Stones Pig passed a stone PLEASE HELP

[treebie]

My 2-3 year old male just passed a bladder stone. He has been acting weird the past few days but really weird today... hunching, standing really still for long periods of time, hiding under my desk, and pooping less than normal. Then all of a sudden he peed blood. About 30 minutes later he started making "I'm in pain" noises and hunching while peeing. I looked where he peed and there was a bladder stone there. I put it in a baggy for the vet.

It is currently 11:45pm and I cannot get him to a vet until tomorrow. Even then, I don't know if they will even have an open appointment for a piggy. Is there anything I can do to help him tonight? Or to make him feel more comfortable?

 

[PiggieWigglies]

Look and call around for an emergency exotic vet. He needs to be seen. Also pigs just don't "get" bladder stones. This either had to be an unnoticed UTI or something. What do you feed him? The first day he was hunching you should have kept an eye on him and then taken him in. Also @bpatters had a pig with a stone, you should speak with her.

 

[RodentsRus]

make sure he get extra water to floosh it out if there is anymore.. I warm up some water then syringe feed my girl. she has had stones it the past. I do that when she starts to cry when she pees.. She loves it is.. she can drink up to 60 cc. She left me know then she has had enough. I use a 1 cc syringe. good luck.

 

[treebie]

I live in a rural area and the closest exotic vet is 1.5 hrs and its closed until tomorrow morning.

He gets unlimited timothy hay, wild harvest timothy pellets, and vegeis twice a day (green leaf lettuce, carrot, and pepper). These are his staple veggies but he gets other ones sometimes such as cucumber, a teeny bit of broccoli, celery, tomato, and also some fruit once every 1-2 weeks.

 

[treebie]

He is also squeaking when he poops. And he has been pooping way less than normal and some are slightly irregularly shaped.

 

[onibaku06]

Hi treebie, I'm sorry to hear that your piggy is in such distress. Please keep a close eye on him tonight, and take notes of his condition every 30-60 mins and present them to the vet when you go tomorrow. I'm sure you know that you need to take him tomorrow. Guinea pigs health declines rapidly, so the sooner you take him the better. Good luck.

 

[mlgobel]

I hope he is okay Keep us posted...

 

[bpatters]

He does need to see a vet, but if he's still peeing ok, it's not a rush-off-to-the-vet-this-minute emergency. Get him in to an exotic vet (don't bother with a dog-and-cat vet -- it'll just be a waste of money unless your vet is exceptionally good and has done some additional work with exotics).

The squeaking when pooping and peeing are classic signs of urinary tract stones. You're lucky he was able to pass one -- it's harder for males to do that than for females because the urethra is longer.

The pellets you're giving him are low quality, and you should either take him completely off pellets or replace them with something else. Those are high in calcium, and the calcium is calcium carbonate, which seems to be implicated in stone formation. The only pellets I know of that you can get that don't have calcium carbonate are KMS, from (broken link removed). Don't freak out when you see the shipping costs -- add the shipping costs (choose UPS, not USPS) to the pellet cost and figure out the cost per pound. Then compare them to what you're currently paying -- they'll be about the same or cheaper.

Celery is also high in calcium -- I'd take that completely out of his diet. There's a chart that tells you what you can feed and how often -- you can pick the low calcium veggies from it: https://www.guineapigcages.com/foru...vy-Nutrition-Charts-amp-Poisonous-Plants-List.

 

[treebie]

I plan on buying some pellets from kmshayloft.com tonight. Anyone know about their bluegrass hay compared to timothy hay?

Rumi went to the vet this afternoon. An x ray confirmed that he had no more stones. However, I had to take him the the urgent care vet instead of the really good exotic vet because they were short a vet today. The urgent care vet seemed only somewhat knowledgable about guinea pigs. She checked his eyes, ears, belly, butt, and did a gut rub before doing an x ray. She said she would email me the x ray within 24 hours so I can post it for further evaluation by you lovely knowledgable people.

The vet gave me an antibiotic that has to be administered by mouth for 10 days. She said he might have a UTI that caused the stone or the stone could have caused a UTI. The antibiotic is called sulfamethoxazole trimethoprim and I give him .5ml a day. Should I also provide probiotics?

Rumi seems somewhat better but he's still acting kind of weird. His belly is still making weird gurgling and whining noises. There is some standing in place for awhile and attempting to urinate without success. And sometimes he pees just fine. He is eating some pellets but not a ton. He still goes wild for veggies though and has been eating a lot of hay. His water intake has always been much lower than my other pig and now it seems even lower. I have been making efforts to put the water by his face and he often decides to drink then. He sometimes drinks on his own, especially when eating pellets. His poop is returning to normal, some irregular ones but a lot of normal ones. There still isn't much poop at all though compared to the mountains he normally produces.

 

[melynda]

My boys have loved everything I've gotten from KMS so far. My first order was 5lbs of bluegrass and 5lbs of 3rd cut Timothy. I frequently mixed them together. They happily ate both kinds. When I ordered again I got more bluegrass and 2nd cut Timothy because they also love seed heads. I've observed that the 2nd cut is stiffer/harder than the 3rd was but they are eating it fine. Sometimes I mix the two, other times I just alternate. They get ridiculously excited when I fill up their hay bags.

Both of them love the KmS pellets too.

 

[bpatters]

@treebie, the antibiotic he's on is Bactrim, which is the usual treatment for possible urinary infections. It's not usually nearly as bad as Baytril about affecting the appetite and upsetting the digestive apple cart, so he may be ok as is. But watch the amount and shape of his poop. If he doesn't poop as much, you'll have to either hand-feed or force-feed him, and if it gets mushy, you'll need a probiotic.