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I have just got back from taking Fuzzy to Chine house. I picked him up this morning from our local vet and they said his condition was still the same although he was losing weight. During the journey to Chine house Fuzzy ate three small pieces of lettuce which i hope is a good sign considering the stress of the journey. We arrived at the vets early so i had fuzzy out for a cuddle and i have to admit he is very thin:(. It was then time to go in, we saw the Vet very quickly which was good. He had a look at the X rays and medical notes from our vet and then ran through a few potential problems. Basically the best case scenario is that there is something wrong with hs teeth. They are going to sedate fuzzy this afternoon and take pictures of all his teeth and also do some more x rays plus a blood test. They have a camera at Chine house which they can put right down inside fuzzys mouth and take pictures of his back teeth. The vet was very honest and said the long term prognosis isnt good once guinea pigs stop eating for such a long time period as there is nearly always a more deep rooted problem. However he said Fuzzy was still bright and alert:) so you never know. Either way i now feel fuzzy is in the best place possible and its a case of keeping everything crossed.
 
We have just had a call from the specialist who is treating Fuzzy. He's had a really good look at him today and has diagnosed the following:
Dental disease
Throat inflammation
Ear Infection
Build up of mucas

He said the thing he is most worried about is the ear infection as he's not sure how severe it is, but he is changing Fuzzy's medication tomorrow and is giving him much stronger antibiotics to try and fight the infections. He also said that he's not sure if the ear infection or dental disease would stop him from eating. He is pretty sure that the throat inflammation would make it sore to swallow.:...
On a positive note, Fuzzy is still bright and alert and although he is losing weight and quite a lot of hair he is taking his syringe food very well. He came round from his aneasthetic well. The vet thinks it is definitely worth a try with these antibiotics, and fingers crossed they will start working quickly and Fuzzy will soon be back to his normal self.:)

If these antibiotics don't work then our next option would be surgery on his ear infection. The vet has looked at past case studies on these operations, and could only find 2, of which only one was successful and there is a high risk that Fuzzy wouldn't wake up after the operation. :( But hopefully we won't have to make that decision and the antibiotics will start to work over the next few days.:...
 
Fuzzy

Fingers crossed for Fuzzy. He sounds like he is a fighter and now that a diagnosis has been made I'm sure he will respond to the treatment.
 
I hope the meds work for Fuzzy. Hopefully his appetite might pick up a bit as well once his infection has cleared :)
 
It's good to know something of what's up with Fuzzy. I hope the new ABs do him good. The ear infection may be painful, which would stop him eating. Grinding the molars usually wiggles the ears a bit, so if the ears are sore, he won't want to grind food down with his molars. Good luck, please do update as you can.
 
Fuzzy had a good day yesterday and started nibbling hay and a few greens. Overnight though he has shut up shop and is not eating anything of his own accord. He is still taking the syringe food really well and the vet says he is bright and alert although he has lost a bit more weight. He also said they are going to step up the medication to see if that will help but it doesnt look very good at the moment. The vet said if the anti biotics are working then he would expect some sort of improvement in the next 24hrs. The problem is they know he has an ear infection and signs of dental disease but they dont know for sure that is what is stopping him eating. He said today that the last chance would be to operate on his infected ear but there is no guarantees that he would pull through or if he did that he would be well again.
 
We've just had another update from the vet. Last night they put a handful of greens in his food bowl and he ate them all, a bit of hay and possibly a few nuggets. He's held his weight and even put a little bit on. :))
Whilst this is good news we're not out of the woods yet and the real test will be whether he eats anything tonight. Hopefully he will, then the vets can start to wean him off the syringe food, but he still needs to eat more nuggets and hay in order to put even more weight on. After over 2 weeks of very little improvement, I am happy to accept this news as signs of improvement, and we are keeping our fingers crossed that he improves more over the next 24 hours.
 
Since you are in Northampton I suggest you contact the Cambridge Cavy Trust asap
Why on earth does the vet. want to sedate your pig and then take photos of the back teeth and to operate for an ear infection?
I can only repeat what I have said countless times before that there is NEVER any need to sedate a guinea pig to either look at or to trim it's teeth, NEVER.
 
