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Should I go for surgery now or wait longer?

Dilly's Piggies

Dilly's Piggies

Teenage Guinea Pig
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Lottie was diagnosed with bladder sludge around 4 months ago, she was crying whilst urinating hence that investigation, she has been doing well with dietary changes until 1 week ago, suddenly she started losing lots of weight. The vet has advised a bladder flush but it has only been a week since she was put under anaesthesia for a blood test and dental exam. She is continuing to lose weight, the last procedure was hard on her so I'm worried about putting her through it again so soon... She needs the sludge removing now, it's the only thing clinically wrong with her, but I worry her fragile thin body will give out if she goes under again... What do I do? :(
 
I can't advise you but send you my very best wishes at such a difficult time. It's so worrying when these little ones are ill.
 
Oh crikey I'm sorry that's not something any of us can give you the right answer to as it's second guessing the outcome. What does your vet think is the right thing to do? Obviously in an ideal world she would completely recover from one round of anaesthesia before having another but this isn't an ideal world and the more weight she loses the harder the anaesthetic will be on her
 
CavyConnoisseur said:
Lottie was diagnosed with bladder sludge around 4 months ago, she was crying whilst urinating hence that investigation, she has been doing well with dietary changes until 1 week ago, suddenly she started losing lots of weight. The vet has advised a bladder flush but it has only been a week since she was put under anaesthesia for a blood test and dental exam. She is continuing to lose weight, the last procedure was hard on her so I'm worried about putting her through it again so soon... She needs the sludge removing now, it's the only thing clinically wrong with her, but I worry her fragile thin body will give out if she goes under again... What do I do? :(
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It's a tricky situation, l assume that Lottie is on pain relief? One of my piggies in a similar situation responded well to metacam, gabapentin and quarter of a tablet of bendrofluazide (a diuretic).
 
Are you giving her any supplemental feeding or trying to build her up at all. It would be worth giving her a week of building up some weight etc prior to an anaesthesia. If she is losing weight despite extra syringe feeds, pellets, oat hays etc then I would be concerned there is more going on than just simple bladder sludge such as kidney issues.

x
 
Abi_nurse said:
Are you giving her any supplemental feeding or trying to build her up at all. It would be worth giving her a week of building up some weight etc prior to an anaesthesia. If she is losing weight despite extra syringe feeds, pellets, oat hays etc then I would be concerned there is more going on than just simple bladder sludge such as kidney issues.

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Lottie has had issues with weight from age 1 year (she's 3 years old now), I did write a post about the whole story yesterday but nobody replied unfortunately. Basically Lottie has been in and out of the vet constantly for 2 years as she is underweight despite eating fine... I started supplementing her with extra veggies, vitamins and probiotics about a year ago with syringe feedings on and off. She will gain weight one day and lose it the next, very up and down... This is why she had to have the blood test, the vet was worried about kidney or thyroid issues as Lottie has actually been eating more and more active lately and yet still losing weight. They weren't able to get enough blood from her to test though so we don't know if she has an underlying issue besides the sludge... :(
 
Obviously only you know what the best thing for Lottie is - these frail pigs are such a worry.

But what I would say is that depending on the vet (yours sounds experienced) this can be a pretty fast process with a fairly light anesthetic.
As long as they are generous with the pain relief afterwards and are experienced with flushes, then itm ight be worth giving her the chance to clear her bladder properly.
 
I think if you trust your vet, then trust them to judge how urgent and how risky the procedure is based on her health. Twice with our piggies our vet has suggested surgery straight away that I hoped would wait until they were bigger or healthier and both times the vet was right about how urgent things were! Healing wheeks and hope this procedure can help her if you decide to go ahead, nobody can guess how things will turn out when we opt for an anaesthetic or opt to avoid one, whatever you decide you have her best interests at heart x
 
I agree with the Swissgreys, would they not be able to do it with just a quick whiff of gas? My little Ebony was fully awake for her bladder flush attempt, albeit very dosed with painkillers. I would think that would be the safest course of action. It will be very difficult to get enough food into a piggy who is in pain in order to gain weight. Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly!
 
It's always a tough call... there is always a risk with anesthesia, but at the same time I've had some very ill pigs do fine with anesthesia. Do you have a good enough relationship with the vet to sit down and ask their opinion on the course of action and on the risk/benefit ratio of intervening now versus trying to build her up a bit first? I know that sometimes my vet has been good with letting me know what they would do if it were their pet and that has given me some peace of mind that I'm making the best decision. Unfortunately we can't predict the future and it's so easy to second-guess if things don't go well, but all we can really do is try to make the best decision we can with the information we have at the time. Hopefully this can be done quickly with a gas anesthesia in the least risky way possible.
 
My vet isn't an exotic vet but she has her own Guinea Pigs and cares very much about them so I trust her opinion... She wanted to get a blood test first before doing the bladder flush but obviously they weren't able to get enough for a sample, so it's tricky. Lottie went all the way down to 700g after that procedure, it has been rocky but now she's at 910g, still underweight but much better than 700g! Lottie has another appointment today where I'll ask what the next step should be. I've been giving Lottie Loxicom which I think has helped tremendously, she wasn't on pain medication previously... She's getting 0.2ml of it per day, I read since piggies have a fast metabolism it should be twice per day, is this true and should I ask the vet to give Lottie this? I've noticed Lottie does great for a few hours after her Loxicom but then slows down eating again... She's definitely in pain with something.
 
I have always been told to give pain meds twice a day becasue of their fast metabolism, so worth mentioning to the vet.
Good luck with Lottie today - I hope you can come up with a plan for her. :hug:
 
A product that I heard about last year is Chanca Plus Powder from Galens Garden. It us generally used on humans to help dissolve bladder stones and has been used by several rescue owners I know. If it works on stones I wonder if it will help with sludge. You just mix a pinch with water twice a day and is isn't expensive x
 
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