Sick I think my little guy is ill- advice/thoughts please!

Here is a pic! As you can see he is very nosey!

GuineaLynx.info is an amazing medical and nutritional site. Here's the link to the medical guide: https://www.guinealynx.info/medical.html

I hope your little guy is feeling better soon!

Does he look like he hunches down when he poops or pees? UTIs and bladder stones are painful so you'll probably hear him whimper or cry when he goes to the bathroom if it's one of the two. The vet visit is your best bet.

He does look like he is hunching up when he goes but he is not making any noises.

The vet will probably feel around to see if he can detect any stones by touch and put him on an antibiotic if it's a urinary tract infection. He might give you the option of an xray to rule out a stone or stones. I'd ask for pain meds if it's either. If they put him on Baytril, give him a probiotic because the antibiotic will also kill the good bacteria in his gut and he might lose his appetite and could even get bloat.

Have the vet do an x-ray to be sure there are no stones -- they really can't tell for sure by feeling for them. There's no point in skipping the x-ray, because if they treat for an infection when the problem is stones (or vice versa), the problem won't be solved.

That is exactly what my stone pigs' urine has looked like when they've had stones - I agree with the suggestion of going straight for the xray. If you skip it, you'll need to do it the next time there is a flare up (assuming there will be) and end up spending the money anyway, if you do it now and it's not stones that's great news and bodes well for his long term prognosis.

What is his diet like right now?

Oreo had his visit with the vet today. X-ray and ultrasound confirmed a stone on the right side of his bladder. I was given baytril .15mg I believe to give him every 12hrs for 14 days. Treatment options given were surgery to remove the stone (best option) or I could continue to give him the antibiotics and hope the stone would not move to his urethra but in my opinion as well as the vets that would merely be masking the issue for the time being.

When I asked what are the odds that he would develop another stone she said that it could be genetic and drew a picture of how the umbilical cords when they are a baby are attached and something about the diverticulum could cause a pocket that can house bacteria and promote stones and when in surgery if this was present they would correct that to hopefully prevent future stones. She also said we would look to change certain things in his diet and suggested I start giving him distilled water.

My vet sees all small animals at our animal hospital and I believe her to be knowledgeable but I do not think she is an expert on guinea pigs. I know ultimately this is a decision I will have to make but I really appreciate any and all advice that has and will be offered so far on how I should proceed.

Before I get into his diet I would like to provide a little background info on how Oreo became a par of my family. He was purchased at most likely a pet smart by a fellow teacher at the school where my boyfriend teaches. He was in a pet store size cage and ate a diet of carrots, celery, hay, and pellets. After being at school for a few months he came home for a holiday and basically never went back because the kids tormented him. While I have done lots of reading on what to feed him I am generally a novice and never knew how involved having a pig would be. I try my best to take the very best care of him by feeding him a diet that consists of variety and building him a c&c cage. I believe he is about 2 years of age and I have had him at my house for the past year. He is the most friendly and happy guy which is why I am willing to do whatever I can, that will help him and be best for him.

His diet since I have had him consists of timothy hay (kaytee brand or L&M brand), a limited amount of pellets the brand varies but right now it is Dumor Guinea pig food. Vegetables consists of romaine lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, carrots, kale, red pepper, green pepper, cucumber, strawberries, tomatoes, celery, zucchini, cauliflower, apples, oranges. The fruit is given in moderation. He always have the hay available and the pellets and he is fed one or a combination of the vegetables listed above 2x a day. He weighed in at 2.5lbs today.

I have read some other threads on here about stones and I have read the guinelynx page on stones so providing that link for me is not necessary. It seems like the general consensus on this forum is that surgery is a good thing. I am 99% sure this is the route I want to take and I know that there are no guarantees in life but I keep thinking... is putting him through an invasive surgery and through more pain the right thing to do? I feel in my heart that I need to give him a shot at happy life even if it will be a huuuuuuge financial burden for me. With all of this said please critique his diet and offer any suggestions/advice on what I can do going forward. I am all ears!

Good luck with the little guy!

@niletak Just wanted to comment on his diet; do you measure how much pellets he gets daily? An adult piggy should get 1/8-1/4 cup of plain timothy based pellets a day.
I tried looking up Dumor guinea pig food but couldn't find anything on it, so it's hard to say if it's of good quality or not. Can you post the ingredients?

They should get 1 cup of veggies per pig per day.
It would be helpful to know how often you feed each vegetable.
Romaine lettuce can cause calcium deposits, with a stone piggy it would be better to feed a low calcium diet. Red or Green leaf lettuces are a good alternative.
Green, red, and savoy cabbages should be fed 2-4 times a week. Pak-choi cabbage should be fed 1-2 times a week. They can all be very gassy, so I'd recommend feeding them in small amounts.
Broccoli and Cauliflower can also be very gassy and should be fed 1-2 times a week.

Kale is pretty high in Vit. A and calcium- i wouldn't recommend feeding it to Oreo very much, if at all. Typically it should be fed 1-2 times a week.
Red pepper is high in sugar and should be fed 2-4 times a week.
Green bell pepper is great to have as a staple in their diet.
Just in case you didn't know, when feeding celery you need to de-string it. (It should be fed 2-4 times a week) Here's an easy way to de-string celery: https://www.howtohaveitall.net/how-to-de-string-celery/


It's awesome that you're caring for this piggy. Oreo is very lucky to have you.

