Sick Cavy

[Bluesombre]

Hi there,
I'm not in the UK but Australia, however not a lot of vets know very much about guinea pigs where I am.
I have a rather important question, I'll give some background to go with it so it can be understood:

I have a guinea pig named Rosemary that I have had for 18 months, and is perfectly fine and healthy.
The companion pig died unfortunately and we got another one. That guinea pig died 10 days later. When I noticed she was sick she was lying on her side, hardly moving. I got to the vet but she passed before we got there. The vet ordered a series of tests done to try and determine the cause of death but they only found a slight vitamin c deficiency as well as some form of reactive hepatitis. The pathologist concluded whatever caused the reactivate hepatitis was obviously before we got her because of the times span.
The newest guinea pig we have had for a few months and is now really sick. She's not eating by herself, is lethargic and not drinking. I took her in to the emergency vet clinic as it's Sunday here but the vet has no clue about guinea pigs. So she have her some fluid under her skin with some vitamin c and has told me to come back in tomorrow. The thing is, my piggy smells. It's a strange smell and I've only smelt it one before on a dying animal so I was wondering if anyone has every had anything like this and know what's going on?
Before anyone suggests / asks:
-Both girls eat the same food, same water supply etc etc.
-Both girls are housed in the same cage
-Their diet includes green leaf and other veggies with vitamin c.
-There is no diarrhea
-There are no abscess or injuries
-The cage and other pig does not smell.
-I am hand feeding until tomorrow

 

[DM030819]

What tests has the vet done? Xray/scan? Test a urine sample? If none were done then it would be worth requesting some so things can be ruled out

Does her stomach feel large, distended or hard? Bloat can be very painful and prevent them from eating.

 

[Bluesombre]

The vet I got hasn't got the slightest idea of what to do. She's only just starting a course on rabbits
I'm hoping that the vets that are in tomorrow will have more of an idea.
I'm not sure how they would gather a urine sample but considering they don't have a machine that can work in small enough quantities to test blood on such small animals I don't know they would even be able to run urine samples.
No the stomach feels fine (I had thought of bloat)
It's the smell that worries me.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi and welcome

Can you please check whether the smell is coming from her mouth (decaying food caused by overgrown pre-molars, fungal infection in her mouth, the loss of being able to swallow) or coming from her bum end (in this case, you are likely dealing with either a urinary or reproductive tract infection/bladder stone/womb and ovarian cyst problem)? Without any more information, we can only make wild guesses.
Once there is an inbalance or a pain issue somewhere in the mouth, the chewing can become uneven, leading to premolars growing spurs that trap the tongue and prevent it from swallowing very quickly in a matter of days.
Strokes and heart attacks/acute heart failure can happen at any age.

Please switch to weighing daily at the same time with any guinea pig that is not quite right instead of the regular weekly weigh-in and onceover health check. Watching a guinea pig nibble on a little veg can be very misleading, especially as you cannot control the hay intake any other way.
Here are our syringe feeding tips. Please be aware that unlimited hay is making 80% of the daily food intake. Veg about 10% and pellets/dry mix should only make about 5%. If you are feeding just a little veg, then she will have got far too little food and may be going into into GI stasis.
Vets that are not familiar with rodents or even rabbits, will often not be aware of this and how much a piggy needs to eat in a day.
Bloat, Gi Stasis ( No Gut Movement) And Not Eating
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide

Fingers VERY firmly crossed! You are a caring owner and doing what you can.

 

[Bluesombre]

It's hard to tell the exact origin of the smell as it appears to be eminating from her very fur (even holding her makes my hands smell of the same odor, even though the same is not true of the other cavy or any of the bedding of the cage)
It doesn't appear to be from the mouth though.
I know that they eat quite a lot and they get huge amounts of hay with their diet (enough that they don't get through it until 3 or 4 days later)
I'm not sure I gather what you are meaning though with the syringe feeding - are you saying I should attempt to blend some hay in as well? I'm not sure my blender will do that :S
I am hoping that they speak to an 'exotic' vet tomorrow and get more an idea of what to do and test for. I didn't push much today because being a Sunday and a call in, today's trip alone is about the cost of a small car in fees.

 

[Wiebke]

It's hard to tell the exact origin of the smell as it appears to be eminating from her very fur (even holding her makes my hands smell of the same odor, even though the same is not true of the other cavy or any of the bedding of the cage)
It doesn't appear to be from the mouth though.
I know that they eat quite a lot and they get huge amounts of hay with their diet (enough that they don't get through it until 3 or 4 days later)
I'm not sure I gather what you are meaning though with the syringe feeding - are you saying I should attempt to blend some hay in as well? I'm not sure my blender will do that :S
I am hoping that they speak to an 'exotic' vet tomorrow and get more an idea of what to do and test for. I didn't push much today because being a Sunday and a call in, today's trip alone is about the cost of a small car in fees.

I am just trying to make sure that 'hand feeding' is not just handing some veg to your piggy, as we sometimes see with new members. Are you just blending veg, or are you adding some kind of fibre to the mix you are syringing?

I must admit that I am not familiar with the kind of smell you are describing, not have I ever heard it mention on this forum in nearly a decade. But then I have lived with compromised sinuses for most of my life, so my sense of smell is not the strongest while you seem to have an exceptionally strong one!
It is not coming from soiled bedding and the inability to clean itself?

I sincerely hope that you can get on top of what is the problem.

 

[Bluesombre]

Oh no I should have been more specific about the fact that I am actually syringe feeding her as she's not eating, sorry about that.
In the past few hours there has been veg that I have blended for the syringe mix, I need to buy some Fibre stuffs to put in the mix tomorrow, though I'm also hoping that she won't need to be syringe fed for long :S

I do have extremely keen senses which is sometimes a good thing and sometimes not so. No as I said before the smell is not on the bedding at all. It appears to be all over her fur almost as though if it were possible, it's being excreted from her skin.
However it may be from not cleaning I guess as she isn't doing too much moving.
Yes really hoping we can work out the problem sooner rather than later. Also will keep the forum posted on what happens

 

[Bluesombre]

Well unfortunately my cavy ended up passing away
Still not 100% sure what caused this either

 

[Hoppity.K]

I’ve just been reading this thread and I’m very sorry to hear that your guinea pig passed away.
RIP little one

 

[Kiko+Peanut]

So sorry to hear that. The next piggy you get, before you bring it home. Make sure it has gotten checked to make sure it's not sick. Then place the new one in quarantine before introducing it to the other one

 

[Abi_nurse]

Sorry to hear this. Did you get all the sick piggies from the same place?
Are they able to get to foods which may be poisonous?
Where abouts in Oz are you? One of my exotics vets is from Australia and used to work with a few good vets, I can see if she knows any?

 

[Bluesombre]

That's for the condolences hoppity.
Abi Yes I did and I told them about the previous results of a piggy having reactive hepatitis. They spoke to their HR team who are paying for the associated vet bill and said they were going to check the breeders more thoroughly. The newest piggy, that this post was about, was bought about the same time so it was probably the same breeder.
No they can't get to anything toxic.
I'm in Griffith, so I wouldn't bother - I know every vet in this small town and the next town over is almost 200km away.
If I were still in the city or closer suburbs it wouldn't be such an issue.

 

[Merab]

So sorry for your loss.
It must be so hard after you’ve done everything possible.
Be kind to yourself as you grieve.