Sven And Elsa's Bladder Journey

[Toots33]

Hi everyone,

A few weeks ago I posted about Elsa having her bladder stone removed and after some fantastic advice from here we started to filter Sven and Elsa's water, continued to feed a low calcium diet and changed the pellets to grainless ones although they weren't so keen on them so were only eating the odd pellet. We felt really confident that things would start to improve, Elsa was really bright and happy and back to her diva self.

A few days later we noticed blood in Sven's urine. We were so surprised as she'd been x rayed at the same time as Elsa because initially we couldn't work out who was having the problem so decided to treat them both the same. No stone was seen in Sven's bladder so we thought she was fine. Off we went to vet again to be given another course of Baytril and Metacam and an appointment to see the exotic vet as the usual vet was stumped.

We did a urine sample for the new vet who found no problems with Elsa's urine but lots of blood and protein in Sven's. Sven had another x ray and an ultrasound and there was no stone but lots of debris in her bladder.

We now have two guinea pigs who are on long term medication. They are both being prescribed moduret and injections of cartrophen. Sven has also been prescribed Metacam and Septrin. She's had the septrin for 7 days of the 10 day course and we're still seeing blood in her urine. We've been told to ring the vet on Thursday if we're still seeing blood and we have a review appointment on Monday. They've had a complete overhaul of their diet and are currently on a low oxalate diet. The vet advised us to remove the pellets for now which we did and we've been monitoring their weight and this has been fine. Sven is also not a good drinker so we've been syringing her some water.

I'm so worried about Sven as I just want her to be well and get to the bottom of this problem for her. This whole situation has been so stressful for them and for us, we must have been to the vet once a week for the past six weeks. We're so committed to getting them better and giving them as happy and full a life as possible but I really can't see any end in sight at the moment.

Thank you so much for the support you've all given us on here. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll get there in the end .

 

[Flutterby]

Oh no Sending lots of healing vibes for them both!

 

[Poppy'sMum]

I've not heard of Moduret but my bladder pig Petal was on monthly Catrophen injections for a couple of years, together with daily dog Metacam doses to alleviate pain & as an anti-inflammatory. The blood in her urine sometimes didn't clear for quite a while though. Eventually she had a spay because she also had early pyometra where her womb was infected. When she had a flare up in addition to the Cartrophen & Metacam we also used Tramodol for pain relief & Cerenia. That definitely helped. She also had a daily dose of Care Potassium Citrate which works by gathering the calcium together to be excreted. Unfortunately once they have had an infection of the bladder the spaces between the cell walls become larger, which mean they are more prone to infections; Petal had problems for most of her life but had a very good quality of life overall until we sadly lost her to pneumonia aged 5 1/2.