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Myster illness - neurological?

BlueBird

BlueBird

Junior Guinea Pig
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One of my pigs Bonnie is behaving not quite right this evening. Symptoms include:
-slight unsteadiness on feet/slightly stumbly,
- slight loss of appetite (munching politely instead of the normal gobbling like it's the last meal she will ever see),
-lying down to eat,
-when sat, constantly readjusting her left front paw's position.
-uncharacteristic tiredness
-uncharacteristic choosiness with food
-possible weakness in back left leg as there is a tendency for her to jump the back legs together rather than walk.
-there is no obvious injury or pain.
-her last weigh in was Monday and there's been no significant weight loss since then.

I've never experienced this with my pigs before. But watching her, the problem seems to have improved a little since coming home. She's still got her personality and she did squeak for food this evening but she was a bit slow to come to the bars for treats when we were shaking the box. Her symptoms seem to be subtle but my piggy mommy senses are telling me something is wrong.

Vet appointment is booked for first thing tomorrow morning but I have a horrible feeling that they are just going to shrug and say there's nothing wrong with her that we can see. Particularly since she'll be reluctant to move in a scary vets office. My limited knowledge suspects a very mild stroke...? But I honestly don't know.
 
Hope things go well at the vets.
It is a worry when they’re ill and we don’t know what’s wrong.
 
@BlueBird It could be neurological. How is her pee and poop output?

I've noticed with piggies who are a bit bloated they tend to shift around and not feel comfortable when they try to lie down.

Good luck at the vet, I hope she feels better soon.
 
Jaycey said:
@BlueBird It could be neurological. How is her pee and poop output?

I've noticed with piggies who are a bit bloated they tend to shift around and not feel comfortable when they try to lie down.

Good luck at the vet, I hope she feels better soon.
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It's a little hard to tell as we have 3 in one cage but she seemed to but pooping and peeing fine. We took her out to get her to wander around to see her walking and she did a little wee and a poop while exploring.
 
The vet said it wasn't a stroke (phew!) but she does have a weakness in her back legs. She thinks it's an injury even though Bonnie's not showing any pain. She got poked and prodded a lot but no flinching or squeaking.

She suspected a lower back injury of some kind. (Poor Bonnie, I can relate. I get that all the time). Because she stands sort of hunched and she's standing on her back heels (toes lifted) rather than her whole foot. So I've got some pain killers to give her for 5 days and hope she heals.
 
Jaycey said:
@BlueBird Great news that it's not a stroke. How old is she? Could it be arthritis related?
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I'm not 100% sure as she was a rescue (and not on our list of recommended rescues either because my other piggy was desperate for a friend meant I couldn't be choosy). They said she was 2 when we got her so 3 now. But she was doing a lot of baby behaviours when we got her. She's a nervous type so I'm not sure whether it was the rescue getting it wrong or that she is just so close to the bottom of the pecking order she just kept the baby behaviours longer than she should have.

She's never liked going up and down the ramp to the hay loft so I wonder if its just that she's had a weak back from the beginning and the antics with the husboar or getting violently booted out of the hay loft from top pig has just aggravated it? Either way lets hope the pain killers help and she heals up nicely. I'll be devising a clever way of getting hay into the lower level for her so she doesn't need to go upstairs this evening.
 
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