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Aging Piggy ?

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CarnivalPiggy

CarnivalPiggy

Adult Guinea Pig
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Hi. One of my piggies, Minja, is of unknown age right now. I'm feeling flustered as she is quieter lately (not wheeking as much and spending a lot of time in her house) and is having a bit of trouble running up stairs (i.e she's tripping a bit running up) but still walks and runs completely fine. Also, she's letting me hold her without too much fussing, though I'm wondering if that's because I'm holding her more as I have the time now. She's also eating slower, though I'm worried that's dental problems. Are any of these the signs of an aging piggy? edit. She's also got cataracts which I've seen is a symptom in old piggies?
 
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I'm moving this to the H&I thread where I am sure you will get more replies.
I don't know much about cataracts. And by stairs do you mean a ramp in her cage or your own stairs? If she has lost vision then she may be less confident.
Piggies do get old age complaints like arthritis that make it uncomfortable to move around. My older piggies are sometimes (but not always) happier to be picked up and to sit on your lap than when younger. I would recommend that you have your vet check her over to see whether she may have some arthritis and may benefit from a low dose of anti inflammatory pain relief medication. Not all slowing down is simply due to age.
 
Thank you! And I meant my own stairs.
Thanks so much. There's a vet opening nearby very soon that is supposed to have state of the art equipment so I'll try booking her in there as soon as I can :)
Christmas has taken many pockets in my family lol
 
I wouldn't let her near your stairs If I were you. Human stairs are steep, and her vision is affected. She could fall and injure herself or hurt her delicate spine and joints going up and down. If she is used to free roaming I would block off the stairs for her own safety and take her up or down with you if that is what you like to do.
 
VickiA said:
I wouldn't let her near your stairs If I were you. Human stairs are steep, and her vision is affected. She could fall and injure herself or hurt her delicate spine and joints going up and down. If she is used to free roaming I would block off the stairs for her own safety and take her upmor down with you if that is what you like to do.
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Thanks, I'll make sure not to. She does stroll around so I'll make sure to block off the stairs whenever she's out nearby. The floor in the hallway is slippy wood so she can't get up the first stair if she's roaming there
 
CarnivalPiggy said:
Hi. One of my piggies, Minja, is of unknown age right now. I'm feeling flustered as she is quieter lately (not wheeking as much and spending a lot of time in her house) and is having a bit of trouble running up stairs (i.e she's tripping a bit running up) but still walks and runs completely fine. Also, she's letting me hold her without too much fussing, though I'm wondering if that's because I'm holding her more as I have the time now. She's also eating slower, though I'm worried that's dental problems. Are any of these the signs of an aging piggy? edit. She's also got cataracts which I've seen is a symptom in old piggies?
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Cataracts can come at any time of the life; at the most extreme, a baby can be born with cataracts. If a younger guinea pigs gets them, we talk of congenital cataracts. This is much rarer. If an older guinea pig develops them, then you talk about old age cataracts. They are pretty common.

If in doubt, please have your girl given an MOT at the vets and, as usual, keep a weekly eye on her weight.
 
Wiebke said:
Cataracts can come at any time of the life; at the most extreme, a baby can be born with cataracts. If a younger guinea pigs gets them, we talk of congenital cataracts. This is much rarer. If an older guinea pig develops them, then you talk about old age cataracts. They are pretty common.

If in doubt, please have your girl given an MOT at the vets and, as usual, keep a weekly eye on her weight.
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Thank you! I've been panicking for the past few hours as she's become hesitant to drinking water without me bothering her about it (ie holding her and then). Is eating better than drinking. Peeing fine, no wheeking or blood sighted (my shirt is there to prove it aha) though poo has been smaller which I'm guessing is due to lack of water ? Worried about her being able to push it out.

Have noticed she is favouring one of her back legs much more and stumbling a bit. I've looked for injury but couldn't see any blood or obvious break. I gently extended both back legs without much reaction. Didn't want to bother them too much in case I made it worse. I'll try to upload a video of her walking, could this lead to her not wanting to eat or drink because of pain / pain walking? I've tried to get her into vet for emergency. Three of the vets I use (including my trusted one, though I'm not sure I trust their emergency line as much) said she'd be OK to go tomorrow instead. Possibly I'm exaggerating, but I think my panic is overthinking logical thought.

edit. To look back on - she is 900g as of now.
 
I would really not worry too much, but if you are worried, then please have her seen and checked by a vet. She looks chipper enough to me.
Just keep an eye on her and her weight. Her flanks are a bit hollow, so I would assume that she's not a young piggy.

