9 Week Old Girl Showing Symptoms Of Uri Seen A Vet In Chester-le-street But Still Unsure

[AdamFrench]

We live in Stanley, County Durham. The vets we goto is in chester-le-street. One of our little girls is showing all symptoms of URI. One of her eyes was pretty much closed up with yellow gunk. Along with bits on her nose. The vet checked her breathing etc and said it was OK. They've given her eye drops, antibiotics, pain killers and an appetite injunctions (Fucithalmic, Marbocyl, Metacam, Vomend). After reading up on URI's I'm very worried the vet has missed something. I've called the vet back after reading up on URI's and they've said the antibiotic injection would fight a URI off. Is this possible? They didn't give us any further course of antibiotic. Also does anyone know of a pig savvy vet in my area or any way I could recheck what the vet has said. I'm very scared were going to lose her by not checking what the vet has said.

 

[7squeakers.]

Sorry to hear about your poorly little girl.

Tagging @Wiebke and @helen105281 and @Abi_nurse who can help you.

 

[Wiebke]

Sorry to hear about your poorly little girl.

Tagging @Wiebke and @helen105281 and @Abi_nurse who can help you.

I have already answered on the previous thread about another issue but have recommended @AdamFrench to start a new thread for his URI in the Health/Illness section.

As far as I can see, your vet has not missed anything, as you have got a week's course of marbocyl (strong antibiotic) and you have got a gut stimulant to prevent loss of appetite, which is always a worry with a URI. You can additionally give a pinch of probiotic (available from a pet shop) to help prop up the guts and give 1/8 of a human vitamin C tablet to boost the immune system (ideally dissolved in 1 ml of water, which you can then syringe for best effect. Do so slowly and give your little one time to breath and swallow in between.

The metacam (painkiller) and the fucithalmic (eye drops) are for a potential eye infection, as your vet was obviously not able to see clearly whether the gunk in the eye was caused by an injury or the respiratory infection. Priority in that respect has to clear the eye.

I would continue with the bowls of steaming water/1-2 drops of olbas oil (if wished) to help ease the breathing.

Please contact your vet promptly if there is no improvement in 2-3 days or anytime there is a deterioration (especially lethargy). If the URI has not totally cleared up within a week, your vet may prolong the course of antibiotics. Please be patient for now and let the meds do their work in their own time.
Weigh daily at the same time (ideally before their dinner), so you can check the food intake and if necessary support her with syringe feed, to keep up her fighting strength. Start doing this when the weight loss from one day to another is over 30g or if she has lost 50g in two days.

Keep your little girls comfy and warm, but not hot.

Administering Medications

 

[AdamFrench]

I have already answered on the previous thread about another issue but have recommended @AdamFrench to start a new thread for his URI in the Health/Illness section.

As far as I can see, your vet has not missed anything, as you have got a week's course of marbocyl (strong antibiotic) and you have got a gut stimulant to prevent loss of appetite, which is always a worry with a URI. You can additionally give a pinch of probiotic (available from a pet shop) to help prop up the guts and give 1/8 of a human vitamin C tablet to boost the immune system (ideally dissolved in 1 ml of water, which you can then syringe for best effect. Do so slowly and give your little one time to breath and swallow in between.

The metacam (painkiller) and the fucithalmic (eye drops) are for a potential eye infection, as your vet was obviously not able to see clearly whether the gunk in the eye was caused by an injury or the respiratory infection. Priority in that respect has to clear the eye.

I would continue with the bowls of steaming water/1-2 drops of olbas oil (if wished) to help ease the breathing.

Please contact your vet promptly if there is no improvement in 2-3 days or anytime there is a deterioration (especially lethargy). If the URI has not totally cleared up within a week, your vet may prolong the course of antibiotics. Please be patient for now and let the meds do their work in their own time.
Weigh daily at the same time (ideally before their dinner), so you can check the food intake and if necessary support her with syringe feed, to keep up her fighting strength. Start doing this when the weight loss from one day to another is over 30g or if she has lost 50g in two days.

Keep your little girls comfy and warm, but not hot.

