is currently only just over 1kg. In February he had to have a dental where they found he has elongated roots, which may have been the reason why his left eye had to be removed shortly after as it prolapsed, although no abscess was found underneath.
Anyhow, he has recovered from this operation but coincidentally has started weeing a lot and drinking a lot, plus his urine is brown in colour (possibly due to septrin which he's been on since the dental). I raised this with my vet, and so a urine sample was sent to the lab. They found his urine was very dilute, pH9 (alkaline) with lots of calcium carbonate crystals. He has had an x-ray and no bladder stones were seen. By the way, no blood or bacteria in the sample.
I'm concerned that he has kidney trouble, but my vet cannot do a blood test to confirm this and she is unaware of any treatment available to guinea pigs if he has the start of renal failure. Alternatively, I guess he may be showing signs of diabetes?
Is there anyone on here who has had success in treating their piggie and what the process was?
Thankfully he is currently happy and eating normally and interacting with his harem of ladies.
Many thanks

 

[helen105281]

@Abi_nurse

 

[Lady Kelly]

In my experience there is no treatment for renal failure. The last of my pigs to have this was nearly 6 years old when she passed and also had marked arthritis. One thing to be aware of is that metacam/ loxicom tend to speed up renal failure but alternative pain relief if available if needed at any point. My first pig to pass with renal failure had been diagnosed with renal failure 18 months before passing, she lost weight quickly at first but managed to maintain a weight of around 600g for quite a while before passing. Again she had ovarian cysts and the start of a suspected abscess when she passed so without the other complications I have no idea if she would have gone longer.

If you want to know for definite then I would recommend finding a specialist guinea pig vet who will be able to do the blood tests and advise further. My Bea (the one who went 18 months) had a test for diabetes which was just a urine dip test I believe as there was protein being lost in the urine but it came back negative.

 

[DM030819]

My boy passes a lot of calcium carbonate in his urine and his recent blood test came back fine.

If you can find a decent guinea pig vet they can take blood and send it off to an exotics lab to be tested.

It sounds like your piggy has bladder sludge, which may or may not become a stone in the future.

I would at least consider reducing this calcium in his diet.

Good luck!

 

[PiggiePenthouse]

Thanks for the replies
Just a little update: I took Rufus to a piggie-savvy vet today on recommendation and he was superb. Gave Ru a thorough looking over and did the blood test under sedation. A quick dip test in the surgery showed he doesn't have diabetes, which is one tick off the list. The vet thinks that the full blood works will put my mind at ease - I should get the results towards the end of this week; he doesn't think necessarily kidney trouble either, but his brown colour in the urine must have come from somewhere, so possibly liver? Ru's weight loss he puts down to teeth trouble (and elongated root pain possibly), although thankfully his teeth showed no signs of spurs etc when checked under sedation as he's had two fairly recent dentals. So I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the blood results don't show up anything untoward.

 

[lauraboara]

Thanks for the replies
Just a little update: I took Rufus to a piggie-savvy vet today on recommendation and he was superb. Gave Ru a thorough looking over and did the blood test under sedation. A quick dip test in the surgery showed he doesn't have diabetes, which is one tick off the list. The vet thinks that the full blood works will put my mind at ease - I should get the results towards the end of this week; he doesn't think necessarily kidney trouble either, but his brown colour in the urine must have come from somewhere, so possibly liver? Ru's weight loss he puts down to teeth trouble (and elongated root pain possibly), although thankfully his teeth showed no signs of spurs etc when checked under sedation as he's had two fairly recent dentals. So I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the blood results don't show up anything untoward.

Really pleased that you found a vet that you feel confident in and have ruled out diabetes. Let us know how the results go. I have only had one piggie with liver issues but the blood test was not totally conclusive - it showed something was wrong but not what was going on. Just want you to be mentally prepared that it doesn't always clarify everything. Hopefully, though you will get some answers for your Rufus.