*URGENT* Passing blood...squeaking

[Sef]

No, I hadn't given him any Metacam...I was in the process of double-checking the dosage first, as (bad) experience has taught me to do.

The bad thing is, this is a new exotics vet who recently took the place of our very excellent exotics vet (it's his clinic, but he's terminally ill and can no longer practice). I was hoping she would be reliable, as there aren't many in this area who are experienced with cavies. We're not off to a good start.

Anyway, thanks again for all the advice and help on this.

[twopawsup]

glad to see the updates, busy with a house sale/looking for a place (that will take pets of course)that took me away for a bite. Thanks for the complimates. My old girl go throughs sessions very similar to all this. She however, is loaded with multiple tumors, including lymph node. Biopsy and tumor removal histos when this all started were equal to lipomas and not cancer, so we just keep her happy--And she is-eats Cavy Cuisine Performance and the Vitc's tabs great and loves her veggies. I must confess she only will eat mix hay from my pony which is high quality home grown at the barn he is at. She will refuse to eat any other and won't even nest in it.
Anyways, still trying to get her avatar on her, but when she is having a flare up and is wheeking when passing urine and blood tinged urine I treat her with SMZ or baytril and her symptoms clear up. Since she does have multiple tumors (and could pass for a boy with someone who didn't know GP anatomy), we chalk it up to the tumors causing irritation. She is not passing glucose in her urine (normal ph on GP's is high at 8.5-9 FYI) and also in my experience a dip stick that is positive for WBCs (leukocytes) is NOT accurate! We find this especially if the bottle of strips has been open for a while regardless of expiration date. Unfortunately, you piggie must have something causing the blood cells in the urine and we may never know, but using the low dose (sorry Metacam as I said, I am not familiar with and I do not have access to VIN, just VSPN) based on your info is the way to go. Yes, reglan does tend to stimulate appetite, along with SQ fluids with like 0.1cc of b vitamin given SQ also. But we only use that in severe ill GP's. Unfortunately in rural Vermont, our patients don't always have as attentive owners, and that goes for dogs/cats too :(
All this may be a renal issue, but sometimes, urine and bloodwork will not show this until real compromised. I have found also with my senior girl, the change from the Oxbow cavy to the performance meant for pups has helped keep her weight on her-gradual transition. She has been able to handle this well along with one tab of the Vit c from Oxbow. I read somewhere also to bump ill cavies up to an extra 1/2-1 tab of the vit c tabs when ill. Sorry don't remember where. Ok, sorry for the late catch up, but good luck!

[Lynx]

It helps if you put a line of white space between your paragraphs. Your post is hard for me to read so I am not reading it.

Like this.

[Sef]

Well, here is a rather frightening update. Obsessing over the dosage on the Metacam, I finally broke down and called the veterinary office to see if they could page the vet who prescribed it, to ask if she would please re-calculate the dosage for me. They confirmed that it was the 1.15mg/ml concentration, so I was even more convinced that a big mistake had been made.

Sure enough, the vet tech called me back just a few minutes ago, and told me that the instructions on the vial were wrong -- the dose should have been .08 -- not .8. OMG.

Guess this was one incident where my OCD actually paid off.

[Mum]

Goodness - what a dreadful mistake. Thank heavens you were so concerned and checked it.

[Becky]

I think that's too low to really accomplish anything. Even bony Elvis with bone problems get's 0.15 ml. That's nearly double the 0.08 dose. I'm suspicious that they're not sure what the dose should be.

Josephine? Mel? Someone want to address this further?

[Mum]

My boy with the severe boneloss gets .15 once a day, also.

[Sef]

Well, this vet has already lost credibility with me, by mis-dosing it the first time. Maybe she was just trying to cover her butt by saying "It was a typo; supposed to be .08cc," or maybe she is just guessing at this point. At any rate, I went ahead and bumped the dose up to .1cc. Even though the pig is having only minor discomfort (apparently), I agree that .08 seems awfully low.

Anyone know of any good exotics vets around the Evansville, IN area?

[Becky]

GracieLee hasn't been around lately, but maybe someone knows where she can be reached. She used to be from that area.

Also, where is Caroline these days? She lives in the vicinity, too. You can do a search on either name and email them.

[Sef]

Update: the urine sample came back from the lab. No red or white blood cells and no bacteria, but crystals were found -- both struvite and calcium oxalate.

The vet left me a message last night saying she'll call me today to discuss treatment, but gave me the impression that the presence of both types of crystals will make it difficult to treat, since one type requires the urine to become more akaline in order to prevent stones, and the other type requires the urine to become more acidic in order to prevent stones. Is this true?

Initial x-rays showed no stones. I'm wondering if a second set might be wise?

Zachary is still eating and drinking normally, does squeak occasionally when defecating (usually when I'm holding him, as if there is some discomfort in the way he sits in my lap), feces are back to normal, and is maintaining his weight at 2 lbs. 10 oz. -- there had been some initial weight loss, but it seems to have leveled off.

Any recommendations here?

[GP Lover]

"...one type requires the urine to become more akaline in order to prevent stones, and the other type requires the urine to become more acidic in order to prevent stones. Is this true? "

Yes, that is true so you need to be careful about the urine pH.

Is he crying when peeing? If so you may want to consider pain management. Not having a stone is good but I would imagine it's possible those crystals may contribute to forming one in the future.

Let's see how your vet plans to treat it. You don't know yet what the plan of action is.

[Sef]

You're right -- I need to take a deep breath. I guess stress of work, husband's health problem, and now this have made me a little stressed.

I'll wait to see what the vet says when I call back at noon. I'm off to go try to test his urine for pH, since the lab forgot to...