4 year old female is squeaking when urinating

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Phantomhorse

Post   » Fri May 04, 2018 2:46 pm


I have to agree with Bpatters on Sherwood Pellets - we tried it for a little bit and my boys developed grit in their pee (never have had that issue with them). After I switched to KMS Hayloft, they returned to normal.

However, I can speak highly about their tablets. I have used various tablets over the years for different purposes, and I've never had a problem with them. Maybe you could show the ingredients/nutrition label to your vet and see if they approve of trying it for her?

duskern

Post   » Wed May 16, 2018 9:37 am


So totally unrelated we had one of our other girls, Nellie, get sick the other day. Had her to the vet, and it turns out she had a broken front tooth as well as an infection. She had to have surgery to have it removed. Everything went ok, and shes home now and slowly starting to eat again. It's always so nail biting to get them to eat again after something like that and with the current heat in Denmark, 25 degrees celsius, it's not really helping /: But I do have a question. For good measure I gave her some Critical Care and FibrePlex after she came home, just to get things going. But then I started to think about if my supply of those products was still good to use. We store the Critical Care in the freezer, but I think it's more than a year old, so I went to get some new. At the same time I got some new FibrePlex, as that had been sitting a closet in the kitchen for a year as well.

Does anyone know how long you can store stuff like that after opening them? And how should you store them for them to remain good to use?

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Wed May 16, 2018 10:09 am


They're not going to magically go bad when they hit their expiration date. Some of the ingredients in them will gradually lose potency, some more quickly than others.

I store Critical Care in the refrigerator, and have used it up to two years old with no ill effects.

duskern

Post   » Fri May 18, 2018 8:56 am


Thank you. I store CC in the freezer. I'm more concerned about FibrePlex. Not really sure how to store it.

duskern

Post   » Fri May 25, 2018 5:33 am


Now we finally had the time to take Abigail to the vet for a check. They did an x-ray to see the development of her stone. It is located somewhere after the bladder in the urinary tract and has grown a little bit over the year. The location is a bit unfortunate, since doing an operation to remove it is really dangerous. So knowing that, I think the only real option is to do something else. I would like some advice regarding this. Is there some form of medication or diet we can try? What can we do?

I promised to vet to gather some information from this forum to pass along to her. She told me that treatments for guinea pigs isn't as sophisticated in Denmark as it is in other countries, like the UK for instance, so all relevant information regarding medication and such is welcome!

I guess we should get a better diet, taking into account that we have a pig with a stone.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Fri May 25, 2018 9:27 am


Do you have an image of the xray that you could post? I think it very unusual that the stone is in the urethra and has been growing there. Perhaps it may be embedded in the wall? If not, sometimes vets can flush the urethra and push the stone back into the bladder but this would be difficult if it was stuck there.

Read also www.guinealynx.info/stones.html and note a couple of products that may help, like shilintong.
www.guinealynx.info/stones.html#supplements

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Fri May 25, 2018 10:28 am


After the bladder is in the urethra, and is a very odd place for a stone to be stuck. If that's truly the case, I wonder if the vet might be able to catheterize her and push the stone back into the bladder. A sow's urethra is very short, and if they can find a small enough catheter, it might work.

duskern

Post   » Sat May 26, 2018 2:36 pm


These are two photos we took at the vet. The first one is one year old and the second one is from yesterday. The stones are visible as a white blob in the right side of the pictures, just a couple of centimeters above her legs. If you guys are uncertain about where to look, I can make some new pictures pointing out the spots, but I think they are fairly easy to see. Regarding the flushing and such, I think they might have tried that, but I would have to contact the vet to get a confirmation. The case with Abigail have been going on for a couple of years on/off. She has been at good health the whole time luckily.

I have build up some courage, to try to see if I can figure out a way to help her more with this problem. Various kinds of hardship in my life have been a hindrance for this over the last couple of years, but I now hope to figure something out!

Image

Image

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Sat May 26, 2018 3:35 pm


And why do they think they're in the urethra rather than the bladder itself?

It could just be coincidence that they're in the same place in pictures taken a year apart, but it could also indicate that it's the spiky kind of stone that implants itself in the bladder. There's not much to be done for that kind other than surgery, because it won't move around.

Without reading all the way back, is she a candidate for having it surgically removed?

duskern

Post   » Sat May 26, 2018 5:04 pm


bpatters wrote: Sat May 26, 2018 3:35 pm And why do they think they're in the urethra rather than the bladder itself?

It could just be coincidence that they're in the same place in pictures taken a year apart, but it could also indicate that it's the spiky kind of stone that implants itself in the bladder. There's not much to be done for that kind other than surgery, because it won't move around.

Without reading all the way back, is she a candidate for having it surgically removed?
I'm not really sure why they believe it's in the urethra. I think they can see it on the pictures. I have very little knowledge on x-ray pictures, so I have no way of knowing if what they are telling me is correct, but I assume the vets know what they are talking about.

I have read some stuff about diets for pigs with stones. Is this something you think I should do?

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Sat May 26, 2018 5:40 pm


I don't think a change in diet will do any good. Nothing that I know of will dissolve existing stones. If the vets can get rid of this one, a low calcium diet may, repeat may, reduce the chances of her getting another one. But it also may make no difference.

I'm not a vet, but I seriously doubt that she could have had a stone in her urethra for a year. It would almost certainly have caused a complete blockage in that time, and that would have been a very obvious emergency.

I'd want another opinion.

duskern

Post   » Sat May 26, 2018 6:59 pm


bpatters wrote: Sat May 26, 2018 5:40 pm I don't think a change in diet will do any good. Nothing that I know of will dissolve existing stones. If the vets can get rid of this one, a low calcium diet may, repeat may, reduce the chances of her getting another one. But it also may make no difference.

I'm not a vet, but I seriously doubt that she could have had a stone in her urethra for a year. It would almost certainly have caused a complete blockage in that time, and that would have been a very obvious emergency.

I'd want another opinion.
I think a change in diet might prevent the stone from getting larger. As it is right now, she seems healthy enough. She is eating and eager for treats, and likes to cuddle when she is out. I've heard about the low calcium diet but I'm not really sure what such a diet would be like. It's worth trying I think.

You do have a valid point regarding the blockage, something that I actually haven't thought about. She peed on my shirt and pants the other day at the vet, because she was scared, so it's certainly not blocked :) I will have to take this up with the vet.

A second opinion is not out of the question, but most vets in Denmark have a more dog/cat focus. Ours does actually have experience with guinea pigs and they are really nice people. The one we used before was awful in comparison and really just didn't take guinea pigs too serious...

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