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Persistent Uri - Thoughts And Healing Vibes Please

Hi, thanks for your good wishes for Zeb @piggie smitten (and @Betsy ). Sorry I didn't reply earlier, been a bit busy. Sorry also to hear about what happened with Bubs and Squeak, @piggie smitten ; judging by what Wiebke said, there probably wasn't anything you could have done differently, if meds don't work it doesn't look like there is anything that can be done except to use the needle procedure.
Zeb is still pretty much as he has been all along. There doesn't seem to be any obvious reduction in his abdomen, which I had hoped for, he did put on about 50g but then this morning he was down again not up so I don't know if that was a positive sign ... We are seeing the vet tomorrow, so we will see what she thinks. She called today to say that a culture of some mucus I managed to swab off last weekend showed that he had a streptococcus type bacteria, so she's going to give me some Sulfatrim for that as we haven't tried it yet. I hope it works, though the bloat problem will still remain I imagine.

Wish I could cure his problems quicker, he must be getting fed up with all the being picked up for medicines and syringe feeding!
 
Hi, my boys were on sulfatrim after they had the needle procedure although like I said I think they should have had a longer course. Hope it helps little Zeb. x
 
piggie smitten said:
Hi, my boys were on sulfatrim after they had the needle procedure although like I said I think they should have had a longer course. Hope it helps little Zeb. x
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Thanks :) For the mo, the sulfatrim is for the URI , if that is what the noisy breathing is caused by; if it doesn't work, diuretics are probably the next thing to try. I'm going to ask the vet about the needle procedure tomorrow, but I presume it will need to wait til he's completed the sulfatrim course ...
 
ive a piggie called Freya that has a permnant clear nasal discharge,ive taken her to the cat and rabbit clinic last friday.vet stated due to Freya having a head tilt since at 8 months old,it has caused irritaion and scaring of the airways.she is on sulfatrim 0.5mls twice aday for 3 weeks.have been advised it will probably not work ! nebuliser to be given twice aday,this has helped a lot.apparently it is likely to be a chronic problem and needs to be managed ,no cure ! she also has bloat,due to swallowing air? cistaprid,metoclopramide,zantac and massaging mat has helped.i hope Zeb has a speedy recovery without too many interventions.:hug:
 
Thanks @eileen and @Katiedid . I wouldn't say I was having an 'awful' time, it's just a bit trying as it has gone on so long now (2 months) and I have to spend so much time giving him various medications and syringe food. He seems happy in himself, though he must be getting fed up of being so often taken out of his cosy cage for treatment!
I got the sulfatrim today, i hope it gets rid of the snuffles etc. Vet doesn't want to use diuretics until she's sure it's not an infection , as apparently they make mucus sticky which is worse. I'm also giving Infacol a go to see if that reduces his tummy, as well as the massage mat, and i need to re-introduce the Bisolvon powder and the nebuliser as well as the gut drugs .... It's getting quite confusing :blink:
 
Hi @piggie smitten , sorry I didn't answer earlier, been a bit busy with half term etc. Thanks for asking!

Zeb is still much the same, it has been up and down the last 3 weeks. 2 weeks of the Sulfatrim seemed to be helping, he wasn't so snuffly and gained about 100g, so I thought we were making progress. I saw the vet on the 16th, she gave me more Sulfatrim to clear up any infection (though continued grunty breathing could be due to his airways being squashed by his tummy), also some activated charcoal to see if that could absorb some of the gas on its way through, and more of the gut meds.
However from last Monday (19th) on, he started losing weight again, and within the week was back down to 800g :( I don't know why. I was away for 24hours, and a friend came over and fed the boys for me, but he missed out on his meds on Tuesday morning, but that can't have been enough to make him lose weight for 5 days. The only other difference was that I ran out of saline for the nebuliser on the 18th, so he hasn't been using that. (I tried to get some from Boots, but apparently it's prescription only :doh:. Going to drive over to vets later to try to get some there!).

So, we don't really seem to be making any real progress at the moment. As the gut meds aren't getting rid of the gas, the vet said perhaps he has bacteria in his tummy that are producing it, so she will look for a medicine which could get rid of the bacteria, for when I see her on Friday 2nd. After that she's out of ideas, which leaves the needle procedure. However she admits she would not feel confident in doing that herself, so will refer me to an exotics vet who can do it.

Does any one in the Midlands have any experience of their vet having to use a needle to release gas in their pig? Any recommendations would be most welcome and gratefully received.

:help:
 
Qualcast&Flymo said:
Hi @piggie smitten , sorry I didn't answer earlier, been a bit busy with half term etc. Thanks for asking!

