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Guinea pig admitted to hospital and returned next day but is still in pain?!

Quackaz

Quackaz

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hi everyone,

So yesterday I took my boar Clarence to the vet because he has been making noises as though he is in pain whilst hunching/tensing his back end. It has been happening for a little while now but has been eating, drinking and moving around perfectly whilst this has been going on so not really showing any signs of sickness or deterioration. I thought it might have been a UTI or stone but when they Xrayed him yesterday it seemed like he had an awful lot of gas inside him from the images and they were very worried so admitted him to stay overnight and started him on Zantac. They called this morning to tell me he was doing fab and 'bumbling about' as normal and they had noticed some of the gas had gone down and now when I look at him it seems that his physical appearance is much slimmer and less bloated.

They explained to me that they didn't hear my boys squeak at all when passing poops or urine but now I'm wondering whether they even listened out for them or could even realistically hear them if there were other noises.

So I've been given painkillers and Zantac to give him for the next 5 days but he is still squeaking in pain quite loudly again almost every 10 minutes. I have included a video of this. I can't understand why he has been sent home and 'Hasn't been squeaking' when it is this bad.

Excuse the dirty cage, They are cleaned everyday but just messy boys. :love::xd:

I'm frustrated because the lady on the phone told me that I should monitor him and see if he squeaks and when it happens so they can build a case around that but I've just paid £200 for the current treatment and Its a lot to then pay again another £30 and £100 for another consultation and X-ray. It also frustrated me that when I went to collect them the man who brought them out said 'They've been doing fine and we've gave them some veggies and they ate them all up' to which I asked what they gave him and they told me kale?!?!? Kale which is gassy!?!? He then told me that it might be just painful for them to get rid of the gas but I thought they couldn't pass gass?

Any help would be appreciated here because I feel like I'm going completely crazy and want my boy to be out of pain. Thanks all!
 
Is your vet cavy savvy? Did they notice the hunching and squeaking while he was there? If possible, I’d maybe try another vet if weren’t happy. Or call up tomorrow and tell them they’re still squeaking and see what they say.

Sorry!
 
It looks very much like he is in pain - did they test his urine to rule out a UTI?
I would call the vet back and explain you are deeply unhappy. They have clearly sent home a guinea pig who is still in pain and struggling.
I would ask for a follow up, as despite all the treatment so far he clearly hasn't improved.
Being gassy is often a sign of reduce food intake which is linked to pain - it can be a symptom of a bigger problem and not the problem itself.

I would also question how experienced your vet is with guinea pigs - you may need to look for a more cavy savy vet in your area.
 
I agree with my previous posters - you need to see a vet promptly, preferably a more piggy savvy one.
Here is our post-op care guide: Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment

Unfortunately without knowing which country you are in, we cannot give any recommendations. We have got a recommended UK vets list on the top bar and can provide a link for recommended vets in some other countries if wished.
 
Thank you for all of the replies! They were very helpful for me. In the end I rang up to express that I was unhappy and wanted to be re-seen. I was seen this time by a small animals exotic expert with experience working with guinea pigs. He checked after I showed hi the videos and the only thing he found was that Clarence was jittering as if touching his bladder was painful. He had already been x-rayed for bladder stones and he was all clear there but what he did mention was the possibility of a UTI. He has now given me sulfatrim and added another 5 days of Zantac because he is still bloated and his pain meds have been put up. What I forgot to ask was whether the antibiotics is also to be taken 12 hours apart. Can I give them all together at 12 hour intervals? Thanks.
 
Quackaz said:
Thank you for all of the replies! They were very helpful for me. In the end I rang up to express that I was unhappy and wanted to be re-seen. I was seen this time by a small animals exotic expert with experience working with guinea pigs. He checked after I showed hi the videos and the only thing he found was that Clarence was jittering as if touching his bladder was painful. He had already been x-rayed for bladder stones and he was all clear there but what he did mention was the possibility of a UTI. He has now given me sulfatrim and added another 5 days of Zantac because he is still bloated and his pain meds have been put up. What I forgot to ask was whether the antibiotics is also to be taken 12 hours apart. Can I give them all together at 12 hour intervals? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Yes, you can give them all at 12 hour intervals but you need to halve the dose if you split the antibiotic because the overall amount has to stay the same.
 
Hi Wiebke, thanks for replying. Sorry I'm trying to understand what you mean about halving the dose. At the moment the vet has told me to give him 0.3ml of metacam once a day (morning), 0.32ml of Zantac Twice a day & 0.2 ml of sulfatrim twice daily. My plan was to give the doses as stated at the same times all except the metacam which is only in the morning.

