An Unusual Disinterest In Lettuce

[Red Star]

Hi!

So yesterday I took Agent Nibbles to the vet. He had some scabs under his fur I hadn't noticed, and he is now being treated for possible mites. They gave me some sort of antibiotic (ox...something? oxban? Shoot.. I'll check the label later) to be fed once a day, and a topical medicine to put on the lesions themselves.

I gave it the anti-biotic to him this morning, and then gave him some lettuce to distract him while I did the topical med.

Trouble was...he wasn't interested?

And even when I got him back in his cage, he wasn't interested. I think the leaf is still sitting in his cage now, where I left it.

it's so bizarre. Do antibiotics sometimes change the taste of food for animals?

I ask because... even while he was actively having a seizure (a couple months ago), he was still super interested in eating lettuce. So to see him now NOT eating lettuce disturbs me greatly.

 

[Cavy Kung-Fu]

I believe antibiotics can decrease appetite. Generally I believe invermectin is the treatment of choice for mites, could it be that? Hope your little one gets better soon!

 

[Red Star]

I believe antibiotics can decrease appetite. Generally I believe invermectin is the treatment of choice for mites, could it be that? Hope your little one gets better soon!

Thank you, me too! I will check the medicine labels tonight when I get home, I can't remember the name of them. x)

 

[Cavy Kung-Fu]

Also it might be worth weighing him and keeping a track of weight daily. If he's losing appetite then he could stop eating nuggets and more importantly, hay. Which as you may be aware could be potentially fatal.

If a piggy loses more than 10g in a day it could be a sign of worry, then you would have to step in with syringe feeding.

Has he got a cage mate? If so, are they being treated too?

 

[Red Star]

Also it might be worth weighing him and keeping a track of weight daily. If he's losing appetite then he could stop eating nuggets and more importantly, hay. Which as you may be aware could be potentially fatal.

If a piggy loses more than 10g in a day it could be a sign of worry, then you would have to step in with syringe feeding.

Has he got a cage mate? If so, are they being treated too?

Weighing him daily is a good idea!

He's still eating his pellets and (I think) his hay, though at a slower rate than the other, younger piggies in the house.

He doesn't have cage mates, but he does have two guinea pig buddies that reside in a cage right next to him. Our vet suggested we might should bring them in for treatment too, which I will probably end up doing, just in case. I plan to check them for scabs tomorrow when I clean out their cage (they are still quite skittish).

Our vet also told me to wash my hands before touching the other 2 piggies after handling Nibbles, which I've been doing, too.

 

[Cavy Kung-Fu]

Brilliant, yes definitely worth checking everyone. Has your vet taken a skin scrape?

If in doubt, might be worth weighing all piggies daily til the scare is over.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for them!

 

[Red Star]

Brilliant, yes definitely worth checking everyone. Has your vet taken a skin scrape?

If in doubt, might be worth weighing all piggies daily til the scare is over.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for them!

Yeah, she took a skin scrape for ringworm, specifically, just in case. She said it will take up to 2 weeks to get the full results back, but if I DON'T hear from her within 2-4 days then it's probably NOT ringworm. So silence is ideal! We're one day through, 3 more to go.. >_>

I will do my best to weigh all of them. Han and Chewy do NOT like to be picked up, at all, whatsoever, though, haha. I guess this is one way to get them more used to being handled... Thanks so much :]

 

[Cavy Kung-Fu]

No problem, good luck!

 

[Critter]

Did the vet give an Invermectin injection? Did he mention his thoughts/reasons behind the course of antibiotics? To prevent infection in the scabs perhaps?
As mentioned antibiotics can decrease apatite but there are pro-biotics that can be given inbetween the antibiotics to help counter that. Your vet should be able to supply some, otherwise they are available to purchase online, I'll try to dig the details out if you like.

Skin conditions, including mites and fungal, can sometimes flare up during a period of stress, either emotional or physical. That's not to make you feel bad, but it is sometimes a factor and being as he suffer seizures I wonder if he is susceptible at the moment due to that? In the case of mites it is believed that they exist in low levels in many/most, perhaps even all piggies, and are only a problem when the immune system is low, which can happen during a time of stress. One of mine developed a mites infestation after tensions within the herd developed to the point of having to split the herd, and soon after she witnessed the death of one of her cage mates. Within a week or so she was itching like mad and had mites. The good news is that cage mates don't tend to catch them off the sufferer, probably for reasons stated above.
The other good news is that we cannot catch them either
However Ivermectin injections in careful doses properly spread apart is the way to go. I wonder if your vet is waiting a diagnosis first.

With fungal infections they can be very contagious, including to humans, so fingers crossed that it's not!

Does he appear to be itchy and/or irritated by his skin condition?

 

[Red Star]

Did the vet give an Invermectin injection? Did he mention his thoughts/reasons behind the course of antibiotics? To prevent infection in the scabs perhaps?
As mentioned antibiotics can decrease apatite but there are pro-biotics that can be given inbetween the antibiotics to help counter that. Your vet should be able to supply some, otherwise they are available to purchase online, I'll try to dig the details out if you like.

Skin conditions, including mites and fungal, can sometimes flare up during a period of stress, either emotional or physical. That's not to make you feel bad, but it is sometimes a factor and being as he suffer seizures I wonder if he is susceptible at the moment due to that? In the case of mites it is believed that they exist in low levels in many/most, perhaps even all piggies, and are only a problem when the immune system is low, which can happen during a time of stress. One of mine developed a mites infestation after tensions within the herd developed to the point of having to split the herd, and soon after she witnessed the death of one of her cage mates. Within a week or so she was itching like mad and had mites. The good news is that cage mates don't tend to catch them off the sufferer, probably for reasons stated above.
The other good news is that we cannot catch them either
However Ivermectin injections in careful doses properly spread apart is the way to go. I wonder if your vet is waiting a diagnosis first.

With fungal infections they can be very contagious, including to humans, so fingers crossed that it's not!

Does he appear to be itchy and/or irritated by his skin condition?

Hi! Thanks for the response.

I don't think he got an injection; I know he got treated for mites via something that they put between his shoulder blades. She said the antibiotic was both for the sore on his back, and to help his feet (he had some hotspots on the pads of his feet). It was sort of my understanding thta the antibiotic might help a skin infection too (if it turns out he has one, stil waiting on test results I think), but I don't remember if she explicitly said that or not; maybe she didn't, and I'm just remembering incorrectly.

Good to know his piggy neighbors won't catch it mites from him. As for stress on his part, his original bonded cagemate passed away a couple weeks before he had the seizure, and his other issues have all stemmed from that. So I imagine if stress has to do with it, that might be a part of it. We have two more new piggies, but they do not yet share a cage--but they are within sight of each other.

I didn't notice much itchiness myself, but when I took them to the vet the doctor talked about how VERY ITCHY he was, which threw me off. Maybe I'm just somehow not noticing his itchiness? But he does have some dryness on his ears which we are treating with a "Clotrimazole Solution". Oh, and the antibiotic is Orbax, in case that means anything to anyone. Its all Greek to me. x)