[Gpdd] Health: Bladder stones and surgery

[sherry bevins]

Hi Debra,

Just wanted to pass on a story that may be of help to you. My piggie friend 
Cinnamon had a large bladder stone that had to be removed surgically. 
Several months before the surgery, I was wiping up some of his urine from 
the floor when I noticed that it was blood-tinged. Our vet gave him an 
antibiotic for eight days to treat a UTI, and this seemed to take care of 
the problem. Well, over the months that followed, he began losing weight. He 
still was eating and drinking, but during the night,when everything had 
settled down, I could hear him crying now and then...I guess that was when 
he passed urine. I took him back to the vet, who x-rayed him and found a 
large stone in his bladder. For about a month I gave him extra vitamin C to 
try to break down this stone, as per our vet's instructions. He thought that 
if we could change the acidity of Cinnamon's urine, it might help to 
dissolve the stone. It didn't. So, here's Cinnamon still losing weight and 
obviously in misery...his normally bright black eyes were dull with the 
pain. Surgery was the only option and the cost of it was more than I could 
afford at the time. Believe it or not, our vet would not operate unless I 
could pay the full amount at the time of the surgery. So, he gave us Baytril 
to control the infection until I could afford the surgery...which was about 
a month later. All this time my boy was in pain and getting thinner. I was 
afraid that by the time I could pay for the surgery he would not be strong 
enough to get through it. When that day came around, I took him in convinced 
that I wouldn't see him alive again. All agonizing day I waited to hear from 
the vet's office...finally I could stand the suspense no longer and called 
them myself. He was in surgery at the time, but I was told to come in around 
four o'clock no matter what the outcome. When they brought him out to me I 
nearly burst into tears. He had survived and was ready to be fed. He did 
fine with the stitches and has been fine ever since, with no recurrences to 
date. Your vet will give you post-op instructions when you take Calico home. 
I watched Cinnamon to make sure that he didn't pick at his stitches, and as 
far as trying to prevent recurrences, I don't give him alfalfa hay any 
more...just lots of timothy. I tried giving him timothy hay pellets , but he 
didn't seem to like them, so I let him have his usual pellets back. I pray 
that Calico will be fine and that he'll never have to go through this again. 
He sounds like such a sweet little guy. We'll be thinking about you...please 
let us know how it goes.

Our best to you and Calico,

Sherry and her piggie friends