Does this sound Ok?
 
Quackaz said:
Hi Wiebke, thanks for replying. Sorry I'm trying to understand what you mean about halving the dose. At the moment the vet has told me to give him 0.3ml of metacam once a day (morning), 0.32ml of Zantac Twice a day & 0.2 ml of sulfatrim twice daily. My plan was to give the doses as stated at the same times all except the metacam which is only in the morning.

Does this sound Ok?
Click to expand...

Hi!

You can give 0.3 ml metacam twice a day as 0.15 ml but can give 0.3 ml safely twice daily if the pain level is high if that helps you?

The other two medications are already split into twice daily dosages.
 
Hi all,

I posted here a week or so back about my Guinea Pig Clarence who is wheeping in pain & hunching his back. When I first took him in to the vets they x-rayed him, ruled out any stones and noticed very bad bloat. They gave me Zantac & after he was on that for a few days I noticed his symptoms not getting any better so took him back to the vets. The vet checked him over and noticed he was jittering and jumping ever so slightly when his bladder was pressed and after me keeping a good eye on him it is definitely when he is urinating that he is in pain. The vet didn't check for UTI but gave me a 10 day course of sulfatrim antibiotics which he has been taking since Saturday. We also upped his pain killers slightly to 1.5ml twice a day. It is not as frequent or as prolonged as before but he is still wheeping in pain multiple times a day. I'm also not sure whether it is not as bad due to the painkillers.

When he urinates it is a whiteish/cream coloured liquid but at the moment I am only giving them TINY amounts of veg if any, bottled water in a bowl, hay & burgess excel nuggets with mint.

Do antibiotics usually take this long to kick in if it is a UTI? Does this sound like anything else anyone has experienced? PS: he is around 4 years old.

thanks!
 
Quackaz said:
Hi all,

I posted here a week or so back about my Guinea Pig Clarence who is wheeping in pain & hunching his back. When I first took him in to the vets they x-rayed him, ruled out any stones and noticed very bad bloat. They gave me Zantac & after he was on that for a few days I noticed his symptoms not getting any better so took him back to the vets. The vet checked him over and noticed he was jittering and jumping ever so slightly when his bladder was pressed and after me keeping a good eye on him it is definitely when he is urinating that he is in pain. The vet didn't check for UTI but gave me a 10 day course of sulfatrim antibiotics which he has been taking since Saturday. We also upped his pain killers slightly to 1.5ml twice a day. It is not as frequent or as prolonged as before but he is still wheeping in pain multiple times a day. I'm also not sure whether it is not as bad due to the painkillers.

When he urinates it is a whiteish/cream coloured liquid but at the moment I am only giving them TINY amounts of veg if any, bottled water in a bowl, hay & burgess excel nuggets with mint.

Do antibiotics usually take this long to kick in if it is a UTI? Does this sound like anything else anyone has experienced? PS: he is around 4 years old.

thanks!
Click to expand...
Please keep your posts in this thread as otherwise we lose track of what has been said.

The wee colour is normal, tagging in @Wiebke for you

What does clarence weigh?
 
Hi!

The pee colour means that excess calcium is being excreted.

However, if you were dealing with a bacterial urine infection or a bacterial cystitis, I would have expected a reaction by now.

Please up the painkiller to 0.3 ml twice daily as stated in my last post a week ago. you can do that safely.

Has your vet checked for stones with a scan or just by feeling? The next step would be to check for stones in the kidneys, ureters or urethra.
To make sure.

There is a condition called 'sterile interstitial cystitis' (usually called IC for short) that has become a lot more common over the last decade but is not necessarily well known to general vets. It is a non-bacterial (i.e. not reactive to antibiotics) recurring (that is the interstitial part) infection/inflammation of the bladder. It not curable as things stand and can only be diagnosed by default after all other possible urinary tract problems have been excluded. Sterile IC can go away on its own eventually, but is more of a matter or years rather than months and in extreme cases a life-long problem. :(

Treatment is mainly with lots of glucosamine, like glucosamine-based cystease capsules, a food supplement for cats who are the other species that can get sterile cystitis and plenty of metacam. The glucosamine helps to support the natural glucosamine coating of the bladder walls.

I would strongly recommend to see your vet if a week on sulfatrim hasn't made any impact and talk to them about the chances re. stones having fetched up elsewhere or whether you could be dealing with sterile IC.

