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Help for a guinea pig novice

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elerrina

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Hi there, i work at a vets and have just taken on for the weekend a guinea pig that was apparently found in a tree. Shes quite thin but eating well but also seems to have some possible neurological problems or balance issues, tends to fall over a lot =/ the other concern i have is that she sounds quite wheezy. The only antibiotic i have in the house is baytril as i am a rat owner myself and wondered what would be the dose for her she weighs 300g. Also would it be worth perhaps getting some baby food for her to help her get some more nutrients and gain weight.

Thanks
 
Hi , the symptoms you are describing might indicate an inner ear infection , But personally l would not give baytrila till you know exactly what you are dealing with ,

a pig that weighs 300 g could not stand to loose any more weight if is tummy flora was knocked out by the drug and got runny poo's .

Safest bet is to let the vet decide , but if he/she do's go for Batril , make sure you get a pro biotic like Fibraplex to go with it

tread very carefully with Baby foods could also cause runny poos !! , Critical Care Formular would be best by far !
 
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Hi there! Are you in the UK? If so we may be able to tell you which rescues are close to you, as they will be very used to dealing with poorly piggies like this and hopefully could lend and hand and/or advice, to give this piggy the best chance of making it. I dont want to scare you but if she is an adult piggy of 300 gramms shes in very big trouble, if shes only a youngster then not soo much :) (but still some, as most piggies are around the 400g mark between 6-8 weeks of age.
 
Yeh i did think a possible inner ear infection as its quite common in rats too, but its the snuffling I'm quite worried about it seems to have gotten worse overnight. Shes eating fine, not sure about drinking as she doesnt seem to move around the cage much so we hold the bottle in front of her every 30 mins in case she needs a drink. We've put her in the garden at the moment in the sun and shes chomping away at the grass and moving around more which is nice. Also i do think shes probably a baby shes just small overall not just underweight
 
She sounds very young. Ive got sum 6 week olds and they wiegh more than her. Please keep her indoors in the warm and pick her some grass instead. Do you know much about piggies? Seems odd the vet just gave her to you. Did she have an examination at all? If she was actually found in a tree she may have been picked up by a bird or just simply dumped. Please dont dose the baytril yourself, get some veterinary advice. For now, keep her warm and indoors with unlimited hay, pellet food, a very small amount of veg at a time. Literally a tiny chunk of greens etc at a time. At that age she is unlikely to have come across veg. Please wiegh her on a daily bases and seek some proper vet advice. x
 
No i've not had guinea pigs before as i stated originally. I'm an animal care assistant at a vets and volunteered to take the pig home to care for it over the weekend. She had an examination and some metacam at the practice. We arent sure if she was really found in a tree or if somone just didnt want her as a pet any more but didnt want the hassle of handing her over or having to pay for pts. She was very happy out on the grass in the sunshine, and was checked regularly. Shes still eating fine and very happy with her hay and pellets seems a bit brighter now, and i wasnt going to dose baytril myself hence asking if people here knew a correct dosage for her weight, she definately needs antibiotics of some description and i will not be able to get her any untill monday. And thats even if work will want to give it to her, she has no owner no one to pay for her thats why i wanted to give her a chance by giving her some antibiotics.
 
Is it possible for you to get her to a rescue for guinea pigs? They will be able to get her the treatment she needs if she hasn't got an owner to pay for it. She is extremely small & young so really needs an experienced piggy person to care for her if she is to survive. Hopefully you have a reputable rescue nearby that can help you? :)
 
None that i am aware of located in herefordshire only the rspca and they're only open 3 days a week and theyd probably euth her anyway. Now i don't mean to be rude but it feels very patronising round here, just because I've never owned a pig before doesn't make me inept which it kinda feels some think I am. I know the basics and am nursing her as best i can, i have no critical care available to me but am going to the pet shop tomorrow and wondered what I could get that would be helpful. Also are brain tumours something seen in pigs? Particularly pituitary as the behaviour reminded me of one of my rats with a pituitary tumour.
I just want to give her a good chance she goes back to work with me on Monday
 
