• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

A Crazy Few Days..

Status
Not open for further replies.
katzintheclouds

katzintheclouds

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Nov 11, 2011
Messages
38
Reaction score
0
Points
120
Location
Maryland
Hey guys.

So I just lost one of my two guinea pigs, Chipotle. She was 7 years old, which I know is really old for a piggie & I'm lucky she lived that long, but that's also what makes it so hard. She was doing great, as far as I knew, and then suddenly yesterday she was horribly ill. She had been eating/drinking/urinating/deficating/etc like normal. She was skinny, but I took her to the vet about a month ago and things were on the up & up. Either way, she was horrible this morning & crying, I think she was in kidney failure. We had to rush her to the vets & sadly have her put down. It was very very very sad.

Now it's just me & my other piggie, Machete. Now though I'm so paranoid, and I just realized that she's underweight too. When I feed them, food always disappears but now I'm wondering if Chipotle was the one eating it all... I'm taking her to the vet tomorrow to just get a check up again. Maybe I'll let them do bloodwork if they suspect diabetes?

It's difficult..she also has alopecia on her back, we think she's barbering herself..

Anyone have any advice?
:{
 
Aw, that's awful! I would def take your other piggie to the vets to have her checked. If she has bald patches and is scratching her fur off you're best to lookup the pictures at guinea lynx to see if it looks like mites or fungal and then contact Gorgeous Guineas for the appropriate treatment. It's best to do this aswell as seeing the vet, because some vets can misdiagnose skin problems, so it's best to be pre-armed with an idea of what you think the problem is. Hope she's OK!
 
I find kidney failure seems to be the most common failure in old piggies, I've lost 3 that way, and it is awful to see, so I feel for you. If your other piggie has kidney problems too, my vet had good results injecting steroid into the kidneys - this gave my Womble another 3 months, and so he was able to get on the grass again for a few weeks after the winter.
 
Thank you for your response & your caring thoughts. It was awful seeing her go through the pain, as soon as I woke up to her crying I rushed her to the vet because I didn't want her to go through that..it was so painful just driving to the vet with her, I was in tears the whole way. It's amazing how much these piggies can touch your heart, she was with me for so long..

But I'm def. going to see what this vet thinks. I took them to another who did a mite scrape, didn't see any. Suggested a possible ringworm but I nor the other piggie had any signs of it so we decided to forgo it. I'm worrying about everything now, I guess they can do bloodwork to check if it's kidneys? I just went to feed her tonight & she's very active, but comes up to me, then turns away from the food. She's LOVING lettuce still though, can't pass that up. And hay. As far as I can tell she's still drinking too, but she only nibbled a tiny bit on a tomato (which she usually loves) and wouldn't touch the apples..like I said though, I think chipotle was the one who ate the majority of the food in there.

I hope things are okay. I can't lose her right now, especially with her being 3 years younger, I hope I'm as lucky with her as I was with Chipotle..
Thank you!
 
katzintheclouds said:
Thank you for your response & your caring thoughts. It was awful seeing her go through the pain, as soon as I woke up to her crying I rushed her to the vet because I didn't want her to go through that..it was so painful just driving to the vet with her, I was in tears the whole way. It's amazing how much these piggies can touch your heart, she was with me for so long..

But I'm def. going to see what this vet thinks. I took them to another who did a mite scrape, didn't see any. Suggested a possible ringworm but I nor the other piggie had any signs of it so we decided to forgo it. I'm worrying about everything now, I guess they can do bloodwork to check if it's kidneys? I just went to feed her tonight & she's very active, but comes up to me, then turns away from the food. She's LOVING lettuce still though, can't pass that up. And hay. As far as I can tell she's still drinking too, but she only nibbled a tiny bit on a tomato (which she usually loves) and wouldn't touch the apples..like I said though, I think chipotle was the one who ate the majority of the food in there.

