[Gpdd] [HEALTH] guinea pig (Wallie) not eating--update

Ginger Hoffman gingera at MIT.EDU
Sat Aug 5 20:44:20 EDT 2006


Dear GPDDers,

I spoke to the vet recently.  She did an x-ray but no blood work (the 
blood lab was closed early today--she wants to do it tomorrow).  They 
saw one or two stones on the x-ray!!!!  I know that many of you are 
"stone experts," so maybe you can help.  Wallie is my very first guinea 
pig and, although I read the digest quite frequently, I'm very new at 
this.

One stone is clearly a stone and is either in the bladder or in the 
ureter.  She wants to do an ultrasound to get the exact location.  The 
other opacity may or may not be a stone, and is in the kidney.  She 
says the ultrasound will help us tell if that's a stone, too.

She also wants to do the blood work tomorrow, to make sure there isn't 
infection, etc.  (I'm still *very* nervous about having him possibly 
put under anesthetic for that).

She said that she would probably recommend surgery to remove the 
stones.  I'm wondering if there's any way to avoid that.  I'm a little 
worried that she's "surgery-happy," but obviously I'm more worried 
about the health of Wallie!  The problem is that Wallie still isn't 
eating or drinking.  He's still at the hospital getting sub Qs of 
liquid and getting critical care.

So any and all advice about stones is very welcome!!  Thank you so much 
for thinking about and praying for our little Wallie.

Ginger





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