Guinea Pig Bladder Surgery | Long Beach Animal Hospital

Introduction

Mr. Darcy was having symptoms of not feeling well and with blood in his urine, so his mom brought him to see Dr. Meredith Kennedy for a thorough exam.

During his exam, Dr. Kennedy palpated Mr. Darcy’s bladder, and noticed he was uncomfortable. As part of his routine diagnostic tests a radiograph was taken.

Mr. Darcy has not one, but two, stones in his bladder. Do you see them in this radiograph, just to the right of center?

If you can’t see them this view might help

Causes of bladder stones in guinea pig

It is not too often that Guinea Pigs get these stones, with the cause not often know it can be in dogs and cats. Bladder stones have several names. These include cystic calculi and urolithiasis. There are many different types of bladder stones, all with different causes.

Symptoms of bladder stones in guinea pigs range from none, to straining to urinate (stranguria) and blood in the urine (hematuria).

Our Bladder Stone page goes into this in more detail.

Pre-Surgery Preparation

Physical Exam

All of our surgical patients are given a thorough exam the day of surgery. This is one of our student externs learning how to examine a guinea pig. They post their daily experience on our Facebook page called “Extern Daily Diary”.

Here is an example of one students diary with a ferret

Blood Panel

A normal Guinea Pig blood panel

Radiology (X-Ray)

We might even take a pre-surgical radiograph to make sure we do not miss something on the inside. Small critters and the more exotic critters are masters at hiding illness, and there can be a problem brewing on the inside that the owner does not notice or is not apparent on a physical exam.

This is what happened in this case. Do you see the small white bladder stone on the right side of this radiograph? If you want to learn more about bladder stones in guinea pigs, and see how we surgical remove them, click here.

Anesthesia

Many of our patients are tiny, and we need to pay particular attention to anesthesia. When everything is to our satisfaction we will administer a sedative. This will calm our patient down and make the administration of the actual anesthetic, along with post operative recovery, much smoother. Once a pet is anesthetized, prepared for surgery, and had its monitoring equipment hooked up and reading accurately, the surgery can begin.

We use a detailed anesthetic form for every surgery

We start our guinea pig anesthesia in a special small aquarium with 100% oxygen

Small animals can lose body temperature easily while under anesthesia, and can become hypothermic. We keep them on a warm water blanket and monitor their temperature during the surgery to prevent this.

All of our Guinea Pigs are connected to instruments that closely monitor important physiological parameters. This one is being connected to a Pulse Oximeter to keep close tabs on oxygen levels and heart rate

This video show how we use it. The number on the left is the oxygen saturation level, the number on the right is the heart rate

Mr. Darcy has had his tummy shaved, is connected to the anesthetic monitor, and has been scrubbed for his surgery

The SurgiVet Monitor keeps close track of many important parameters

Here it is in action on a different patient

We monitor oxygen saturation on our surgical patient with a special and small pulse oximeter

We also carefully monitor the blood pressure. These are normal numbers for a guinea pig under anesthesia. Note how fast the heart is beating (212 times per minute) in a small animal as compared to a person

We don’t rely only on hi tech anesthetic equipment, and are hands on at all times in monitoring our patients.

Our anesthetist nurse is monitoring our patient under the surgical drape. She is checking the color of the mucous membranes, along with the heart rate and respiratory rate

Surgeon Preparation

This is a sterile abdominal surgery, and our surgeon starts the pre-surgical process by using special soap to clean his hands.

He washes his hands several times with the surgical soap and brush before putting on sterile gloves

While our patient is being anesthetized our surgeon is already in our surgical suite setting up instruments. Our surgeon is ready to start before our patient is at a proper plane of anesthesia. Once the anesthetist gives the green light the surgery starts immediately. We want our surgeon waiting for his patient, not the other way around. All of this is to minimize anesthetic time.

While our patient is being prepped for surgery our surgeon is getting the sterile instruments ready.

While our patient is being anesthetized our surgeon is already in our surgical suite setting up instruments.

Our surgeon is ready to start before our patient is completely prepped. Once the anesthetist gives the green light the surgery starts immediately. We want our surgeon waiting for his patient, not the other way around. All of this is to minimize anesthetic time.

While Mr. Darcy is being prepared for surgery Dr. K is getting her sterile instruments ready

Guinea Pig Cystotomy Surgical Procedure

After draping the first thing Dr. K does is infuse a long acting local anesthetic. This allows us to use less anesthesia during the procedure, and also allows Mr. Darcy to wake up pain free from his skin incision.

The skin incision is made just long enough to exteriorize the urinary bladder. Once through the skin Dr. K cuts through the subcutaneous (SQ) tissue to get down to the muscle layer

Mr. Darcy is 10 months old, and is being neutered at the same time, so that will also be done through this incision instead of through his scrotum. The less incisions the better for healing.

After the skin incision is made a scalpel is used to enter the abdomen by going through an area of the abdominal muscle where the tendons are located. This tendinous area causes minimal bleeding, and has better holding ability when the sutures are placed here at the end of the surgery. This will prevent a hernia.

The tendon incision at the abdominal muscles is extended to the proper length with a special surgical scissors

Once the abdomen has been entered Dr. K palpates the area to find the urinary bladder

Guinea Pigs have a large cecum (our appendix), that wants to come out through the abdominal incision. You can see the urinary bladder between Dr. K’s fingers on the right.

Once the intestines are put back where they belong (they want to keep coming out during the surgery) a special suture called a “stay” suture is put in the urinary bladder to keep it exteriorized and away from the intestines. In this picture Dr. K is using our laser to make the initial urinary bladder incision.

This bladder is inflamed and painful due to the stones irritation the lining. We use our carbon dioxide laser routinely on problems like this due to its tremendous ability to minimize bleeding during the surgery, and post operative pain and inflammation after the surgery. We have a page dedicated to laser surgery for more information.

As Dr. K continues to use the laser to enter the urinary bladder the stones become apparent

Once the urinary bladder is fully incised the stones are brought out with a hemostat

After the stones are removed the urinary bladder is carefully palpated to make sure there are no other stones or problems before being sutured closed.

A special suture material is used that is strong, will not inflame the bladder, and will dissolve slowly on its own over several months. This is an important part of the procedure, and the bladder is sutured carefully.

Dr. K neuters Mr. Darcy through the same incision. You can see the testicle in her hand as she is getting ready to remove it.

Our patients with skin incisions are given companion laser treatment before they are awakened from anesthesia. This laser allows for faster skin healing with less pain and inflammation.

Mr. Darcy is in good hands just after his surgery

We keep a close tab on him before he is put in recovery

If they seem cold after surgery we wrap them in a special guinea pig warmer we have

Once in recovery he is closely monitored for temperature, breathing, pain, and bleeding

Mr. Darcy recovered rapidly and feels much better now that those stones are not irritation his urinary bladder. The next day he is checked carefully by Dr. K.