Re-ocurring bladder stones in young male

[Mother Hubbard]

Hey all,
I don't often have to ask for advice, so here I am. A friend of mine as a couple of young males, lovely cheeky fella's, 6-8 months old, weights could be better. One's just recovered from a stone operation after the first vet misdiagnosed and I said nope go somewhere else it's wrong. They did and consequently was correctly seen too. Now he's got several more, his diet has been changed to everything possible that I can think of. Where to go next though. I know some of the most hardy forum members will know and have indepth knowledge of this issue but it's not within my knowledge base.

Another operation and what would be the diagnosis? what more could be possibly be done.

Many thanks.
Lil

 

[VickiA]

I’m really not sure of the answer. If they are on grain free pellets, have filtered water and also follow the low calcium diet Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets then the reality is that there’s not much more you can do.

Sometimes the piggy has an underlying undiagnosed condition that affects mineral absorption problem (such as my poor RB Felix who had leukaemia and developed a monstrous stone in virtually no time at all).

 

[DougalandDiego]

Sorry to hear about your friends guinea pig. Bladder stones are so awful. I’ve just had the same with one of my boys who has had IC for the last year and suddenly developed 5 stones (3 small ones and 2 fairly large ones) and recently had an op to remove them. I’d also be interested to see if anyone can recommend anything.

It could not be related and just a coincidence but I used to hardly feed any pellets at all and then during his IC flare ups his weight used to fluctuate, so I used to have to step in and syringe feed (science selective grain free pellets mushed up) and since that he developed stones. He has been on a fairly low calcium diet due to his IC and I filter water so can’t see what else it could have been. I have tried to do a bit of research myself and there has been some correlation between foods that are high in oxalates and bladder stone formation as the oxalates stick to calcium and form stones (soy is very high in oxalates) and this is one of the fillers in the pellets so I’ve swapped my pellets now as a precaution! I’m not saying this is definitely right and it could be that my boy is prone to bladder issues/stones but I’d rather try everything I can to prevent them in the future just in case it has any impact!

Hope you manage to find something to help your friend and their piggy!

 

[Wiebke]

Hey all,
I don't often have to ask for advice, so here I am. A friend of mine as a couple of young males, lovely cheeky fella's, 6-8 months old, weights could be better. One's just recovered from a stone operation after the first vet misdiagnosed and I said nope go somewhere else it's wrong. They did and consequently was correctly seen too. Now he's got several more, his diet has been changed to everything possible that I can think of. Where to go next though. I know some of the most hardy forum members will know and have indepth knowledge of this issue but it's not within my knowledge base.

Another operation and what would be the diagnosis? what more could be possibly be done.

Many thanks.
Lil

Hi!

Diet changes in combination with filtered or bottled low calcium water plus reduced pellets (any variety of pellets still contains more calcium than the same amount of kale) are the long term key. However, it takes several weeks to work the calcium out of the body. Diet is unfortunately the only factor where we can influence the complex calcium absorption process. The most critical time is the one until the diet changes can kick in.

Many bladder stone piggies (unless they are on a high calcium or just unbalanced phosphor/calcium rate diet) have additional factors in play - a genetic disposition, not being a great drinker (nothing you can change about that but upping the fresh grass when in season or feeding a bit more but not masses more cucumber or lettuce), an underlying condition that causes something to suddenly go haywire with the absorption process...

Some experienced vets prescribe potassium citrate, others don't.

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

Piggies can have repeated bladder stone ops and come through them. We have seen several cases on here.

 

[Mother Hubbard]

As always your knowledge is amazing - thank you. I’ll be passing that on and working with them to help their gorgeous boy get through this.

 

[Guinea Pig Magazine]

We live in a hard water area. All our Guinea water is filtered. This has drastically cut down the amount of white, chalky wee patches. A britta filter will suffice.
Living In A Hard Water Area
Filtered water

 

[Mother Hubbard]

Thank you all x