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Rosie and her skin problems!

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klee said:
Turns out that her ovaries are quite enlarged, as well as having enlarged nipples, so we are now treating with Chorulon injections to see if that improves matters-

a spay was the other thing mentioned but at seven years old and being as light as she is it is not something I would want to put her through particularly as she does not appear to be in any noticeable discomfort .
She said that there was no inflammation on the hairless area or signs of infection and rather than her being completely bald the hair is actually thinning which is found with ovarian cysts. So she has had her first injection today and squealed like a baby, then we need to go back in about 7-10 days for second and then the same amount of time for the third.
Hopefully this can sort her out.
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This is a really good result - all the signs were pointing to hormonal and your recent photos showing the enlarged nipples confirm the vet's diagnosis and demonstrate that there is no inflammation or any signs of bacterial/fungal/mites.

I hope the chorulon injections work - however do not rule out a spay. I had a great vet who was brilliant with guinea pig GA's - some of my oldies had to have GA's and major surgery and they all sailed through. Unfortunately he left so I now elect to travel a 300 mile round trip (with help and support from Furry Friends at TEAS) to get any necessary spays/neuterings done by Simon Maddock at Cat and Rabbit in Northampton. Simon is the "ultimate spayer"....quick clean neat and no post-op problems!

HTH
x
 
Pebble said:
This is a really good result - all the signs were pointing to hormonal and your recent photos showing the enlarged nipples confirm the vet's diagnosis and demonstrate that there is no inflammation or any signs of bacterial/fungal/mites.

I hope the chorulon injections work - however do not rule out a spay. I had a great vet who was brilliant with guinea pig GA's - some of my oldies had to have GA's and major surgery and they all sailed through. Unfortunately he left so I now elect to travel a 300 mile round trip (with help and support from Furry Friends at TEAS) to get any necessary spays/neuterings done by Simon Maddock at Cat and Rabbit in Northampton. Simon is the "ultimate spayer"....quick clean neat and no post-op problems!

HTH
x
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That is a very interesting point to make about spaying at such an age. It is something I will bear in mind but likelihood would be as a last resort.
My worry would be as she is such a low weight- she fluctuates between 740g at her lowest and is currently sitting just above 800g would she pull through, as well as her quality of life afterwards if a spay was to happen.
 
klee said:
That is a very interesting point to make about spaying at such an age. It is something I will bear in mind but likelihood would be as a last resort.
My worry would be as she is such a low weight- she fluctuates between 740g at her lowest and is currently sitting just above 800g would she pull through, as well as her quality of life afterwards if a spay was to happen.
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Go with the meds/flow ....and look to build up her strength. It should improve now they've identified the problem


No need to make a decision now.
.You need to ensure you have a good vet identified for the procedure/logistics sorted in your back pocket....just in case!
And you need to get her weight back on before such a procedure

Hugs
x
 
Glad the vet visit was succesful, have emailed the link you asked for anyway as it will be useful to have. I would suggest an ultrasound before considering a spay. Hope the injections help in the meantime, they did with my Terk.
 
Just caught up with your thread. The Injections worked for Treacy too, so hopefully they will help Rosie. Glad you have some answers. Love to my favourite sheep piggie x
 
Never really noticed too much before ( must be all her fluff) but she is quite an obvious pear shape and a bit lumpy looking. Around her chest and shoulders she is very bony but she is healthy (apart from these cysts) so that's the main thing.



She has her next injection on Monday!
 
klee said:
Never really noticed too much before ( must be all her fluff) but she is quite an obvious pear shape and a bit lumpy looking. Around her chest and shoulders she is very bony but she is healthy (apart from these cysts) so that's the main thing.



She has her next injection on Monday!
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She is so beautiful x) drool x)

Hope the injections are doing their trick. Love to Rosie and the Gingers x
 
Rosie has lost weight.

I came home from uni after finishing my exams yesterday and have weighed Rosie today as she looked like she had lost weight. She had, she is now down to 740g I weighed her a little over a week ago and she was just over 800g.
Now she has had 2 injections up to now, would the injections shrinking the cysts cause weight loss? She is known to fluctuate between weights and has been known to be this low before.
x
 
Does anybody have experience of how long I would be expecting to see any improvement on the hairloss front with the chorulon injections ?
Rosie has her 3rd and final injection of this 3 week course of injections tomorrow, we are booked into see the vet tomorrow for the injection and to see if there has been any improvement, so I will ask then I just wondered what other peoples experience had been.
As far as Rosie is, she appears happy and healthy just has a bald belly still.
 
