Miketudor
Junior Guinea Pig
Hello everyone,
I was hoping to get your advice around some sounds one of my guinea pigs, Mili, has been making on and off these past few months. The two videos (you might want to turn up the volume) were taken at the beginning of March. This is a very long post, describing Mili’s recent medical history, but if you don’t have time to read it all just jump to the last paragraph and my question after listening to the videos.
The videos:
1. Self cleaning: https://youtube.com/shorts/HaQO1rNqCzg?feature=share
2. Eating: https://youtube.com/shorts/hfqTnsHQrZg?feature=share
Now the medical history:
1. As soon as I heard the noise in early March I rushed her to the vet thinking it’s a blocked nose / URI. My very experienced vet concluded it was not. However, doing a routine urine check blood was found, even though she had no visible urinary symptoms, so she was put on Baytril. After just 1 dose of Baytril the sound was gone. After 7 days of Baytril, a urine culture test was done which came back negative. So Baytril was stopped after 11.5 days. I should mention here that occult blood in the urine persisted a while after Baytril was stopped but went away eventually.
2. A couple of days after stopping Baytril, in mid-March, the sound came back. I became again convinced it’s an undectected URI which probably became AB-resistant, however luckily the sound went away the next day without any Baytril. No more Baytril since.
3. Mili had been more lethargic, less active & moving around since about February, without a clear cause. After noticing her eyes were quite teary in late March we did a head x-Ray to figure out she had elongated roots in her lower teeth. Her molars looked great however out of precaution the lower molars were slightly filed to compensate for the elongated roots. After a week of syringe feeding critical care and a lot of stress, she was back to normal, active again and no longer lethargic.
4. A full set of x-Rays concluded she had no urinary stones. Bloodwork showed increased white blood cells, describing inflammation. Not clear if this was due to her cystitis (probaly interstitial cystitis because the occult blood in her urine persisted after the urine culture came back negative). Her heart seemed a bit bigger than normal on the x-Ray, so -
5. Out of precaution, She also had a heart ultrasound and ECG early April, which showed cardiomyopathy stage B1 (preclinical stage) and a tiny bit of pericardic fluid. The doctor wasn’t too concerned and wants to repeat the tests in early June.
Looong story short - she is no longer lethargic, is active, eating and drinking normally, begging for veggies, has even gained back most of the weight she lost due to the dental procedure and after the course of Baytril - but this sound is back since yesterday, after 3 weeks of normality and no more vet visits. She only does it when eating and self cleaning. They always come together, when she starts doing it while self cleaning she also does it while eating. It’s intermittent, not always heard during the day. I would describe it as somewhere between grunting and pidgeon cooing.
Does anyone have a guinea pig who makes this sound and could shed some light as to what it would mean?
Thank you very much in advance!
I was hoping to get your advice around some sounds one of my guinea pigs, Mili, has been making on and off these past few months. The two videos (you might want to turn up the volume) were taken at the beginning of March. This is a very long post, describing Mili’s recent medical history, but if you don’t have time to read it all just jump to the last paragraph and my question after listening to the videos.
The videos:
1. Self cleaning: https://youtube.com/shorts/HaQO1rNqCzg?feature=share
2. Eating: https://youtube.com/shorts/hfqTnsHQrZg?feature=share
Now the medical history:
1. As soon as I heard the noise in early March I rushed her to the vet thinking it’s a blocked nose / URI. My very experienced vet concluded it was not. However, doing a routine urine check blood was found, even though she had no visible urinary symptoms, so she was put on Baytril. After just 1 dose of Baytril the sound was gone. After 7 days of Baytril, a urine culture test was done which came back negative. So Baytril was stopped after 11.5 days. I should mention here that occult blood in the urine persisted a while after Baytril was stopped but went away eventually.
2. A couple of days after stopping Baytril, in mid-March, the sound came back. I became again convinced it’s an undectected URI which probably became AB-resistant, however luckily the sound went away the next day without any Baytril. No more Baytril since.
3. Mili had been more lethargic, less active & moving around since about February, without a clear cause. After noticing her eyes were quite teary in late March we did a head x-Ray to figure out she had elongated roots in her lower teeth. Her molars looked great however out of precaution the lower molars were slightly filed to compensate for the elongated roots. After a week of syringe feeding critical care and a lot of stress, she was back to normal, active again and no longer lethargic.
4. A full set of x-Rays concluded she had no urinary stones. Bloodwork showed increased white blood cells, describing inflammation. Not clear if this was due to her cystitis (probaly interstitial cystitis because the occult blood in her urine persisted after the urine culture came back negative). Her heart seemed a bit bigger than normal on the x-Ray, so -
5. Out of precaution, She also had a heart ultrasound and ECG early April, which showed cardiomyopathy stage B1 (preclinical stage) and a tiny bit of pericardic fluid. The doctor wasn’t too concerned and wants to repeat the tests in early June.
Looong story short - she is no longer lethargic, is active, eating and drinking normally, begging for veggies, has even gained back most of the weight she lost due to the dental procedure and after the course of Baytril - but this sound is back since yesterday, after 3 weeks of normality and no more vet visits. She only does it when eating and self cleaning. They always come together, when she starts doing it while self cleaning she also does it while eating. It’s intermittent, not always heard during the day. I would describe it as somewhere between grunting and pidgeon cooing.
Does anyone have a guinea pig who makes this sound and could shed some light as to what it would mean?
Thank you very much in advance!