Zeb is still much the same, it has been up and down the last 3 weeks. 2 weeks of the Sulfatrim seemed to be helping, he wasn't so snuffly and gained about 100g, so I thought we were making progress. I saw the vet on the 16th, she gave me more Sulfatrim to clear up any infection (though continued grunty breathing could be due to his airways being squashed by his tummy), also some activated charcoal to see if that could absorb some of the gas on its way through, and more of the gut meds.
However from last Monday (19th) on, he started losing weight again, and within the week was back down to 800g :( I don't know why. I was away for 24hours, and a friend came over and fed the boys for me, but he missed out on his meds on Tuesday morning, but that can't have been enough to make him lose weight for 5 days. The only other difference was that I ran out of saline for the nebuliser on the 18th, so he hasn't been using that. (I tried to get some from Boots, but apparently it's prescription only :doh:. Going to drive over to vets later to try to get some there!).

So, we don't really seem to be making any real progress at the moment. As the gut meds aren't getting rid of the gas, the vet said perhaps he has bacteria in his tummy that are producing it, so she will look for a medicine which could get rid of the bacteria, for when I see her on Friday 2nd. After that she's out of ideas, which leaves the needle procedure. However she admits she would not feel confident in doing that herself, so will refer me to an exotics vet who can do it.

Does any one in the Midlands have any experience of their vet having to use a needle to release gas in their pig? Any recommendations would be most welcome and gratefully received.

:help:
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Please don’t get this procedure done. It’s very risky and can cause infection to enter and in every case I’ve heard of a vet using this method, the guinea pig has died within days. I asked Simon about it and he said he would NEVER use this method.
 
Thanks for your reply, @furryfriends (TEAS) , and for letting me know Simon's opinion, that is very useful to know. I really don't want to try this procedure either (especially as @piggie smitten has said that she lost 2 of hers after it), but we just don't seem to be able to get rid of all the gas in his tummy. He is still like a walking balloon after weeks of the various gut meds. If Simon has any ideas on other medication or whatever that would help, I would be very happy to bring Zeb over to see him, I really hate seeing him uncomfortable for so long, I just want him to be better.
 
Qualcast&Flymo said:
Thanks for your reply, @furryfriends (TEAS) , and for letting me know Simon's opinion, that is very useful to know. I really don't want to try this procedure either (especially as @piggie smitten has said that she lost 2 of hers after it), but we just don't seem to be able to get rid of all the gas in his tummy. He is still like a walking balloon after weeks of the various gut meds. If Simon has any ideas on other medication or whatever that would help, I would be very happy to bring Zeb over to see him, I really hate seeing him uncomfortable for so long, I just want him to be better.
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What meds and doses is he on?
 
He is on: Loxicom Cat 2 'units', Zantac 0.25ml and Sulfatrim 0.2ml, all twice a day, and Cisapride 0.15ml and Emeprid 0.5ml three times a day.
Until I ran out of saline a week ago, he was also having 15 mins in the nebuliser each day also. I am also giving him I think about 15-20 ml of Recovery Food mixed with 2-3 times that volume of water. (He is eating for himself also, but presumably not enough,especially this past week when he lost weight again.)
 
Qualcast&Flymo said:
He is on: Loxicom Cat 2 'units', Zantac 0.25ml and Sulfatrim 0.2ml, all twice a day, and Cisapride 0.15ml and Emeprid 0.5ml three times a day.
Until I ran out of saline a week ago, he was also having 15 mins in the nebuliser each day also. I am also giving him I think about 15-20 ml of Recovery Food mixed with 2-3 times that volume of water. (He is eating for himself also, but presumably not enough,especially this past week when he lost weight again.)
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The Metacam and Sulfatrim doses seem to be on the small side, but the gut motility drugs seem to be about right. My advice would be to make an appointment to see Kim Maddock at Cat and Rabbit Clinic. Kim is amazing for diagnostics, particularly those issues where other vets have failed to find a reason. I definitely think it would be worth a trip to see her.
 
I'm sorry Zeb is not improving.i visited Kim Maddock two weeks ago,Freya was prescribed septrin 0.5mls twice aday for two weeks,and suggested boiling water to be added to F10 antiseptic nebulisers.Freya has no chest infection now ! i had been to an exotic vet twice but prescribed much lower dose of septrin that did not eradicate it.I highly recommend Kim Maddock ,she is very direct,and will inform you about the possible or not possible treatment options !:hug:
 
furryfriends (TEAS) said:
The Metacam and Sulfatrim doses seem to be on the small side, but the gut motility drugs seem to be about right. My advice would be to make an appointment to see Kim Maddock at Cat and Rabbit Clinic. Kim is amazing for diagnostics, particularly those issues where other vets have failed to find a reason. I definitely think it would be worth a trip to see her.
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Perhaps the metacam and Sulfatrim doses are based on his present weight, which is only 800g? He is normally up to 1200g.
I'll see what my vet says on Friday. We could give drugs to kill bad gut bacteria (if there are such things!) as a last attempt here, and if that doesn't work, get a referral to Kim. Northampton is about an hour away for me, but fortunately I can manage that most days as I have my own car (usually - it's currently off the road as my son damaged it last Friday!).
 
