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Recurring Uri Help :(

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JordanAimee

JordanAimee

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So after I made the pledge to return to the forum I disappeared again after the loss of my first skinny pig Leia :( and ongoing health issues with (mainly) my 1 year old girl Panda !

she's got one of he worst sounding recurring URIs the vet has ever heard but has had it now for the past two months with no sign of it shifting but is still as feisty as ever ! You wouldnt think she was ill until you heard the oinking or seen the bit of discharge from her nose.

She seemed to get a little better on baytril but after a week and a half worsened again and now we are a week into doxycycline with little sign of improvement.

However the vet is pleased that apart from her horrible snorting all the issues seem to be coming from the upper respiratory tract rather than the lower (so there's no sign of it progressing into pneumonia thank goodness!)

alongside the abs she is getting a dose of metacam daily to help aid with any inflammation and bisolvon sprinkled of some veg twice a day to help decongest her. We have change from shavings to just hay for now but to be honest we've never had a problem with the shavings before so I don't think that was the issue.

Can anyone Please give me some advice on how else I can help this little madam ? And what sort of experiences have you had like this ? Because I'm worried that the vet can do little else for her ! ( or that's the impression I had from last time we had a check up ?) :(

Thanks for taking the time to read :)

Jordan
 
JordanAimee said:
So after I made the pledge to return to the forum I disappeared again after the loss of my first skinny pig Leia :( and ongoing health issues with (mainly) my 1 year old girl Panda !

she's got one of he worst sounding recurring URIs the vet has ever heard but has had it now for the past two months with no sign of it shifting but is still as feisty as ever ! You wouldnt think she was ill until you heard the oinking or seen the bit of discharge from her nose.

She seemed to get a little better on baytril but after a week and a half worsened again and now we are a week into doxycycline with little sign of improvement.

However the vet is pleased that apart from her horrible snorting all the issues seem to be coming from the upper respiratory tract rather than the lower (so there's no sign of it progressing into pneumonia thank goodness!)

alongside the abs she is getting a dose of metacam daily to help aid with any inflammation and bisolvon sprinkled of some veg twice a day to help decongest her. We have change from shavings to just hay for now but to be honest we've never had a problem with the shavings before so I don't think that was the issue.

Can anyone Please give me some advice on how else I can help this little madam ? And what sort of experiences have you had like this ? Because I'm worried that the vet can do little else for her ! ( or that's the impression I had from last time we had a check up ?) :(

Thanks for taking the time to read :)

Jordan
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that you lost your little skinny :-(

With your current pigs issues, did she get better at any point ? Completely? If so this would suggest the antibiotics where actually doing there job; she just wasn't on them
Long enough. It may be worthwhile discussing a longer course of baytril.

If this is always grumbling away but she doesn't actually get "sick" then id query an allergy issue rather than a Uri.

To rule out allergies you need to go whole hog to get any sort of answer.. Only changing little things here and there won't give you a definite answer.

To rule this out you'd need to switch from shavings to fleece or vetbed with puppy pads underneath, and change the hay to proper dust free hay (from the dust free hay company) and see if it makes a difference: a lot of hay brands will state "dust extracted", which simply means they've filtered off some of it but it still contains dust!

Is the discharge from one nostril or both? Have they considered a foreign body up her nose?

Really hope you get to the bottom
Of it soon x
 
I'd have a chat with your vet about nebulising. Sometimes a URI can be really stubborn and I have read if quite a few people who have found that nebulising medication helps. It gets inhaled and to where the problem is, inside of swallowed and taken in through the stomach.

I have a nebuliser which I use fairly regularly with one of my pigs but I've never used medication in it.

I believe one of the recommended med's is Getamycin (sic?) but your vet will know for definite.
 
Adelle said:
Sorry to hear that you lost your little skinny :-(

With your current pigs issues, did she get better at any point ? Completely? If so this would suggest the antibiotics where actually doing there job; she just wasn't on them
Long enough. It may be worthwhile discussing a longer course of baytril.

If this is always grumbling away but she doesn't actually get "sick" then id query an allergy issue rather than a Uri.

To rule out allergies you need to go whole hog to get any sort of answer.. Only changing little things here and there won't give you a definite answer.

To rule this out you'd need to switch from shavings to fleece or vetbed with puppy pads underneath, and change the hay to proper dust free hay (from the dust free hay company) and see if it makes a difference: a lot of hay brands will state "dust extracted", which simply means they've filtered off some of it but it still contains dust!

Is the discharge from one nostril or both? Have they considered a foreign body up her nose?

Really hope you get to the bottom
Of it soon x
Click to expand...

She was still on the baytril while it got worse :( we used to be on fleece but she still had some issues with that ....... Saying that I will probably switch back and see if it makes a difference !
 
Jaycey said:
I'd have a chat with your vet about nebulising. Sometimes a URI can be really stubborn and I have read if quite a few people who have found that nebulising medication helps. It gets inhaled and to where the problem is, inside of swallowed and taken in through the stomach.

I have a nebuliser which I use fairly regularly with one of my pigs but I've never used medication in it.

I believe one of the recommended med's is Getamycin (sic?) but your vet will know for definite.
Click to expand...

My next call was suggesting this to the vet so if I change everything I can my end I will definitely look into this !

