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Need help with my poorly Pip

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pipsmum

pipsmum

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Pip is our 4 and half year old boar. He lives alone, indoors in a large pen since his brother died in November after a URI.

About two weeks ago Pip started to become less enthusiastic about his food and less active and when I noticed a discharge form his eyes and nose I got him straight to the vet. At that point he weighed 1100g - down from his usual 1200g. The vet diagnosed a URI and gave us septrin, metacam and critical care. Pip had a really difficult 12 days on the septrin. He was completely off his food and very hard to feed by syring even but we persevered. I realised he needed a probiotic so we got the one from p at h and have been adding that to his food regularly. He has been ok at eating his fresh herbs throughout in small amounts and for a while enjoyed cucumber and tomato. Then his back legs stopped working properly so we have been giving him osteocare which has improved them quite a lot.

Pip's course of antibiotic ended on Thursday and I expected things would improve for him then but there seem to be other things going on now. He is not moving around much in his pen and is lying in his urine and getting soaked and smelly. He does not ask for food himself but he will now take food from the syringe and is drinking a lot of water and juice from the syringe a few times a day.

His weight dropped while he was on antibiotics and is now hovering around 950-930g.

I'm going to get him back to the vets on Monday but just wondered if anyone had any experience of this kind of unsteady recovery from a uri or any thoughts on what we could do to help our Pip.

Thanks!
 
oh bless him. I am afraid I cant help, but sure someone will be along soon...x
 
Poor Pip. I cant offer much advice, but i do think that if his back legs we're an issue then he should be on some sort of pain relief long term due to his joints. Maybe this explains why he has been sitting in his urine.

What do you mean by the food? Is he eating at all? are you still offering lots of veg etc.

I hope the vets trip goes ok, please let us know how you get on.

x.
 
Hi firstly welcome to you and Pip to the forum :)
Really sorry to hear about the URI it can take them quite awhile to get over them.
Try cutting up his veggies in strips for him to take easier. Poor little man he has lost quite a bit of weight. Good idea to be going back to the vets.

GOOD LUCK LITTLE PIP XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 
Hi,

thanks so much to everyone for your support and good wishes. I have given Pip some metacam today in case it is joint pain which is causing the problem in his legs.

He is much the same so I will definitely be making a vets appointment for him tomorrow. I think the URI is still around as occasionally his breathing is fairly crackly and his eye discharge is pretty bad. We just wiped his eyes for him and the discharge is making him lose some hair around his eyes. Has anyone had this before?

He is taking a pellet mush from the syringe and drinking lots of water and cranberry from the syringe too. Still enjoying munching some herbs and veggies but in small amounts.

Thanks again for the support - I am really hoping to get him through this. Just before he went down with this we had been thinking a little about adopting him a friend. Can't think about that now though 8...

Pips mum x
 
Pip is the black and white piggy on the right of the photo!
 
Sorry to hear he is so poorly. Hopefully the vet can make a suggestion tomorrow, but it sounds like you are doing everything you can be for him. Is there anyway to put him on something that will soak the wee away from his skin etc a little?

Nicky
 
Thanks Nicky - any ideas what I could use under him? Not sure towels would keep him any drier and am not sure what else I could use.

Rebecca
 
update on pip - advice please

Hi,

Pip has now been to the vet twice this week and saw the 'exotics' specialist yesterday. She has prescribed him fortekor for kidneys and zantac for any possible stomach ulcer. she thought he may have issues with his kidneys. She also said that if this medecine was going to work it would work quite quickly and we should expect some change in a couple of days.

Pip has not changed much at all. He is not moving around his run and only eats and drinks when we hold him and syringe it in. I have just weighed him and he has now lost another 50g on top of the 250g he has lost since becoming ill. I took him outside with me today to sit on the grass and enjoy the sun. He sat beside me wanting strokes but was not interested in the grass at all.

I am really concerned now that it is us keeping him alive for our sake and that actually he has given up. I am very concerned that we are not doing the right thing for him now as his quality of life is disappearing rapidly. I would really appreciate any help advice from any other guinea lovers who have been through something similar.

Thanks so much,

Pipsmum x
 
Peter Gurney recommended Potters Tabritis for piggies with joint pain etc here's a link to the website:
http://www.oginet.com/pgurney/oldage.htm
If you want to try it you can get some from Boots. I checked with my vet first before giving it to my oldies ( age range 5 to 6 ) so would recommend you do the same. Whilst PG advises half a tablet per piggie I found that was too much and caused very soft poos, this was probably down to the senna in the tablets. I reduced the dose down to a quarter of a tablet per piggie and this seemed to work better. They definitely don't bunnyhop as much since being on a daily dose.
I do hope he's feeling better soon. :laluot_29:
 
In the end if he isn't improving and not eating his favourite foods then he can't be very happy but that may also be because he's lonely, it's difficult to say really and only you know in your heart of hearts what's best for him. It's never easy being responsible for another's life but I'm sure you'll do what's best for him whatever you decide. x
 
Oh dear poor little Pip :...
BIG HUGS for you too Rebecca XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
I found with our little guy whee had that when he was ill he'd go off his food too. One of the lovely members on here sent me across some probiotics ( i have since now been able to get a good one here) and also some metatone....this really did help with his appetite. Also perserverance....i tried every veggie and fruit combinations thru the syringe, i eventually found that doing a slushy of veg and fruit was accepted and this did help to put on some weight. And try offering blades of grass, this was the only way our boy would eat it in the end.
I know a lot of people use oats (my girls like them as a treat), you can offer them dry or slightly moistened.

Have you tried using the puppy pee pads? pop a fleecy over the top and then that will draw the wee's thru to the pads.

Good luck and keep up the great work !

HEALING WHEEEEEEEKS FOR PIP XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 
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