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Advice? Blood.

Little Ones

Little Ones

Adult Guinea Pig
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I’m going to try and cut a long story short here.
Peanut lost about 300 grams quite quickly, first it was small amounts and then got to being around 50 grams a day. He stopped eating and drinking for himself aside from eating some readigrass here and there along with veg but he took syringe food and water really well. We took him to see Simon as Peanut has dealt with dental problems in the past as well as informed Simon of Peanut’s bladder issues (he was diagnosed by a different vet with interstitial cystitis). Simon said Peanut’s back teeth were slightly over grown but perhaps not enough to make him stop eating. It was Simon’s recommendation that we give Peanut a few days and then see if anything changes now that his teeth are perfect.
Anyway, nothing changed. We had to keep syringing him everything. Then a day or two later, he was back to eating everything. He was eating hay amazingly, he wouldn’t drink for himself but he took syringe water. He put on so much weight too. He ate like this for that one day and then stopped entirely again. He was rejecting everything but veg - syringe food and water included. He’s been like that since then (the 26th). We’ve been managing to really force him to eat, wrapping him really tightly in a blanket. He gets really angry and attacks the blanket but we persevere.
Anyway, today we found blood in the cage. Peanut has never peed blood before at all. There’s two spots of red-orangey blood and then multiple spots of orange. Given where these spots are in the cage and given Peanuts history, we’re sure these came from him and not his cage mate.
We had already booked in with Simon two days after Peanuts dental for a blood test and X-ray but Simon was due to go on holiday the week after Peanut’s dental (this week) so it was booked in for Tuesday the 3rd.
I guess my question in all this is, should I do something urgently? I can go to local exotic vets for an X-ray and blood test as well as operation for any stones and such removing if needed however I trust Simon. My local exotic vets have let me down in the past, whereas I know that Simon will successfully detect and sort any issue. The blood seems to have appeared recently as I don’t think it was there yesterday or surely I would’ve noticed it during the clean out. Do I need to act fast? Is the blood appearing urgent? Or can he wait until Tuesday when he can see Simon?
 
Does he appear to be in pain when toileting? I think I would maybe have him assessed by the vet your end...or see if another can see him?... it’s a tough one. How much weight has he lost recently?
 
Siikibam said:
Does he appear to be in pain when toileting? I think I would maybe have him assessed by the vet your end...or see if another can see him?... it’s a tough one. How much weight has he lost recently?
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Not currently. Usually he’s in pain when he pees for about 3 days in a row every two weeks, we also let Simon know of all of this. But throughout the last 2-3weeks that he’s been unwell he’s had no squeaky wees. Simon felt his bladder and said it felt good.
It’s just hard because both our local exotic vets aren’t the best and have missed crucial things which were essentially life or death that Simon had to eventually sort out.
He’s usually about 1450 grams, he went down to about 1140. He’s been fluctuating around 1150-1240. This morning he weighed 1203, he’s been going up more and more as we’re syringe feeding regularly. The highest weight of 1240 was when he started eating the hay himself for that one day. He’s not in a desperate state weight wise as he’s gaining not losing right now but the blood appearing is just making me question if it’s worth waiting or getting him seen by someone sooner.
 
Are you sure it’s blood? Guinea pig urine can oxidise when it reacts with the air and turn a rusty orange colour.

If he is well in himself and maintaining his weight, I’d leave him until you can see Simon on Tuesday but if he is squeaking in pain. losing weight, and not eating, I’d have him seen sooner
 
Claire W said:
Are you sure it’s blood? Guinea pig urine can oxidise when it reacts with the air and turn a rusty orange colour.

If he is well in himself and maintaining his weight, I’d leave him until you can see Simon on Tuesday but if he is squeaking in pain. losing weight, and not eating, I’d have him seen sooner
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I didn’t realise that about the oxidisation. There’s a patch that looks like it could be blood without taking a photo with flash, however taking the picture with the flash perhaps not. This is it with the flash:
C45F2CC9-6BDB-46B1-818A-A1F3920DC6C4.webp
So it seems like it isn’t blood I don’t think?
The other patches look like this, this is without flash:
957DCA47-E075-44CB-AFF5-7C02D4C5AED0.webp
Is there a reason why urine oxidises? There are quite a few patches that look like this and they seem to have only just appeared in the space of a day. If all his wees are like this, do I need to be concerned? Or are we safe to wait until Tuesday?

