My friend's piggie has a URI?

[Maxellnimons]

Its a male 2 month old about 200grams (TINY!)
She told me he was eating less food a week ago so I told her to take her to the vet but we are collage students and extremely busy we have classes ALL DAY so unfortunately she couldnt take the piggie to a pet hospital until yesterday (something I never would have delayed...alas) there they told her it is possibly a URI (they dont have an exotic vet) and started him on antibiotics.

Now we have many questions. My own little girl has never had a URI but I remeber reading that when you give a piggie antibiotics you need to give them stuff for the bacteria in their intestines? (Probiotics?) the doctors there did not seem to have any idea about this.
They told my friend to take the piggie to the hospital 4 more times in the following days for more doses, does a piggie really need 5 doses? (Some said 3 was enough)
(i will update with the name of the antibiotic soon, she couldn't remember the name )

I don't want to sound too cynical but I live in Iran and even in the medical profession there are people thinking of their own profit, the 5 doses of antibiotics is gonna cost 300$. It is not a problem if it is necessary for the poor piggie (I can lend her the money GLADLY) but is it really necessary? Could it be the people at the hospital are not really being honest about this?

 

[iamsnape]

Firstly, what antibiotic have they prescribed? A guinea pig on that size should normally be given bactrim.

To be honest I've never heard of a vet prescribing antibiotics but saying they have to administer it...I thought it was common practise for them to explain the quantity to give the pig but let you take the meds home along with some syringes. That's what we did when Noah had a URI. The only time I've had to go back was for ivermectin injections for mites.
When Noah had a URI I had to give him it for a week, 0.5ml a day (amount is determined by the size of the pig) although I had to lengthen it to 10 days to get rid of the URI properly.

I'm not sure how vets work in Iran but I would possibly ask why you have to keep going back. How are they going about giving the pig its medicine? If it's a case of just syringing it in to its mouth, you can do that at home.

You should normally see some improvement in a few days if the antibiotic is doing its job but keep at it until the course is done like you would with yourself to get rid of it for good. A probiotic is recommended, to encourage good bacteria whilst antibiotics fight off the bad. You can get this in many forms but the one my vet recommends and I have actually found the best is called Pro-C, it comes in a big pot of powder and you pop a small spoonful (it comes with a spoon) in their water - amounts are written on the tub. I have tried a few and this is the one my pigs will willingly take, they actually drink a lot more when they've got Pro-C in their water but are reluctant to drink with the other stuff. The other one I tried was beaphar (think that's how you spell it) tummy care with added carrot juice, they don't like it at all.

 

[Maxellnimons]

She said the antibiotic was administered as an injection @) I wasn't there when she took the piggy to the hospital so I don't know what they prescribed (she is going to find out soon as I said) but I'm sure it was an injection because my friend told me the poor piggie screamed a lot
Thank you so much for the information on the probiotics

 

[Maxellnimons]

my friend cannot read the doctor's handwriting but we are guessing it is enrofloxacin?! (It is sold as Baytril) He is supoosed to take 0.04 cc injections for 5 days mallethead

 

[sport_billy]

Posted this on your other thread -

Probiotics do help with good bacteria in the gut as when they are on antibiotics it gets killed off. If you can't find any probiotics then you can always use poo soup. This is made by mixing a poo of a healhty piggie with water and syringe feeding it to them. it will act in the same way as a probiotic as it will have all the goodness in of a healthy guineas poo. I know it sounds disgusting but piggies love it.

Which AB was it? Baytril can be injected daily. Pitch had it injected when she was unable to tolerate it orally for 5 days

Hope your friends piggie gets well soon

 

[Maxellnimons]

Sorry I panicked and posted it on welfare first then i realized I had the wring section but couldn't figure out how to delete it mallethead