• 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

Looking after a stroke/neurological piggy

BlueBird

BlueBird

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Dec 27, 2016
Messages
335
Reaction score
400
Points
380
Location
Nottingham, UK
Hi guys,

Over the weekend we had some bad news. Petal seems to have had a stroke (or at least a stroke like event). Sadly she's not with me at the moment and being looked after by my parents while we try and sell our flat. She was taken to the vets yday who confirmed she had a neurogical problem. I suspected as much as she did have a bit of a twitchy eye occasionally which would last a minute or two and would be absolutely fine afterwards as if it never happened.

At the Weekend my dad noticed she was walking a bit weirdly and picked her up only to find she had extreme weakness down one side and a head tilt, falling over and finding it difficult to get back up again. She seemed to improve a bit yesterday and is eating and drinking fine. And seems happy enough coming to beg for food. I've asked my mum to monitor her weight daily for the next week just to make sure there's no weight loss but so far no significant movement (fingers crossed). Taking her to the vet seems to have stressed her out though and caused her to worsen a bit.

Its a shame because I'm pretty sure she's less than a year old. She's survived the first 48hrs so I feel like she's out of the woods now. I'm going to leave her for a week or two to settle/recover then bring her back home. Might ruin our house selling chances but at this point I just want her home. I know this will have significantly lowered her life expectancy and she'll probably be wonky for the rest of her life but that doesn't matter. We just want to give her the best life we can.

So does anyone have any advice on looking after a wonky stroke patient pig? The vet my parents were referred to a neuro specialist but I'm a bit reluctant. As with humans there's not much medicine can do for a stroke and I don't want to spend thousands and stressing her out chasing the hope that we can fix her. I'm pretty sure we can't. But what is your opinions.
 
I’m sorry I have zero experience with this but I have seen a couple of videos on you tube by cavy central gp rescue in Australia about a young piggy they have called Turtle. I think it sounds more extreme than what you’re dealing with but it might give you some ideas. Good luck and hopefully someone with experience will be along soon.
 
BlueBird said:
Hi guys,

Over the weekend we had some bad news. Petal seems to have had a stroke (or at least a stroke like event). Sadly she's not with me at the moment and being looked after by my parents while we try and sell our flat. She was taken to the vets yday who confirmed she had a neurogical problem. I suspected as much as she did have a bit of a twitchy eye occasionally which would last a minute or two and would be absolutely fine afterwards as if it never happened.

At the Weekend my dad noticed she was walking a bit weirdly and picked her up only to find she had extreme weakness down one side and a head tilt, falling over and finding it difficult to get back up again. She seemed to improve a bit yesterday and is eating and drinking fine. And seems happy enough coming to beg for food. I've asked my mum to monitor her weight daily for the next week just to make sure there's no weight loss but so far no significant movement (fingers crossed). Taking her to the vet seems to have stressed her out though and caused her to worsen a bit.

Its a shame because I'm pretty sure she's less than a year old. She's survived the first 48hrs so I feel like she's out of the woods now. I'm going to leave her for a week or two to settle/recover then bring her back home. Might ruin our house selling chances but at this point I just want her home. I know this will have significantly lowered her life expectancy and she'll probably be wonky for the rest of her life but that doesn't matter. We just want to give her the best life we can.

So does anyone have any advice on looking after a wonky stroke patient pig? The vet my parents were referred to a neuro specialist but I'm a bit reluctant. As with humans there's not much medicine can do for a stroke and I don't want to spend thousands and stressing her out chasing the hope that we can fix her. I'm pretty sure we can't. But what is your opinions.
Click to expand...
Hi!

I am very sorry that this has happened at the most inconvenient time, as these thing have a bad habit of doing.

All you can do is keeping an eye on her, weigh her daily at the same time in order to check her hay/food intake.