It’s a hard one overall because he is losing weight and he isn’t eating and he isn’t drinking at all unless we step in. Like I said, even if we are stepping in he is very resistant. Before, he was happy to have syringe food and syringe water but now it’s a battle. Given that he is like this, I was fine to wait until Tuesday. I wish he could’ve been seen by Simon earlier as he didn’t let us know when he was going on holiday, he just told us to make an appointment with him “next week” which turned out to be the week he was away. Ideally I wanted him seen earlier on this week, especially because he doesn’t want to eat or drink. But with the condition he’s in I was fine to wait as we’ve been keeping him fed. It was the blood that scared me as I thought that time may not be on our side and we may have to act quickly instead of waiting for Simon.
Looking at the photo, I think you’re right and it is oxidisation. This has never happened before in the 8 years I’ve had guinea pigs so I wasn’t aware it was a thing. It’s definitely put my mind at ease!
 
I’m not sure why urine oxidises to be honest. It’s just something that can happen. Blood dries a brown colour and your spots don’t look brown to me but I wouldn’t like to say.

You could carry on with the syringe feeding and wait until Tuesday or have him seen sooner, it really is up to you I’m afraid but if he was my piggy, I’d be inclined to have him seen sooner in view of the weight loss and him not eating. You can always see Simon too on Tuesday so have all angles covered
 
Claire W said:
I’m not sure why urine oxidises to be honest. It’s just something that can happen. Blood dries a brown colour and your spots don’t look brown to me but I wouldn’t like to say.

You could carry on with the syringe feeding and wait until Tuesday or have him seen sooner, it really is up to you I’m afraid but if he was my piggy, I’d be inclined to have him seen sooner in view of the weight loss and him not eating. You can always see Simon too on Tuesday so have all angles covered
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When Simon saw him previously, he knew about his weight loss (but at that time Peanut was quite happy being syringe fed) and he wasn’t overly concerned, he just told us to come back for an X-ray.
I took Peanut to a different vet on Friday I believe it was because his breathing had become extremely noisy. It was like that all night and all morning. I tried to give the vet a quick rundown of what had happened, wondering if the noisy breathing could be an infection that perhaps took a long time to show up and that’s why he didn’t have an appetite. The vet didn’t really listen to what I was telling him and was just interested in Peanut’s teeth. I was telling him that his teeth had been done on Tuesday but the vet didn’t know anything about conscious dentals. He insisted on looking in his mouth for about 5 minutes which upset Peanut because he said that weight loss was because of teeth - which it wasn’t. The vet suggested an X-ray and blood test too. Vet couldn’t hear anything in his breathing either. Anyway: vet gave antibiotics just in case for the breathing but Peanuts noisy breathing never came back and he had no problem with his breathing since so I think it was down to hay dust (which is why I didn’t see the relevance of adding it to the post). But anyway, they just wanted to do an X-ray like Simon plans to do which is why I’m not sure if going to the local vets would make any difference. Peanut has also had an operation there previously and they seemed to had over-anaesthetised him, it was like he was dead for about a day. The lights were on but no one was home. That’s why I don’t have faith in them, they’re my closest exotic vet and that’s still a 40 min drive away.
The second closest exotic vet almost got my other piggy Little killed. But that’s another long story. I just don’t have any faith or trust in the vets around me, so I only want to go for something like this if it’s emergency. If there was someone here that I trusted that I’d be off in a heartbeat to make sure he got seen to and that he was okay. I think that’s part of what makes this so emotionally taxing on me, that there’s no vet I can really turn to that’s close by to make sure he’s okay
 
I’m sorry for the predicament that you are in :( it’s hard to say what to do for the best. If you don’t trust your vet and if you can keep syringing Peanut until you see Simon and if you are sure he’s in no pain, perhaps wait until Tuesday
 
Not good news.
This morning Peanut began vomiting up the syringe food about an hour and a half after being given it. It was awful to watch and I thought I was going to lose him. He’s booked in for an emergency appointment and operation if needed tomorrow with an exotic vet near us
 
I don’t think his wee is oxidising. It’s literally coming out this colour.
His tummy also looks really swollen and he’s walking really strange because of it too.

EDC9A971-03DB-4A79-8B91-994D8EE246B3.webp
 
That doesn’t look like oxidisation but neither does it look like blood either. Looks the colour of poo maybe. If he’s acting odd I would get him to the vet.
 
Siikibam said:
That doesn’t look like oxidisation but neither does it look like blood either. Looks the colour of poo maybe. If he’s acting odd I would get him to the vet.
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He has an emergency appointment and operation if vet thinks he needs it tomorrow at 9am. This was the soonest we could get in, the exotic vet doesn’t work Fridays in both the places close to us. The receptionist said that the vet were seeing is fully booked up but she’ll make room for an operation if needed - which it seems like it’s needed. There must be a blockage somewhere since he was vomiting. I’m just praying on everything he makes it till then. I have no idea what going on with him but today he seems to have gone massively downhill
 
Guinea pigs can’t vomit so it may be it wasn’t going down rather than his bringing it back up. I hope whatever it is can be resolved tomorrow.
 
