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Bladder stones in guinea pigs - advice needed

oscarbunny

Warren Veteran
Some of you may know that my four year old guinea pig had a bladder stone removed in February that was quite large and blocking her urethra. She recovered very well and very quickly. Her urine was milky and gritty. I changed her diet completely and removed all vegetables high in calcium. They made a small incision to remove the bladder stone (so small that it didn't require stitches).

A couple of days ago, I noticed that she looked as though she had another. So I took her to be checked out and they thought that she did. So she was operated on this morning. They 'flushed' them out this time and they managed to remove several very small stones. They said that this may have been blocking the urethra as a build up. She is recovering well at the moment. I still have the larger original stone and we are going to send that off for analysis to see whether it is calcium or potassium or something else.

I have some questions that I have posted on the guinea pig forum, however I haven't had many responses.

I wondered first of all if eating grass from the lawn could contribute to the development of bladder stones. I have the guinea pigs on the grass for around 3-4 hours a day and they eat loads of it.

My second question is... would this diet plan be any good

http://www.store2go.net/shop/planetguinea/ratewatchersrainbowdiet.pdf

I know very little about what I should now be feeding her.

Any advice that anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated.
 
i have no experience what so ever and have no advice so sorry
but i just wanted to sat that i hope everything is ok and i hope someone more useful than me finds this :)
 
:wave: sorry your poor little piggie still isn't very well :( the diet sounds ok but there are some things on there I would want to limit especially if she's prone to bladderstones, like kale. I know watercress makes Zero's tummy a bit funny so I don't give it to the piggies or the buns, and I would limit cucumber too. That's just what works with my piggies though I could be wrong
 
Is your water very hard, I have wondered for a while whether the water type has something to do with these problems.
We have never had a bun or guinea with bladder sludge, and I haven't heard of any at the vet ( not that I know every about animal that comes in, but I do take an interest in any small animals)and we are in a very soft water area. It may be worth changing her to soft bottled water- or asking your vet if it is a sensible idea?
 
Is your water very hard, I have wondered for a while whether the water type has something to do with these problems.
We have never had a bun or guinea with bladder sludge, and I haven't heard of any at the vet ( not that I know every about animal that comes in, but I do take an interest in any small animals)and we are in a very soft water area. It may be worth changing her to soft bottled water- or asking your vet if it is a sensible idea?

I think water plays a big part too. My vet consulted an exotics vet about my pigs and their bladder issues, and he said he'd worked in several areas and consulted other vets too, and there were most definitely pockets where bladder issues in piggies were very prevalent. My area has some of the hardest water in the country, and I change my water filter weekly these days.
 
Hi,

Thanks for the advice. I am trying to find out whether I live in a hard or soft water area and the websites are quite conflicting. Some say soft, some say medium. I live in Durham.

I have checked out the ratewatchers link. I included it in my original post. I wasn't sure about it though. What do you think? It seemed to be feeding lots of calcium type veggies.

Thanks again for the advice
 
Sorry, I obviously didn't read your first post properly. Yes, I think it's a mistake to think that piggies just need a low calcium diet as, from what I hear, it's phosphorus that is the worst problem. But, I still do worry about the water, since we can all feed the same diet, but we all have different mineral content in our water.
 
I haven't a clue, but I'm reading this with interest!! I'm new to piggies and reading that diet, I think I might be feeding too much baby spinich as it looks to be high in calcium. Am taking piggies to vet on Wed to have toenails clipped (I know! I just can't manage it myself - such a wuss!!) Anyway I'll ask her her opinion - she seems very knowledgable about small animals. :wave:
 
The thing with the diet is that you need to weigh the veg, at least at first. I was amazed at how much green leafy veg made up 10g, as opposed to a tiny slice of cucumber, say.
 
The thing with the diet is that you need to weigh the veg, at least at first. I was amazed at how much green leafy veg made up 10g, as opposed to a tiny slice of cucumber, say.

I'll be weighing stuff in the morning then. For breakfast every morning between two piggies, they have: 1 spring green leaf, half a stalk of celary, a small handful of baby spinich, one large floret of broccoli and about a quarter of a medium sized carrot. Then they have unlimited hay and dried grass throughout the day and in the evening their piggy mix, which is fortified with vit C. Do you think that sounds ok?
 
Definitely weigh it, yes - if you're like me, you'll be surprised at how much the carrot and celery weigh, as opposed to the spinach etc.

I'm always a bit nervous of spinach, and feed it occasionally, as it is high in oxalates.
 
Definitely weigh it, yes - if you're like me, you'll be surprised at how much the carrot and celery weigh, as opposed to the spinach etc.

I'm always a bit nervous of spinach, and feed it occasionally, as it is high in oxalates.

That's good advice thanks. Will spend some time in the morning weighing out veg! :wave:
 
I think I will give the diet a go. I will need to invest in some decent scales though. I have been searching high and low for this bladder stone that I have put somewhere.

Thanks once again for your advice everyone. :)
 
i live in a hard water area and have had 3 pigs with bladders stones in the past few years. I did start using filtered water but was told it doesn't make a difference wether the water is hard so am now confused.
I have started using the ratewatcher diet as my pig squiggle had a huge stone removed a few months back. I have limited he r veggies but make sure she gets lots of water based ones like cucumber and celery. I was told to avoid spinach all together and as i used to feed alot of it i did wonder if it contributed. Its so difficult to know!
 
Hope you get it sorted! Just one thing I'd mention is that I use Oxbow Cavy Cuisine Pellets as they are Timothy Hay based rather than Alfalfa based as other pellets are.

Alfalfa is *very* high in calcium which is one reason I decided on the Oxbow pellets.

*Goes off to read the link posted* :p
 
Hi there. Hope your piggy is recovering well.

One of mine, Ollie, recently have a very severe urine infection, which the vet originally thought was kidney stones. She advised that Piggies should never have Kale or Spinach as they have something in them that can cause stones. She said to give them plenty of herbs (mine love parsley (curled and flat leaf), corinander, mint and basil) and plenty of dandelion leaves as they are all really good for the bladder and make them wee. Hope this helps xx
 
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