Squeaking in pain when pooping

[Kryssylou]

Hello, my 1.5 year old boar has started squeaking when pooping. He has had an X-ray to rule out bladder stones and is now on antibiotics and pain relief. He has had two days worth of medication now. Does anyone know how long it takes for antibiotics to work and for us to see an improvement? I hate to see him in pain

 

[Wiebke]

Hello, my 1.5 year old boar has started squeaking when pooping. He has had an X-ray to rule out bladder stones and is now on antibiotics and pain relief. He has had two days worth of medication now. Does anyone know how long it takes for antibiotics to work and for us to see an improvement? I hate to see him in pain

Hi!

Any course should take about 3 weeks (4 weeks on septrin/sulfatrim/bactrim). It can take time for the symptoms to come down.
See your vet promptly if the symptoms have not come down within a week, are getting worse or are coming down soon after you have stopped the antibiotic.

As your vet has already eliminated stones, you are in this case likely dealing with a sterile interstitial cystitis (IC) which at the moment cannot be healed as we don't know what is causing it. It is become more common in the last decade. Thankfully it is eventually going away on its own, is not life shortening and is not causing any bladder stones. If that is the case, please contact us for more info. Right now, your vet is doing exactly what they should and giving you the correct medication.

 

[Kryssylou]

Hi!

Any course should take about 3 weeks (4 weeks on septrin/sulfatrim/bactrim). It can take time for the symptoms to come down.
See your vet promptly if the symptoms have not come down within a week, are getting worse or are coming down soon after you have stopped the antibiotic.

As your vet has already eliminated stones, you are in this case likely dealing with a sterile interstitial cystitis (IC) which at the moment cannot be healed as we don't know what is causing it. It is become more common in the last decade. Thankfully it is eventually going away on its own, is not life shortening and is not causing any bladder stones. If that is the case, please contact us for more info. Right now, your vet is doing exactly what they should and giving you the correct medication.

Hello, thank you so much for getting back to me. That’s reassuring to hear that we are on the right track so far! He has also started to arch his back to pass the poo (which looks fine), is that normal? Any tips you have on how we can make him more comfortable would be great. I was also wondering, can guinea pigs pass poos when they are impacted and how would we know if this was the problem? We have cleaned the anal sac and it seems normal but I just wondered if it could be a blockage higher up that we can’t get to. Thanks again for the reassurance!

 

[Wiebke]

Hello, thank you so much for getting back to me. That’s reassuring to hear that we are on the right track so far! He has also started to arch his back to pass the poo (which looks fine), is that normal? Any tips you have on how we can make him more comfortable would be great. I was also wondering, can guinea pigs pass poos when they are impacted and how would we know if this was the problem? We have cleaned the anal sac and it seems normal but I just wondered if it could be a blockage higher up that we can’t get to. Thanks again for the reassurance!

Hi! Arching the back is usually a symptom of urinary and not digestive tract problems.

How much metacam and which strength metacam (dog/cat) for which body weight are you giving?
It normally takes at least 2-3 days to a week for the symptoms to subside.

 

[Kryssylou]

Hi! Arching the back is usually a symptom of urinary and not digestive tract problems.

How much metacam and which strength metacam (dog/cat) for which body weight are you giving?
It normally takes at least 2-3 days to a week for the symptoms to subside.

Ok thank you! We’ll have to keep an eye on him and see how he goes. It’s only been 2 days so I’ll have to be more patient...we have the cat metacam which is 0.5 mg/ml and we’re giving 0.7 ml for a 1200 g pig.

 

[Wiebke]

Ok thank you! We’ll have to keep an eye on him and see how he goes. It’s only been 2 days so I’ll have to be more patient...we have the cat metacam which is 0.5 mg/ml and we’re giving 0.7 ml for a 1200 g pig.

I am giving the equivalent of 0.75 ml cat metacam twice daily to my 1 kg Breila, who has IC; i.e. she is on 0.25 ml of dog metacam twice daily.
You can easily double the dose and give it every 12 hours, especially as metacam is metabolised in about 10 hours.

 

[Kryssylou]

I am giving the equivalent of 0.75 ml cat metacam twice daily to my 1 kg Breila, who has IC; i.e. she is on 0.25 ml of dog metacam twice daily.
You can easily double the dose and give it every 12 hours, especially as metacam is metabolised in about 10 hours.

Ok I’ll try that, he seems so uncomfortable. Thanks again for your help and reassurance!

 

[Kryssylou]

I am giving the equivalent of 0.75 ml cat metacam twice daily to my 1 kg Breila, who has IC; i.e. she is on 0.25 ml of dog metacam twice daily.
You can easily double the dose and give it every 12 hours, especially as metacam is metabolised in about 10 hours.

Hello, I was wondering if you could please offer some more advice on how to help my piggy? His symptoms have not improved despite being on antibiotics and metacam for 2.5 weeks now and i'd really like to see if we can change that. I have read about using cystease for cats to help with the lining of the bladder. Do you think this is worth a try and if so what dosage would you start with? Also, within the last two weeks we've had to remove two sperm rods from him which we haven't had to do before. Do you think this might contribute to the problem? Thanks.

 

[Wiebke]

Hello, I was wondering if you could please offer some more advice on how to help my piggy? His symptoms have not improved despite being on antibiotics and metacam for 2.5 weeks now and i'd really like to see if we can change that. I have read about using cystease for cats to help with the lining of the bladder. Do you think this is worth a try and if so what dosage would you start with? Also, within the last two weeks we've had to remove two sperm rods from him which we haven't had to do before. Do you think this might contribute to the problem? Thanks.

The sperm rods definitely don't help!

Please be patient when dealing with sterile IC; there is no quick fix.
You start with mixing the contents of 1 capsule of cystease with 1 ml of water (use a little medicine bottle for the shaking) per day. If you make up more or at some point go down to 1/2 capsule in the longer term between acute flares, you have to store the water/powder mix in the fridge and shake again before syringing.

If it is any consolation to you, I am at the same point with my Breila, who has today been officially diagnosed with sterile IC. My first aim is to stabilise her over the coming weeks with the glucosamine and metacam and then eventually gradually lower the dosages of metacam and halving the glucosamine in between the acute flare ups (around every 2-3 months where you need to go back to the max again each time). Since I have previously had piggies having it from 1 1/2 - 3 years, I know that I am in for the long haul.
Sterile recurring cystitis doesn't react much or at all to any antibiotics.

 

[Kryssylou]

The sperm rods definitely don't help!

Please be patient when dealing with sterile IC; there is no quick fix.
You start with mixing the contents of 1 capsule of cystease with 1 ml of water (use a little medicine bottle for the shaking) per day. If you make up more or at some point go down to 1/2 capsule in the longer term between acute flares, you have to store the water/powder mix in the fridge and shake again before syringing.

If it is any consolation to you, I am at the same point with my Breila, who has today been officially diagnosed with sterile IC. My first aim is to stabilise her over the coming weeks with the glucosamine and metacam and then eventually gradually lower the dosages of metacam and halving the glucosamine in between the acute flare ups (around every 2-3 months where you need to go back to the max again each time). Since I have previously had piggies having it from 1 1/2 - 3 years, I know that I am in for the long haul.
Sterile recurring cystitis doesn't react much or at all to any antibiotics.

Thank you very much for the advice. We’ll try the cystease as you suggest and see how we get on from there. We realise we’ll have to be patient however it’s good to know there are other people trying to deal with this too. I hope that Breila is feeling a bit better soon.