• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Esme isn't well.

Status
Not open for further replies.
klee

klee

Adult Guinea Pig
Joined
Oct 25, 2011
Messages
2,371
Reaction score
1,096
Points
820
Location
Ellesmere Port, Cheshire
Noticed today when my Dad gave the girls their evening grass Esme didn't seem to come out and eat any, which was very unusual for her.
I took her out and tried her with some dandelion leaves, which she bit and let drop
I let her have a bit if a roam near the grass to see if she would be temptes which she wasn't.
So brought her in, made some pellet mash and managed to get about 3mls into her initially with a struggle. I tried some thinly sliced carrot and cucumber which she just spat out, I gave her a dose of metacam.
Rang the emergency vets and have an appointment for tomorrow at 8:30 as I couldn't afford the £95 consultation fee without any meds etc.
So decided to carry on fighting to syringe feed her. After about 5 additional mls she started pooing (a bit sticky) but better than nothing, in the end i managed to get her to take about 14mls altogether, with alternate offerings of poo soup.
I offered her a little banana skin to try and firm up her poops which she took and ate, I was thrilled.
I offered her a couple of celery leaves and half a green bean broken into pieces which she wolfed down and then helped herself to the banana peel.
She has been eating hay now in the hutch which is good, and she has a heat pad to snuggle into.

I hope we can get to the bottom of things tomorrow, I have a feeling it is pain related as she rapidly improved about an hour after the metacam dose. She has also lost about 100g but has only not been eating properly (as far as i have noticed) this afternoon, ) so i want to find the underlying cause.

Sorry for the extra long post I will update tomorrow after the vets.
 
Last edited:
Poor Esme, glad you got her eating and have some metacam on hand. Lots of love and healing vibes to her, hope the veTs can get to the bottom of whats up. I would recommend a teeth check as she started to eat after pain relief just to check all is ok in her mouth. Hugs to you and love to beautiful Esme x x
 
Best wishes for Esme at the vets. Certainly may be a pain issue if she picked up with some metacam inside her. I would weigh her daily at the moment & see how her weight goes. Keep an eye out for anything else unusual such as squeaking when she wees, dribbly chin etc.
 
Hoping all goes well at the vets tomorrow for you and Esme. Please keep up us updated with how she is doing. Massive hugs to you both x
 
She is a completely different pig this morning, first one out for some grass and sat waiting at the front for me. So the metacam must still be working. Hopefully the vets can figure out what is causing the problems.
 
I hope things are sorted at the vet's. Great that your quick thinking thought of pain and you managed to get her eating again. Hopefully the fact that it is pain related will give the vet some clues.
 
Thank you everyone for your well wishes. Vet was very good, she examined her very thoroughly but could not get to a definite cause unfortunately.
There was nothing obvious in her mouth, but she said if it persists that they would do a thorough dental but would need to be under GA.
The vet although she didn't find anything definite thought that her bladder felt a little hard, and she was squealing a bit. So at present we are treating as a uti (again) and monitoring her urinary output ( It took her about 2 hours yesterday before she wee'd)
She is on septrin 0.6ml and metacam 0.2ml and if she stops eating I need to syringe feed and get her back in. At present she is back to being her normal eating machine self, and has been eating her poos whichshe wasn't yesterday.

I took Rosie as company for hee and apart from Esme barbering her on the way there, they were both very good. I had Rosie checked over for her cysts, the vet picked her up and held her away from her at which point Rosie did her normal trick of peeing a fountain arc, all over my raincoat arm. The vet was in hysterics but couldn't have been more apologetic- it was so funny. Rosies cysts are still present to an exteny but she has no clinical signs so we are just monitoring her to see how we go.

Of course Esme isn't out of the woods yet, particularly with no definite diagnosis, but she is completely changed to the sad, puffed up pig of yesterday.
 
