• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

I hope your advice was correct.

Status
Not open for further replies.
Amysmom

Amysmom

Teenage Guinea Pig
Joined
Oct 17, 2011
Messages
979
Reaction score
86
Points
370
Location
West midlands
I got up this morning to find Snowball quite floppy and not as responsive as yesterday.I brought him in to syringe feed him and burst into tears-I had to hold his head up and he wasnt like this yesterday.

I rang the vets and demanded to speak with Bonnie-she was doing consultations so had to call later.I probably went a bit far and told the receptionist that if Snowball dies and I find out it was his teeth I would sue the practise (I was very upset) and this is not normally the way I would be.

I was told to bring Snowball in at the end of consultation.You could cut the air when I walked in-I think what I said had been passed on but once in the room with Bonnie I explained that I'm very upset because hes gone down since they had him yesterday-she understood.

I told her what was said here last night and she said that to clamp open a guinea pigs mouth while they are awake is not the right thing to do because it distresses them greatly-I have to trust her on that.Anyway she explained that she can gas Snowball to give her enough time to look at his back teeth-she looked again with a scope and said she still couldnt see anything to give her cause to think its a dental problem but ive told her to go ahead so we can eliminate a dental problem.

Fingers crossed he wakes up okay because he seemed so unwell.
She is going to call me around 12.30.
 
Oh poor Snowball, crossing everything. x
 
Hopefully something will turn up and give you some answers, if they do any xrays on his mouth, this should show if there are any root problems causing his discomfort. Fingers crossed its nothing serious and is easily sorted.

I'm very sorry if i upset you on the other thread, was not my intention, please pass on my apologies to Amy aswell. x
 
I'm going to update about Snowball here even though I did it in the other thread because its now getting a little 'lost due to some kind of 'debate'

Our vet did a light gas anesthetic on Snowball so she could check his back teeth-although she was certain there was no dental problem and she found what she expected-nothing.

He had been given a painkiller and gut stimulator again and they are keeping him until 5.00 to syringe feed and observe again.
 
I am so sorry that Snowball is getting worse while you still don't know what is causing it. It is such an upsetting thing when it happens to you! you are doing the best you can.

I am sending him my vibes!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 
So sorry that Snowball's gone down today. I hope he comes through it all ok. Plenty of piggy hugs sent your way.x
 
Healing vibes being sent your way. Fingers crossed here for snowball.
 
Snowwball is not good.:(

The vet is concerned about his breathing now and his chest sounds raspy, she said unfortunately syringe feeding carries a risk of causing this so shes given him an anti biotic injection along with a pain killing injection.

I have been shown how to ingject him because I have to give him a gut stimulant injection around 8.00.

She has told us to try and give him a little run around (if he does) because he needs to get rid of some gas in his gut so we are going to try him when hes had the injection.

We have given him a syringe of food and a thin slice of cucumber-its strange because its almost like he cant use his jaw to chew.
 
He can have infacol to help with the gas and also fresh peppermint leaves would help. The vet can prescribe infacol its not a strong medicing its used in babies and its great for gas. Already poorly piggies don't do well with GA's but it should be out his system soon. Is your vet cavvy savvy? Any vet I know thats Cavvy Savvy wouldnt do a GA for teeth or on an ill piggie as the risk increased. Being such a good mummy though I know you'll get him through the GA. Little and often with the syringing. Wishing you all the best xxxxx
 
Sorry, you have misunderstood-he had some gas and was only out for 5mins.

The vet did stress that she wouldnt do a GA on an ill guinea pig.
 
I had a very similar problem with one of my boars a couple of weeks ago. He had a UTI due to having boar glue stuck up his man bits, which caused him to stop eating, and loose weight...he lost 300g's over 2 weeks, we tried every type of food we could, picked him grass every day, every type of veg we could find...you name it we tried it.

We got rid of the UTI, but it didn't perk him up, he was impacted because his poo's were so small he couldn't push them out, and they were very soft as well. He went back to the vets to have his teeth checked, blood tests, x-rays and an ultrasound - his teeth were fine, and nothing showed up on the scans...except from his intestines were completely full of poo. So he had a gut stimulant, and the vet said that if he didn't perk up at all then we would have to consider having him pts, as he was literally just eating enough to keep himself alert.

Over the following few days he got worse and we thought we might lose him...as a last ditch attempt before taking him back to the vets we tried him with various different boars to try and find a friend for him, and thankfully it worked. He perked right back up again and is now putting weight back on, albeit very slowly.

Your boy does sound very very poorly, but if he doesn't already, then put a friend with him...it might do nothing but it's worth a try.