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elerrina said:
No i've not had guinea pigs before as i stated originally. I'm an animal care assistant at a vets and volunteered to take the pig home to care for it over the weekend. She had an examination and some metacam at the practice. We arent sure if she was really found in a tree or if somone just didnt want her as a pet any more but didnt want the hassle of handing her over or having to pay for pts. She was very happy out on the grass in the sunshine, and was checked regularly. Shes still eating fine and very happy with her hay and pellets seems a bit brighter now, and i wasnt going to dose baytril myself hence asking if people here knew a correct dosage for her weight, she definately needs antibiotics of some description and i will not be able to get her any untill monday. And thats even if work will want to give it to her, she has no owner no one to pay for her thats why i wanted to give her a chance by giving her some antibiotics.
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elerrina said:
None that i am aware of located in herefordshire only the rspca and they're only open 3 days a week and theyd probably euth her anyway. Now i don't mean to be rude but it feels very patronising round here, just because I've never owned a pig before doesn't make me inept which it kinda feels some think I am. I know the basics and am nursing her as best i can, i have no critical care available to me but am going to the pet shop tomorrow and wondered what I could get that would be helpful. Also are brain tumours something seen in pigs? Particularly pituitary as the behaviour reminded me of one of my rats with a pituitary tumour.
I just want to give her a good chance she goes back to work with me on Monday
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I don't think any of us are trying to make you feel inept, however unless you have experience of guineas then you really are missing the point we are trying to make :(

Firstly, I am surprised that the vets you work at have not kept the piggy there & diagnosed her properly & treated her with antibiotics if necessary. Plus if she does need Critical Care, the vets should have sent you home with some prepared to syringe feed her every 3-4 hours if necessary, assuming you do have experience of syringe feeding, if not then they should have instructed you how to do so. You also mentioned that that the vets may not be prepared to give her the medicine she needs? If you are happy to take her on as yours, then the cost presumably will be down to yourself?

Baytril may not necessarily be the antibiotic of choice in this case, experienced cavy vets are using much more effective antibiotics as well as Baytril now.

I think you have been very kind & brave to volunteer to look after her, but you will need to get her seen by the vet as soon as possible as piggies do go downhill very quickly. This is a pro-rescue forum, so people will be passionate about getting help for any abandoned piggy as soon as possible, & sometimes rescues are more readily available than vets at weekends.

Hopefully you will be able to save her, but please consider handing her to a rescue if you are not able to provide her veterinary care urgently. Obviously none of us know your situation, but if she has got a costly illness then if you can't pay for her treatment a rescue may well be your best option. Let us know how you get on with her & just ask if there is anything we can do to help :)
 
We are not a hospital practice so she would have been left by herself pretty much most of the weekend. She is eating by herself but is quite underweight which is why i thought cc would be helpful. The vets would also just have put her to sleep most likely which is why i said id take her home to give her a better chance. Shes still quite wobbly and has obvious balance issues could this be related to malnutrition since she is underweight?
 
Also if you think cost is a problem then you have never had rats, paying for antibiotics every month gets expensive :-) and yes i have plenty of experience syringe feeding. I'm an animal care assistant that is all the kind of stuff we do.
 
elerrina said:
We are not a hospital practice so she would have been left by herself pretty much most of the weekend. She is eating by herself but is quite underweight which is why i thought cc would be helpful. The vets would also just have put her to sleep most likely which is why i said id take her home to give her a better chance. Shes still quite wobbly and has obvious balance issues could this be related to malnutrition since she is underweight?
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The balance problems could be caused by all sorts of things, proper diagnosis by a cavy savvy vet is essential. If the vet you work for would just put her to sleep then you need to find another vet experienced with cavies.

elerrina said:
Also if you think cost is a problem then you have never had rats, paying for antibiotics every month gets expensive :-) and yes i have plenty of experience syringe feeding. I'm an animal care assistant that is all the kind of stuff we do.
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Nope, never had rats, they don't appeal at all to me rolleyes What I mean is, if you are prepared to take this piggy on as an owner, then it's fine if you are prepared to meet the cost of vet's fees. If not, it would be preferable to hand her to a rescue as soon as possible, so that she can get the care needed elsewhere. This is not aimed at a criticism of you, just really clarifying what would be best for the piggy. Most of us who have had piggies over many years would not be able to self-diagnose in a case like this, nor dose a piggy ourselves with antibiotics, as their metabolism is quite different to rats or other rodents. Critical Care will build her up if she doesn't pass away from the illness that she has. She does need to see an exotic/cavy savvy vet as soon as possible. How is she today?
 