@Aleks he gets about a half of a cup of pellets in a small dish that he eats over the course of a few days. I purchased the pellets at the Tractor Supply Co. I will try to post the ingredients later. The more reading I do on this topic the more I feel I am leaning towards continuing the antibiotics geting some pain meds from the vet and making him comfortable until it is his time. I fear that if he has surgery he will develop new stones shortly after and I would not want to continuously put him through surgeries. I really am torn on what is the best route I should take for him...

Hi @niletak - so very sorry that you and Oreo are going through this! Many of us have been there with the same situation, and it's never easy.

1. Water - you don't want to give distilled water. Rather, you want purified water. You can do this with just a Britta filter, or similar. Distilled water can actually be harmful, but purified water will be good to help eliminate extra hard minerals. If your house has a water softener, then it's fine as is.

2. No Pellets - just eliminate them completely. Your pig doesn't need the pellets. Based on your list, it's clear you are giving a good variety for your pig, so look instead to give a well balanced diet of fresh greens and hay and skip the pellets.

3. Do a careful examination of your veggie list and the calcium content. Significantly reduce the ones that are high in calcium, and treat them - as a whole - in the very rare occasion/small quantity level. In other words, a small piece of kale OR parsley in a week, never both. Personally, I eliminated all high-calcium ones completely.

4. Also pay attention to the oxalic acid content in the other veggies you are feeding. Even when they are not high in calcium, they can contribute to creating stones because of the overall balance in the urine. The guinea lynx charts are wonderful, and can be resorted by column.

5. I have also read that increasing the acidity of the urine can help deter stone formation. This can be done with supplemented vitamin C, and I had also read on guinea lynx about rose hips and unsweetened cranberries. My vet did not feel that this was necessary, but I also think there are beneficial properties that, well, in moderation can't hurt either.

Monitor his eating very closely on the baytril, and weigh him daily. I would also eliminate any gassy veggies at the same time and start a probiotic, just to keep his gut moving and avoiding anything that could cause even the slightest discomfort.

If I were you, yes, I would definitely have the stone removed. A stone would need to be extremely small for a male pig to be able to pass it, and even if it were that small now, it can quickly enlarge. If it were to cause a blockage in the urethra, it would be a very painful end. Even if it remained in the bladder, it could also be an irritant and lead to continuous urinary tract infections, which would have you repeatedly back at the vet. Your pig is still young, and could have many happy years ahead with you. The recovery time from surgery can, in my opinion, actually be pretty quick. I would get any infection under control (you don't want to do surgery if there is infection), then have the stone removed.

Thanks for the advice! I contacted the Metropolitan Guinea Pig Rescue in my area (Maryland) and they recommended a cavy savvy vet that in in my area. I am going to give them a call tomorrow to inquire about doing the surgery through them. I will feel more comfortable knowing he is in the hands of someone who specializes in guineas. I will be picking up a brita pitcher tomorrow and I am going to go with the low calcium diet. I have well water and we do have a water softener system in place but I cannot honestly say how well that is maintained. I have learned so much in the past 24hrs thanks to this forum. I never knew there was an anal sac to clean which I did last night. Oh man that was gross for the first time! I will be ordering hay and from what I have read most people prefer KMS... what is the best type of hay for him now that he has this stone? Timothy, Orchard, or bluegrass and if Timothy is the 3rd cut okay? If I were to continue to give him a very small serving of pellets should I go with KMS?

If you want to continue a small serving of pellets, yes, I would go with KMS.

For hay - timothy, orchard & blue are all fine. You may get better pricing through Sweet Meadow. They are closer to you and shipping should be less. I have ordered from Sweet Meadow for years, but last year was an extremely dry summer and their hay had a lot of brown. I switched to KMS last year and had great results, but I just got a shipment of third timothy that is really bad - it is extremely dusty and I have been picking out tons of thorny weeds - so many that I am tempted to just trash 45lbs of hay. This is not typical of the quality from KMS, and I had been extremely happy with everything from them up to this point. If I were shopping right now, I'd see if anyone is getting in any 2013 hay now/soon. If it's all still 2012, I'd go with Sweet Meadow over KMS based on my last orders. For me, overall pricing per pound is about the same (when looking at hay cost plus shipping) so my opinion is based just on the hay.

The forum has auto-added some strange links to my previous post.
Here is a link to Sweet Meadow Farm: (broken link removed)

Thanks! I have an appointment scheduled Friday with a Cavy Savvy vet in my area for another consult and to schedule his surgery for hopefully Monday. I noticed today he doesn't seem to be drinking very much I gave him some wet green pepper, a cucumber slice, and a small piece of celery. He also had a half of a tablespoon of Oxbow cavy cuisine pellets and I have gotten him oxbow orchard grass which he has unlimited supply. I have replaced my tap water with deerpark spring water until I pick up a brita pitcher. His eating habits seem normal... he gobbled the veggies up right away then went for the pellets and he had plenty of poops lying around when I got home today and whee spots. Do you think I should maybe try to give him water with one of the syringes the vet gave me for his antibiotics if I dont see him starting to drink more by morning?

What vet are you using?

@lunarminx I am taking him to Chadwell Animal Hospital. Are you familiar?

I'm glad you're going with the surgery. Sooner is better, because if the stones move into the ureter it may be too late. Males can almost never pass stones on their own.