Do You Know Whats Wrong With My Guinea Pig?

[Mrpiggs]

Mr Piggs is my 4 month old female guinea pig. Last week I noticed she had lost a lot of weight, wasn't eating and could hardly walk or even move. so we took her to the vet immediately and they said she might have an infection and gave me medication to give her which was Metcam oral 0.15ml once a day for 5 days and Baytril oral 0.14ml twice a day for 7 days. they also gave us oxbow critical care to mix with water and feed her through a syringe so she would eat something.

4 days later and things still hadn't got any better, if anything she had got worse and could not stand and kept falling over onto her right side and then could not get up once she had fallen. she also has a head tilt. The vet then said maybe its a neurological problem and that they wouldn't be able to see, so in fact they don't know whats wrong with her. They told us to stop giving her the last medication as they were sure its not an infection and gave us new ones to give her which is Xeno 1 pipette on back of neck, Panacur 2.5% 0.1ml once a day for 28 days and Septrin paediatric 0.2ml once a day for seven days.

The vet suggests that if she isn't better in a week that we have her put down but i just cant bring myself round to doing that.

She still has no balance and keeps falling over and doesn't walk or move and nibbles at things but still doesn't eat properly. Can some advise to what they think this might be or has experienced this with their guinea pig?

 

[Wiebke]

Mr Piggs is my 4 month old female guinea pig. Last week I noticed she had lost a lot of weight, wasn't eating and could hardly walk or even move. so we took her to the vet immediately and they said she might have an infection and gave me medication to give her which was Metcam oral 0.15ml once a day for 5 days and Baytril oral 0.14ml twice a day for 7 days. they also gave us oxbow critical care to mix with water and feed her through a syringe so she would eat something.

4 days later and things still hadn't got any better, if anything she had got worse and could not stand and kept falling over onto her right side and then could not get up once she had fallen. she also has a head tilt. The vet then said maybe its a neurological problem and that they wouldn't be able to see, so in fact they don't know whats wrong with her. They told us to stop giving her the last medication as they were sure its not an infection and gave us new ones to give her which is Xeno 1 pipette on back of neck, Panacur 2.5% 0.1ml once a day for 28 days and Septrin paediatric 0.2ml once a day for seven days.

The vet suggests that if she isn't better in a week that we have her put down but i just cant bring myself round to doing that.

She still has no balance and keeps falling over and doesn't walk or move and nibbles at things but still doesn't eat properly. Can some advise to what they think this might be or has experienced this with their guinea pig?

HI and welcome! I am very sorry that you are having such a rough time!

You need to feed about 40-60 ml of recovery food in 24 hours and also syringe water, just to keep the guts going. Depending on how much you can get in in one go, that means ideally every few hours, even through the night. You can find out more about that aspect in our syringe feeding guide: Complete Syringe Feeding Guide

From what I can tell, your vet is currently throwing the kitchen sink at your piggy. Septrin is an antibiotic for ear infection (although very low dosed - what weight and age is you piggy?), xeno is for ear mites, panacur for e. cuniculi, all of which can cause your piggy's symptoms. It is often very difficult for a vet to actually diagnose what it causing these symptoms if it is not quite obvious. Your vet has obviously done some research as to potential causes and cures.
@Abi_nurse

 

[helen105281]

Hi, welcome to the forum. So did the vet originally think it was an ear infection? it sounds like standard treatment for that but Baytril is not always the most effective. The Metacam would have helped with any inflammation. It sounds to me like they are now throwing a few meds at her as they are not sure exactly what they are dealing with. Septrin is another antibiotic, Panacur is a wormer and Xeno is to treat mites (possibly ear mites). I think they have prescribed Panacur in case it is E-Cuniculli, this can also cause head tilt. Just noticed Wiebke has posted while I have been typing, but will post anyway. She has tagged Abi Nurse who is the best person to help here.

 

[Alex2016]

The cases that I have see offon the piggy recovers in time, the vets are giving medication to treat all possible causes. I would hope to see an improvement writhin 7 days. You may find it easier and safer to confine your piggy to a smaller cage with padded bottom and rolled towels around the sides to stop her thrashing and hurting her self also limit handling as pigs are offon very stressed and disorientated with this type of issue. Oxbow is very good again as above I'd keep a chart of how much your feeding and when to present to the vet if she starts to get feed up of it you can add a tea spoon of fruit baby food into the mix to make it more appealing to her best of luck !

 

[Mrpiggs]

HI and welcome! I am very sorry that you are having such a rough time!

You need to feed about 40-60 ml of recovery food in 24 hours and also syringe water, just to keep the guts going. Depending on how much you can get in in one go, that means ideally every few hours, even through the night. You can find out more about that aspect in our syringe feeding guide: Complete Syringe Feeding Guide

From what I can tell, your vet is currently throwing the kitchen sink at your piggy. Septrin is an antibiotic for ear infection (although very low dosed - what weight and age is you piggy?), xeno is for ear mites, panacur for e. cuniculi, all of which can cause your piggy's symptoms. It is often very difficult for a vet to actually diagnose what it causing these symptoms if it is not quite obvious. Your vet has obviously done some research as to potential causes and cures.
@Abi_nurse

She is 4 months old and weighs 400g. I have read the syringe guide and I am doing it as it says but she just spits it out

 

[Wiebke]

She is 4 months old and weighs 400g. I have read the syringe guide and I am doing it as it says but she just spits it out

Try to get the syringe a little bit deeper into the mouth and - as she is only a little teenager with the weight of a 6-8 weeks old - give her only about 1/3 of a syringe at any time.

I am keeping my fingers VERY firmly crossed for you!

 

[Guinea Slave]

Hi, so sorry to hear about our little one. Which vets did you use in Reading? I am fairly local to you and you have a great vet practice in Tilehurst who are brilliant with guineas. Their number is 0118 942 8240 They are on School Road (behind the Co-Op).

Ask for Sally Ward (the vet as they have two Sally Wards believe it or not!) or Jenny Towers who is there part time. Although all their vets are good with guineas, Sally and Jenny are the best. They should be able to advise and have helped me with my guineas over the last 12 years with all sorts of weird and wonderful illnesses!

Good luck!

 

[Abi_nurse]

Sounds like your vet has covered all bases here. It is likely to be an inner ear infection causing the problem but also could potentially be a parasite called e.cuniculi which is what the panacur has been prescribed for.

I personally wouldn't give up on her just yet, antibiotics need time. Is she eating at all on her own and bright otherwise? You could potentially ask your vet about putting her onto some anti vertigo treatment (usually called stematil - drug name prochlorparazine), I've used it in Guinea pigs and seen a little bit of elevation of the symptoms so could be worth a go?

Give her a bit of time and see how she goes? She may need some intensive nursing from you though. And he key is to recognise if her quality of life is no longer very good. Patients like this often require a lot of nursing and maintainence to ensure they don't soil themselves and can eat etc but I would certainly try to give her a chance.

x

 

[Mrpiggs]

Thanks for all your help. We took her back to the vet today and she is slowly getting better although she still can't stand or walk properly but she is doing a funny shuffle across the floor to get to her food. She is now showing a slight interest in food but we are still syringe feeding her because her weight had dropped to 340g. The vet said we just have to keep doing what we are doing and hope that she gets better eventually.