PS: A piggy with a break is unable to put any weight on her leg and would bunny hop around - if she was moving around at all. Whatever it is, it is very minor.
 
Ahah looking back I am overworrying lol. Had her out while watching the new Sherlock episode and she was fairly ok. Defintely noticed swaying / stumbling / staggering when attempting to get to the water bottle I was holding though :( thanks for the reply. Feeling more reassured and clear minded. Will book vet in morning.

Also, is it possible for ointment to do anything? Probably reaching, but I got the gorgeousguineas ointment for her feet before this started. It's working absolutely lovely on her and Ginny's feet but can it do anything with a reaction?
 
If the skin on her feet is normal then don't worry about the cream causing a problem I.e there's no welts, rash or bright red patches.

Looking at the way the weight is distributed on her body I would say she is an older girl too.

She may just have a touch of arthritis, it can affect them all differently.

Fudge walks the way your girl is when her hips are bothering her and she needs some extra pain relief. She also has arthritis in her cervical and lumbar spine. Without proper anti inflammatory treatment her neck gets stiff and she faffs about with the bottle- this is all fine now her pain is managed.

Arthritis in the front limbs could also cause her to fumble about and shuffle her weight when at the bottle as she's stretching up and putting a lot of weight to the front of her body. This could be putting her off drinking if it's niggling at her.

I wouldn't panic; she's certainly sprightly.

Hope you get some answers soon x
 
She does look and walk a bit like my elderly girl, Sundae, who is 6 years and 8 months right now. If the cataracts are progressing, that may account for some trouble with ramps and some issues with depth perception. When Sundae was in the process of developing cataracts, she had a lot of hesitancy with ramps. Once the cataracts progressed to a certain point she seemed to adapt to low or no vision and now actually seems LESS impaired by the cataracts than she did a year ago. A vet visit is definitely worth it for peace of mind, but it may be down to aging. Do you know approximately how old she is?
 
Thanks both of you! Thank goodness for this forum lol.
We're going to a vets nearby that's not on the vet locator as of now but was recommended on a vet rec site. They said on the phone they dealt with many small animals and has a lot of experience, so will hope for a good outcome :)

Freela said:
Do you know approximately how old she is?
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We don't know her approximate age, but we got her (along with Teddy now on rainbow bridge) around four ish years ago (at p@h before I knew the pros of adopting), I'll have to check when I come back. I'm about to go to the vets in a few minutes :)
 
CarnivalPiggy said:
Thanks both of you! Thank goodness for this forum lol.
We're going to a vets nearby that's not on the vet locator as of now but was recommended on a vet rec site. They said on the phone they dealt with many small animals and has a lot of experience, so will hope for a good outcome :)


We don't know her approximate age, but we got her (along with Teddy now on rainbow bridge) around four ish years ago (at p@h before I knew the pros of adopting), I'll have to check when I come back. I'm about to go to the vets in a few minutes :)
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Guinea pigs over fours years are classed as older citizens. All the best with your new vet! ;)
 
Thank you :)

It went pretty well! There was a small mixup with the vet where we accidently got placed with a vet that centres around cats, but I'm happy because they quickly swapped us within a minute or two straight to an exotic specialist vet. He checked her over and basically there was early arthritis and think he said he gave us an anti inflammatory medicine. Unfortunately, we came across another problem that is more serious :( he found something in her stomach/mid section. He let me feel it and it was probably the size of the hole of a bottle (like the plastic coke bottles), though probably a bit or lot smaller (my memory lol). He said surgery may be required, and that if the med doesn't make a difference they'll do an x-ray and talk about it.

This is what they prescribed -

baytril 2.5% oral 100ml x 2 (0.2ml twice day for 3 days - to be diluted if my memory serves right, but may have to call back before giving)

loxicom oral 5ml x 1 (give with food 0.8ml daily, stop if diarrhoea occurs)

For one of these, I need to stop giving it if she doesn't eat. Probably should have wrote it down as my memory isn't good, but I'll call the vets back and make sure to do it then.
 
Baytril is harsh on the piggies guts so a probiotic is usually recommended around an hour after giving the antibiotics. Did the vet indicate what they thought the mass was? or what they are treating for?

I've had piggies with ovarian cysts, fat lumps and one with a deep seated abscess around the stomach area so there are a number of things that it could be. Unfortunately the abscess was deep seated so by the time it was palpable it was very large on the inside. My piggy didn't survive the operation so I hope whatever it is your vet has caught it early enough.
 
