[Gpdd] Health: Kinjaroo, stones and drinking water

[Ann Evans]

Kinjaroo’s stone surgery went very well. Kinjaroo is 5.5 years old. She 
had a large stone removed from her urethra 13 months ago. On Christmas 
Day she weeked in pain when I picked her up. She had pain at the exit to 
her urethra. I took her to Dr. Frank Bonsack DVM for an x-ray on the 26 
of December 2009. The x-ray showed urinary calculi that looked like 
gravel in the lower segment of her urethra. She was scheduled for 
surgery on the 29 of December. However, since I was sick and assist at 
all cavy surgeries, the surgery did not take place until the 6 of 
January 2010. While awaiting surgery I gave her orally 10 mg of Rimadyl 
twice a day for pain and 0.5 ml of pediatric Bactrim also twice a day. 
In addition, she was given 0.2 ml of hydrangea root tincture mixed with 
0.3 ml of liquid vitamin C (50 mg) once a day. The hydrangea is 
beneficial in healing the urinary tract. I had done urinalysis at home 
using Siemens Multistix reagent strips for urinalysis. She tested 
positive for blood, which can be an indication that the crystal 
structure of the calculi was damaging the urethral tissue. She tested 
negative for leucocytes and nitrite indicating that she did not have an 
infection. The pediatric Bactrim was administered prophylactically 
because she was going to have surgery. On the day of surgery my job was 
to do the anesthesia. Pre-anesthetic was 10 mg Rimadyl orally 2 hours 
prior to surgery. I took away her food 1 hour prior to surgery but not 
water. I gave her 1 ml of honey and 5 ml of diluted juice. The purpose 
of the honey is that cavies store very little glycogen in their liver so 
the honey acts as an energy source. The diluted juice was to wash the 
honey down and any food in her mouth. Bland ophthalmic ointment was 
placed in her eyes. Induction was with 3.0% Isoflurane using a large 
nose cone in which her entire head and front legs fit into. The surgical 
table was heated to 38.0 C. It took 7 minutes for induction. I then 
removed her from the nose cone, opened her mouth and aspirated any fluid 
using a 1 ml syringe. She was then placed on her back on a microwaveable 
heating pad, which had been heated for 1 minute and then was put on a 
thoracic positioner. I placed a small nose cone over her nose and mouth. 
It was held in place with Velcro straps. Isoflurane was decreased to 
2.5%. She was shaved and her skin was cleaned. Dr. Bonsack used a small 
stainless steel spoon to scoop out the urinary calculi. Then he injected 
0.3 ml of 2.0% Lidocaine along the midline skin above the urethra. 
Isoflurane was reduced to 2.0%. Using small scissors a 1.0 cm incision 
was made in the distal urethra and overlying skin. The urethra and 
bladder were flushed with warm lactated Ringer’s solution followed by 
sterile water. While the urethra and skin were still open the nose cone 
was removed and she was taken to the next room while still on the 
heating pad and an x-ray was taken to make sure that all of the calculi 
had been removed. It took less than a minute to take the x-ray. I 
replaced the nose cone and the Isoflurane was reduced to 1.5%. The x-ray 
showed that all the calculi were removed. Her outer skin was sutured 
with Vicryl 3.0. She has 5 sutures. Immediately after she was sutured 
the Isoflurane was turned off, the system was purged with oxygen and she 
breathed oxygen for approximately 5 minutes. I then took off the nose 
cone and put a dab a Vicks on her nose. She woke up immediately. The 
entire surgery took 50 minutes. She was placed in a large box that 
contained Vet bedding along with her heating pad and she began to 
immediately eat romaine lettuce. She has been eating, drinking, 
defecating and urinating normally since 15 minutes after the surgery. 
She is still the loudest weeker of all of our cavies. Today is 5 days 
post surgery. It is her last day on Rimadyl and pediatric Bactrim and 
the hydrangea. I am now giving all of my cavies spring water, which 
contains 0.03 mg/L of calcium and no fluoride or chlorine. In a couple 
of weeks I will do urine sedimentation tests to see if it was our hard 
filtered water that caused the stones. Or it may be due to the fact that 
Kinjaroo and Trix another of our cavies that had a large stone removed 
in April 2009 tend to excrete higher than normal amounts of calcium into 
their urine. If that is the case, Vedra Stanley-Spatcher has advised me 
to put any cavy that is prone to stone formation on Rowatinex, one gel 
cap/day plus 20 minutes/day on a Niagara Cyclo massage pad. I already 
have the Rowatinex that I bought online from www.smallflower.com. I also 
bought a used Niagara Cyclo massage pad from Ebay.  You can purchase a 
used one from http://www.niagaracyclomassage.com/. The Rowatinex and the 
massage therapy must be continued for the life of the cavy.

I want to thank everyone that gave me information on the right type of 
spring water to give our piggys. I have always given them filtered water 
that removes the fluoride and chlorine. Vedra has told me that it is 
calcium in hard water that is the major contributor to urinary calculi. 
In fact all of the scientific papers that I have read over the past 2 
weeks regarding the composition of urinary calculi in cavies has shown 
that 80% of them are calcium carbonate. I must admit that I feel like a 
very stupid scientist who did not put my cavies on low calcium spring 
water after the first stone surgery. I have always thought that fluoride 
had more to do with stone formation than calcium since it is totally 
natural for cavies to excrete excess calcium, phosphate and oxalate into 
their urine. I have had over 100 rescued cavies at Piggyville. Only Trix 
and Kinjaroo ever developed stones. In the weeks to come I will  keep 
you posted on how they are doing.


Cheers,

Ann and the Rescued Piggys of Piggyville, Tampa Florida USA.