Sick Bladder Stone and Constipation

[Loralay93]

Hi everyone, we’re new in this forum.
JLo is a two years old female guinea pig from Turkey.




JLo has been having some problems with her bladder lately.


Our vet took an x-ray and they detected a bladder stone and some calcium deposits in her bladder last week, and we set a day for surgery. After that, she started having trouble with pooping.


We went to the vet again, and they gave her some medicine for her gas. They took another x-ray that day, and they didn’t find any stone in her bladder. They said she can get rid of these deposits in natural ways.


A few days later, she couldn’t poop again, so I took her to the vet. They wanted to keep an eye on her that day and they said she urinated blood and had some trouble with pooping. They decided to give her a daily serum. They gave her some medicine yesterday and she was looking very well last night.
This morning we went to the vet, and they gave a serum to her again.


But now she is having trouble with pooping again. Our vet, She is one of the best exotic Animal vets in Turkey, suggested 0.5mg olive oil. I tried to give it to JLo but she insists on not taking olive oil.
she looks really tired. I don't know what to do to make her feel better.


I would love to read your experiences.

 

[bpatters]

What do you mean by "trouble pooping?" Guinea pigs are almost never constipated, but pigs with bladder stones are often uncomfortable when they poop. They may whine, or hunch their backs.

The bleeding makes me think the stone may not have been passed.

 

[Loralay93]

I’m not very good at writing in English . I guess she prefer not to poop because of the stone and stuff. because of that she got bloated.

They couldn’t find stone in her last x-ray however she has deposits(I don’t know the exact word for this) in her bladder and urinary track.

 

[Loralay93]

Hello everyone.

There have been some updates in JLo's condition over the past two weeks.
She was not constipated. She just didn't want to defecate because of the pain, but she did have gas in her belly.


I took her to the vet 2 weeks ago, and they started to give her a daily serum which includes antibiotics, Metacam, vitamins, and lots of fluids for 5 days.

On the day that they stopped the medicine, she started to urinate blood with no pain. I took her to the vet the next morning, and they gave her more fluids and vitamins for 3 days to flush her bladder because she was also having calcium deposits in her urine.
We set a day for surgery last Sunday.


On Sunday, our vet said I'll try to use a catheter to flush her bladder so she did.

JLo urinated lots of blood and blood clots with loud squeaks that night. I gave her Metacam (under vet control) however, it didn't work for her. Therefore I gave her another dose of Metacam(0.2) the next morning and every other day till Thursday.
There were no deposits in the urine in the first two days after the procedure. She seemed to be recovering. However, the deposit problem started again. Also, she urinates like she has a UTI (The amount of urine was less.).
During this time, I've given her lots of water, and her appetite was much better than before.


Last night, she started to urinate like water. When she stood on a T-Rex position, she urinated 2 or 3 times. She couldn't hold it.


This morning we had an appointment and They wanted to wash her bladder with a catheter again and after that, they took an x-ray because our vet said blood kept coming through the catheter. X-ray showed that JLo's bladder wall has gotten thicker. Our vet didn't tell me the reason for this. I also asked about the T-Rex incident, but I couldn't get an answer. she found it bizarre.


The next Tuesday, they will take a urine sample to send it to the lab.


Has anyone encountered this kind of problem? If so how did you treat it?
Is bladder wall thickening a severe condition? Is there anything I should be aware of in this process?


Background: She used to have a UTI about a year ago. We used Bactrim every 12 hours for 5 days and Metacam once a day for 2 days.

 

[leenica]

How is JLo doing? I have never heard of a thickening bladder, but there are a couple things from my experiences that you might want to ask your vet about.

One of my male guinea pigs, Butters, had surgery to remove a bladder stone about a year ago. Then he had another one around October. He was on antibiotics and pain meds, and somehow he passed the stone on his own (which I guess is really rare for male guinea pigs but more common for females, so it sounds like that's what your vet was aiming for). Now Butters has another stone, and he's on antibiotics, pain meds, and we're giving him subcutaneous fluid injections at home twice daily hopefully to help flush out his bladder.