The vet has said he doesnt want to operate for an ear infection, but that would be a last resort. Sorry if any of my posts suggested otherwise. Fuzzy is now at his second vets and Craig at Chine house came highly recommended. Fuzzy was sedated so a camera could take pictures of his very back teeth and also have a look down his throat. If this was wrong then theres not much i can say, we are only trying to do our best by Fuzzy.
 
I can only repeat my previous post. A direct look is possible with NO need for sedation. I would be interested to know how far the camera could look down his throat, the opening is only about 2mm. Maybe you should ask for the pictures.
I have to say that maybe specialists, in any field, always find a justification for being specialists. Boys, toys and gadgets etc!
Never take [*]any[/*] expert on trust until you have asked them questions, to which you already know the answers, to see what answers they give. Sometimes the responses can be quite revealing, ie blinded by science, wool over the eyes....Even more if it is a simple question and the expert thinks that you do not know anything.
Best of luck.
 
The previous vet we took Fuzzy to before the specialist looked at his mouth and throat as best she could without sedating him. She couldn't see anything was wrong. It was only after he had been sedated did the specialist find out that his throat was inflamed which was possibily making it painful for Fuzzy to swallow. He has now been sedated 2 times and both times the vets have commented on how well he has come round afterwards. He is still very bright and alert and whilst I value anyone's opinion we are simply trying to do whats best for our lovely little Fuzzy by following the advice of those who know better than us about these animals.
We will look at the Cambridge Cavy Trust and see what they have to say. Thank you for your advice.
 
"Contact the CCT" That is the initial place to ask for help and advice. That is where the more enlightened vets. send gps for treatment.
Maybe the vet. was surprised at how quickly he came round!
I don't know how long you have kept guinea pigs, the usual advice is to avoid vets. at all costs, in all senses of the word!
I went to an open lecture at Cam. Vet School a few years ago. At the end I asked what training the students were given on guinea pigs. The reply? "NONE"
 
There are some decent vets. around. If there is something I can't deal with I take mine to see a vet. which involves a 250 mile round trip. My nearest vet. is 1 mile away. She readily admits that her knowledge on pigs is somewhat limited and she has sometimes sent pigs to me for advice/treatment.
 
We are going to see how he gets on over the weekend. The vet that is treating him is a specialist in small animals and has been highly recommended. He has diagnosed whats wrong with Fuzzy and is treating him for his problems. If we see no improvement over the weekend we will contact CCT for advise on what to do next.
 
At last some good news. I rang the vets this morning to see how Fuzzy had got on over night. They changed his medication yesterday. I spoke to a nurse who told me that over night he ate half a handful of greens, so they put in another half handful in and he ate those, so they put a third in and he ate those too!:)) The best news is that they also have hard food in bowl for him and he ate half a bowl of hard food.:)):)) He hasn't eaten any hard food for over 2 weeks so this news is promising. Fuzzy also put weight on yesterday and although the nurse hadn't weighed him when I spoke to her she said she is confident he will have put weight on overnight.
Whilst this is all very encouraging news I am trying very hard not get my hopes up until we have spoken to the vet on Monday and he has confirmed this is improvement. Having said that, after over 2 weeks of bad news, I welcome this news as a sign of some improvement and thats enough for me until Monday! :))
 
I'm so pleased that there is good news about Fuzzy. Hope he's back to good health soon.
 
I am very pleased to hear how well Fuzzy has improved. It must be a relief, though I know - having been in that position - it's best not to celebrate until he is back to normal and well out of the woods. Do you know what medication they put him on? Whatever it is obviously hit the spot and eased Fuzzy's problems a lot.
 
I picked up Fuzzy from the vet today and whilst he is not back to his normal self he has been eating hay and is currently chomping on carrot. :(|) When I first got him home he spent about 5 minutes having a sniff about and he ate some hay, then retired to his house for a couple of hours. Whilst we were eating tea his little head popped out and he hasn't really gone back in since. Since he started eating his hard food again he's only interested in eating museli rather than nuggets. We've never fed him on museli before so I have no idea why he prefers that to nuggets, but I'm not going to complain if he eats it all!
He is on 5 different medicines, which the vet has told us will be phased out gradually over the next 4 weeks, and hopefully that will be the end of it.
Fingers crossed that now he is home he's here to stay! It's lovely to see him in his hutch again.:(|)
 
Really great news! Welcome home Fuzzy!
Out of curiosity, since the meds he's on is clearly working, what are the medications and their doses?
 
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