I'm so sorry she is so poorly :( Do you have a probiotic to syringe so that she is getting the right amount of vit C? And perhaps you could mix some softened piggy pellets with the probiotic (not quite as good as CC but not far off) and syringe feed that instead?

Its very good that she is eating herself. :) Sounds like she definatly needs a good dose of zithromax or septrin to deal with that cough/cold. I believe i may no of a rescue in your area so i will ask around, If I were to find someone would you willing to get in contact? Not necessarily hand the pig over, buy perhaps they could asses her condition and see if its just malnutrition and have a better look at her age etc?

How is she total? Sending Healing vibes her way.
 
Sorry, my fault mallethead clearly cant read tonight!
 
She seems about the same still eating by herself and drinking more by herself too. I had some nutrition supplement which was suitable and goes in the water so shes been having that too. And my point with rats was they're not cheap at all, they get respiratory illnesses often so cost a fair bit each month. And can't say i was ever very interested in pigs but i have been quickly converted :-). A vet at work is very into guineas and rabbits so hopefully will be able to tell what's wrong, and i wasn't asking anyone to diagnose her i just wondered if people could speculate on what it could be to give me an idea as i have never had one i don't know what is common. Also shes toileting normally and seems to be pottering around her cage at night as there were droppings all over the cage.
 
Firstly welcome to you and your piggie to the forum :)
All the best for her recovery........ well done for taking her on :)
I do hope she continues to eat well and that you can clear up the wheezing.......piggies can hide their illnesses very well :(
Please keep us updated and whee would love to see pigtures if you can please x) whee have a stories/photo's section for them,

Glynis, Velvet and Onyx x
 
elerrina said:
She seems about the same still eating by herself and drinking more by herself too. I had some nutrition supplement which was suitable and goes in the water so shes been having that too. And my point with rats was they're not cheap at all, they get respiratory illnesses often so cost a fair bit each month. And can't say i was ever very interested in pigs but i have been quickly converted :-). A vet at work is very into guineas and rabbits so hopefully will be able to tell what's wrong, and i wasn't asking anyone to diagnose her i just wondered if people could speculate on what it could be to give me an idea as i have never had one i don't know what is common. Also shes toileting normally and seems to be pottering around her cage at night as there were droppings all over the cage.
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That's good news, hopefully today you can get some medication sorted once you've got a diagnosis for her, & if you decide to keep her then you will find this forum very useful indeed. Keep us updated as to how she is doing & just ask if there is anything we can do to help, especially if you decide to adopt her, as she would probably benefit from having a little rescue friend :)
 
Unfortunately the decision was made to put her to sleep :-( she seemed a lot worse at the vets wasn't even standing didn't seem fair to keep going really. I was quite upset and id only had her for a couple of days. I can definitely say though that i will look into getting guinea pigs in the future, i didn't realise they were herd animals and theyre so sweet.
 
elerrina said:
Unfortunately the decision was made to put her to sleep :-( she seemed a lot worse at the vets wasn't even standing didn't seem fair to keep going really. I was quite upset and id only had her for a couple of days. I can definitely say though that i will look into getting guinea pigs in the future, i didn't realise they were herd animals and theyre so sweet.
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Oh I am so sorry you did your very best for her, it couldn't have been a very nice thing for you to witness :(

Yes they are lovely animals, very affectionate & playful & very rewarding as pets. If you do ever decide to look for a pair of piggies (they are happiest in pairs) then you are in the right place as there are lots needing rehoming in rescues right now, & some very good rescues near you.

Once again, I am sorry :(
 
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