She's looking alot more chirpy now. She even went exploring from her carrier after her metacam, and curled up on her feeding blanket ( and was joined by Rosie)

20130624_094713_zps78dceb22.jpg


20130624_093709_zpsf3767818.jpg


20130624_095137_zpsb7f0296e.jpg
 
I hope that you can get to the bottom of it all, whether it is dental or not. If she has to go under GA at some point, I would also recommend an x-ray of her bladder to check for sludge or small stones, which is always a bit of worry with a piggy that has interstitial/chronic cystitis problems.
 
Your quick thinking really helped Esme. I am thrilled she is doing better now. I smiled St Rosie weeing.
 
Am so pleased she seems brighter today. I agree with the recommendations for an xray or scan of her bladder.
 
Have been desperate to get on a pc to check up on her thread today. Glad she is much improved this morning, your fast actions certainly helped. Hoping she can make a full recovery soon. Excellent news on Rosie too! Give Esme a gentle cuddle for us, she's such a beautiful lady
 
Glad she is doing better today.

Reading your post gave me a dejavu or Ludwig the other week just before I lost him. Sadly I couldn't get an appointment at the vet until the next day but because he was happily exploring I felt he would be okay but during the car ride he had a fit and when I got to the vets all they could do was put him down.

Hopefully she'll be fine. I'll be thinking of her x
 
Glad she is doing better today. it may be that she had the beginings of a little bit of bloat, which was eased by the pain relief and keeping her guts moving and hydrated with the syringe food. What ever it was your quick actions made all the difference. x
 
Pound Shilling & Pig said:
Glad she is doing better today. it may be that she had the beginings of a little bit of bloat, which was eased by the pain relief and keeping her guts moving and hydrated with the syringe food. What ever it was your quick actions made all the difference. x
Click to expand...

There was no obvious signs of gas/ bloat, I checked her tummy and it didn't seem distended or sound hollow, so unless it was very early. Obviously with her not eating for whatever reason that may have been her system starting to shut down- I am just glad I managed to get some food into her and get her guts working again when I did. x
 
I agree with Pound and Shilling, well done on acting so quick. Really,really pleased Esme is doing well and eating (loved the stories and photos pigture of her) x
 
Pleased to add that Esme is still doing well and is still eating etc, she will willingly come over and take her metacam and septrin. I could tell she was poorly as she wasn't even interested in the metacam on sunday- she normally has the syringe out of my hand when i offer it to Rosie .
It is still a mystery what caused it though.
Do you think i should keep them off the grass in their run? It is a gorgeous day bere and was hoping to get them out for a bit after lunch x
 
Metacams lol A piggie who refuses it is a poorly piggie indeed... Little syringe snatcher x)

I would probably keep her off the grass, just in case it affects her tummy a little. I am thrilled Esme is better, give her a gentle squeeze for me and rach x
 
sport_billy said:
Metacams lol A piggie who refuses it is a poorly piggie indeed... Little syringe snatcher x)

I would probably keep her off the grass, just in case it affects her tummy a little. I am thrilled Esme is better, give her a gentle squeeze for me and rach x
Click to expand...

Okey dokey! I will either just put some veg on the patio for them or just a handful of grass and hay to kewp thwmoccupied
 
Pleased Emse is feeling brighter now. She is such a cute little pig xx
 
Esme has gained 50g and is up to 1190g ( so still a big pig) but not quite the 1250g she normally settles around.
 
Just weighed Esme, she is back up to 1250g which is fantastic. She finished her septrin on Monday and we have been continuing with the metacam probably until the end of the week, reducing it down from 0.2ml to watch if she has any pain response. I am thinking of giving 0.15ml (what Rosie has anyway) for a couple of days and then 0.1ml over the weekend and then see how she is without on Monday.
I feel like I am being over cautious but as we didn't have a definite diagnosis and it seemed to be pain related I don't want to take the pain relief away all at once and her stop eating again.
 
Just updating to say she has stopped eating again, have been syringe feeding but hardly any output. Just rang the vet and have an appointment today at 6pm.
About to set off as rush hour is mad that side of town. Shall update later.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top