I have merged your two threads to keep any ongoing case together so we can look up the back story and don't have to ask you the same questions all over again. Please keep in mind that I have in the meantime posted on another 100-200 threads or so... ;)
 
Hi, Sorry, I thought that I was doing the correct thing by stating a new thread as my question was new and I stated his symptoms in the second but thank you for merging them.

The vet I spoke to on Saturday was an exotics and Guinea Pig specialist and I showed him the videos and he told me to give Clarence 3ml once a day by mouth as stated on the bottle. When I asked and you said about splitting or giving 3ml if his pain was high enough I was still unsure if it was as I had only just been told to up the dosage. I split it into two 1.5mls please forgive that I was only following what the Vet had told me and without knowledge of how medications react to my Guinea Pig I did not want to up the dose without being certain of what I was doing. When he was x-rayed they simply told me they had 'ruled out stones' but on the other hand they told me due to his bloat they couldn't really see his intestines so who knows what else they couldn't see.

Would an ultra sound tell me more about whether its stones or is this pointless? I'm just wondering cost wise. If he has stones would it have been visible on the x-ray?

On another note after being upset with my Vet in the first place that they seemed to just push him through for bloat and send him home still in pain I was paying another £50 on top of the £200 I already paid out for his x-ray, hospital stay etc. Obviously I do have money to give my pets all the medical attention they need but having my rat die days prior costing almost £150 for emergency treatment, euthanasia and ashes back it has been a bit of a tough week emotionally and financially so I'm getting really frustrated feeling like I'm going around in circles with the vets.

Thanks for you help.
 
Quackaz said:
Hi, Sorry, I thought that I was doing the correct thing by stating a new thread as my question was new and I stated his symptoms in the second but thank you for merging them.

The vet I spoke to on Saturday was an exotics and Guinea Pig specialist and I showed him the videos and he told me to give Clarence 3ml once a day by mouth as stated on the bottle. When I asked and you said about splitting or giving 3ml if his pain was high enough I was still unsure if it was as I had only just been told to up the dosage. I split it into two 1.5mls please forgive that I was only following what the Vet had told me and without knowledge of how medications react to my Guinea Pig I did not want to up the dose without being certain of what I was doing. When he was x-rayed they simply told me they had 'ruled out stones' but on the other hand they told me due to his bloat they couldn't really see his intestines so who knows what else they couldn't see.

Would an ultra sound tell me more about whether its stones or is this pointless? I'm just wondering cost wise. If he has stones would it have been visible on the x-ray?

On another note after being upset with my Vet in the first place that they seemed to just push him through for bloat and send him home still in pain I was paying another £50 on top of the £200 I already paid out for his x-ray, hospital stay etc. Obviously I do have money to give my pets all the medical attention they need but having my rat die days prior costing almost £150 for emergency treatment, euthanasia and ashes back it has been a bit of a tough week emotionally and financially so I'm getting really frustrated feeling like I'm going around in circles with the vets.

Thanks for you help.
Click to expand...

Is the 3 ml cat metacam or dog metacam? In your previous thread, you have referred to 0.3 ml metacam. I am getting a bit confused here.

Stones contain calcium (like bones) and are visible on x-ray; that is usually the best way of finding them.
Usually a vet palpitates the bladder. If it is soft and relaxed, then the likelihood of stones in the system is low. if there was a sizeable stone in the bladder, an experienced vet would be able to feel that.

I feel for you re. cost; they can quickly mount up. I've currently got 2 sows with sterile IC and a third going through the elimination process. :(
 
Sorry 0.3ml (dyslexic and was rushing) and its metacam dog. Yes the vet was very good feeling his bladder and I can somewhat remember him telling me that he could not feel any stones. He was doing very well at ensuring he was properly checking everything.

He weighed 950g at the vets on Saturday and now he is 945g but I see him happily eating and drinking all the time. I will continue to weigh him anyway.

Also don't know if this will tell you anything but everytime I give him his meds and put him back down he is doing the painful wheeping and back hunching. The vet told me on Saturday that if the antibiotics do not work they want to do an ultrasound on him but will have to put him under. I think I would rather suggest the IC to him because it seems like this is much more likely to be the case.

Thank you. I'm also really sorry about your sows. Its horrible when our poor innocent pets get ill.
 
Will it be OK to up his metacam dose to 0.3ml twice a day?
 
Wishing you and your piggy all the best.. its not nice when they are suffering x
 
Hi again all,

Apologies for the impolite photo but it’s really important I get some advice on this. Just checked my boys parts and this is how it looks:
A0AFB986-49F2-4525-AF17-27D9180FAAF2.webp
Is this normal?

Thanks all, I really do appreciate your help.
 
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