Hello, my 5 year old female guinea pig Crunchie who is part of a herd of 7 lady pigs suddenly appeared to be heaving when breathing on Christmas Eve. We took her to the emergency vets (Battleflatts at Stamford Bridge who are very very good with guineas) and his best guess was an Uri had become a LRI and turned into pnuemonia. We treated her for 2 weeks with Septrim(?) and we were instructed to return to the vet if there was no improvement. There was improvement in that she stopped heaving when breathing but she would sneeze repeatedly and after say 3 sneezes a white snot ball would shoot out of her nose and land on the floor. We went back to the vet and he prescribed Metacam, Doxycycline and Baytril for 3 weeks. All this time she gradually lost weight going from 1000g down to 900g in the space of a month. Her appetite is the same. No more or less hungry. Not drinking any more or less either. Her poo and wee remain normal. After a week on the new medication she stopped sneezing up the white snot balls, however, she would have a wet left nostril only. The sneezing stopped. We started feeding her critical care when she dropped to 850g. She had blood taken at the vets and it showed no kidney failure or heart problem. She had x-rays which showed nothing and he checked her teeth and they are fine. The vet is baffled. Two weeks on from that and she is off all medication and no sneezing, no white snot, no clear wetness on left nostril. Her poo and wee is fine. Her appetite and drinking remain unchanged. But she keeps losing weight. She is down to 750g now despite me giving her an average of 30ml of critical care each day. She runs around with the others and doesn't look I'll except being skinny and having a puffy coat. Her eyes look fine. I am so baffled as is the vet if anyone has any idea what is wrong please post. We are back at the vets tomorrow night.
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5 Year Old Female Ill Since Xmas Eve, Losing Weight, Initially Suspected Pnuemonia But Not Sure Now
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Hi! I am tagging our medically most experienced members for you.
@helen105281 @Adelle @furryfriends (TEAS)
@helen105281 @Adelle @furryfriends (TEAS)
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Are you feeding her away from the rest of the herd or is she eating with her friends? When they're part of a large group it's easy for them to start to miss out on food when they've been poorly and not so ready to grab their share. They then become weaker and even less able to keep up and weight declines steadily. I've seen this happen before. A few weeks of feeding her, her share of veg, away from the others should soon have her weight increasing.
We give them all veg breakfast/veg treats together and she does eat slower than the others so she does miss out on those occasions but for the last 5 weeks we have been giving her veg on her own alongside the critical care and she is still losing weight.
How much critical care are you giving? hay should make around 80% of the daily food intake, so you have to cover that with the syringe feed. Have you considered offering her a bowl of mushed pellets and see whether she like them, too?
Poppy'sMum
Senior Guinea Pig
If she looks fluffed up it could be she has some pain somewhere, maybe even from Arthritis, especially at 5 years old. Have a chat with your vet, it might be worth trying her on a low dose of Metacam maybe twice daily to start with to see if that helps, in addition to feeding her separately like Furryfriends suggests 
helen105281
Senior Guinea Pig
I agree with all of the above, my Sophie has been ill recently and we have been struggling to get any weight back onto her, though she has not lost anymore. See what the vet thinks and if they will agree to try some pain relief.
Hi!
Fluffing up shows she is in pain. Id ask if the vet can prescribe you Metacam to give her for a few weeks as well as giving her some probiotics 2-3 times a day such as pro-c, fibreplex or biolapis. She's had quite a wack of antibiotics so her tummy may be a little upset.
Try feeding her 10 ml critical care morning, lunch, dinner and bedtime to keep food going in.
Offer some pellets on her own first before you fill up the herds bowls.
Have a couple seperate hay areas to make sure she isn't being bothered by anyone and can enjoy a good hay munch and a lounge without the crowd.
Hope she improves soon X
Fluffing up shows she is in pain. Id ask if the vet can prescribe you Metacam to give her for a few weeks as well as giving her some probiotics 2-3 times a day such as pro-c, fibreplex or biolapis. She's had quite a wack of antibiotics so her tummy may be a little upset.
Try feeding her 10 ml critical care morning, lunch, dinner and bedtime to keep food going in.
Offer some pellets on her own first before you fill up the herds bowls.
Have a couple seperate hay areas to make sure she isn't being bothered by anyone and can enjoy a good hay munch and a lounge without the crowd.
Hope she improves soon X
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