PigglePuggle
Senior Guinea Pig
Thought I'd post this in case it helps anyone with a piggy suffering from a recurrent or stubborn URI and also so my little Blod can ask for some healing wheeks (and grapes, Blod says send more grapes)...
So Blod had a URI in July that seemed to clear up with baytril but then came back last week, only 5 or 6 weeks later. So we went back to the vet last week and Blod got baytril again, plus some very good decongestant powder called Bisolvon to sprinkle on her food. I'd not heard of Bisolvon before but several experienced forum members and staff assured me it was safe, and very effective- and it really is, helps URI symptoms a lot, great for relief from raspy honky grunty breathing!
But unfortunately its only relieving the symptoms, bot clearing the infection, so Blod went back to the vet today and I was very insistent about exploring other things rather than just prescribing baytril.
So Blod has had a teethy check (teeth a bit long but nothing urgent or likely to affect her breathing), a conscious xray with no sedation or anaesthetic (showed a classic pattern of a bronchial infection in her chest, nothing wrong in her sinuses or teeth roots, no odd lumps in her chest or anything sinister) so we are going to swap the baytril antibiotic for sulfatrim and keep going with the Bisolvon powder as it is an excuse for Blod to ask for grapes if they have decongestant sprinkles.
Here's poor Blod after her vet trip, sitting on piggy daddy whose wallet is £202 emptier than it was at lunchtime:
And here's Blod being welcomed home and suspi
ciously sniffed by her friends, trying to clean the vet smell off herself!
Just thought I'd share that as people often post on here about stubborn URIs and just being given baytril again and again, there's no magic formula for treating these things but its good to explore options with the vet for trying different antibiotics and getting more diagnostic tests done, like checking the teeth and having an xray etc.
Please send Blod healing wheeks (and grapes she says)!
So Blod had a URI in July that seemed to clear up with baytril but then came back last week, only 5 or 6 weeks later. So we went back to the vet last week and Blod got baytril again, plus some very good decongestant powder called Bisolvon to sprinkle on her food. I'd not heard of Bisolvon before but several experienced forum members and staff assured me it was safe, and very effective- and it really is, helps URI symptoms a lot, great for relief from raspy honky grunty breathing!
But unfortunately its only relieving the symptoms, bot clearing the infection, so Blod went back to the vet today and I was very insistent about exploring other things rather than just prescribing baytril.
So Blod has had a teethy check (teeth a bit long but nothing urgent or likely to affect her breathing), a conscious xray with no sedation or anaesthetic (showed a classic pattern of a bronchial infection in her chest, nothing wrong in her sinuses or teeth roots, no odd lumps in her chest or anything sinister) so we are going to swap the baytril antibiotic for sulfatrim and keep going with the Bisolvon powder as it is an excuse for Blod to ask for grapes if they have decongestant sprinkles.
Here's poor Blod after her vet trip, sitting on piggy daddy whose wallet is £202 emptier than it was at lunchtime:
And here's Blod being welcomed home and suspi
ciously sniffed by her friends, trying to clean the vet smell off herself!
Just thought I'd share that as people often post on here about stubborn URIs and just being given baytril again and again, there's no magic formula for treating these things but its good to explore options with the vet for trying different antibiotics and getting more diagnostic tests done, like checking the teeth and having an xray etc.
Please send Blod healing wheeks (and grapes she says)!