Two weeks ago, our friend Toupee the Guinea Pig was rushed in for an emergency visit. He had been peeing blood for a day, although he had previously shown signs of sludgy urine that were resolved when his owner, a nutrition major, changed his diet and cut back on high calcium treats. Luckily, Dr. Holeman, one of vets who sees pocket pets, was on call. She recommended x-rays, and this is what we found:
Those two small white spherical objects are bladder stones! (Yep, just like those that can form in cats – in fact, our hospital cat, Woodstock, has had them before! You can read his story in one of our previous blogs). Guinea pigs are also predisposed to forming them. His owner opted to do surgery here, and we are happy to report that Toupee came through with flying colors.
Look how tiny those stones are! Dr. Holeman did an awesome job with the surgery 🙂
Two weeks out from his surgery, he just had his sutures removed (although he opted to try and do some of them himself) and his owner happily reports that he is eating well, peeing normally, and back to his happy self! His owner sent us a bunch of great photos, but my personal favorite is this one:
I can see where Toupee gets his name!