The vets I go to now has been brilliant with my piggy babies and seem to be quite savvy but the nearest recommended cavy savvy vet a quite far away, maybe I will get in touch with them and see what they recommend :)

Thank you both , some fab points and will update in due course ...... Off to order some new fleece liners now ! :)
 
If she is producing mucus from her nose then your vet could try some Bisolvon to clear that up. Is she making a hooting noise at all or is it a snuffle? If so it would be worth getting her heart checked.
 
Poppy'sMum said:
If she is producing mucus from her nose then your vet could try some Bisolvon to clear that up. Is she making a hooting noise at all or is it a snuffle? If so it would be worth getting her heart checked.
Click to expand...

She is already on some bisolvon :) it's a cross between the two , it definitely sounds mucusy though ! Like if we were trying to breathe through a blocked nose :(
 
JordanAimee said:
So after I made the pledge to return to the forum I disappeared again after the loss of my first skinny pig Leia :( and ongoing health issues with (mainly) my 1 year old girl Panda !

she's got one of he worst sounding recurring URIs the vet has ever heard but has had it now for the past two months with no sign of it shifting but is still as feisty as ever ! You wouldnt think she was ill until you heard the oinking or seen the bit of discharge from her nose.

She seemed to get a little better on baytril but after a week and a half worsened again and now we are a week into doxycycline with little sign of improvement.

However the vet is pleased that apart from her horrible snorting all the issues seem to be coming from the upper respiratory tract rather than the lower (so there's no sign of it progressing into pneumonia thank goodness!)

alongside the abs she is getting a dose of metacam daily to help aid with any inflammation and bisolvon sprinkled of some veg twice a day to help decongest her. We have change from shavings to just hay for now but to be honest we've never had a problem with the shavings before so I don't think that was the issue.

Can anyone Please give me some advice on how else I can help this little madam ? And what sort of experiences have you had like this ? Because I'm worried that the vet can do little else for her ! ( or that's the impression I had from last time we had a check up ?) :(

Thanks for taking the time to read :)

Jordan
Click to expand...

Hi and welcome back! I am very sorry about your ongoing issues.

Has your vet considered allergy or heart issues (less likely if things are sitting in the upper respiratory tract) if the URI is not shifting? It seems like you are doing everything you can do with standard treatment.

You may want to see whether a bowl of steaming water next to the cage can help with the breathing. If yes, getting a humidifier would something you may want to consider.

@helen105281 @Adelle
 
Wiebke said:
Hi and welcome back! I am very sorry about your ongoing issues.

Has your vet considered allergy or heart issues (less likely if things are sitting in the upper respiratory tract) if the URI is not shifting? It seems like you are doing everything you can do with standard treatment.

You may want to see whether a bowl of steaming water next to the cage can help with the breathing. If yes, getting a humidifier would something you may want to consider.

@helen105281 @Adelle
Click to expand...

Thanks wiebke ! I will consider this also , the vet is pretty certain it is a uri as it's mostly in the upper respiratory tract , that and at the same time my eldest girl Ellie had a smaller less serious bout of it which is now clear :)

I will need to think about the humidifier option as I will be giving a home to two baby rats this weekend and humid conditions are not great for ratties , and they will be sharing the same room at the moment, but I suppose we can do another cage switch around and the girls stay put as its a bit hard to move their set up :)
 
It does sound more nasal so I would be inclined not to think heart at this stage. Let me know if you would like a list of symptoms to look out for though and I will respond tonight, I have only just been able to come on and am about to finish my lunch break.
 
helen105281 said:
It does sound more nasal so I would be inclined not to think heart at this stage. Let me know if you would like a list of symptoms to look out for though and I will respond tonight, I have only just been able to come on and am about to finish my lunch break.
Click to expand...

Thank you Helen if you get a chance to send them through please do ! Always handy to have just incase :)
 
No problem. Here you go:

Laboured breathing
Nodding when breathing
Rapid breathing
Blue tinge to nose and other extremities
Bumblefoot
Abdominal bloating (due to sucking in air)
Hooting followed by a cough
Random coughing
Weight loss/failure to thrive
Recurrent respiratory infections
 
helen105281 said:
No problem. Here you go:

Laboured breathing
Nodding when breathing
Rapid breathing
Blue tinge to nose and other extremities
Bumblefoot
Abdominal bloating (due to sucking in air)
Hooting followed by a cough
Random coughing
Weight loss/failure to thrive
Recurrent respiratory infections
Click to expand...

Many Thanks , She still is no better at the moment but she certainly isn't any worse either !
 
An update !

After another round of antibiotics the dreadful breathing still hasn't gone !

The vet suspects that it is likely to be scarring from when she got really ill in the first instance and may never go away completely.

We have been off the antibiotics for a while now and she hasn't got any worse but yet no better :(

We continue with the metacam and bisolvon for now as they seem to help her .

We spoke about nebulising but the vet said it is very expensive and time consuming considering they are almost certain it's nothing bacterial.

Next steps are just to continue as we are and keep a close watch on her. She's still as naughty and cheeky as ever And very vocal !

Now I just have one elderly boar to nurse as well after a bit of weight loss :/ me and the pigs are not having a good time ! :(
 
My nebuliser was just under £80 to buy and the antibiotics would be whatever the price that the vet suggests.

Time wise it can take as little as 15 mins to 30 mins per use.

Nebulisers can also be used when there isn't an infection, which is the situation with my pig. Saline solution or a product called F10 can be used. And it works like a when we use a bowl of hot water and steam overselves to clear our sinuses.

If your pig has
 
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