Bladder / urinary infection

Post Reply
User avatar
Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Tue May 21, 2019 8:38 am


Sounds good. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. Stones are no fun, that's for darn sure. :(

User avatar
Ibepatience
Supporter in '13

Post   » Wed May 22, 2019 3:46 pm


So I haven’t got the X-ray copies yet, I’ll call again today to try to get them, but I did talk to my regular vet last night. She said there’s definitely the beginnings of stones in her bladder. She said she is comfortable doing surgery but I’m still not convinced. She said we could try to break the stones down with a high acidic diet and doing sub-q fluids 1-2x a day and see if that works. She said if the antibiotics are upsetting her stomach I can discontinue them since they’re obviously not going to do anything for the stone and the infection is just a symptom of the stone. She’s still eating and maintaining her (low) weight, my question is am I being selfish prolonging her suffering? I don’t think there’s a very good chance we can break up the stones and I know she’s uncomfortable. When do I call it quits and let her go?

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Wed May 22, 2019 4:38 pm


Is there a reason you don't want to do the surgery? It's not a particularly hard surgery to recover from, and she should be fine in the hands of a good vet.

User avatar
Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Wed May 22, 2019 5:54 pm


I agree. Of all surgeries to have on a guinea pig, bladder stone removal is relatively straight-forward as long as there are no stones in ureters or in the urethra, and as long as the guinea pig is in good health otherwise. Having a decent vet is a must, of course. Does your vet not think the stones can be passed? Females can often do pass smaller stones; with males, it's not as common.

Acidifying the diet hasn't been shown to help, as far as I know.

User avatar
Ibepatience
Supporter in '13

Post   » Wed May 22, 2019 6:13 pm


My vet thinks surgery would be ok, I think I just have only heard bad bladder stone surgeries and went through one that our pig didn’t make it through. She had surgery about 6 months ago on a growth on her chin with this vet and did very well, she’s also spayed but that was done when she was younger. Maybe I should consider it, it’s definite not because of cost it’s 100% fear.

User avatar
Ibepatience
Supporter in '13

Post   » Thu May 23, 2019 12:21 am


I gave Faith some sub-q fluids (they gave me some to do at home) and she seems VERY perky tonight! She’s standing at the side of her cage begging for veggies! When I took out her fleece bed (I’m changing it several times a day to keep her clean) I found this poop. Is that mucus or is it some of the sludge / stones coming out? Her urine is cloudy white too.

https://photos.app.goo.www.guinealynx.info/

[added crop of photo - Lynx]


User avatar
Ibepatience
Supporter in '13

Post   » Thu May 23, 2019 12:22 am


Here’s a photo is the cloudy urine. It’s finally not tinged with blood!

https://photos.app.goo.www.guinealynx.info/

User avatar
Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Thu May 23, 2019 7:03 am


I'd say that first photo is mucus.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Thu May 23, 2019 7:35 am


I added a crop of your poop photo to your post. They do look like pretty wet poops. Not the greenish cecal feces but not the nice dry ones where you can see the fiber that is passing through them.


User avatar
Ibepatience
Supporter in '13

Post   » Thu May 23, 2019 7:50 pm


Oh and her PH was at 9, and she wants it around 7

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Thu May 23, 2019 7:54 pm


Good luck with that. A pH of 7 is neutral, like water. Guinea pig urine runs 8.0 or higher. How exactly does she plan to get it down to 7?

Post Reply