Wet Bottom on Female Guinea Pig

[Claire B]

Hello

A few weeks back I posted about my female guinea pig having a wet bottom and not having much luck at the vets. @Wiebke suggested she may have sterile interstitial cystitis and I was recommended to try Cystease.

I have been giving Starlight one cystease tablet daily for nearly two weeks (although I have recently increased this to two tablets) along with 0.3ml metacam twice daily and 0.1ml potassium citrate twice daily. I also give her Pro C probiotic.

Since increasing her cystease to two tablets, Starlight's bottom has become dry - which is amazing. She still seems to leak a very smelly urine . Sometimes she looks a little uncomfortable when passing urine/faeces.but she does seem to be improving with everything.

My query now is how long do I keep going with all these medicines. Obviously I would like to get her back to one cystease tablet. Do I then continue with these indefinitely? What about the potassium citrate and metacam?

I am very grateful for all the advice given to date. It really seems to have made a difference.

Many thanks.

Claire

 

[Merab]

I can't answer the question but I'm glad that Starlight is improving

 

[Wiebke]

Hello

A few weeks back I posted about my female guinea pig having a wet bottom and not having much luck at the vets. @Wiebke suggested she may have sterile interstitial cystitis and I was recommended to try Cystease.

I have been giving Starlight one cystease tablet daily for nearly two weeks (although I have recently increased this to two tablets) along with 0.3ml metacam twice daily and 0.1ml potassium citrate twice daily. I also give her Pro C probiotic.

Since increasing her cystease to two tablets, Starlight's bottom has become dry - which is amazing. She still seems to leak a very smelly urine . Sometimes she looks a little uncomfortable when passing urine/faeces.but she does seem to be improving with everything.

My query now is how long do I keep going with all these medicines. Obviously I would like to get her back to one cystease tablet. Do I then continue with these indefinitely? What about the potassium citrate and metacam?

I am very grateful for all the advice given to date. It really seems to have made a difference.

Many thanks.

Claire

I am glad that the glucosamine is working! You will have to keep her on it for as long as the the IC lasts - which is usually a matter of over a year to life long at the very worst.

Speak to your vet about scaling back on the potassium citrate and metacam and only using it for flare ups, which you normally get every few months. It is very much a matter of working out the individual levels to keep her well in between flares as responses to medication can vary quite a lot.

Unfortunately there is no quick fix, but being able to keep an IC piggy free from symptoms in between flares or at the very best being able to prevent flares in milder cases is a great boon.

 

[Claire B]

Many thanks @Wiebke for your advice. How will I know when the IC has gone? Will the smelly, leaking wee stop? And then when she has a flare up, will I see these same symptoms re-appear?

At the moment I’m kind of in between vets because I don’t want to go back to the expensive exotic vets who missed this anyway and I don’t think my normal vets will have experience of this. With the Metacam and potassium citrate, how will I know when to start scaling back? Do I only scale back when the smelly, leaking wee has stopped?

Thank you so much.

Claire

 

[Wiebke]

Many thanks @Wiebke for your advice. How will I know when the IC has gone? Will the smelly, leaking wee stop? And then when she has a flare up, will I see these same symptoms re-appear?

At the moment I’m kind of in between vets because I don’t want to go back to the expensive exotic vets who missed this anyway and I don’t think my normal vets will have experience of this. With the Metacam and potassium citrate, how will I know when to start scaling back? Do I only scale back when the smelly, leaking wee has stopped?

Thank you so much.

Claire

The leaky pee should stop between flares and the flares will get less and happen further apart. if you stop too early, symptoms, including deep red porphyrine pees will appear pretty quickly.

 

[Claire B]

@Wiebke so whilst she still has leaky smelly wees, she needs to continue on the Metacam and the potassium citrate?