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Urgent: Advice On Sick Piggy With Bladder Sludge. (euthanasia?)

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I will take her tonight. Ask the vet if she can be put on tramadol. I'll also ask if he thinks will be okay to wait for her appointment with the exotics vet and go from there.
Thank you so much! Xx
 
I think if you ask about the Tramodol then you will feel you are doing something positive & if that makes her comfortable then if will buy you time until you see the exotics vet. The bladder flush would be better done by the exotics vet anyway to give your piggy a better chance. Don't feel pressurised into going the pts route until you have the second opinion, as long as she is eating & still moving round etc. If she stops urinating though then that is a medical emergency x
 
This is such a horrible situation for you to be in. I agree with asking about Tramadol. If your vet will agree to this until you can get her seen by the other vet then this is probably your best route. Her pain levels need to be controlled in order for you to wait for the exotics appointment though. As for leaking urine I think there may be a medication that can help with that, but I can't remember the name. I used to help at a piggy clinic at a vets and there was a pig there who had it. I would ask the vet about that too. I can try to find out if possible as I am friends with the owner on FB but she may not remember.
 
There's no way I can bring the appointment forward as the exotics vet is only there certain days of the week I'm really considering the bladder flushing route but I can't handle seeing her suffering until next week either so I'm really not sure. I'm so scared I'll make the wrong decision xx

Could you at least contact the exotics clinic and ask them what you could do in the meantime (tramadol)? It is always such a distressing time when you cannot get a piggy in need seen promptly! :(

The weight and age are actually good. My Cariad needed regular bladder flushing in the wake of an bladder stone. She seemed to have a problem with the calcium absorption. I managed to slow it down a fair bit with fiddling with her diet to remove the worst triggers. She lived for another two years after her bladder op at a small weight of 700g until age 5 years and despite needing an emergency spay just months after the bladder op.
However, it all depends on the vet. In the wrong hands, a bladder flush done too forcefully can back up into the kidneys and kill, so you are doing the right thing by not going via your general vet.
Low Calcium Diet For Bladder Piggies
 
She's still a great weight. We had to let Pappis (in Pic) go last August for the same reason - constantly crying and weeing blood :( but she had gone down to 760g from 1.1kg. She was only 3.5 years but plagued with ill health from the beginning - some are just plain unlucky. Hope your little one can be helped xx
 
Agree with the others - a very good weight - and Bumble has recently been put on tramadol - from what I have read on here recently I think you can split that metacam dose down in to 2 doses - as piggies have a fast metabolism and will burn it off quick ( can someone confirm please ) - so are the kidneys failing? did the vet give you a concrete diagnosis or just say kidney problems - you could try fizzy water - 2mls 3 times a day to see if it will help flush out the sludge - my Bumble is also on something called Moduretic to help excrete calcium - my vet got the instructions from the states on how to make it up for piggies (as it is a human medication to help stop stones forming) - as my vet is a referrals specialist and piggy specialist you could always get your current vet to send over any x-rays or scans and a brief history so she can give you her opinion - I would thoroughly recommend her surgical skills - she has done several complicated bladder stone surgeries on Bumble (including removing a stone from the top of his penis bone - the stone couldn't be seen by x-ray or ultrasound - it was picked up on a CT scan ) - she has piggies of her own and is sorting out Smudge for @DoragonHinansho - her name is rachel Mowbray at Vale vets in Dursley 01453 542092
 
Poor girl. Could she be having infections as a result of sludge? My story is perhaps not typical, as I'm in Canada and guinea pig surgery is not as common here as in the UK. One of my pigs (Sundae) had repeat urinary tract infections and was diagnosed with a bladder stone when she was about 2. There was an option to do surgery to remove the stone, but the vet hadn't performed many of them and the cost was very prohibitive (it was about two months of my mortgage, shockingly!) and there was no guarantee that she would not form other stones afterwards. I decided to treat the UTIs that she was prone to due to the crud in her bladder growing bacteria and hope that she got some good quality of life before it all went bad. Fast-forward almost four years and Sundae is still going strong. She is extremely prone to UTIs and as such she is on a suppressive dose of antibiotics constantly (0.3 mL of Baytril nightly.) It keeps the bacterial load in her bladder lower and reduces the number of UTIs. Her discomfort and symptoms (i.e. bladder leakage leading to urine scald, etc.) are secondary to bacterial infections which make her unable to hold it, not the stone itself. She also has no signs of pain like hunching, squealing, low appetite, etc. unless she has an active infection. Despite intermittent flares, she has been a happy girl on suppressive therapy and has now reached old age, something I NEVER thought we would see. It's possible that she may still pass of complications or if we hit a point where she is in pain because we can no longer control the infections. However, she is turning 6 in a week or so and no matter what happens, she has lived into her golden years and I consider the suppressive antibiotics a huge success for her! So it's something worth asking about... I bring it up because Sundae also has leakage, etc.- but only when she has an infection, not from the stones themselves.
 
