Candy - weightloss

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HollyT
Get on your bike.

Post   » Sun Jan 28, 2007 2:41 am


It would be harmful if the stones were struvite. Where did you read that it didn't change the PH of gp urine? Were there crystals in the urine?

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Becky

Post   » Sun Jan 28, 2007 11:42 am


It probably won't have much of an effect on the urine ph since their urine already is alkaline, however, UTI's, using antibiotics and other illnesses can lower urine ph, so for people that don't know their pig's ph, it actually could raise it.

Did you read the Mar Vista link? It gives a nice explanation of how polycitra introduces more citrates into the bladder. These bind with the calcium and help it be safely eliminated. That, more than raising the ph, is the theory behind using it for guinea pigs.

And yes, you wouldn't want to use it for struvite, but struvite crystals and stones are extremely uncommon in guinea pigs.

Holly, since there are lots of small stones in the bladder, it's probably safe to assume there are crystals as well.

HollyT
Get on your bike.

Post   » Sun Jan 28, 2007 11:46 am


Becky, so pigs stones can possibly shrink using polycitra (assuming it's carbonate) or is it just a preventative? God I hope this pig doesn't need surgery.

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Becky

Post   » Sun Jan 28, 2007 11:52 am


There's no evidence it will shrink stones once they've formed. What it hopefully will do is prevent existing stones from getting larger and new stones from forming.

I think it might be pretty effective with sludge. Certainly, with Chippy, her sludge problem never progressed to stones.

HollyT
Get on your bike.

Post   » Sun Jan 28, 2007 11:53 am


Ah Thanks.

Joannt
Wheekness for Pigs

Post   » Sun Jan 28, 2007 1:46 pm


Hi all.

Someone mentioned having some pH paper laying around. I looked into getting some a year or two ago to help out my daughter's science teacher - they were doing a unit on forensics. As a chemist, when I did that sort of thing, I used a pH meter - I hadn't used the strips since high school. There are broad pH paper/strips that will measure a wide range of acidity/alkalinity. There are also strips you can buy with a tighter range that may be more accurate for the purpose of monitoring piggy urine output. I recall that they were pretty expensive compared to the broad ones. (since kids were going to use/trash them, I went with the cheapo ones...)

If people would like me to get some info on tighter range pH strips, I'd be happy to do some digging.

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Mum
I GAVE, dammit!

Post   » Sun Jan 28, 2007 3:15 pm


Joannt - I think that would be a great thing to do.

I started Candy on subcues this morning - I suspect this is the only way there'll be a chance of her passing all those stones.

I absolutely loathe giving subcues - and I must have given at least 50 of them (not a great number but enough I shouldn't find them hard).

*sigh*

I really need to teach my 9-year old how to hold a pig still for me - but she can't bear to be around if there's a needle involved!

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rshevin

Post   » Sun Jan 28, 2007 3:38 pm


Is Candy still not gaining weight? Poor thing.

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Mum
I GAVE, dammit!

Post   » Sun Jan 28, 2007 3:40 pm


Nope. I'm h/f her cc twice a day - just about 15cc each time.

Joannt
Wheekness for Pigs

Post   » Sun Jan 28, 2007 8:53 pm


Hi all!

I have some data on pH strips. It is fairly lengthy - about 50 lines of text including blank lines.

What would be the best way to post this? Directly to the thread? Not a problem for me but I want to be sure I don't freak anyone out with a lengthy post. It consists of name of product, price, amount, sensitivity, and a link to the manufacturer's site for more detailed info. There are 5 products listed.
Also, some info about obtaining product and better pricing via retailers.

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Sun Jan 28, 2007 9:08 pm


If it's not copyrighted information (that is, publicly available), I'd just put it in a post. 50 lines isn't that bad (to me, anyway, but I'm verbose. :-p)

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Mum
I GAVE, dammit!

Post   » Mon Jan 29, 2007 12:55 pm


I ordered these test strips today and hope they'll be accurate enough to test for a bunch of things (I primarily need them for Candy right now).

Candy is now on twice daily subcues, twice daily cc (about 30ccs), bactrim, shilintong, and polycitra-k, along with 50mg of vitamin C and 0.15cc metacam.

She continues to be perky when I take her out, but she hides in her pigloo the rest of the time. When she gets her tiny amount of evening greens (literally 1 cup), she grabs them into her pigloo!

This pig eats every new veggie I throw at her! (Her new favorite is green pepper). But she's not eating much in the way of hay or pellets, so I'll continue with the cc for a while.

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