Hi all,
Apologies in advance for the millions of details...
One of my aby guinea pig, female, middle aged (rescued so unsure of age, had her for a year) seems to have as per my vet's words, a "mystery disease".
She's called Penny, and is the most upbeat happy little thing.
10-7 days ago - She had was been off for 3 days, by very little, but gut instinct... Their cage is right next to me and we've bonded quite well so I think I am decent at spotting those changes. She was eating, drinking, pooping and was perky, but she wanted sliiiightly more alone time in the cage, maybe 10-20% more than usual. One of the front paw had a bald patch, healthy skin, and I wondered if she was maybe scratching more than usual (she always was a slightly itchy girl). I thought this patch was maybe a grooming one, certainly looked like one. She always had a teeny amount of dandruff from the time I got her a year ago, and this was checked by 2 vets then, and found to be ok. Rear end had maybe slightly less hair, dryer/slightly coarser, and a bit of a ginger/blond colour (she's black). I took this as a consequence of whatever made her more still. This is a teeny area, maybe 1cm diameter. They suspect she was used for breeding before I got her, she's very pear shaped (to the point they thought she had cysts when she came in, and scan showed only adipose tissue) and super hippy.
7 days ago: took her to the vet and explained the above. They noticed her other paw also had a bald patch (less obvious than on her other paw which is white with pink skin, the second is black with black skin). So very symmetrical. No signs of fungus, or parasite based on general examination. Skin looks healthy.
I was sent home with "top up vitamin C in her water" which I didn't do as she gets 1 tbsp of grain free vit c supplemented nuggets every morning, red pepper (alongside other veggies) every day, and because I read that these drops are useless given in water. I think she was a new, young vet, and she wasn't confident handling her. She also gave me some pain killers for her I've given her daily since (7 days ago), with suspected arthritis leading her to pluck her hair out. Should mention penny is on Timothy hay all day as well.
3 days ago - I didn't feel like she was particularly better, but still perky, eating, popping, peeing. Late at night her belly became bigger and harder. She was clearly sore when pushing on it, but otherwise perfectly happy. Still subtle behavioural changes - she would hide under the hay instead of sleeping on top. Or would be under a tunnel her cage mate doesn't use much, for a short nap. They're very trauma bonded from whatever happened before I got them, and share almost everything, normally, so unusual for her to do it more than I've a day.
2 days ago - I booked another appointment to the vet, and asked for a different one. They acknowledged the pain in her belly. They did an ultrasound, an x-ray, tested her urine against a pH strip, and confirmed they "can't see a blockage, nothing on the ovaries, no air, no fluid, no cyst. Urine was all fine". She said they is not much point in doing bloods if nothing shows on the scans as obviously explanations should really show on the scans! Final answer was "I checked everything with a colleague and the short answer is, we don't know. Her liver may have looked slightly abnormal, but I wouldn't let that alarm you, though we don't scan pigs very often. I don't think it was of concern especially with everything else being clear. We could not see anything at all and we ruled everything out bit by bit". They kept her for 2h to do those scans (conscious, cause she's a sweetheart) and interpretation, and I do think they tried really hard although it's not their speciality, clearly. I know they have one vet who's really good there with guinea pigs, and asked if she could show him the x-rays and speak to him, she said she'd do it yesterday but I've not heard, I'll chase tomorrow. They sent me home with nothing but pain killers.
Next step would be to get a referral to a specialist which is 1h away, and to do a CT scan. I asked, considering how perky she was, if it was worth waiting the weekend and she strongly agreed. I am just really confused, she's perfectly her happy self, super cuddly, interactive, she went up and down her ramp absolutely bouncing her big beautiful butt this morning about 5 times at the expectations of breakfast like a crazy springer spaniel. She goes on her back paws to stretch and grab hay that is in a tall rack. She chirps and purrs when she walks, gets food or when I sit with her or pick her up. She jumps over the base of the cage to come to me on the sofa just to say hi as she normally does. She's not just perky, she's cheeky, which is why I am confused. Her belly was better yesterday, the bits that were firm originally were on the sides, but now the sides are back to normal. Her belly (underneath) is hard again tonight when it wasn't this morning. I tried to touch it and she was uncomfortable.
Is this a sign of bloat that could have been missed on the scans? Is it worth considering motility drugs and asking for those before going for a CT? I am thinking doing this tomorrow. I don't want to stress her through such a journey plus a CT if I could try something else first seeing that she's happy. Her cage mate gets anxious and is the boss girl so penny doesn't really need that, I'd like to do this as last resource.
I am hoping some of you may have had something similar with their pigs and could share some insights? Her weight is still the same than it's been for the last year (1030-1050g), I've been weighting her every day. She's breathing ok as well, still drinking/peeing/pooping happily tonight and herself.
Based in the UK.
Thanks so much!
