[Stones] New to List (Stone Maintenance / Recent diagnosis)

[Meghann Matwichuk]

Hello All,

I've had my current 'crew' of five guinea pigs, all female and all
rescues, for just about five years now, and within the past two months
I've had three diagnosed with stones. The most severe case, October, had
bladder surgery in the beginning of January (a huge stone in her
bladder, several smaller ones, and one lodged in her urethra). She came
through the surgery well, improved for several days, and then took a
nosedive -- she was in intense pain every time she had to urinate or
make a bowel movement. She continued to eat and drink just fine, but her
urine would pool, she lost hair in that area, and it was a battle to
keep her clean 'down there'. After a re-check and removal of her
staples, vet determined that she'd developed an adhesion between her
bladder and stomach lining, causing the intense pain. After two more
weeks he scheduled surgery to part the adhesion (she is a terrible
anesthesiology patient, and so we were incredibly nervous about putting
her under again). 

Once she was under and he was able to examine her more closely, he
determined that it wasn't an adhesion after all. He flushed her bladder
and removed copious amounts of sludge and plenty of other nasty stuff
(this is called cystitis, right?). After a day's worth of pain due to
the irritation, I am absolutely ecstatitc to report that she didn't make
a peep last night (I slept near her cage to monitor) and that her hair
is already growing back. I am so relieved -- but I know that I have much
to learn in order to try and prevent this from happening again. The
stone analysis showed no nidus, and the composition was entirely calcium
carbonate. (She was on pain medication and antibiotics throughout the
whole ordeal.) Also, she was xrayed the day she was flushed, and
thankfully it doesn't appear that any more stones have developed. KCl (2
drops 2x daily) was added to her regime.

A word about the other two cases -- one, Alice, was also making noises
indicating irritation during urination, but her xray showed very few,
very tiny stones. She was put on KCl (2 drops 2x daily) and reexamined
after two weeks and the stones appear to have disolved. Another, Fergie,
did not show any signs of pain and we would not have known that she had
stones, but she was xrayed in preparation for a spay (ovarian cysts).
This showed a huge stone lodged at the tip of her urethra and several
developing in her bladder. During the spay surgery (also the other day),
the large stone was removed.

Obviously, I am concerned about the fact that this has all happened at
once. The other two piglets have not shown any signs, but have not been
xrayed. One matter that concerns me is that I've moved recently (in July
'05), so I'm wondering about the water quality. As soon as we started
noticing signs of stones, I began buying spring water and haven't given
them any of the filtered tap water from our house's supply. Could there
be something about the water supply -- is it worth investigating? I have
always been concious of keeping calcium levels low in their diets. They
are not fed any alfalfa-based pellets or hay. I do not feed them high
calcium greens like kale. I don't know where this little 'epidemic' came
from, but I certainly need to stop it from getting worse! With October
especially (the weakest, smallest, most fragile of my crew), I'm not
sure how much more stress her body can handle. (Luckily, and amazingly,
her spirits have been great through this!)

Also, I have read online about Polycitra as a maintenance medication. My
vet has put both Alice and October on KCl (potassium chloride)
indefinitely, which appears to me to be different based on some web
research I've done. Is there a practical difference? I know it is meant
to dissolve calcium deposits that may be in their bladders and is also
meant to be preventative. If that is the case, should I have all of my
girls on it?

My vet mentioned and I came across a bit of information about
shillingong (chinese herbal supplement). Does anyone use this?

Obviously I have a lot to think about... Thanks to those who read this
rambling email, and thanks in advance to those who might be able to take
the time to point me towards any resources that could be helpful or
share advice. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

Best,

Meghann 
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