Pepperdog
Adult Guinea Pig
I had rather a scare on sunday morning when my neutered boar flash stopped eating and sat in a cozy all fluffed up and not at all well looking.
I rushed him off to the vets and he was diagnosed with cystitis to much relief from me who was very worried about this sudden onset of symptomless illness, the vet who is a general vet examined the tummy and found him very sore, he had a dental exam which was perfect (thank god), so the diagnosis was formed and advice was to isolate him for 24 hours and keep an eye on what wees and poos he does.
I currently have them inside in a very large pen, I didnt want to keep him completely out of his group, but needed to find out what he ate, and what he expelled so I partitioned off a corner of the pen, gave him a fresh white towel, a cozy to keep him warm and hay, water and dry food incase he got the urge to eat. I also put vet bed on two sides of his square so he had warmth and some privacy from the fishwives outside, but so he didnt get lonely or too stressed out he still could see and talk to them.
The medication given was metacam and baytril with one sachet of recovery food (from science selective) and a huge syringe to feed him from over the rest of sunday. And if he was no better by tues to take him back to my vets for a follow up (as it was out of hours so the emergency vets).
I struggled all evening to get him to feed from the syringe, he was very cold (temp of 37 degrees) and today he has warmed up again and has tried to eat hay but as he did sunday gave up pretty quickly. I couldnt get the stuff to flow through the syringe and it was huge and awkward, flash resented being fed this way, got very stressed out and even tried to bite me. I had given him little but decided that stressing him out further was not good for him late last night so made sure he was warm and checked him this morning.
He has remained very bright and chirpy throughout which was why I personally risked a short withdrawl of care, having force fed lots of animals over the years I knew it was becoming more counter productive and he was still wanting to eat on his own, just not managaing it.
Thanks to some great advice and help from suzy and amanda (and better recovery aids than was given) I have managed to get a lot more into him tonight, he was much less stressed and actively taking the food from the syringe (he never takes food from my hands so much as I have tried he wont eat off a spoon either). I caught him drinking from his favourite water bottle (which I made sure he had) earlier and I think the wet patch on the towel earlier on was his wee (but it could have been the girls marking, I dont think likely but its possible). I am thrilled that he has started to drink again as this was the most worrying part of his not taking anything and at least he will keep himself hydrated, I will see how he goes with some choice veg tomorrow but will be syringe feeding him anyway to make sure he gets food.
I post because if I had not been part of this forum I would never have had the support needed to get flash over the most critical period of his recovery, I have no doubt he would have gone down hill further and become more stressed out by the wrong type of force feeding, I knew I was out of my depth and reached out, got the help I needed and flash and myself thank both suzy and amanda for helping us. I want others who have gone through similar to know that help is there if you need it, you just have to ask.
I have kept him apart on suzys advice, I still need to monitor his movements and eating and he had a bit of dire rear because of the baytril so its best for all of them to keep him in one area incase the girls could pick up on anything he expels. I didnt know the sachet I was given was lacking in vit c, a very dangerous thing to not have, he has now been given this vital vitamin, I didnt know what else to try as he wasnt eating his "food" that he was to be given, but now I have everything he needs to recover.
I am still concerned to how cystitis got into his system, I am methodical about what veg they get but as they have not been out on my very (ironically perfect for such ailments) old style grass for so long, its possible the naturally occuring couch grass, dandilion and other grasses have helped any build up from happening, over winter something triggered this but I dont know what. The only early indication was sunday morning at 5am when I heard a funny higher pitched squeek from their room, I thought something had upset the group, they were all chatting to each other and seemed unsettled but assumed one of the girls might be on heat and flash got randy. I think this was the only time he made a noise while having a wee, he hasnt made the noise since so I still dont know if it was him or if it was an actual upset momentarily in the pen.
I apologise for the long post, its not advice I need at the moment but I hope my experience might help any one else who might go through the same thing and that the people on here really do know their stuff, I like the fact that they get right down to the point, I am similar myself and dealing with the rudimentary issues we have managed to get a sick piggie on the road to recovery.
