Possible URI

[katzintheclouds]

Hey guys..

I feel like a frequent flyer now, it seems like as soon as my little Chipotle got sick & passed, everything's been going crazy. I got a new guinea pig with no signs of illness but soon after, I realized that Machete, my 4 year old, is sneezing & suddenly has crusty eyes. I took her to the vet immediately when I saw one eye was crusted over & my vet gave me antibacterial eye ointment. Even though she was sneezing, she didn't not give any other antibiotic treatment (such as a shot or medicine). I was reluctant but she said that she would be okay after I gave her the eye ointment & kept flushing the eye. Well the eyes look much better, but she seems a little congested & it's worrying me. Of course it's now the weekend & the vet will not be open until Monday but I'm worried that she'll get pneumonia. To make things worse, we found out that she has an ovarian cyst & I'm taking her to a specialist for possible surgery (which scares the living daylights out of me).

My care so far has been, per my vet:

1. Continuing with the eye ointment (it has no steroid)
2. Bringing her into the shower room with me when I take a hot shower as the vet said the steam would make her feel better.
3. Supplementing lots of Vitamin C to her water & food
4. Adding a little wooden shelter for her to sleep in that can hopefully help keep her warm
5. Watching her closely, she's eating, drinking, pooping, peeing, etc pretty normally

I was thinking about heading to the PetStore to see if they had anything there that may help her, I've never looked for "medicine" before.

Can anyone offer any advice? I'm hoping she'll be better by the time she has to go to the specialist because I KNOW they wouldn't dare put her under anesthesia if she's got something like this going on.

 

[Abi_nurse]

Is she outside? If so what is the temperature like in the USA at the moment? She would do better in the warm if she is in the cold. Is thre any chance you could get her to a cavy savvy vet?

x.

 

[Wiebke]

You are doing all you can; as URI is a bacterial infection, you will need an antibiotic to properly clear it.

Please keep weighing her daily; loss of appetite and hence a sudden major drop in weight is one sign of an acute URI. You will usually need two symptoms from the Guinea Lynx list to be fairly sure that you are dealing with an URI.
http://www.guinealynx.info/uri.html

Make sure that you have mushable pellets or Critical Care at home in case you need to hand feed. If necessary, cut the tip off a 1ml syringe to get a better opening. Here are more tips for hand feeding (including amounts etc.)
http://www.guinealynx.info/handfeeding.html

 

[katzintheclouds]

She's indoors, the temps cold outside so she's in with me. She's a lucky piggie because I turned up the heat in here just for her. My vet is great with guinea's, she's just not open & the other place that is it Pets ER that costs a hell of a lot more.

As far as eating, she's eating well. Drinking well too I assume, I'm trying to watch her closer now with that. When I go up to their cage with food, she quickly comes up to me like usual & asks for it. She's always been picky about other things, more so lately I think with this whole cyst issue.

We're probably going to be at the vet AGAIN Monday. I'm still so surprised they didn't give her Baytril or anything for an antibiotic except the eye ointment. I guess it was because they didn't really see any other problems at the time. I can just tell she's breathing harder.

Thanks guys.

 

[katzintheclouds]

She's indoors, the temps cold outside so she's in with me. She's a lucky piggie because I turned up the heat in here just for her. My vet is great with guinea's, she's just not open & the other place that is it Pets ER that costs a hell of a lot more.

As far as eating, she's eating well. Drinking well too I assume, I'm trying to watch her closer now with that. When I go up to their cage with food, she quickly comes up to me like usual & asks for it. She's always been picky about other things, more so lately I think with this whole cyst issue.

We're probably going to be at the vet AGAIN Monday. I'm still so surprised they didn't give her Baytril or anything for an antibiotic except the eye ointment. I guess it was because they didn't really see any other problems at the time. I can just tell she's breathing harder.

Thanks guys.