Administering Medications

This will be Teri's 3rd day on Marbocyl. She was a very active Guinea Pig before the illness and she just sat in a ball in one place at the start of the illness. Now she has waves of both, she's following the other pig about A LOT. Always right beside her. There snuggling up in 1 house together a lot, but when one comes out they both come out.

She was losing weight and very skinny. She dropped from 240g to 219g in a day. So we started to hand feed her, every 2-3 hours. She's up and down in between these to weights (225 before feed and 232 after average) but doesn't seem to be pooping much.

Also she's visually nibbling foods but not eating it. She usually loves peppers and kale, but she's still just picking it up and throwing it around. Other than what I've been syringing to her she still isn't drinking a lot of water.

I'm thinking about continuing until tomorrow and getting her in to see the vet again if nothing changes.

She should have some what of an appetite back now do you think?

 

[Wiebke]

This will be Teri's 3rd day on Marbocyl. She was a very active Guinea Pig before the illness and she just sat in a ball in one place at the start of the illness. Now she has waves of both, she's following the other pig about A LOT. Always right beside her. There snuggling up in 1 house together a lot, but when one comes out they both come out.

She was losing weight and very skinny. She dropped from 240g to 219g in a day. So we started to hand feed her, every 2-3 hours. She's up and down in between these to weights (225 before feed and 232 after average) but doesn't seem to be pooping much.

Also she's visually nibbling foods but not eating it. She usually loves peppers and kale, but she's still just picking it up and throwing it around. Other than what I've been syringing to her she still isn't drinking a lot of water.

I'm thinking about continuing until tomorrow and getting her in to see the vet again if nothing changes.

She should have some what of an appetite back now do you think?

As long as you can keep the weight stable, that is good for a serious illness like a full-blown URI during the acute phase! The appetite is going to be depressed for the duration of the antibiotic.

You could ask your vet for a gut stimulant like emeprid or metoclopramide if you wish to help a bit, but continue with the syringe feeding and watering for the time being.

It is also normal for a youngster that she is seeking the support of her mate, which seems to be given.

How are her acute symptoms (crustiness/gunkiness of the eye), breathing etc? Please continue with the steaming water; anything to ease her breathing as much as possible.

Fresh herbs like coriander/cilantro or parsley or little bits of freshly ripped grass or young dandelion (dog pee-free) are most likely going to entice her most to eat a bit for herself. If she is taking in more syringe feed in one go, you can decrease the frequency and get a bit more sleep throughout the night, so you only have to get up once.

You are doing fine! All the best!

 

[AdamFrench]

As long as you can keep the weight stable, that is good for a serious illness like a full-blown URI during the acute phase! The appetite is going to be depressed for the duration of the antibiotic.

You could ask your vet for a gut stimulant like emeprid or metoclopramide if you wish to help a bit, but continue with the syringe feeding and watering for the time being.

It is also normal for a youngster that she is seeking the support of her mate, which seems to be given.

How are her acute symptoms (crustiness/gunkiness of the eye), breathing etc? Please continue with the steaming water; anything to ease her breathing as much as possible.

Fresh herbs like coriander/cilantro or parsley or little bits of freshly ripped grass or young dandelion (dog pee-free) are most likely going to entice her most to eat a bit for herself. If she is taking in more syringe feed in one go, you can decrease the frequency and get a bit more sleep throughout the night, so you only have to get up once.

You are doing fine! All the best!

Even though the before and after feeding weights are slightly different to one another, they are relatively stable at the same time of the day (I.e. Before feeding to before feeding weight/ after feed to after next feed weight).

She has crust on top of the eye now, not actually in it, just around the tip of the lid an not very much. However, it was once in just one eye but now is in both. We have the eye drops for this which seem to be helping, her eyes are almost fully open now, as opposed to the start when one was pretty much glued shut. It seems she is taking deeper longer breaths as opposed to the short little fast breaths she was taking before.

She's been taking around 5-6 ml of pellet mix every 2-3 hours along with an extra 2-3ml of water.

Thanks again for the advice! Much appreciated.