Specialist Asthmatic guinea URI?

[BlueBird]

Hi there,

So my guinea Belle has always been a bit asthmatic. She gets very wheezy from time to time but everytime. We took her to the vets in her youth many time and they didn't find anything wrong with her hence my own diagnosis of "asthma".

Last Thursday however, she was the worst she's ever been with the wheezes so off to the vet we went. She was still wheezy in the vets so we had a course of baytril to give her if she didn't improve within the day. (she didn't) now midway through her course I was woken this morning with persistent coughing/sneezing and found her in the hay box which was always a trigger for her (it's dust extracted but it still triggers her).

My instinct is that the baytril isn't doing the job. But I don't think she has URI. she's well in herself, she's eating and moving around and coming to say hello to beg for food. I don't see any crustiness around the eyes or discharge.

She is an old lady now so I'm aware of her mortality but just wanted some advice. As I say my instinct is that this is a particularly bad spell of her "asthma" which is exasperated by the cold whether (she's an indoor guinea on fleece BTW but our flat does get pretty cold sometimes) but given a heat pad she rarely uses it.

 

[PigglePuggle]

I think you need to take her back to the vets if her respiratory symptoms are getting worse, perhaps they can prescribe a stronger antibiotic if the baytril isnt working.
How cold is your flat? Ideally piggies need to be kept above 15 degrees C all the time, with no big temperature fluctuations- does it get too cold at night? Perhaps you could have a heater on for her?

 

[BlueBird]

I think you need to take her back to the vets if her respiratory symptoms are getting worse

I wouldn't say getting worse. I'd just say not getting better.

How cold is your flat? Ideally piggies need to be kept above 15 degrees C all the time, with no big temperature fluctuations- does it get too cold at night? Perhaps you could have a heater on for her?

I couldnt tell you what the exact temperature is but it's a modern flat so I'd doubt it gets below 15oC. Unfortunately I'm not comfortable leaving a heater on as we work full-time and we have electric heaters rather than plumbed central heating. Leaving them on unattended feels like a real fire risk. The best I can do is a heat pad then put the heating on when we're back. :/

 

[Wiebke]

Hi!

Has your vet checked for signs of upper or lower lung disease (it may take experience and a very good stethoscope)? It took me around 2 years and a number of vet trips to have my Ffraid finally diagnosed with it at the Cat&Rabbit Care Clinic in Northampton.

Have you discussed nebulising? There is a risk that it could make things worse, which is why we recommend to not try it on your own but in conjuction with your vet who can assess better whether it there is a risk involved for your particular situation or not.

@Abi_nurse @furryfriends (TEAS)

 

[Abi_nurse]

Hey there,

Asthma isn’t really something we see in guinea pigs though this isn’t impossible. I’m afraid it can take a few days for the antibiotics to work, but understand you have waited a bit now. Stubborn infections can take several weeks to resolve on antibiotics and you are unlikely to see any improvement for a minimum of about 5-7 days. We are also scarily seeing a lot of resistance of bugs to baytril these days due to it’s overuse. Has your vet ever used a different antibiotic other than baytril and how long are her courses usually?
I also echo the use of nebulisation which can be a great help in conjunction with antibiotics.

x

 

[BlueBird]

Hi guys thanks for your replies. I took her back to the vet yesterday. We agreed to continue the antibiotics for another week to see if anything happens. I did ask about neubulising she wasn't completely against the idea but she hadn't used it before and since damp is one of Belle's triggers she thought it was best to go with status quo first and use it if she gets worse.

She's also of the opinion that if she's not losing weight, and the wheezing isn't getting worse, we probably shouldn't worry about it too much. She had a good feel of her ovaries which unsurprisingly are a bit polycystic. So could be a tumour that's travelled to her lungs. But we won't know unless we xray her.