Could I Possibly Hear Some Experiences?

[TheCavySlave]

May I hear some experiences where a piggy got ill and recovered? Just what happened, what illness they got, if they were in pain, and how they got better. I think it could help my anxiety, if that's okay. I don't want to be insensitive. Thanks in advance!

 

[Beans&Toast]

Toast has had gut stasis a couple of times. She got bloat so bad that she went off her food and wouldn't take syringe feed. I had to take her to out of hours vets to be given subcut fluids and fed. She recovered both times although the 2nd time we thought we were going to loose her and did talk about PTS.

She also had to be taken to out of hours vets for an upper respiratory infection, she was in so much pain she was pulling her fur out. She was given medication and recovered well. She's had several things go wrong with her but she's always pulled though.


Beans has pretty severe arthritis in her back legs and hips and struggled to move or get up until she was put on Tramadol as well as Loxicom. She manages fine now.

She was also spayed as she had cystic ovaries. within 2 days pulled her stitches out leaving her stomach open. It was cleaned and then had a staple put in it. 3 hours later she pulled the staple out with her teeth.... she coped amazingly, didn't even seem to be bothered ahead carried on as normal until her wound healed.

 

[flowerfairy]

My last guinea oig Jacky had a uti but got well after a couple of courses of antibiotics.

Eta that anxiety is very keen on catastophising and loves to be quite the drama queen, hope you get some nice recovery stories to help sooth your worries.

 

[Wigwig]

Archie had a mammary tumor last year. He kept peeing loads as it was putting pressure on his bladder i think and the lump got huge fast, like the size of a malteaser and was leaking nasty fluid from the nipple. He was on antibiotics for about a month and the vet was fantastic and removed it, he was home the same day as his surgery. He was so eager to go outside but he had to wait a few weeks. It healed up fast and hes fine.
Oh he also had mites a few years ago but we just bought ivermectin and that cleared it up within a day or two.

 

[Lorcan]

Comet wasn't seriously ill, but he wouldn't stop hooting and I took him for a checkup, turns out his lungs were iffy. The vet gave me a week long course of Baytril which he promptly spent the entire week point blank refusing to take. Beaten by a guinea pig. I think the vet thought I was exaggerating, but she decided to give him a Baytril injection and try another week of oral antibiotics.

It took three of us to get the injection into him, he was determined not to have it. I was so embarrassed...but I also couldn't stop laughing, because it was so ridiculous. Three of us vs one guinea pig. He still refused that week's oral antibiotics, but the vet was much happier with him on the third appointment, so for everyone's sanity I agreed trying to force the antibiotics on him again wasn't worth it.

We're still not 100% sure what was wrong or what helped him, if anything. I'm one of those people who laughs when I'm nervous which helped him when he was panicking a little because laughing isn't a "bad" sound (I'm not sure how else to explain that) and I'm still really iffy about him hooting but since he's quite happy to cause a riot every five minutes I have to remind myself that I'm probably being paranoid. It's hard sometimes, though.

 

[TheCavySlave]

Thank you guys! Heartwarming to learn that piggies pull through amazing things. I partly blame myself if anything goes wrong and that's horrible. Thank you all so much, this is really comforting

 

[Roclibrarian]

One of my past piggies had a big cyst removed from her side. I found it as I was delivering them to my parents as I was going camping for a week. Cue a dash to the vet and cancelled holiday. After the operation she had stiches and staples, so I was advised to spilt her from her cage mate (this was about 8 years ago). She wouldn't eat, drink or move, then she pulled a staple out and had a flap of skin, with muscle showing underneath (horrible). Rushed back to the vet, who put another staple back in. 15 mins after I got home she pulled it straight back out! Luckily the skin stayed in place this time, so the vet said leave it. I eventually let her cage mate visit (under supervision), she perked up straight away and started eating. Long story short I put them back together, she healed up and lived a long and happy life. I spent the week worried sick and crying, but got through it.
I suffer with anxiety, but this experience taught me I can get through a piggy illness.

 

[Roclibrarian]

PS it's not just piggies who pull stiches out. I had my last rabbit spayed. The day I took her back to the vet for her stiches out, they were no longer there! I had checked the stiches 2 hours before taking her to the vet, so she must have done it in that time lol

 

[chesca_27]

Oreo was quite ill last year and had a number of things wrong. It started off with gut stasis and bloat, then his teeth started over growing, from not eating enough hay and to top it off he had oral thrush after. I found it insanely stressful to deal with and I was constantly terrified I would lose him for about two months. It got to the point where I gave him all his Christmas presents early because I didn't know if he would be with me for Christmas. He has now make a pretty much full recovery. His teeth are still a bit dodgy, bit its just the incisors, which I can check easily and I have a good local vet who will trim them consciously if need be.

I do find guinea pigs very stressful pets, but I wouldn't change it for the world and I love both my boys so much.

 

[Freela]

May I hear some experiences where a piggy got ill and recovered? Just what happened, what illness they got, if they were in pain, and how they got better. I think it could help my anxiety, if that's okay. I don't want to be insensitive. Thanks in advance!

We've been through a few illnesses and recoveries. Most recently, Hadley had a respiratory bug of some sort... not much in the way of symptoms but hooting on and off, as if her nose was stuffed. She took two courses of trimethoprim (with intermittent improvement on antibiotics and relapse once the antibiotics stopped), then switched over to Baytril and made a full recovery.

Linney had a cyst on her lower back around the grease gland that the vet lanced which then became infected... she had the whole abscess and abscess capsule removed under a general anesthesia and made a full recovery.

Sundae was the queen of illnesses... she had recurrent UTIs due to bladder stones but made full recoveries with antibiotics. She was then on a long-term suppressive antibiotic regimen which seemed to dramatically reduce the number of infections. She also had recurrent problems with her teeth overgrowing and had them filed under anesthesia two or three times over the course of a few months before suddenly puffing up with a huge dental abscess. She had another surgery to lance and drain the abscess, was on higher dose antibiotics and needed a ton of aftercare to continue cleaning out the really aggressive abscess, but she made a full recovery and went on to live to almost seven!