Good luck
 
I'm so sorry Snowball's not showing any improvement. I know how upsetting it is when we don't know what's wrong with our piggies and nothing we do seems to work. (((((hugs))))) x
 
Squidge said:
I had a very similar problem with one of my boars a couple of weeks ago. He had a UTI due to having boar glue stuck up his man bits, which caused him to stop eating, and loose weight...he lost 300g's over 2 weeks, we tried every type of food we could, picked him grass every day, every type of veg we could find...you name it we tried it.

We got rid of the UTI, but it didn't perk him up, he was impacted because his poo's were so small he couldn't push them out, and they were very soft as well. He went back to the vets to have his teeth checked, blood tests, x-rays and an ultrasound - his teeth were fine, and nothing showed up on the scans...except from his intestines were completely full of poo. So he had a gut stimulant, and the vet said that if he didn't perk up at all then we would have to consider having him pts, as he was literally just eating enough to keep himself alert.

Over the following few days he got worse and we thought we might lose him...as a last ditch attempt before taking him back to the vets we tried him with various different boars to try and find a friend for him, and thankfully it worked. He perked right back up again and is now putting weight back on, albeit very slowly.

Your boy does sound very very poorly, but if he doesn't already, then put a friend with him...it might do nothing but it's worth a try.

Good luck
Click to expand...


I'm glad your guinea pig got over it.
Snowball does have a friend-Cookie.
 
AndreaJane said:
I'm so sorry Snowball's not showing any improvement. I know how upsetting it is when we don't know what's wrong with our piggies and nothing we do seems to work. (((((hugs))))) x
Click to expand...

Well doing the injection was much more nerve racking than when I did it with the vet but its done thank goodness.

Snowball has eaten 2 sprigs of parsley-slowly but he wanted it.

Hubby has now gone down to Sainsburys to get some Infacol-hope they've got some.
 
Hope he gets better soon, we really need some good news on this forum, its all been sad news lately on here, keeping everything crossed for you
 
Thanks everyone.

I'm signing off now so we can give Snowball some TLC.

Pray he gets through the night.
 
Really hope snowball is ok - love being sent from my piggies Manny and Floyd, they say, 'wheek wheek snowball, gas not fun wheek veggies good fun wheek wheek get better soon wheek Snowball wheek' x
 
How is Snowball today?

I may have the wrong end of the stick but you said he has gas I assume this is gas as in wind stuck in his tummy?

My boy had a major case of bloat brought on by Baytril (both my pigs are intolerant to it) he had an x-ray and there was no blockage so we gave him 1ml of olive oil and he perked right up for the next 2 days we gave him 1ml olive oil and he recovered totally.

This was a boy the vet said would need to be pts he is now 1375g

The point of my post is that he wouldnt eat because he had bubbles in his tummy telling his brain he was full, the olive oil works by breaking surface tension of bubbles causing them to burst once bubbles gone piggy felt hungry and ate.

When he started pooping we would often see poos that had holes in where bubbles had burst and some with sticky bubbles still in them that looked plasticky weird stuff.

Reading your other thread his first symptom appears to be diarrhoea did you ever find what had caused that?
 
The vet examined Snowball this morning and she was happy that his tummy feels better than yesterday.I said he hadnt pooped and she had a look and we were pleased to see a couple of formed poops on their way out-that was a pleasant suprise :)

I have been given 6 more gut stimulant injections emeprid(sp?) for today and over the weekend-I gave him one at 1.00 today-it felt easier this time to admister it so I must be getting used to it.

He also has anti biotic and pain relief to get us through the weekend and we are to continue with the syringe feeding but to not overdo it because we want him to try and eat normally.He is showing more interest in food-had a munch on a pile of grass.He is also moving and stretching his body more so he still seems strong.

She explained that she is still worried about the secondary infection and that we are to be aware that even though his gut looks to be starting to settle we need to still be concerned about that.
 
Glad that he is improving, hope you find what caused the problems in the first place, they are such a worry arent they.

Remember to give him a probiotic to counteract antibiotic as antibiotics can themselves cause tummy problems, Fibreplex is a good one normally available from most vets.

The joy of seeing poops I know it well :)
 
Unfortunately we dont know what caused his diarrhea, the vet did say if it persisted we would have his poop sent off but the inital diarrhea cleared up quite quickly.
 
Last edited:
That's sounding more positive, great that he's interested in his food and the poops are coming like pebble said. :)
 
So pleased to hear Snowball's showing some sign of improvement. Keeping everything crossed for a good outcome.x
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top