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Guinea Pig's Hair Is Ruffled/puffed Out

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AvatarKorra

AvatarKorra

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In the beginning of August, I had noticed my Guinea pig completely stopped eating his kibbles and after a week his whole appetite started to slow. We took him to the vet who realized he had a Urinery Tract Infection. They put him on antibiotics and told us to use it till the bottle runs out. Just after a day, we saw him get so much better and by now, he was completely eating. However, yesterday, he stopped eating everything and when I look at him, his hair is all ruffled up. He just wants to hide in his house all day. Nothing else looks wrong. I had to pick him up to give him his medication yesterday and he wasn't making any sounds like he was in pain or anything. I'm just really scared because he was doing great and all the sudden he is worse than when he had the UTI. Could the vet had prescribed antibodics too long? He's been on them for roughly three weeks. He also hated the meds so did that just stress him out too much? The only other thing I found for ruffled hair was a respiratory infection but his cage is well ventilated and even the vet had said how good his breathing sounded. He is a 5 year old male indoor Guinea pig who lives by himself.
 
Guinea pigs tend to fluff themselves up when they don't feel well.

It sounds like he might be ill again, so I would return to the vet to have him checked.
 
I'd get him to a vet ASAP.Ruffled or puffed up hair along with being lethargic and not eating indicates pain.

If he's not eating you'll also need to start syringe feeding if you haven't already, it doesn't take long for their guts to slow down and then shut down completely.
 
I agree that he needs to go back to the vet as it does sound like a pain reponse. 3 weeks is not too long for antibiotics but it may be he needs a different one. Is he pooing ok? what antibiotic was he on?
 
Nibbley was taking .25 mg of Baytril. He probably only had one day left so we decided just to stop to see if it would help. He is currently eating all his veggies and happily came out to greet me unlike earlier. His hair also did not look puffed out. He has also been drinking a bit of water. Poo and pee looked normal. For now we are keeping him in the upper level of his cage where his food is to help coax him. If he doesn't seem better overnight, we will definitely take him in again. Unfortunately, I don't know what more the vet can do as it seemed my mom and I knew more about Guinea pigs than she did. Plus, she ran almost every test. Instead of ever thinking of a UTI, she immediately went to bladder stones and then went on a vitamin c rant for some reason. He gets plenty of it between his veggies and kibbles and the irony was these food recommendations she had had the highest level of calcium, the cause of stones, possible. As soon as we tried collecting his urine, we could tell it was a UTI. Then they were dragging on filling up an antibiotic subscription when the poor guy had already probably had this thing for a week. Little piggies can't wait that long with an infection. Thanks so much for the help everyone.
 
AvatarKorra said:
Nibbley was taking .25 mg of Baytril. He probably only had one day left so we decided just to stop to see if it would help. He is currently eating all his veggies and happily came out to greet me unlike earlier. His hair also did not look puffed out. He has also been drinking a bit of water. Poo and pee looked normal. For now we are keeping him in the upper level of his cage where his food is to help coax him. If he doesn't seem better overnight, we will definitely take him in again. Unfortunately, I don't know what more the vet can do as it seemed my mom and I knew more about Guinea pigs than she did. Plus, she ran almost every test. Instead of ever thinking of a UTI, she immediately went to bladder stones and then went on a vitamin c rant for some reason. He gets plenty of it between his veggies and kibbles and the irony was these food recommendations she had had the highest level of calcium, the cause of stones, possible. As soon as we tried collecting his urine, we could tell it was a UTI. Then they were dragging on filling up an antibiotic subscription when the poor guy had already probably had this thing for a week. Little piggies can't wait that long with an infection. Thanks so much for the help everyone.
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Was he on probiotics when on antibiotics? The baytril will kill all the good gut bacteria and probiotics help replace this. Its usually more beneficial to give him them whilst hes on the baytril but it might be worth a shout giving him some over the next week or so, 2-3 times a day to see if it helps. Examples include avipro plus, fibreplex, biolapis.. I'm not sure whats available in the states.

It may also be worth ringing round other vets looking for a more piggy savvy vet incase he needs seen again or for the future. Again, I'm not sure of any in the states as I'm from the uk.

All the best
 
If you have a look on Guinea Lynx I think there may be a recommended vets locator and also some probiotic recommendations.
 
No, we were not given any Probiotics. Thank you so much for this information. We will definitely be using a different vet next time. I'll go take a look on Guinea Pig Lynx.
 
I found one called Bene-Bac. It's the only in store product by us so I will try that. It's also a powder to put on his food so hopefully he will have no problem eating it. He was still a little ruffled this morning but I did see him eating a few hay strands that fell from his upper level to his lower. I made sure to put a pile right in front of his house to keep him eating. Hopefully these probiotics will work.
 
I have heard of that, it's supposed to be good. If he is still on any antibiotics then the probiotics need to be given at least an hour later.
 
Unfortunately, no store had Probiotics in stock but the very nice owner told us of the vet she takes her Guinea Pigs and rats to. We called and they have Probiotics+will be checking out Nibbley. He seems to be eating a bit more of his kibbles and hay but I can tell he still isn't at his full quirky self. We have also bought a softer kibble food by Oxbow to help him eat more. Hopefully, the Probiotics will help and he doesn't have a more serious underlying problem.
 
AvatarKorra said:
Unfortunately, no store had Probiotics in stock but the very nice owner told us of the vet she takes her Guinea Pigs and rats to. We called and they have Probiotics+will be checking out Nibbley. He seems to be eating a bit more of his kibbles and hay but I can tell he still isn't at his full quirky self. We have also bought a softer kibble food by Oxbow to help him eat more. Hopefully, the Probiotics will help and he doesn't have a more serious underlying problem.
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It's fantastic to get such a good recommendation.

Fingers and toes (piggie and hooman) crossed here for you xx
 
Well he just went to the vet and she was great. Very knowledgable and had all the supplies for small animals there. We got a bag of the soft food since we had to order online so we will have some to use sooner. They did bloodwork this time too and everything came back good. The vet said his tummy seemed to be sounding just a bit slow so she also gave something to help that, as well as the probiotics. Hopefully, it'll help Nibbley. He seems to get a bit more like himself everyday.
 
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