Siikibam said:
Guinea pigs can’t vomit so it may be it wasn’t going down rather than his bringing it back up. I hope whatever it is can be resolved tomorrow.
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Exactly, that’s why the problem is urgent. He vomited the syringe food he’d eaten almost two hours prior. I’m thinking there’s a blockage which is preventing it going all the way down and why he doesn’t want to eat at all? But then with his wees or whatever it is being this colour perhaps it’s something else?
 
Siikibam said:
Guinea pigs can’t vomit so it may be it wasn’t going down rather than his bringing it back up. I hope whatever it is can be resolved tomorrow.
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Do you think we’re best stopping the syringe food because of this? Bear in mind he won’t eat for himself but since he was retching the food back up I’m scared giving him more syringe food will only make things worse. Especially since his tummy looks very swollen, doesn’t feel like bloat though
 
Little Ones said:
Do you think we’re best stopping the syringe food because of this? Bear in mind he won’t eat for himself but since he was retching the food back up I’m scared giving him more syringe food will only make things worse. Especially since his tummy looks very swollen, doesn’t feel like bloat though
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Is there another vet you can see today , a different practice maybe, as an emergency
you can’t stop syringe feeding him, but if he’s got a blockage and isn’t able to swallow then he’s not getting food anyway and then theres the stasis risk
 
Has he brought it back out since you fed him earlier, or you haven’t tried? Is there another veg you could get to? I’d have a ring around.
 
Piggies&buns said:
Is there another vet you can see today , a different practice maybe, as an emergency
you can’t stop syringe feeding him, but if he’s got a blockage and isn’t able to swallow then he’s not getting food anyway and then theres the stasis risk
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Not all the syringe food came back up but maybe 2 or 3 syringes worth? How much syringe food does he have to have to prevent stasis? I’m just terrified of causing him further pain
Siikibam said:
Has he brought it back out since you fed him earlier, or you haven’t tried? Is there another veg you could get to? I’d have a ring around.
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We fed him at about 10:30/11. He started vomiting at 1. He hasn’t eaten since, he just now sounding like he’s trying to eat some hay. I’m not sure if he’s succeeding though.

We could try and find another exotic vet. He’s easily stressed out and given what time it is, would another vet do a surgery ASAP? A vet I saw on Friday recommended to book in an X-ray but obviously the situation wasn’t as dire then as it is now. I don’t want to take him if an operation won’t be performed, if that makes sense?
 
Little Ones said:
Not all the syringe food came back up but maybe 2 or 3 syringes worth? How much syringe food does he have to have to prevent stasis? I’m just terrified of causing him further pain

We fed him at about 10:30/11. He started vomiting at 1. He hasn’t eaten since, he just now sounding like he’s trying to eat some hay. I’m not sure if he’s succeeding though.

We could try and find another exotic vet. He’s easily stressed out and given what time it is, would another vet do a surgery ASAP? A vet I saw on Friday recommended to book in an X-ray but obviously the situation wasn’t as dire then as it is now. I don’t want to take him if an operation won’t be performed, if that makes sense?
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I think you need to call a vet now. I know what you’re saying about not stressing him, but if he can’t eat much for himself, can’t swallow and you’re not seeing a vet until 9am then that’s potentially 17 hours with potentially not enough food and it’s just too long.

Are you weighing him? (I know you’re well versed in syringing etc but I just wanted to check)
 
I’m very sorry to hear that Peanut has taken a turn for the worse :(

That doesn’t look like oxidised urine nor does it look like blood.

Can you get him seen by another vet? I really think he needs to see one as a matter of urgency
 
I’ve called the only exotic vet nearby and they told us they don’t have an exotic vet. They said the regular vets can perform the surgery and can call the exotic team if needed.
I’ve looked on the recommended vets and these aren’t exotic practices just singular vets who see exotics and I’m not sure if they even work there anymore.
I’m really struggling to know who to go to or what to do as I don’t want him operated on by people who don’t know what they’re doing.

We are weighing him. Today is the best weight he’s had in weeks. But then obviously he’s started throwing up his syringe food
 
They did a conscious X-ray and his stomach was about 7 times the size it should be. It was pushing all his organs out of the way and cutting off blood supply. The vet said that waiting any longer could cause his stomach to die or cause irreparable damage. They’re hoping nothing like that has already started to happen. They said it seems to be full of gas but it’s different to bloat.
Right now he’s under sedation, they’re inserting a tube down his mouth and into his stomach to clear it all out. Hopefully everything will be okay. It’s a good job we came when we did. I’m not sure though if this has been his problem all along as it’s only been today his tummy started looking funny.
 
Poor boy. I’m so glad you were able to get him seen so quickly.
I guess you’ll have to see what they say afterwards. It may have been building up for a while and it could have been the problem but only become very evident today
fingers crossed for him
 
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