When trying to help Butters pass his stone, the vet first prescribed a pain med (Meloxicam) that he was getting twice daily, but he was still having trouble pooping or peeing (whining and really straining, which sounds like JLo). We took him back in and the vet put him on a second pain med, Buprenex. That seemed to do the trick in terms of allowing him to poop and pee without pain. Obviously, it's not a long-term solution, but if it could help JLo pass whatever is in her system right now without causing her pain, that might be worth looking into.

Since it sounds like JLo has frequent problems with calcium build-up (like my Butters), has your vet mentioned potassium citrate or hydrochlorothazide? These are both supposed to be maintenance drugs to help keep new stones from forming.

I hope things are going better for you and your piggie!

 

[Loralay93]

Hello! Thank you so much.

JLo's pain and sludges in her urine didn't stop. They were supposed to take a urine sample to send it to the lab but they decided to do a surgery to wash her bladder. According to her vet, sludges in her bladder caused damage to the bladder wall, that's why it got thickened. It will take a very long time for her bladder wall to get back normal.


When I took her to the vet for a daily serum a couple of weeks ago, they gave her meloxicam and it did help to relieve her pain. I also have Metacam at my house and I gave her Metacam until the surgery day.
None of the extra fluids or antibiotics or catheter helped JLo pass the sludges in her bladder.
She went down on surgery on Wednesday. She still has pain, mostly when she tries to poop. She is getting Metacam twice daily.


Her vet didn't mention any of those medicines. Some people suggested glucosamine. It helps to support the bladder lining and ease some inflammation over time.
JLo's been on a low calcium diet for a long time. I filter her water, and she eats meadow hay. I stopped giving her muesli mix because it has grains in it, and it is not healthy. I suggested Calcium: phosphorus ratio diet to her vet, but she doesn't know what it is. According to her, a low calcium diet will help JLo, but I don't know. She's already been on this diet. It looks like a chronic condition.


She doesn't have sludges or blood in her urine now. Her stitches will be removed on Thursday, and then we'll see.


I'm sorry for Butters . Will you use potassium citrate or hydrochlorothiazide? How is Butters now? Did he pass the stone?

 

[leenica]

Poor piggie! That's a lot to go through for JLo (and you!). I hope that all of these treatments will have a positive outcome eventually. Last year, when Butters had surgery to remove a bladder stone, the vet said that if he had this problem once, he would be likely to have the same problem again--like what your vet said about it being a chronic condition. Sure enough, Butters has had two more bladder infections/stones since then.

Since his surgery last year, we have been giving Butters potassium citrate to prevent calcium build up, but we weren't as diligent about it as we should have been. I think we've learned our lesson that he needs it twice a day, every day. He is also on the hydrocholorthiazide twice a day right now, and after he gets better, I think the vet wants us to keep him on that once a day. I'm not sure if we will though because it's pretty expensive.

I took Butters in on Saturday for an x-ray, and--his stone was gone! It's funny, but I feel pretty proud of him for passing that stone. He still has an infection that the vet says is a pretty resistant strain of bacteria, so they put him on some strong antibiotics. But Butters is feeling well enough now that he can reassert himself as the dominant guinea pig (over his brother Pumba). It's great to see him running around with so much energy again. I hope that you'll be able to see the same for JLo soon.

 

[Loralay93]

I'm so happy for Butters and you! I hope he won't have this problem again


It looks like all the things we've done are not enough to treat her problems. She started to squeak while urinating and pooping, although she is taking Metacam every day. Also, the most disappointing part is that sludges in her urine came back .

Our vet suggested a product called UrinoVet. It has parsley, cranberry, nettle leaf (Urtica L) and valerian root extract, glucosamine, petroselini radix, DL-methionine, Vitamin C, and vitamin B6 in it. I searched for this product online, according to a website it has milk products in it. I don't know why her vet suggested this.
So I'm hesitating to give this product to her.