He said there was something like a bowl. It felt hard/solid. He said he gave one of the meds for anti inflammatory treatment and that she didn't have arthritis yet but it was developing in an early stage I think. The vet said it was hard to tell what it was but that they'd probably want to do an x-ray. The appointment felt very quick and daunting because of the possibly surgery announcement. I've only ever had Ginny in for surgery to neuter which went extremely well. I don't know what to do with myself concerning this. As she's getting on, depending on what's in her would it be worse to let her go without surgery or risking it?

I'm going to phone them back in the morning and ask them to repeat the information. I haven't given her any medicine yet.

Rest in peace, for your piggy. I'm sorry to hear they didn't survive.
 
CarnivalPiggy said:
He said there was something like a bowl. It felt hard/solid. He said he gave one of the meds for anti inflammatory treatment and that she didn't have arthritis yet but it was developing in an early stage I think. The vet said it was hard to tell what it was but that they'd probably want to do an x-ray. The appointment felt very quick and daunting because of the possibly surgery announcement. I've only ever had Ginny in for surgery to neuter which went extremely well. I don't know what to do with myself concerning this. As she's getting on, depending on what's in her would it be worse to let her go without surgery or risking it?

I'm going to phone them back in the morning and ask them to repeat the information. I haven't given her any medicine yet.

Rest in peace, for your piggy. I'm sorry to hear they didn't survive.
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Hmm the vet doesn't sound too good so far. I don't get why they are treating when they don't know what it is. If it were cysts, fatty lumps or a tumour then antibiotics and anti inflammatories are going to make no difference.

I would push for the xray asap to find out what you are dealing with. Fatty lumps for example are fairly harmless and don't need removal. My Peter has had fatty lumps for years, first he had a few removed but there were too many so I've just kept an eye on him, he is dying now and won't be here for much longer but he has reached 7 years old

Only you can make the decision if surgery is suggested. Some piggies cope well but you need to factor in the overall health and liveliness of the pig currently.
 
Honestly I left a bit clueless as to what's actually wrong wth her. Will be calling soon to ask to talk to the vet in case it's just misinformation. I'll push for an x-ray and if I'm not happy with their reply I'll go back to Taverham vets and get a second opinion.

Oo. I've always thought any sort of stranger in a guinea pig's stomach was always fatal or bad. Did you get them removed through surgery?
 
Gave vets a ring:

They're using one med as a pain relief for anything that might be bothering her. For the moment, they're using the other to attempt to shrink any foreign body until they can see her again
 
She's much more perked up today! Just checked on her and Ginny. She ran straight out the cage with no problems and wheeking which she hasn't done for three days. I think the injections he gave her have helped. She's also eating and drinking fine from what I see :D

Still concerned about the foreign body :(
 
She might have been in discomfort then so maybe the pain relief is helping. Unfortunately unless the foreign object is something treatable by antibiotics then treating it won't make any difference.

Peter was operated on for fatty lumps initially and there were so many tiny ones inside that the vet was certain it was cancer so some were sent off to the lab and they weren't dangerous at all. I decided never to have him operated on again unless they grew too much too quick but they didn't. The main reason for not operating was that there were too many and even if they were all removed there was nothing to say no more would grow. The one by his back leg caused him some difficulties in later life but he was old and not moving around as much by then anyway,
 
Ah ok, thank you.

Sorry for all the questions, but do cysts, fatty lumps etc all feel the same when checking for anything? Just curious if it's possible to get a brief idea for the moment until I can see the vet.

Going to ring again tomorrow. Worried as money in the family has been slow lately and I also have a huge thing that will need paying for soon. I saw in a review that they allowed an owner to pay in instalments so if it comes to that I'll hope they'll allow it.
 
I can't say about the feel as onky had one sebaceous cyst which was palpable by me. Fatty lumps in my experience feel quite loose under the skin and move fairly freely almost like it's not attached to anything. The one cyst I've felt was quite hard and didn't move.

The vet was able to establish that Peters lumps weren't sebaceous cysts (or the one that was) by putting a needle into it. As they were all just under the skin we were able to send off biopsies but these came back inconclusive
 
CarnivalPiggy said:
Thanks :) By the sound of it it could be a cyst but I'll try not to jump to conclusions
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When's your next vets appointment? If it is a cyst I don't think the antibiotics would do anything but not sure. If course it could be something other than a cyst or abscess but I don't have experience of anything else
 
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