4 year old female is squeaking when urinating

[Lynx]

Perhaps they are wood shavings? They are on the "okay" list.

Look over www.guinealynx.info/hay.html and www.guinealynx.info/bedding.html

What I encourage you to do is grab a bunch of bedding and put it in an enclosed bag. Shake and evaluate how much actual fine sawdust there is. You can also do that with the hay. Note on the hay page that hay that is moldy has very tiny dusty mold spores that make the hay smell funny and could affect your guinea pig's breathing.

[duskern]

Perhaps they are wood shavings? They are on the "okay" list.

Look over www.guinealynx.info/hay.html and www.guinealynx.info/bedding.html

What I encourage you to do is grab a bunch of bedding and put it in an enclosed bag. Shake and evaluate how much actual fine sawdust there is. You can also do that with the hay. Note on the hay page that hay that is moldy has very tiny dusty mold spores that make the hay smell funny and could affect your guinea pig's breathing.

Wood shavings sounds more right. Here's a couple of pictures. Me holding some of it in my hand, and some pictures from the cage.



Nellie says hello :)


Luna is curious about what I'm doing, while Nellie and Abigail are eating :)

[Lynx]

Yes, definitely wood shavings and not sawdust.

[duskern]

So we bought an atomizer and some demineralised water and did a minor cleanup in the cage, removing most hay. Then we gave the bedding a spray with the atomizer and have started spraying the hay also. All the symptoms that Nellie had instantly disappeared, so it's fair to say that it's working really good :)

[duskern]

Recently we have heard some squeaking from Abigail again. Not that much, and not every day. It has actually been some days since I last heard it. I am of course afraid that it has something to do with the bladder stone.

[Lynx]

I hope not too, though it is the most likely cause. Not rereading, but can you summarize the changes you have made to help her deal with stones?

[Bookfan]

We have a stone-prone pig & the vet prescribed diazepam to relax the urethra, meloxicam for pain (both so it would be easier to pass small stones) and an antibiotic. This is the vet who saved her last year by using some tool to pull a stone out of the urethra that was causing blockage.

We dropped the antibiotic some months ago with no problems and then the meloxicam. She started making pain sounds a couple of weeks ago & he restarted the meloxicam. He couldn't tell from the xray if there are stones or not.

He said he kept a stone pig going for 5 years with this approach.

[duskern]

I hope not too, though it is the most likely cause. Not rereading, but can you summarize the changes you have made to help her deal with stones?

We have not made any changes as such. Our vet told us to keep giving her cucumber 2-3 times a day to keep a solid intake of fluids that would help wash through her. Or something like that. But that's something we have been doing for some time, also before we had the stone removed. We have cut down on the amount of carrots we give them, so now it's only every other day. That's something I read somewhere, could help in regard to stones. I would like to do more, but it's hard to figure out what exactly that should be.

We have a stone-prone pig & the vet prescribed diazepam to relax the urethra, meloxicam for pain (both so it would be easier to pass small stones) and an antibiotic. This is the vet who saved her last year by using some tool to pull a stone out of the urethra that was causing blockage.

We dropped the antibiotic some months ago with no problems and then the meloxicam. She started making pain sounds a couple of weeks ago & he restarted the meloxicam. He couldn't tell from the xray if there are stones or not.

He said he kept a stone pig going for 5 years with this approach.

I haven't heard about something like this before, but it sounds really interesting! . As far as I could understand on our vet, the Danish vets are a bit lacking in knowledge regarding guinea pigs, compared to the UK at least (she told me that they were far ahead in research in this field), and probably other places as well. Not saying they are bad, they are maybe just a bit isolated in a small country. Our vet does take guinea pigs serious, which is great. We actually had a hard time finding such a vet, as most vets in Denmark are mostly focused on dogs and cats /:

I would love to try something like this!

[Lynx]

Stones are difficult to treat and I don't know that anyone has the answer. I am guessing most vets do not use the protocol Bookfan's vet does and success would also depend on many things. But worth trying! Keep in mind she talked about a female guinea pig, whose urethra is larger (females can more easily pass stones). Since your guinea pig is also a female, it may help.

How much cucumber do you give per day in grams? Another method of increasing fluid is soaking hay (must be removed in an hour or two to avoid molding) and wetting greens.

[duskern]

Stones are difficult to treat and I don't know that anyone has the answer. I am guessing most vets do not use the protocol Bookfan's vet does and success would also depend on many things. But worth trying! Keep in mind she talked about a female guinea pig, whose urethra is larger (females can more easily pass stones). Since your guinea pig is also a female, it may help.

How much cucumber do you give per day in grams? Another method of increasing fluid is soaking hay (must be removed in an hour or two to avoid molding) and wetting greens.

I think it's worth talking to our vet about it!

We usually give them cucumber 2-3 times a day, not really how many grams that is, but I could check later. Abigail, the one who had the stone, gets 2-3 cm and the cucumbers are normally 3cm in thickness. For reference, 3cm is just a bit more than 1 inch. The other two pigs gets like half of what Abigail gets.

I've seen a lot of talk about nutrition it it has gotten me all confused. It's hard to figure out what to give, and what not to give, in order to give the girls a good diet, also now that we have a pig that is prone to stones. I've seen some talk about a low calcium diet that is good for pigs with stones, but not sure what that consists of.

Also there's the question about the pellets. I think I wrote it somewhere earlier in this thread that we give them Cavia Complete, and I'm uncertain if I should change the brand to something else, especially now that we have a pig who have had a stone. It says on the nutritional page that you should avoid multi vitamin pellets. Cavia Complete has vitamin A, D3, E and C, so I suppose that actually is a multi vitamin mix, but not really sure? :)

Could you give some examples on a suiting diet?

Also, you are all so helpful! Thx so much!

/Martin

[Lynx]

It says on the nutritional page that you should avoid multi vitamin pellets.

It is multivitamins, not pellets with added vitamins that are best avoided (I don't think I mentioned pellets as an issue). Pellets generally have the correct proportion of these vitamins. Multivitamins can risk upsetting this balance because you can give the wrong amount - and if also giving pellets, you can give too much.

From the diet page, I write:

* Most guinea pig caretakers feed pellets to help meet minimum daily requirements for vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. Some guinea pig owners choose to instead feed a wider variety of hays and fresh food, forgoing pellets due to medical conditions like recurring bladder stones. Ideally a nutritional analysis of a non-pellet based diet will ensure there are no vitamin nor mineral deficiencies.

diet.html

The best diet info for stones I have is linked to from the stones page:
www.guinealynx.info/stones.html

Cutting back on calcium helps a great deal.

Oh, and yes, to give a gram weight for the amount of cucumber you give each serving and the number of servings per day (total gram weight).

[duskern]

I must have misread some of it. It's nice to know that we are not doing anything wrong in giving them pellets. I remember that someone mentioned earlier that our current brand (Cavia Complete) isn't the best however. I will take another look at the stones page and look at the diet you mentioned.

When you write "cutting back on calcium" is there any specific vegetable you are thinking to avoid here?

I weighed the cucumber I gave to Abigail today. It's not an exact amount she are given, but I would say that they generally weigh about 30 grams each, and we usually give them cucumber three times a day. The other two gets half of what she is having.