Please be aware that a stronger stroke can impact the cleaning ability of the eye; check her eyes regularly and use artificial tear fluid to keep an impacted eye going.
A stronger stroke can also impact the chewing ability; this can cause one sided dental overgrowth in the medium term. Please keep an eye on her incisors and check whether they are becoming increasingly slanted - this is a sign that the premolars and molars on the higher side are not used for chewing as much and have started to overgrow.

If she has companions, please reunite once you are sure that she is stable and they'll have her back.
Keep in mind that strokes can happen weeks or months later again.

Here is a link for out mobility guide; her own several times a day cleaning routine may be impacted by her balancing issues.https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/looking-after-guinea-pigs-with-limited-or-no-mobility.171088/

Also make sure that she is being kept as cool as possible in the coming days: Hot Weather Management, Heat Strokes and Fly Strike

Here is a little video of massive stroke survivor Nimue doing popcorns who I was looking after for a local friend working long shifts. Sadly, not long after this vidoe, Nimue suffered a series of mini-strokes while her teeth started overgrowing, so dental treatment was not possible. She was not even two years old but was very small in growth and had obviously drawn the short straw in the genetic lottery.

All the best!
 
I know your vet may have already checked but e cuniculi can also cause neurological issues in guinea pigs. If there is any possibility that your guinea pig could have come into contact with a rabbit or an area where a rabbit may have been it may be worth getting this investigated.
 
Thank you all for your responses. I did feel very guilty over the weekend about it. Not only because I wanted to be there for my fur baby but also because I worried that my parents would feel like I was dumping a problem on them. My dad was a bit freaked out and wanted to bring them back straight away when it happened. I stood firm because they have better guinea savvy vets nearby and I worried that the stress of the move might finish her off (my parents live 60miles away).


furryfriends (TEAS) said:
We’ve had very good results using the medication gabapentin, for neurological issues. We give it at a dose of 0.1ml twice daily.
Click to expand...
Good to know. Do you know what it is? Anti-inflamatory? Beta-blocker? Etc just curious how it helps.

Wiebke said:
Hi!

I am very sorry that this has happened at the most inconvenient time, as these thing have a bad habit of doing.

All you can do is keeping an eye on her, weigh her daily at the same time in order to check her hay/food intake.

Please be aware that a stronger stroke can impact the cleaning ability of the eye; check her eyes regularly and use artificial tear fluid to keep an impacted eye going.
A stronger stroke can also impact the chewing ability; this can cause one sided dental overgrowth in the medium term. Please keep an eye on her incisors and check whether they are becoming increasingly slanted - this is a sign that the premolars and molars on the higher side are not used for chewing as much and have started to overgrow.

If she has companions, please reunite once you are sure that she is stable and they'll have her back.
Keep in mind that strokes can happen weeks or months later again.

Here is a link for out mobility guide; her own several times a day cleaning routine may be impacted by her balancing issues.https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/looking-after-guinea-pigs-with-limited-or-no-mobility.171088/

Also make sure that she is being kept as cool as possible in the coming days: Hot Weather Management, Heat Strokes and Fly Strike

Here is a little video of massive stroke survivor Nimue doing popcorns who I was looking after for a local friend working long shifts. Sadly, not long after this vidoe, Nimue suffered a series of mini-strokes while her teeth started overgrowing, so dental treatment was not possible. She was not even two years old but was very small in growth and had obviously drawn the short straw in the genetic lottery.

All the best!
Click to expand...
Nimue (gorgeous name) sounds very similar to Petal. A bit runty and seems to have pulled the short straw genetically. :(

Thanks for the links as always Weibke. I didn't think about the misaligned teeth problem so I will certainly keep an eye out for that now.

YvonneBlue said:
I know your vet may have already checked but e cuniculi can also cause neurological issues in guinea pigs. If there is any possibility that your guinea pig could have come into contact with a rabbit or an area where a rabbit may have been it may be worth getting this investigated.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure as I wasn't at the vets but I would say it was very unlikely to be e cuniculi. My parents have had them in their garden but they don't keep rabbits and neither do any of their neighbours. They live in suburbia so there's a low risk of wild rabbits too. The report back from my parents was that 'it was 90% certain it was neurogical' but gave her Anti-inflamatory and antibiotic injection just in case. I suspected stroke before she'd gone to the vets because of her twitchy eye history (and that was when she lived here in a flat with zero contact with rabbits) so the vet kind of confirmed what I suspected anyway.
 
