stef.trg
Teenage Guinea Pig
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2020
- Messages
- 659
- Reaction score
- 2,125
- Points
- 825
- Location
- Kirchberg in Tirol, Austria
Hi guys,
it‘s been way too long since I‘ve been on here, I‘ve missed you all very much. Up until today, we‘ve been doing quite well but today Cornelius (5,5 years) is very unwell.
Bit of backstory: About 3 weeks ago I noticed that he has gone completely deaf. It happend over the course of maybe 4 weeks that he went from hearing normally, to not hearing all too well to completely deaf. He also started to have some off-days where he wouldn’t move much, wouldn’t be as interested in food and sleep a lot. The other days he was his normal, chipper self though. He‘s also gotten more boney and very slowly lost a bit of weight - nothing my vet was too concerned with though as nothing was obviously wrong so we just put that down to old age.
This morning he suddenly wasn‘t eating properly, didn’t want any pellets, and just wasn’t himself. At dinner tonight he was sniffing food and biting off a few pieces of veggies but also not really eating. That’s when I first noticed that he seems to struggle to swallow. I got him out to support feed, as we always do, when someone‘s poorly but it is impossible. He can swallow tiny amounts but it takes a really long time (we managed 4ml in 20 minutes). I gave him about 0,3ml of the syringe which he took, tried to swallow and a second later he retched it back up and spit it out. Back in the cage you could see he was struggling to swallow the stuff that was still somewhere between mouth and stomach. He is also retching and coughing when he tries to eat too much in the cage. When he‘s not running through the cage he is hunched up in a corner, grinding his teeth. He doesn’t seem to have a problem with chewing, just swallowing.
I am taking him to the vet as soon as possible tomorrow. Unfortunately, we don’t have emergency vets I can trust with a guinea pig where I live in Austria. In the meantime, does anyone have an idea what we are looking at? My pigmum gut tells me it might not be good news.
Thanks in advance, me & my poorly boy
it‘s been way too long since I‘ve been on here, I‘ve missed you all very much. Up until today, we‘ve been doing quite well but today Cornelius (5,5 years) is very unwell.
Bit of backstory: About 3 weeks ago I noticed that he has gone completely deaf. It happend over the course of maybe 4 weeks that he went from hearing normally, to not hearing all too well to completely deaf. He also started to have some off-days where he wouldn’t move much, wouldn’t be as interested in food and sleep a lot. The other days he was his normal, chipper self though. He‘s also gotten more boney and very slowly lost a bit of weight - nothing my vet was too concerned with though as nothing was obviously wrong so we just put that down to old age.
This morning he suddenly wasn‘t eating properly, didn’t want any pellets, and just wasn’t himself. At dinner tonight he was sniffing food and biting off a few pieces of veggies but also not really eating. That’s when I first noticed that he seems to struggle to swallow. I got him out to support feed, as we always do, when someone‘s poorly but it is impossible. He can swallow tiny amounts but it takes a really long time (we managed 4ml in 20 minutes). I gave him about 0,3ml of the syringe which he took, tried to swallow and a second later he retched it back up and spit it out. Back in the cage you could see he was struggling to swallow the stuff that was still somewhere between mouth and stomach. He is also retching and coughing when he tries to eat too much in the cage. When he‘s not running through the cage he is hunched up in a corner, grinding his teeth. He doesn’t seem to have a problem with chewing, just swallowing.
I am taking him to the vet as soon as possible tomorrow. Unfortunately, we don’t have emergency vets I can trust with a guinea pig where I live in Austria. In the meantime, does anyone have an idea what we are looking at? My pigmum gut tells me it might not be good news.
Thanks in advance, me & my poorly boy
I've had a couple who have had difficult in swallowing, one with a severe URI and I basically had to allow her to go into stasis for the first 24 hours or so while the antibiotics worked just enough to enable her to eat, but she was gasping which made attempting food more dangerous, for a good few hours I was having to put 0.1ml of food in at a time very, very dilute with water so it was less thick, after a while she could take a tiny bit of food and use a trickle of water to help swallow.
He‘s going to stay with her over the weekend and I am to call them on Monday to check if he‘s ready to come home. Please keep your fingers & paws crossed for little man to keep improving 
I am heartbroken. I never for a second thought that I might not see him anymore, I didn’t even say a proper goodbye yesterday. My poor little baby. I will do a rainbow bridge thread later today.
