Cystitis diagnosis - help!

flean

Post   » Mon Apr 11, 2022 5:50 am


Hi all - getting a bit desperate for help with my 4.5 year old girl! By way of background, she (Hawkes) and her sister (Chesney) have always been indoor piggies, they live in a 5x2 c&c cage which is lined with Guineadad fleece liners, puppy pads under the blanket areas where they sleep and lots of hay. I clean them out daily (i.e. refresh the puppy pads and all hay) and do a full clean every week. Her sister is perfectly healthy.

She has been having issues with her wee for the last 3 months. When I say "issues", it started out that she was arching her back and making pained noises when weeing / pooing (I wasn't sure which). Also consistently wet and seemed incontinent. She had a urine sample taken by the vets, diagnosed with a UTI and put on Baytril and Metacam in Feb, she went really downhill and ended up in the vets for intensive care as she had stopped eating and was severely dehydrated. The xray showed no bladder stones but that she had gut stasis. We went for intensive critical care every 3 hours alongside cysapride to get her gut moving, she improved and put on weight. This all cost close to £500....

6 weeks after this, she was getting wet again but no back arching. HUGE urine scald. Back to the vet! More Baytril and Metacam. After a week on Baytril, twice daily bottom baths and Vaseline applied once dry, she was still wet but the urine scald was better. However, definite signs of bladder sludge. Back again to the vets (I should note that my vets has two exotic specialists). Vet took another urine sample, found no infection but lots of crystals and white blood cells. She said it was very difficult to get blood draws from guinea pigs and it was a big risk for pig of Hawkes' age. She diagnosed "stress" cystitis, which I think is AKA interstitial cystitis?? Prescribed nutracyst and pain relief (combo of metacam and infant calpol). This was Thursday, i.e. 4 days ago. She is absolutely no better and is getting super stressed at her twice daily baths - biting me, which she never does and generally in a lot of pain being handled. Other than that she is a happy girl, running around and climbing the bars for grass and veggies (which I have limited to bell peppers, basil, cucumber and a little carrot).

I have absolutely no clue what to do next. Surely I can't leave her wet, covered in her own urine? But is the stress of baths making her worse??? HELP ME. I am a new forum member so no clue how to upload pics but I have many :)

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Apr 11, 2022 8:10 am


I'm sorry your guinea pig is going through this.

I'm going to address things piecemeal (lots of info). I do not recall using this product on guinea pigs - it appears to be used for dogs and cats. Unsure how helpful it would be:
http://www.nutracys.com/
nutracys+ includes:

N-Acetyl D-Glucosamine - Offers structural support to the bladder lining, which acts as a natural barrier to protect the underlying urinary tract layers.
Quercetin - Recent studies have shown Quercetin supports the body’s natural anti-inflammatory processes and is particularly beneficial for supporting urinary tract function.
L-Tryptophan - a natural amino acid found in many proteins and is involved in the production of the hormone Serotonin and has been shown to help reduce stress and anxiety levels.
If it is cystitis, a thorough review of diet may help, to lower dramatically calcium where you can. More topics where you may glean some helpful information:
https://www.guinealynx.info/records/view ... p?f=3&t=21

You can send a couple clear crisp photos of medical issues to me to upload.
Image

It appears infant calpol contains paracetamol.

"CALPOL Infant Suspension contains 120mg Paracetamol in each 5ml."
https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/product/260/smpc

Wikipedia identifies paracetamol as acetaminophen.

Suggest using shillintong, adjusting diet, continuing with the metacam.

User avatar
Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Mon Apr 11, 2022 8:19 am


I'm sorry that Hawkes is dealing with this. Interstitial cystitis is essentially a catch-all diagnosis for bleeding with undetermined cause. I see that Baytril was given, which is generally not the first antibiotic of choice for treating UTIs in guinea pigs. Most of time, Bactrim (which is Trimethoprim/Sulfamethoxazole, or SMZ) tends to be more effective and is better tolerated by most.

I am not familiar with Nutracyst. It doesn't sound like the Metacam is effectively managing her pain. What is her weight, the strength of the Metacam you are using, and the dose being given?

Sludge tends to be indicative of too much calcium in the diet. What do you feed her veggie-wise, and what kind of pellets (and quantity) does she get?

Someone else will hopefully weigh-in, but I don't think I'd want to use Vaseline for urine scald as it keeps the area moist rather than dry. Using a *very* small amount of a baby rash medication, rubbed in well, might be more effective.

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Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Mon Apr 11, 2022 8:20 am


ETA: Wrote the above before I saw Lynx's response, so apologies for some duplication.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Apr 11, 2022 8:42 am


You added some great info!

More about what we recommend for urine scald:
https://www.guinealynx.info/urine_scald.html

flean

Post   » Mon Apr 11, 2022 10:10 am


Thanks both!

Hawkes is still underweight and is currently around 880g. Her sister is around 1100g (and was previously the smaller of the two)...

Vet advised 0.34ml of calpol (which is indeed known as acetominaphen in the US, paracetamol in the UK) twice a day and 0.8ml metacam once a day, plus half capsule of nutracys+

I'm so confused about different advice on veggies here. Obviously I can't cut them out - not least because she lives with a cagemate. I've been feeding the only low calcium veg they will eat - bell peppers, cucumber, carrot. Her urine scald is much better though!

User avatar
Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Mon Apr 11, 2022 10:21 am


Is she getting any leaf lettuce? What kind of pellets are you feeding, and what quantity? What is the concentration of the Metacam? (it comes in two different strengths: 0.5mg/ml and 1.5mg/ml).

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Mon Apr 11, 2022 10:39 am


I see you're in England. England has large areas with high calcium concentrations in the water because of the chalk formations; That, along with a particular pig's genetic makeup, can cause sludge formation that irritates the bladder.

If it were me, I'd have the water tested, and if the calcium concentrations are high, I'd switch to reverse osmosis water. Don't use distilled water -- it depletes all the minerals in the body.

User avatar
Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Mon Apr 11, 2022 10:52 am


Good point.

flean

Post   » Mon Apr 11, 2022 12:08 pm


@Sef - they have routinely refused to eat lettuce... Metacam is at 0.5mg/ml and they get Science Select pellets, prob about 10g that they eat over 3 days.

@bpatters - yeah I am in quite a hard water area so they get Brita filtered water already. Which is why I am so baffled at why Hawkes is suddenly having so many problems!

Having said that her urine scald was better, I've just got her back in from the run as I was worried she might be getting cold and noticed she now has blood around her bum again. I am totally at my wits end, might try and get a second opinion from another vet as nothing seems to be working for my poor girl!

flean

Post   » Mon Apr 11, 2022 12:12 pm


@ Lynx I have sent the frankly hideous pictures through to you! Both of her previous urine scald and how bad it is today (it has again got worse very quickly)

flean

Post   » Mon Apr 11, 2022 12:17 pm


Thanks also for the Shilintong advice, it seems hard to come by in the UK but I'll keep looking. Really worried about my poor girl.

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