[Gpdd] HEALTH: chronic cystitis

[Ann Sadoian]

hi everyone--

Thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to write to me personally and through the Digest with advice and words of wisdom for me as I try to help Dart with her recurring problem with cystitis.
I appreciate so very much the support from you all and will use what I can to help her get and stay better.

For
two years now, she has cried when pee'ing (except in the summer, as I
shared), so I've felt that this is something that she has to live with,
and only treated her when the symptoms seemed especially severe. I
didn't want her to take pain meds forever, just as I wouldn't want to
do that myself. But when she started to bleed as well as cry in
October, then when she was worse this week than she ever was, I started
to really worry. The day I wrote to you all was the worst I've seen
her, and she seemed sick all day, not just uncomfortable when pee'ing.
Up to this point, she has gone about her business and gone on with
life, despite the pain.

Before I took her to the vet on Thursday, I did syringe her some straight cranberry juice.
She took it willingly, but only seems to want a little at a time. Maybe
what seems a little to me is really a lot to a piggy! The vet changed
her antibiotic mid-course (since it was obviously not working) to one
that is used for horses. He adjusts the dosage for smaller animals and
adds sweetener. He told me he's had good luck with it in treating upper respiratory infections
in piggies, even when other antiobiotics didn't work. We decided to
give it a try since trimeth didn't work for Dart in October. He also
wants to keep her on metacam because of the bad pain she was
experiencing. I bought some Critical Care, and my son and I gave her a
feed Thursday night with some more cranberry juice. This way she got
some fluids, as she hadn't been drinking and just nibbling at her food.

I
don't know what made the difference, but I woke to the sound of the
water bottle and ran in to see who was drinking. It was Dart, and she
then jumped up on the bars on the side of the cage to say "hi." She was
eating hay and pellets normally, and just seemed so much perked up from
the day before. We've been watching her closely, and she still cries,
but softly, when she pees. From what I can see, the bleeding seems to
have stopped nearly completely, if not completely so. I'm just going to
keep on with this course and hope that she will improve, at least to
the point she's been at, where the crying was quiet but not disruptive
to her life  and where she wasn't bleeding.

Heartfelt thanks to you all,
and I will keep you posted as to how Dart continues to do. My son
thinks I should post photos, but I don't know how to do that, so I will
enlist his help sometime when it's not so busy and send some photos of
Dart, her sister and cagemate Feather, and Gizmo and Tessie, who live
in another cage. They are all so precious and fun!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

Ann
Dart, Feather, Gizmo & Tessie