Pat Shields
Adult Guinea Pig
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2011
- Messages
- 1,151
- Reaction score
- 50
- Points
- 425
- Location
- USA MO, Ft. Leonard Wood area
Finally today we got to the vet for an examination and skin scraping for mites. I had him in a cardboard tomato box (easy lift-off lid). The vet took one look at him and said, "Mites." She examined his hair roots, she examined his skin, she took samples from different parts of his body. She combed him with a nit comb and examined all the hair and dandruff that came off of him. He was swabbed with a cotton swab to see what could be picked up off his skin that way. All of this examination for mites was done under the microscope, of course, preparing slides, all that stuff.
When it was all checked, she said, "I don't know what to tell you, Pat; he has the textbook appearance of having mites, but he does NOT have them." She said her best guess was also mine, that his nutrition was so poor as to cause this. She said to keep feeding him the way I am feeding him to see if in 8 weeks or so his skin condition improves before I even think about introducing him to Red. I asked about treating for mites empirically and she said no, if his immune system is compromised from being so poorly fed, it could cause harm.
She also said that the "no mites" diagnosis is re-inforced by the fact that he seems to be happy enough and is not scratching or trying to wiggle out of his skin. She said if he had mites as bad as his dandruff indicates that he would be acting as was described of Princess and Kitty.
She suggested that I get more water into him by putting his favorite vegetable (right now it is carrots) into a bowl of water so that he will of necessity get some extra water via the water on the surface of the food he eats. I already place a bowl of water along with his water bottle.
She also agrees that he is older than his size indicates. Looking in his mouth, she said his teeth appear to be OK.
She also asked if I had found some sort of nutritional additive that maybe she did not know of. I told her what you all have told me about Oxbow Critical Care; she is going to contact her supplies and medication distributor to see if she can order it and have it in her clinic for me.
Sal also deposited a large amount of wee on the stainless steel examination table. She said "What is THAT?" because it came out cloudy and milky-appearing. I told her that it doesn't always come out that way, and I also told her that you here have told me that it seems to be a way for guinea pigs to get excess calcium out of their bodies. She made notes in her notebook and she is going to study up on guinea pigs to see what she doesn't know.
I asked before I left if any guinea pigs that really need rescuing like Princess and Kitty ever come in, and she said rarely, but she does see them once in a blue moon. THEN they (the vet and the tech) said that if they encounter any guinea pigs that need rescuing that they would keep me in mind and give me a call to see if I can help since I am doing so well with Sal and Red. I didn't ask for that, but I also didn't say "No" either. I made sure to tell them that what little I know I have learned from http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk and she understood and essentially said, "Good job."