Gabapentin is used for epilepsy, neuropathic pain and chronic pain. Earl arrived at TEAS with severe facial nerve paralysis, and he constantly stumbled to the side. He couldn't manipulate the food around his mouth, due to the lack of feeling on one side of his face and therefore drooled constantly, which caused very sore skin and he looked very unwell. Since being on Gabapentin, he is able to move his mouth properly, he no longer stumbles and he is looking very much stronger. The drooling has stopped completely too. We started him on 0.1ml of Gabapentin, twice daily but have now reduced it to 0.1ml once daily. He is very stable on this dose, but when we stopped it completely his issues returned, so he will continue on 0.1ml for the rest of his life. Earl's eye constantly flickers back and forth, but even that has reduced since being on Gabapentin.
 
furryfriends (TEAS) said:
Gabapentin is used for epilepsy, neuropathic pain and chronic pain. Earl arrived at TEAS with severe facial nerve paralysis, and he constantly stumbled to the side. He couldn't manipulate the food around his mouth, due to the lack of feeling on one side of his face and therefore drooled constantly, which caused very sore skin and he looked very unwell. Since being on Gabapentin, he is able to move his mouth properly, he no longer stumbles and he is looking very much stronger. The drooling has stopped completely too. We started him on 0.1ml of Gabapentin, twice daily but have now reduced it to 0.1ml once daily. He is very stable on this dose, but when we stopped it completely his issues returned, so he will continue on 0.1ml for the rest of his life. Earl's eye constantly flickers back and forth, but even that has reduced since being on Gabapentin.
Click to expand...
So glad he is doing so well, he looked so poorly when we saw him that day he arrived 😊
 
furryfriends (TEAS) said:
Gabapentin is used for epilepsy, neuropathic pain and chronic pain. Earl arrived at TEAS with severe facial nerve paralysis, and he constantly stumbled to the side. He couldn't manipulate the food around his mouth, due to the lack of feeling on one side of his face and therefore drooled constantly, which caused very sore skin and he looked very unwell. Since being on Gabapentin, he is able to move his mouth properly, he no longer stumbles and he is looking very much stronger. The drooling has stopped completely too. We started him on 0.1ml of Gabapentin, twice daily but have now reduced it to 0.1ml once daily. He is very stable on this dose, but when we stopped it completely his issues returned, so he will continue on 0.1ml for the rest of his life. Earl's eye constantly flickers back and forth, but even that has reduced since being on Gabapentin.
Click to expand...
I’ve been trying to find information on Gabapentin, having a piggy with spine and associated nerve issues, and my vet is considering it’s use, but information on it appears to be lacking. Have you found using it to cause any drowsiness and also, is that dose per kg and may I ask if you gave Metacam as well? I hope your piggy continues to do well. Many thanks
 
Wizardpiggylips said:
I’ve been trying to find information on Gabapentin, having a piggy with spine and associated nerve issues, and my vet is considering it’s use, but information on it appears to be lacking. Have you found using it to cause any drowsiness and also, is that dose per kg and may I ask if you gave Metacam as well? I hope your piggy continues to do well. Many thanks
Click to expand...

Hi

Please start your own thread. You will be much likely getting the answer you need as many threads in this section are one-offs or from members that are not posting on a daily basis. This will also mean that you'll get the full concentration on your own case and are not confused with the original poster.

Thank you.
 
Wiebke said:
Hi

Please start your own thread. You will be much likely getting the answer you need as many threads in this section are one-offs or from members that are not posting on a daily basis. This will also mean that you'll get the full concentration on your own case and are not confused with the original poster.

Thank you.
Click to expand...
Will do, thank you ☺️
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top