From ann.evans at hintlink.com  Thu Dec 31 15:50:10 2009
From: ann.evans at hintlink.com (Ann Evans)
Date: Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:50:10 -0500
Subject: [Stones] Distilled water
Message-ID: <4B3D0E82.1070009@hintlink.com>

Dear GPDD Family,

Is it safe to feed cavies distilled water? I have a 5 year old female 
cavy that had a huge stone removed from her urethra 13 months ago. Ever 
since the surgery I have given her 50 mg of liquid vitamin C and 0.2 ml 
of hydrangea root tincture for urinary health every day. On Christmas 
Day she showed signs of pain when I picked her up. The slightest touch 
near her urethra caused her to week in pain. I did a urinalysis using a 
strip reagent and it was positive for blood. I had an xray done and it 
showed urinary uroliths in the urethra. The uroliths look like gravel. I 
know cavies have a high alkaline urinary pH that is around 8.5. Cavies 
excrete excess calcium and phosphorous into the urine. I live in Floria 
where we have high concentrations of both calcium and phosphorous in the 
water thus calcium carbonate and triple phosphate uroliths can easily 
form. Since we have hard water is it safe to give cavies only distilled 
water? Kinjaroo is scheduled to have surgery on Tuesday. She is 
currently on Rimadyl 10 mg twice a day and pediatric bactrim 0.5 ml 
twice a day along with the hydrangea root tincture. She is eating and 
drinking and acting totally normal except if any pressure is applied to 
her urethra. I am open to any suggestions. I put all my piggys on 
distilled water since Christmas Day.

Cheers,

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