flintstones
Senior Guinea Pig
Wilma, has been so poorly recently not the usual ill piggy I've came to expect. She had a dental as she was really struggling to eat shortly afterwards she decided she wouldn't eat, I kept her going with syringe feeding. She went back to the vets and was given a full MOT under GA, she had dental Xray's, Bladder Xray's and a full urine analysis everything came back as healthy. We kept going with the syringe food and she kept trying to eat herself, unfortunately together we where not able to stop her developing bloat. She was quickly taken to the vet, and given the med's she needed.
There was no fight in the cage, she remained in the same corner morning and night. Her appearance in the cage would have broken your heart not even vegetables would make her eat. When I put new hay in she would wonder over, peck at it and return back to her corner. She dropped to her lowest weight 789 grams even with me syringe feeding her. Several times I had to pick her up and shake her awake this really did concern me. It was quite evident her illness wasn't going to kill her it'd went going on far to long for it to be life threatening. I kept looking out for other symptoms, and then finally two weeks on we had some more symptoms.
Wilma's bum became wet, she had the most pungent smell coming from her and her vulva was swollen. I can't begin to explain the smell but it was very obvious it was her urine. I took her back to the vet's and although her urine was clear we decided to give her some Antibiotics before doing any further test's we're on day 7 of Baytril and Wilma is back.
Sick piggies really do take everything out of you emotionally and physically, I didn't know how long I could keep going for but it just goes to show persistence can pay off and when it does it really is amazing. Wilma relied on me for three weeks before she was able to help herself again and even then it was a long journey and she still needed so much TLC to get her to where she is now. Tomorrow is exactly 4 weeks since her problems began and it's very evident now, the vacant response she had in the cage was in fact a pain response.
In the past I've nursed sick pigs but nothing like Wilma, I really was losing hope but I'm so glad I carried on.
There was no fight in the cage, she remained in the same corner morning and night. Her appearance in the cage would have broken your heart not even vegetables would make her eat. When I put new hay in she would wonder over, peck at it and return back to her corner. She dropped to her lowest weight 789 grams even with me syringe feeding her. Several times I had to pick her up and shake her awake this really did concern me. It was quite evident her illness wasn't going to kill her it'd went going on far to long for it to be life threatening. I kept looking out for other symptoms, and then finally two weeks on we had some more symptoms.
Wilma's bum became wet, she had the most pungent smell coming from her and her vulva was swollen. I can't begin to explain the smell but it was very obvious it was her urine. I took her back to the vet's and although her urine was clear we decided to give her some Antibiotics before doing any further test's we're on day 7 of Baytril and Wilma is back.
Sick piggies really do take everything out of you emotionally and physically, I didn't know how long I could keep going for but it just goes to show persistence can pay off and when it does it really is amazing. Wilma relied on me for three weeks before she was able to help herself again and even then it was a long journey and she still needed so much TLC to get her to where she is now. Tomorrow is exactly 4 weeks since her problems began and it's very evident now, the vacant response she had in the cage was in fact a pain response.
In the past I've nursed sick pigs but nothing like Wilma, I really was losing hope but I'm so glad I carried on.
|)
. x
