I'm afraid it;s not good news
Willlow (4yrs and a couple of months old) has elevated white blood cells which show no abnormal morphology so this is not your classic "lymphoma". (There is also no evidence of parasites in the gut, no eosinophilia, ...so need requirement to give Panacur :p!)
In view of the history of my herd .....the vet now seems pretty certain that what we have is a virus that infects white blood cells (think HIV) "vertically" - i.e. from mother to babies (but NOT "horizontally" ie from anypig to anypig hence why Bandit and Bailey are OK as they are not genetically related) ).
Instead of supressing the immune system like HIV however, it hyper-activates it. Some of the piggies get infiltrates into the lungs (hence the respiratory problems) and some get it to the gut (hence they have this awful weight loss despite eating copiously and end up also borderline anaemic). So far 3 pigs have died from the gut issues and 9 pigs have had heart\respiratory probs.
Willow is going back tomorrow (saturday) for steroids - we will try these for a week to try and stop the white blood cell shennanigans. I am also taking in to the vet tomoz the dosages for the L Asparaginase treatment given to a lymphoma piggie on guinea lynx as we may decide to add that into the mix in a week's time if the steroids can;t contol the white blood cell infiltration. We may also consider some very specific types of antivirals.
We have nothing to lose now....I have seen Scarlatti, Pebble and Whisp go this way from the "gut/weight loss/lymphoma" symptoms and therefore Willow probably now has about 3 weeks left to enjoy his life if nothing is done...so I am happy to at least try oral steroids and the Aspariginase. I have already said I am not prepared to try any other drugs that mean Willow would need to have intravenous injections or lots of blood tests (ie GA's) as I want him to enjoy whatever time he has left.
To say I am gutted tonight is an understatement - but I remain determined to continue working with the vet to ensure this condition is properly written up/researched and documented for all piggies in the future...and yet still give Willow the best quality of life.
There is no documented evidence on this type of virus in guinea pigs or even this type of condition... It;'s one of the reasons why I let the vet do PM's/take tissue samples from all my pigs that have already gone to The Bridge and why my vets bills have been so horrendous.
When Willow goes to The Bridge, there will just be his brother Maple (respiratory) and his sister Pierrot (probably gut) plus second cousin Ginger (perhaps the explosion of sub-cutanoues lipomas he has already had removed means he won;t get anything else?) remaining out of the original 16 genetically linked.
Really really sad tonight - off to give Willow cuddles.
x