I think if you ask about the Tramodol then you will feel you are doing something positive & if that makes her comfortable then if will buy you time until you see the exotics vet. The bladder flush would be better done by the exotics vet anyway to give your piggy a better chance. Don't feel pressurised into going the pts route until you have the second opinion, as long as she is eating & still moving round etc. If she stops urinating though then that is a medical emergency x

GOOD NEWS!
We took Oreo to the vets last night. Talked about medication to keep her pain at bay until her appointment with the exotics vet next week and she was given Tramadol So, she's on 2 a day and her metacam which I'm going to split half of for longer pain relief. I have so much hope now and thank you all for your lovely comments. Will keep you all updated. So glad I came here for advice and didn't go ahead with euthanasia as she has so much fight in here! COME ON OREO! You got this x
 
Poor girl. Could she be having infections as a result of sludge? My story is perhaps not typical, as I'm in Canada and guinea pig surgery is not as common here as in the UK. One of my pigs (Sundae) had repeat urinary tract infections and was diagnosed with a bladder stone when she was about 2. There was an option to do surgery to remove the stone, but the vet hadn't performed many of them and the cost was very prohibitive (it was about two months of my mortgage, shockingly!) and there was no guarantee that she would not form other stones afterwards. I decided to treat the UTIs that she was prone to due to the crud in her bladder growing bacteria and hope that she got some good quality of life before it all went bad. Fast-forward almost four years and Sundae is still going strong. She is extremely prone to UTIs and as such she is on a suppressive dose of antibiotics constantly (0.3 mL of Baytril nightly.) It keeps the bacterial load in her bladder lower and reduces the number of UTIs. Her discomfort and symptoms (i.e. bladder leakage leading to urine scald, etc.) are secondary to bacterial infections which make her unable to hold it, not the stone itself. She also has no signs of pain like hunching, squealing, low appetite, etc. unless she has an active infection. Despite intermittent flares, she has been a happy girl on suppressive therapy and has now reached old age, something I NEVER thought we would see. It's possible that she may still pass of complications or if we hit a point where she is in pain because we can no longer control the infections. However, she is turning 6 in a week or so and no matter what happens, she has lived into her golden years and I consider the suppressive antibiotics a huge success for her! So it's something worth asking about... I bring it up because Sundae also has leakage, etc.- but only when she has an infection, not from the stones themselves.
GOOD NEWS!
We took Oreo to the vets last night. Talked about medication to keep her pain at bay until her appointment with the exotics vet next week and she was given Tramadol So, she's on 2 a day and her metacam which I'm going to split half of for longer pain relief. I have so much hope now and thank you all for your lovely comments. Will keep you all updated. So glad I came here for advice and didn't go ahead with euthanasia as she has so much fight in here! COME ON OREO! You got this x
 
Oh that is great news. Sending healing vibes to Oreo and hugs to you.

Have you started her on a low calcium diet now which should help. Exercise is also key once she is well enough to keep everything moving.

With her being on all this medication etc have you ever tried Pets at Home Pro C which you mix into their water. I use it for all mine especially in times of ill health and stress. It contains probiotic (friendly bacteria), soluble fibre (prebiotic), vitamin c and glucose which all provides digestive support. It must taste nice as well cause mine drink twice as much when it is mixed in their water. I honestly swear by it.

Have they looked at her bladder shape on the x Ray?
Is perhaps her uterus or internal body fat causing it to be squashed in any way which means she cannot fully empty her bladder and can cause sludge to build up?
 
So pleased she is still with you :) Have you got some sterile unopened 1ml syringes (without needle) ? I suggest you put her in a clean plastic container/bowl about an hour or so before your exotic appointment next week, feed her some cucumber then wait for her to wee. Suck up some urine with the syringe then take that with you to the appointment so the vet can test it for you. Meanwhile I would give the Tramodol & Metacam at different times (Morning/evening) to cover pain relief during the day. She might have a urine infection & need antibiotics but the exotics vet will presribe those for you. How is she today? More comfortable?
 
GOOD NEWS!
We took Oreo to the vets last night. Talked about medication to keep her pain at bay until her appointment with the exotics vet next week and she was given Tramadol So, she's on 2 a day and her metacam which I'm going to split half of for longer pain relief. I have so much hope now and thank you all for your lovely comments. Will keep you all updated. So glad I came here for advice and didn't go ahead with euthanasia as she has so much fight in here! COME ON OREO! You got this x

That is great news! Having fight in her is a huge part of the battle... my vet has said before that Sundae must have the heart of a lion in the body of a guinea pig because she is feisty and copes so well with pain/discomfort. She has had some health issues (besides the bladder she also had a huge jaw abscess that needed surgery and dental trimming and took forever to heal), but she keeps on running around, never stopped eating, and is generally tough as nails!
 
hope everything goes well for Oreo xx
 
She lost her fight yesterday and we had to help her along to rainbow bridge it got to the point where tramadol, Metacam & baytril was not helping her pain. She started to pass tiny bloody clots, lost an alarming amount of weight and was tired of being in pain. I miss her so badly. It's horrible without her. Sleep tight little one, I love you. Thank you all for your support xxxxxx

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