Has a tumour been ruled out? Tumours can cause a build up of fluid/gas. This will compromise on his lungs & breathing. Also have you had the fecal analysis done? A sterile sample needs to be collected & sent to Mary at Chester Zoo, they do full fecal analysis there, local vets usually can only do a fecal float test which is not definitive.
 
Thanks for your thoughts, @Poppy'sMum . I can't honestly remember if tumours have been ruled out. I think they would would have been seen on the x-ray that was done that showed his gassy tummy though?
We haven't tried faecal analysis so far, what might that show? I can ask about it when we go to the vets later today.
 
Betsy said:
Hope you make it the vets this morning @Qualcast&Flymo! How's the snow where you are?
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Our appointment is at 5pm. The snow is a few inches thick here, but the roads seem useable. They were a bit slippy yesterday when the snow started falling in the afternoon, but look better now. It's just started snowing a bit again, but I am about to go and collect my car from repair ..
 
The vet has given me Metrodinazole (?) to get rid of the bacteria in the gut that are making the gas. If that doesn't work (or if his tummy muscles are so weak they can't push out the gas), she will refer me on to a specialist.
Stupid me, I forgot to ask about tumours or fecal analysis, :doh: I'll just have to ask about those next time. In the meantime, I hope I can manage to get some weight back on him. I've been putting Pro-C in his Recovery Food in case the antibiotics have been affecting his appetite etc, but might Fibreplex be a better bet perhaps? He's obviously not eating enough again even with the Recovery food as he is back down to 800g ...
 
metronidizole is good for eradicating protozoia,and some coccidosis,e coli bacteria,which can all cause gas.fibreplex would be better than pro c,especially with bloat.it maybe worth a try.i do hope Zeb can put on some more weight.poor you and Zeb.:hug:
 
A full fecal analysis would find things like E Coli, yeast overgrowth etc. When I had my piggy tested after she had bloaty episodes it showed she had something called Saccharomyces which could be treated with an anti fungal.
 
This is the lab that will do the full faecal analysis. You can either send samples via your vet, or they will deal with you directly. I know @Jaycey sent faecal samples directly to them and they were happy to forward the results to the vet. It was a little cheaper dealing directly with PALS.

PALS vetlab
 
Yeah, I went direct to them. They sent the results to me and the vet so we could get him the appropriate treatment.
 
@eileen ,@Poppy'sMum , @furryfriends (TEAS) , @Jaycey
Thank you all for your replies. I must have been having a senior moment yesterday as I certainly intended to ask about having faecal analysis done. He has now started on the Metronidazole which I obviously hope will help. Are there other drugs which kill other gut bacteria etc that the Metronidazole doesn't? Is it worth getting faecal analysis done while he is on that (ie could it interfere with the results)? I could isolate Zeb for a bit until he produces some 'evidence' and send it to the lab next week, perhaps letting my vet know that I am doing that.

I don't want to be over-hopeful, after so many tries that haven't produced the results looked for, and as he has only had one dose, but I could swear that when I got him out to give him his other meds an hour ago, he seemed just that bit thinner and less balloon-like around his abdomen. He also seemed a bit brighter and even more eager for veggies. Please God the new med is working! I'm monitoring him carefully though, as the vet says it can cause liver damage.
 
@Qualcast&Flymo You'll need to give the medicine time to completely get out of his system before doing a test.

Jon was prescribed Itrafungal for his stomach issues. He wasn't bloated though, he's been losing weight despite eating like a little pig.
 
Sounds like we had best complete the current course and see how he is then. Next time I see the vet I'd better make a list of things to ask about, so I don't forget!
So far Zeb doesn't seem to be showing any negative reactions to the Metronidazole, he is still eating etc. He had put on 80g since I weighed him yesterday morning, I'm glad that he is gaining weight but a bit concerned lest that amount is excessive. He seems to be pooping normally, and produced about a dozen while he was in his box on the massage mat earlier. I wondered if maybe one side-effect of the drug is water-retention, but that isn't listed as one on either animal or human medicine webpages. Should I be concerned about that sort of weight gain?
 
Qualcast&Flymo said:
Sounds like we had best complete the current course and see how he is then. Next time I see the vet I'd better make a list of things to ask about, so I don't forget!
So far Zeb doesn't seem to be showing any negative reactions to the Metronidazole, he is still eating etc. He had put on 80g since I weighed him yesterday morning, I'm glad that he is gaining weight but a bit concerned lest that amount is excessive. He seems to be pooping normally, and produced about a dozen while he was in his box on the massage mat earlier. I wondered if maybe one side-effect of the drug is water-retention, but that isn't listed as one on either animal or human medicine webpages. Should I be concerned about that sort of weight gain?
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Did you weigh him first thing in the morning? Weight fluctuates so much throughout the day, that you are best to weigh at the same time every day. I have used Metronidazole (Flagyl) very successfully, with a couple of piggies with bowel issues.
 
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