I hope things are okay. I can't lose her right now, especially with her being 3 years younger, I hope I'm as lucky with her as I was with Chipotle..
Thank you!
Click to expand...

I am really sorry for your loss; I lost my 7 year old piggy this year & it really hurts :( I've done that drive in the car with all but one of my piggies & it's horrible.

Best get the hair loss checked by a vet, mange mites may not show in a skin scrape so that's another thing they could look for & treat.
 
My vets don't do bloods for kidneys they think it's too stressful - they could tell Womble had really bad kidneys because they were so enlarged, they just felt them. If she's only 4 don't worry, it might not be kidneys. Has your vet looked at her teeth? That's the first place I'd look if she's off her food and is enjoying lettuce. Or maybe she is just grieving, so long as she doesn't lose too much weight (it's a great idea to weigh daily while you are worried on electronic kitchen scales - this helps me not to worry cos if their weights are OK they are OK)! With the hair loss, if it was me I'd treat for both mites and fungal (ringworm) just incase, in my experience any vet I've been to hasn't been able to diagnose and so the only way I've cured it is with Chrissie at Gorgeous Guineas advice (so far sorted out 5 of my piggies that the vet couldn't think what to do with re skin). It takes a few weeks to see the results, and often you think it's not going to work, and then suddenly it all clears up :)

Good luck, and try not to worry too much!
 
Re: Bloodwork

I'm not sure what this vet will do as far as bloodwork goes, I thought in some cases they would but I've never ever had to worry about it before..how do they check for diabetes if they can't do bloodwork? Or do they maybe just check urine or something like that? I've worked as a vet tech forever with dogs & cats so I'm familiar with what they do for them, but I have no idea about guineas. In a way I'm so paranoid that I feel like I'm starting all over again with caring for them. I cared for chip for 7 years without her having any health problems, but now I'm worried I'm doing things wrong.

I'm taking Machete to the vet next Tuesday, I'm not sure what to think about her being skinny. She turns away at things other than lettuce & hay. I've tried tomatoes, apples, carrots..she even isn't taking the little Vitamin C treats that she normally really likes out of my hand. I'm second guessing my judgment of her eating because Chip may have been the one eating everything. Or it could just be that she's sad too...I'm not sure.

I guess we'll see what they say!
 
sorry to here about your loss. I lost my eldest piggie Winston on wednesday it's heart breaking :( perhaps your lone pig could be greiving for her cage mate - it may put your mind at rest if you do monitor her weight daily at the same time each day.
Can you tempt her with any herbs? (i.e. parsley/mint) or perhaps plantain?
ditto the advice re gorgeous guineas they have some very useful photos on their website which are very helpful.

thinking of you at this worrying time - let us know how you get on

xx
 
katzintheclouds said:
I'm not sure what this vet will do as far as bloodwork goes, I thought in some cases they would but I've never ever had to worry about it before..how do they check for diabetes if they can't do bloodwork? Or do they maybe just check urine or something like that? I've worked as a vet tech forever with dogs & cats so I'm familiar with what they do for them, but I have no idea about guineas. In a way I'm so paranoid that I feel like I'm starting all over again with caring for them. I cared for chip for 7 years without her having any health problems, but now I'm worried I'm doing things wrong.

I'm taking Machete to the vet next Tuesday, I'm not sure what to think about her being skinny. She turns away at things other than lettuce & hay. I've tried tomatoes, apples, carrots..she even isn't taking the little Vitamin C treats that she normally really likes out of my hand. I'm second guessing my judgment of her eating because Chip may have been the one eating everything. Or it could just be that she's sad too...I'm not sure.

I guess we'll see what they say!
Click to expand...

To check for diabetes - they will first do a urine sample to see if Glucose is present, immediately after they should do a pin prick behind the ears and check for glucose in the blood.

HTH
 
Picture of hair loss on Machete

I just realized I had a photo on here!

here's the one I have, I'll try to take a better one tomorrow.

machete.jpg
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top