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Please Help My New Pregnant Guinea Pig Has Crackly Breathing

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No it's the animal version which you would need to get from your vet. The dose is a pea sized amount of the powder.
 
Yes that looks like it. It is prescription only though.
 
We have had to take Poppy to a veterinary hospital in Nantes some 200 km away. They have kept her in as she is so poorly. I think it is the Baytril that has caused her deterioration so quickly. There is no Bactrim here in France. I took her to my vet this morning and her fever had gone. She could hardly raise her head so he gave her a morphine injection and treated her for mites etc although her ears were clean.

This is Poppy this morning:-
image.webp

This is Poppy Sunday night bearing in mind she had a fever. I tried to put a short video of her but it doesn't seem to be working. There is a stark difference though. I feel heartbroken and it was so hard to leave her there.
 
Thank you piggyfan. The vet has just rung me to let me know that Poppy's bloods are normal but her x-ray shows a mass of gas in her intestines. I told him that when she had an x-ray on Monday there was no gas. He thinks the Baytril is to blame. She is on a drip, on morphine, having critical care feeds, medication to contract her womb and medication to deal with the gas. I am not sure what other antibiotic he will give her but it will be via injection to bypass her gut. She will also have probiotics. He will ring me again tomorrow. When we left her at the hospital she was in a little incubator to keep warm. I didn't want to leave her but it's her only chance of recovery. I am praying she will.
 
Really hope she can pull through. My Maddie and Millie both had gas issues over the last few months and we got them through with massage pad therapy, Dioralyte to correct Electrolyte imbalance, gut stimulants and plenty of fluids. She is in the best place.
 
Fingers very firmly crossed for your poorly girl! I really hope that she can pull through!
 
Here is an email I have just received from the vet hospital in Nantes:-

ok for the vidéo,

Popy is stilla live today, a little bit better...

We go on with the treatment and keep you in touch tomorow,

Thank you,

E RISI

I had sent him a video of how well Poppy looked on Sunday evening and in just two days of being on Baytril was so poorly.
 
Thank you. I so want to see her and hold her. She is such a dear little thing and Teddy is pining for her so he is getting lots of cuddles.
 
Good that she is still holding on! It is a tough time for you, but hopefully she will fight through!
 
Just got back from the veterinary hospital at Nantes. I always thought no news was good news. How wrong was I! Waited all day to receive a phone call to see how Poppy was doing. The 3rd time I rang them was 5.25pm. They said someone would ring me back in five minutes. 1 and a half hours later someone rang to say Poppy was not responding what did I want her to do. Poppy has a uterine infection that isn't responding to two antibiotics and normally they would operate and remove the uterus but Poppy is weak. I wanted to see her so the vet said she would wait for us to get there. Poppy was in a little glass-fronted cage with a rabbit in a cage below and a exotic bird in the one above. Poppy has a catheter feeding water into her front leg. I asked to hold her as the vet thought she should be put to sleep. I said that if Poppy was going to die without surgery then she should be given the chance to see if removing her uterus would help. The vet went away and I held Poppy in a towel and stroked her and kissed her head. She seemed to respond to my voice and flayed her head around. I put my finger to her mouth and she got hold of it with her teeth. I asked Geoff to get me some of the lettuce that was in her cage and held it to her mouth. She grabbed hold of it and munched eagerly away until it was all gone. I offered her the other lettuce leaf and she munched away on that too. The vet came in and saw that she was eating. I told her that the day I brought her in she wouldn't eat anything I offered to her and didn't she think this was an improvement. She agreed to wait until tomorrow to see how she is. This was the first time she had eaten while being at the hospital. I offered to stay to nurse Poppy through the night but it isn't allowed. The vet said she thought Poppy looked cute with me. I'm not really sure what she meant as she is cute. I told the vet that if I had thought that she had gas in her intestines I would have given her some Buscopan. I told her about this medicine and how it helped my other guinea pig Teddy. She was interested and asked me to bring some with me tomorrow and give Poppy some. I also have some Silicea. This has the same ingredient that the hospital had given my other guinea pig Teddy when he had bloat in 2010. The vet then gave him some Gastrogel made by Virbac but is no longer available I told the vet that when Teddy had had this Gastrogel he made a turnaround within an hour so I couldn't understand why it was no longer available. I will take the Silicea with me also. It is supposed to soak up gas and bad bacteria. I don't know if Poppy will survive the night but she has held on so far and for her to want to eat must be a good sign I think. I may be deluding myself I don't know but something tells me I can't give up yet. If I hadn't gone down to see Poppy I wouldn't have seen her eat. If she dies tonight at least she knew I was there and I loved her.
 
I really really hope Poppy recovers. It is great she was able to eat.
 
Thank you. I have had to have animals put to sleep in the past; my dog Molly had nasal cancer and was suffering with no available treatment, and my other dog who was old and in pain with no available treatment but I somehow have a feeling it isn't the right time for Poppy. If a guinea pig starts to eat surely they must be feeling somewhat better to whatever degree. In the hospital she is being fed 3 times a day but I was feeding her every 4 hours day and night. I don't think there is enough staff to give the intensive treatment. One thing the vet said that made me worried was that it will be the weekend and it gets trickier. It made me feel that they wanted her done and dusted before the weekend.
 
Poppy was put to sleep this morning. I feel I was pushed into a corner. She ate a full leaf of endive and a bit more and a stick of food and did some poops. The vet said she had necrotic tissue in her uterus and the prognosis for a healthy guinea pig is not good and they would not operate on Poppy as she was too weak. I feel distraught.

My other castrated Teddy is missing her so much and so I would like to rescue this time another young female Teddy. I don't know if there are any in Brittany or the South West of England. I don't want my male to become worse again. Poppy was so good for him.
 
Oh darling, I have just read your story, and I am in tears, you did everything you could and more than some people would do. So a big pat on the back for giving her a good chance of life. She was adorable and teddy looks wonderful too.

Always upsetting to lose one of our furries. Take care x
 
BIG HUGS!

I am so sorry that it wasn't to be despite your trying everything! That is very gutting news indeed! :(

You could use our recommended UK rescues locator on the top bar to ask around those rescues you can get to whether there have got teddy girls ready for adoption or waiting to clear their mandatory pregnancy watch; unfortunately for you, teddies are one of the rarer breeds and don't end up in rescue all that often.
 
Thank you so much. I don't think people who haven't experienced life with a guinea pig know just what wonderful characters they are.

I have located someone who has Teddies in Brittany. She is a veterinary nurse age 26 and has had guinea pigs since she was 10. She is French and has some female babies. She said they are too young to go to new homes and is going to send me some photos. She seems particular about their wellbeing and her animals have lots of human contact from an early age and good quality food, veg and hay. I will go and see her and the babies. Teddy has become less mobile since Poppy went to hospital and his poops are becoming less firm. She used to follow hime around the cage and vice versa. It was lovely to watch. He was so gentle with her.
 
I'm so sorry, night night beautiful Poppy, reunited with your little angels.

Hope you find the perfect friend for Teddy.
 
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