Grace's medical thread

Bookfan
For the Love of Pigs

Post   » Sun Dec 01, 2019 5:19 pm


Thanks for the research guys. "potential for it to cause bloating or other GI issues " Red flag.

Lynx, yeah, definitely. I mean it's for inflammation and I bet using it for bladder inflammation is off label. A med intended for dog and horse joints used for gp bladder. Maybe it works for some, but it's not clear it's safe for our fragile gp's.

Bookfan
For the Love of Pigs

Post   » Sun Dec 15, 2019 10:57 am


Grace has interstitial cystitis as mentioned above. Daughter searched the internet for anything to help this aside from adequan & found a British forum poster suggesting Feliway Cystease Advanced Urinary support for cats. She had a long talk with our vet yesterday evening & vet says it shouldn't be a risk & worth trying to see if it helps. Forum poster(s?) claimed improvement. It's supposed to help restore the bladder lining. It contains:
" n-acetyl glucosamine and hyaluronic acid which are key components of the gag lining (the lining of the bladder wall)". It comes in tablets so easy to adjust the dose. We'll start small.

Grace has been occasionally passing blood clots since that one injection of adequan. We don't know if there is a connection. At that point in time she had no stones.

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Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Sun Dec 15, 2019 4:25 pm


I guess it's worth a try. I'd be careful with some of the glucosamines, though, which generally have either a shark or bovine derivative. These have the potential to cause stomach upset in herbivores, as you might imagine. I do know that Oxbow's joint supplement has a plant-based form of glucosamine, as does the joint supplement by Sherwood Animal Health:
https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Science- ... 836&sr=8-4

You may know that I'm generally not a fan of Sherwood Animal Health, but they also have a joint formula that supplement that I find a little intriguing:
https://www.amazon.com/Support-Sherwood ... 462&sr=8-7

That product uses a vegan form glucosamine that has been developed and patented by a company called Glucosa Green:
https://glucosagreen.com/

I was just reading about it the other day. Wonder if it would be worth discussing these with your vet and trying either of these other products first? If you do and decide to give one or the other a try, I'd contact Oxbow or Sherwood and see what the calcium content is of their respective joint product. I don't recall seeing that listed on either site (but assume it's minimal). I do seem to recall that the Sherwood product as some sort of "sugars" listed, which I assume is for flavoring.
Last edited by Sef on Sun Dec 15, 2019 4:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Bookfan
For the Love of Pigs

Post   » Sun Dec 15, 2019 4:27 pm


Thanks for the info. I'll pass it along to daughter. I know she's going to try Oxbow joint support 1st since the stuff from England is going to take a while to get here.

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Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Sun Dec 15, 2019 4:30 pm


Oops, my bad. I should have said "your daughter" instead of "you." Just got up from a nap and brain is still a little fuzzy.

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Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Sun Dec 15, 2019 4:31 pm


As an additional PS...might also be worth contacting GlucosaGreen to see if they sell directly to consumers.

Bookfan
For the Love of Pigs

Post   » Sun Jan 05, 2020 12:04 pm


We started Gracie on Oxbow Support shortly after my last post. The stuff from England had already been ordered. It has arrived & she's had some for the last few days. She seems happier, coming out of her hut to eat with the other pigs, minimal blood in her pee, & less in the way of pain sounds when pooping. Daughter has been giving her critical care for a few weeks to help her gain/maintain her weight. I'm not attributing all this improvement to the new product - it's anecdotal and I just don't think that way. But she seems better so we'll continue with it. My internist said the informal way to see if a med is helping (in humans) is to start, stop and then start again. But I'm sure we won't stop unless it seems to be causing problems.

Today daughter tells me Grace has sneezed a couple of times a day for the last several days & sprays out a droplet or two of clear mucus. She's acting fine, eating fine, no crustiness on eyes or nose. Should we take her to vet or wait another day or two? We're at the dusty end of a box of hay and just opened a new one yesterday, fwiw.

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Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Sun Jan 05, 2020 1:30 pm


I'd wait and monitor for now. One URI symptom, such as intermittent sneezing, puts me on alert. Two more more symptoms, I haul the guinea pig to the vet.

Interesting about that urinary product from the UK. Is she also using the Oxbow supplement? If so, maybe a synergistic effect?

Bookfan
For the Love of Pigs

Post   » Sun Jan 05, 2020 2:41 pm


Thanks Sef. That makes sense.

I think she stopped the Oxbow supplement when the new stuff got here, but there may have been some overlap of having both in her system. I'll keep you posted on how she's doing on it. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we found something that helped pigs with inflammation of the bladder!!

Gracie's had been acting off since Brownie died - not coming out of her hut for food or piggie company. And she gets along fine with out new pig Emma. Daughter thought it might be depression, but thinks (and I agree) that most of it is due to discomfort and pain in her bladder.

One funny thing about the new pig introduction. For some reason the girls put Emma on the floor first with Grace. Emma was in Grace's face & Grace is a timid little soul. Then we added Carly who's not particularly aggressive, but isn't going to take second place to a much younger newby. Emma tried the same stuff with Carly & Carly was having none of it. A little threat nipping, chasing. So Emma knows who's boss and acts subordinate to Grace too! Funny pigs.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sun Jan 05, 2020 6:21 pm


I hope you can find something that will help with bladder inflammation too!

Bookfan
For the Love of Pigs

Post   » Thu Jan 30, 2020 8:51 pm


Between Dec. 1 & now Grace has lost 5 oz. She's at 2lb, 1oz now. The persistent weight loss started after she peed the large blood clots which I mentioned on the previous page. She occasionally gains a bit for a day but the trend is steadily downward. She's had 2 syringes of CC a day since the beginning of Dec. Otherwise she's eating normally - as much as the other pigs.

She's just been treated for a mild URI and had a recheck last Sat. Daughter thinks the glucosamine stuff is helping the bladder. Sometimes there's blood in her pee, sometimes not. She passed a small stone last week while daughter was feeding her. She makes pain sounds when she poops, but not when she pees. I don't understand that.

She's about 4yrs. 3mos. old. Any ideas about what to do about the weight loss?

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Thu Jan 30, 2020 10:55 pm


Maybe try some shillintong too?

If you offer her a ball of CC on a plate, might she eat that? Otherwise, I'd try increasing the CC to see if she can at least maintain her weight.

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