I rushed him off to the vets and he was diagnosed with cystitis to much relief from me who was very worried about this sudden onset of symptomless illness, the vet who is a general vet examined the tummy and found him very sore, he had a dental exam which was perfect (thank god), so the diagnosis was formed and advice was to isolate him for 24 hours and keep an eye on what wees and poos he does.
I currently have them inside in a very large pen, I didnt want to keep him completely out of his group, but needed to find out what he ate, and what he expelled so I partitioned off a corner of the pen, gave him a fresh white towel, a cozy to keep him warm and hay, water and dry food incase he got the urge to eat. I also put vet bed on two sides of his square so he had warmth and some privacy from the fishwives outside, but so he didnt get lonely or too stressed out he still could see and talk to them.
The medication given was metacam and baytril with one sachet of recovery food (from science selective) and a huge syringe to feed him from over the rest of sunday. And if he was no better by tues to take him back to my vets for a follow up (as it was out of hours so the emergency vets).
I struggled all evening to get him to feed from the syringe, he was very cold (temp of 37 degrees) and today he has warmed up again and has tried to eat hay but as he did sunday gave up pretty quickly. I couldnt get the stuff to flow through the syringe and it was huge and awkward, flash resented being fed this way, got very stressed out and even tried to bite me. I had given him little but decided that stressing him out further was not good for him late last night so made sure he was warm and checked him this morning.
He has remained very bright and chirpy throughout which was why I personally risked a short withdrawl of care, having force fed lots of animals over the years I knew it was becoming more counter productive and he was still wanting to eat on his own, just not managaing it.
Thanks to some great advice and help from suzy and amanda (and better recovery aids than was given) I have managed to get a lot more into him tonight, he was much less stressed and actively taking the food from the syringe (he never takes food from my hands so much as I have tried he wont eat off a spoon either). I caught him drinking from his favourite water bottle (which I made sure he had) earlier and I think the wet patch on the towel earlier on was his wee (but it could have been the girls marking, I dont think likely but its possible). I am thrilled that he has started to drink again as this was the most worrying part of his not taking anything and at least he will keep himself hydrated, I will see how he goes with some choice veg tomorrow but will be syringe feeding him anyway to make sure he gets food.
I post because if I had not been part of this forum I would never have had the support needed to get flash over the most critical period of his recovery, I have no doubt he would have gone down hill further and become more stressed out by the wrong type of force feeding, I knew I was out of my depth and reached out, got the help I needed and flash and myself thank both suzy and amanda for helping us. I want others who have gone through similar to know that help is there if you need it, you just have to ask.
I have kept him apart on suzys advice, I still need to monitor his movements and eating and he had a bit of dire rear because of the baytril so its best for all of them to keep him in one area incase the girls could pick up on anything he expels. I didnt know the sachet I was given was lacking in vit c, a very dangerous thing to not have, he has now been given this vital vitamin, I didnt know what else to try as he wasnt eating his "food" that he was to be given, but now I have everything he needs to recover.
I am still concerned to how cystitis got into his system, I am methodical about what veg they get but as they have not been out on my very (ironically perfect for such ailments) old style grass for so long, its possible the naturally occuring couch grass, dandilion and other grasses have helped any build up from happening, over winter something triggered this but I dont know what. The only early indication was sunday morning at 5am when I heard a funny higher pitched squeek from their room, I thought something had upset the group, they were all chatting to each other and seemed unsettled but assumed one of the girls might be on heat and flash got randy. I think this was the only time he made a noise while having a wee, he hasnt made the noise since so I still dont know if it was him or if it was an actual upset momentarily in the pen.
I apologise for the long post, its not advice I need at the moment but I hope my experience might help any one else who might go through the same thing and that the people on here really do know their stuff, I like the fact that they get right down to the point, I am similar myself and dealing with the rudimentary issues we have managed to get a sick piggie on the road to recovery.
Hope you're all doing ok now. Much love x