Apologies in advance for the millions of details...
One of my aby guinea pig, female, middle aged (rescued so unsure of age, had her for a year) seems to have as per my vet's words, a "mystery disease".
She's called Penny, and is the most upbeat happy little thing.
10-7 days ago - She had was been off for 3 days, by very little, but gut instinct... Their cage is right next to me and we've bonded quite well so I think I am decent at spotting those changes. She was eating, drinking, pooping and was perky, but she wanted sliiiightly more alone time in the cage, maybe 10-20% more than usual. One of the front paw had a bald patch, healthy skin, and I wondered if she was maybe scratching more than usual (she always was a slightly itchy girl). I thought this patch was maybe a grooming one, certainly looked like one. She always had a teeny amount of dandruff from the time I got her a year ago, and this was checked by 2 vets then, and found to be ok. Rear end had maybe slightly less hair, dryer/slightly coarser, and a bit of a ginger/blond colour (she's black). I took this as a consequence of whatever made her more still. This is a teeny area, maybe 1cm diameter. They suspect she was used for breeding before I got her, she's very pear shaped (to the point they thought she had cysts when she came in, and scan showed only adipose tissue) and super hippy.
7 days ago: took her to the vet and explained the above. They noticed her other paw also had a bald patch (less obvious than on her other paw which is white with pink skin, the second is black with black skin). So very symmetrical. No signs of fungus, or parasite based on general examination. Skin looks healthy.
I was sent home with "top up vitamin C in her water" which I didn't do as she gets 1 tbsp of grain free vit c supplemented nuggets every morning, red pepper (alongside other veggies) every day, and because I read that these drops are useless given in water. I think she was a new, young vet, and she wasn't confident handling her. She also gave me some pain killers for her I've given her daily since (7 days ago), with suspected arthritis leading her to pluck her hair out. Should mention penny is on Timothy hay all day as well.
3 days ago - I didn't feel like she was particularly better, but still perky, eating, popping, peeing. Late at night her belly became bigger and harder. She was clearly sore when pushing on it, but otherwise perfectly happy. Still subtle behavioural changes - she would hide under the hay instead of sleeping on top. Or would be under a tunnel her cage mate doesn't use much, for a short nap. They're very trauma bonded from whatever happened before I got them, and share almost everything, normally, so unusual for her to do it more than I've a day.
2 days ago - I booked another appointment to the vet, and asked for a different one. They acknowledged the pain in her belly. They did an ultrasound, an x-ray, tested her urine against a pH strip, and confirmed they "can't see a blockage, nothing on the ovaries, no air, no fluid, no cyst. Urine was all fine". She said they is not much point in doing bloods if nothing shows on the scans as obviously explanations should really show on the scans! Final answer was "I checked everything with a colleague and the short answer is, we don't know. Her liver may have looked slightly abnormal, but I wouldn't let that alarm you, though we don't scan pigs very often. I don't think it was of concern especially with everything else being clear. We could not see anything at all and we ruled everything out bit by bit". They kept her for 2h to do those scans (conscious, cause she's a sweetheart) and interpretation, and I do think they tried really hard although it's not their speciality, clearly. I know they have one vet who's really good there with guinea pigs, and asked if she could show him the x-rays and speak to him, she said she'd do it yesterday but I've not heard, I'll chase tomorrow. They sent me home with nothing but pain killers.
Next step would be to get a referral to a specialist which is 1h away, and to do a CT scan. I asked, considering how perky she was, if it was worth waiting the weekend and she strongly agreed. I am just really confused, she's perfectly her happy self, super cuddly, interactive, she went up and down her ramp absolutely bouncing her big beautiful butt this morning about 5 times at the expectations of breakfast like a crazy springer spaniel. She goes on her back paws to stretch and grab hay that is in a tall rack. She chirps and purrs when she walks, gets food or when I sit with her or pick her up. She jumps over the base of the cage to come to me on the sofa just to say hi as she normally does. She's not just perky, she's cheeky, which is why I am confused. Her belly was better yesterday, the bits that were firm originally were on the sides, but now the sides are back to normal. Her belly (underneath) is hard again tonight when it wasn't this morning. I tried to touch it and she was uncomfortable.
Is this a sign of bloat that could have been missed on the scans? Is it worth considering motility drugs and asking for those before going for a CT? I am thinking doing this tomorrow. I don't want to stress her through such a journey plus a CT if I could try something else first seeing that she's happy. Her cage mate gets anxious and is the boss girl so penny doesn't really need that, I'd like to do this as last resource.
I am hoping some of you may have had something similar with their pigs and could share some insights? Her weight is still the same than it's been for the last year (1030-1050g), I've been weighting her every day. She's breathing ok as well, still drinking/peeing/pooping happily tonight and herself.
Based in the UK.
Thanks so much!
