• 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

Jon Snow - Circling And Eye Flicking

  • Thread starter Thread starter DM030819
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
D

DM030819



Hello all.

Just wanted your thoughts on Jon please.

In October last year he had an episode where he circled and his eye flicked back and forth. It lasted about half an hour. We still took him to the vet but they were unable to diagnose anything as he was completely fine.

I was asked to get a video if he did it again. He woke me on Tuesday morning at 5am circling round. I took the attached video. Apologies for the poor quality, I was trying to get close enough to see his eyes. It lasted for an hour and he slowly recovered again. He's fine again.

I've emailed the video to the vet, but I've not heard anything back.
 
I would guess at something neurological, like a fit? The fact that he recovers and has no lasting ill effects suggests that it isn't a stroke.The vet needs to have a closer look I think.Let us know how you get on.
 
He generally seems a bit off during the rest of the day that it happens. He had recovered enough to eat his veg at 6:30am and was wandering around so I had to leave him and go to work.

I checked up on him a few times through the day, on my PigCam and he was mostly lying in his hay. That evening he climbed the bars for his veg again but he did have a look on his face on occasion like he had a headache.

The next morning he was fine, and has been since then.

The only difference is that the first fit that I saw him have he changed directions when he circled, first left, then right. This time it was only right.
 
It looks a lot like a seizure of some kind.
I am not sure if guinea pigs are like humans, but if so there are actually lots and lots of type of seizure, and each one will present with different symptoms.
Seizures are also exhausting, and it would be normal for him to be tired afterwards.
Well done for capturing it on video - I would be interested to hear what the vet says about it.
 
If I've not heard anything from the vet by the end of the week I'll make him an appointment. I'm due to take my other pig shortly for a medicine checkup anyway so he can tag along

Getting the video was tough, it looks so hectic when I watch it. Thankfully I have a longer version and a different one of just his eyes which I can show to the vet
 
My Phoebe used to have TIAs. Could that be a possibility?
 
It's definitely possible.

Unfortunately I don't have a great deal of experience with neurological issues in piggies. I had one boy that I took in after he was found wandering the streets of the town I lived in and suffered from a stroke at the local vets. He was fine for about 4 months and he had another one when he was with me and passed away. That was totally different, he couldn't stay upright and fell on his side and desperately waved his legs around trying to right himself. His eyes were fine, except for them being wider due to him being scared,

I held him again me and he stopped struggling. I phoned all of the vets near to me and none would do anything for him except euthanise him. He took that decision away from me after an hour or so.
 
That's so sad.

With Phoebe she would be ok almost straight after until the next time. I think I have had another couple with nystagmus over the years too, one was Buzz who had neurological damage from fungal and the other was Nigel but I think his was al linked in with him being in end stage heart failure.
 
The only other issues Jon has is he has a small lump on his chest which the vet (Kim Maddock) isn't too worried about. And he suffers from piggy IBS (his tummy rumbles and he occasionally heaves).

His tum was rumbling whilst he was having his episode and once when he was laying on me and he was starting to calm down his tum did a huge rumble. It sounded very human like.

I'll mention that to the vet just in case it might be linked.

Thanks for the input Helen, any and all ideas are appreciated! :D
 
Happy to help even if it is just random ideas. Hope you get to the bottom of it. Not sure if it is related or not but Phoebe was a skinny and so had many different health issues.
 
Certainly appears to be a seizure to me. Please call the vet if you don't hear from them, maybe a low does of anti seizure meds would be recommended not sure what all can be done with piggies with neurological troubles. Let us know how it goes!
 
Quick update:

The vet thinks it's vestibular, because of the circling one way, the length of the episode and the added tummy rumbles.

The only treatment available currently is very dated and would basically sedate him. As he's only had 2 episodes in 7 months and he's okay afterwards then we're not going to do it yet.
 
Poor boy. Have antibiotics and long course anti inflammatories been tried? Once those have been ruled out of helping his symptoms then neurological is more than likely the cause.

The fact he has only had 2 episodes in 7 months though is something positive i guess- means whatever he has he is able to pull himself back again from the little episodes x
 
it's possibly an inner ear issue, the vet thinks.

We've not tried him on any medication yet, because of the time between the episodes. Plus he has piggy IBS so we don't want to load his system with antibiotics or anything unless we need to.

I wasn't told what the medication was, maybe someone on the board knows. But it would be a daily medication that would pretty much make him feel sedated (which it does in dogs and cats). If the episode happens again the vet will look into it for us.

If anyone knows of any other treatment I'd be interested to know :)
 
If it's. Vestibular issue there is always a small chance it's nerve damage from a previous infection or defect and could reoccur but I think since you have gone so long between episodes that's really a good sign. I'll keep my fingers crossed that whatever this is doesn't affect quality of life severely and maybe won't be seen again anytime soon :D
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top