klee said:
Does anybody have experience of how long I would be expecting to see any improvement on the hairloss front with the chorulon injections ?
Rosie has her 3rd and final injection of this 3 week course of injections tomorrow, we are booked into see the vet tomorrow for the injection and to see if there has been any improvement, so I will ask then I just wondered what other peoples experience had been.
As far as Rosie is, she appears happy and healthy just has a bald belly still.
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With our experience we noticed the mounting and chasing had stopped. There was no hair loss in our girls instance. So don't know if the hair will regrow. Please kiss the bald belly for me :)) x
 
sport_billy said:
With our experience we noticed the mounting and chasing had stopped. There was no hair loss in our girls instance. So don't know if the hair will regrow. Please kiss the bald belly for me :)) x
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Rosie is the most placid piggy, and has had no problems with hormones EVER! I don't think I have ever seen her chase or mount anything.
Unlike my terribly stroppy young gingers rolleyes
Hopefully the hair will grow back, it doesn't seem to be making her cold missing her belly hair, in fact she is like a hot water bottle to hold :)
 
klee said:
Rosie is the most placid piggy, and has had no problems with hormones EVER! I don't think I have ever seen her chase or mount anything.
Unlike my terribly stroppy young gingers rolleyes
Hopefully the hair will grow back, it doesn't seem to be making her cold missing her belly hair, in fact she is like a hot water bottle to hold :)
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A sheep hot water bottle! Bless her, when I held a skinny the other week they were soooo hot. Seeing as she is placid - blow a raspberry for me on it :))
 
I wouldn't have been saying this a few weeks ago but my vet is great. So glad I changed to there :)
Great thorough exam again, left ovary is still enlarge :)d the right side is now I think she said pea? sized. So 2/3 of the way through the treatment it is definitely starting to work.
We have to go back in about 3 weeks to see how she has progressed and what needs to be done from there.
Again, Rosie let out the biggest squeal I have ever heard when she had the injection, poor baby. I also mentioned about her bunny hopping, she manipulated her back legs and she is stiff in both particularly her left hip, so she is having a small amount of metacam and some glucosamine when I can get some
 
klee said:
As I was taking the gingers to another vets (with exotics experience) this morning for a second opinion I decided to bring Rosie along too.
Apart from weeing and pooping all over the vets towel she was very good. Again a very thorough examination, checked her chest and palpated her abdomen.
Turns out that her ovaries are quite enlarged, as well as having enlarged nipples, so we are now treating with Chorulon injections to see if that improves matters- a spay was the other thing mentioned but at seven years old and being as light as she is it is not something I would want to put her through particularly as she does not appear to be in any noticeable discomfort .
She said that there was no inflammation on the hairless area or signs of infection and rather than her being completely bald the hair is actually thinning which is found with ovarian cysts. So she has had her first injection today and squealed like a baby, then we need to go back in about 7-10 days for second and then the same amount of time for the third.
Hopefully this can sort her out.
She definitely won the vet nurses heart as she sat there chirruping as she stroked her (and made a mess of the towel rolleyes)
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Hi there
I am so glad of that Rosie is improving, it's just a pity about the first vet

I'm surprised you had to go to a vet with exotics experience,

fur loss and hormonal causes go hand in hand, and given that a relatively large percentage of sows will suffer from cystic ovaries , I would have thought your original vet would have picked upon this zzzzzzzzz :x
 
gizzy said:
Hi there
I am so glad of that Rosie is improving, it's just a pity about the first vet

I'm surprised you had to go to a vet with exotics experience,

fur loss and hormonal causes go hand in hand, and given that a relatively large percentage of sows will suffer from cystic ovaries , I would have thought your original vet would have picked upon this zzzzzzzzz :x
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The first vets were primarily cat/dog vets who admitted that guinea pigs were not their most knowledgeable subject, but the more times I went there the more frustrated I got with them as they were quite reluctant to listen to what I had to say. I knew that cysts could be a possibility but once fungal and mites were ruled out they did not offer any other options so that it when I had to change vets.

I am happy with where I am now, and it doesn't cost me an arm and leg so it is even better :)
 
Glad all went well and they are shrinking. I'm sure the metacam will help her stiff back legs, old age bless her x
 
After struggling for ages to get her to take 1ml of water with half a capsule of cystease ( as it has a glucosamine compound in it) She quite happily took her metacam, which for a pig who has never been given medicine with a syringe/syringe-fed until this year is pretty good going :)

A very odd coloured Rosie due to the flash.

20130528_164412_zps56ed5947.jpg
 
Cute Rosie :)

Metacam is sweet like honey (according to my vet - I've never tasted it!) & he said piggies normally love it. Mine certainly do & it's so nice to have a medication that they will willingly take :).

Hope she's doing ok x
 
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The good news is Rosie's hair is growing back now, she wouldn't stay still for me to take a good picture. We still have to go back in a couple of weeks for a check up.

With her legs, she is not hopping so much with her back legs. She is still hopping but not as much now she is on metacam.
 
Here is a better picture.
You can see where she was completely bald and how it's all starting to grow back in. Hopefully it will be lovely and fluffy again soon :)

20130603_175519_zps311b3020.jpg
 
Look at all this lovely belly hair

20130615_100829_zps47d4da9b.jpg


She has a checkup appointment either next week or the week after (whenever i can fit it in) but safe to say she looks a great deal better now :)
 
Oh look at her cute tummy! She looks like her hair is back to normal now.
 
She is finally back to normal I think. It is almost as if her hair is thicker and fuller than it has been in a long time.

WP_20130701_002_zps5182568e.jpg
 
Look at that furry sheep belly drool Beautiful Rosie, glad she is much better x
 
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