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Sick guinea pig with vet appt at 7am

Skypipdot said:
I would find a vet that knows about guinea pigs. I have the feeling you have been fobbed off and hes made some money out of you whilst you were there. You arnt treating the cause but just helping the pain of the cause, whatever it is
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Yes, thank you. I feel the same way, I feel liked i've been scammed haha. Cost me 87 USD for the whole visit. Yikes.
 
rowann said:
Yes, thank you. I feel the same way, I feel liked i've been scammed haha. Cost me 87 USD for the whole visit. Yikes.
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I would call them up and say what good is a pain relief without knowing whats wrong. Honestly they are the professionals and you have payed alot of money. And if they dont know much about guinea pigs, then you did they agree to give you an appointment?
 
Skypipdot said:
I would call them up and say what good is a pain relief without knowing whats wrong. Honestly they are the professionals and you have payed alot of money. And if they dont know much about guinea pigs, then you did they agree to give you an appointment?
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Apparently he is a guinea pig vet, clearly they don’t get a lot of guinea pigs though.
 
Thank you all for your kind wishes (: She is still doing the same, but with the Vitamin C tablets I hope to see some improvement.
 
I am syringe feeding, but she can’t keep her head up, does anyone have any clue of what this could be?
 
She sounds quite poorly, I think I would try to give some of the painkiller even if it's half the dose, is the vets open where u are now?
Can you ring them back for more advice?

Guineas won't eat properly when they're in pain,

is she urinating ok?
Is she pooping ok (normal shape/size/consistency?)
Does she have any discharge/bleeding?
Does she still smell (of urine or infection)?
Is she still hopping when walking?
Can you see any obvious signs of a broken leg or foot (wobbly, unstable joints)?
How long since she ate properly last?
Does she look bloated or her tummy sound hollow when tapped?
Does she squeak/squeal when urinating?
What colour is the urine& is it gritty to touch?

Answering these questions should help your vet, diagnose her problem verbally, if it's not possible to pay for an X-ray.

Health & illness advisors can probably give some more appropriate suggestions to run past the vet too if you can answer them on your thread?

Healing vibes & speedy recovery to your little one
Xx
 
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She has not been eating nor drinking, she does still smell terrible, and she does hop. I’ve been syringe feeding oxbow critical care to her.

Thank you for all the kind wishes, I hope she recovers soon! <3
 
She really does need to get her gut working again to give her a chance, if she's not in pain she may have more of an appetite :)
If she smells I would ask the vet to check for a urinary tract infection (if it smells of urine or stale urine), for this she would probably need an antibiotic & painkiller.
Stones or bladder sludge could also a possibility if its urinary related, if her urine is gritty to touch& more white in appearance it can be because there's to much calcium in her body.

If it smells bad in her genital region but not of urine, I would get the vet to check for womb problems, infection, pyometria?
In which case antibiotics or possibly a spay may be needed :(

I wouldn't be surprised if they suggested a gut stimulant too (or two, one for both parts of the gut) to help get her eating again.
Whichever conclusion the vet comes to.
Is she still pooping OK?

If she's hopping she must be in pain so she really needs painkillers of some description & fast.
Xx
 
Skypipdot said:
Buprenorphine, sold under the brand name Subutex, among others, is an opioid used to treat opioid addiction, acute pain, and chronic pain. It can be used under the tongue, by injection, as a skin patch, or as an implant. So this is what it does. I googled it
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My cats have used this before. It knocks them out.
 
GPTV said:
She really does need to get her gut working again to give her a chance, if she's not in pain she may have more of an appetite :)
If she smells I would ask the vet to check for a urinary tract infection (if it smells of urine or stale urine), for this she would probably need an antibiotic & painkiller.
Stones or bladder sludge could also a possibility if its urinary related, if her urine is gritty to touch& more white in appearance it can be because there's to much calcium in her body.

If it smells bad in her genital region but not of urine, I would get the vet to check for womb problems, infection, pyometria?
In which case antibiotics or possibly a spay may be needed :(

I wouldn't be surprised if they suggested a gut stimulant too (or two, one for both parts of the gut) to help get her eating again.
Whichever conclusion the vet comes to.
Is she still pooping OK?

If she's hopping she must be in pain so she really needs painkillers of some description & fast.
Xx
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She is using the bathroom okay, right now she is laying down, I will be calling the vet in about 20 minutes. Thank you!
Livia Rabideau said:
My cats have used this before. It knocks them out.
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I gave her half of the recommended dosage, she is out.
 
Did he check her urine? It would be easy to do. If she isn't eating or drinking and can't hold her head up this is an emergency. I hope she feels better soon and you get some answers about what is wrong. Just prescribing pains meds with no diagnosis seems odd to me. If she has bloat she needs medication not vitamin c.
 
It's good she's still with good toilet habits but definitely contact the vet ASAP, she does sound quite poorly.
At least she's more comfortable at the moment even if she is zonked out bless her. x
 
She doesn’t have a bloat, I am almost certain it’s scurvy, the vet isn’t very good and we dont have many options available for vets around here, but thank you all I will update you if she gets better/worse. :))
 
rowann said:
She doesn’t have a bloat, I am almost certain it’s scurvy, the vet isn’t very good and we dont have many options available for vets around here, but thank you all I will update you if she gets better/worse. :))
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Is her skin dry & flakey?

To be honest I've never seen/had experience of a Guinea with scurvy & the extra vitamin C shouldn't do her any harm, but I thought scurvy got progressively worse & only affected joints or produced infection when really bad/long term poor conditions & vitamin c deficiency?

Please try getting the vet to check out some of the suggestions in previous posts, I wouldnt think of scurvy as a first port of call if it was me.

Let us know how she gets on :nod:
Xx
 
She has symptoms of scurvy, plus the vet recommended more vitamin C, but he never said scurvy. She has lost weight, hopping, not moving that much, and her skin feels normal to me. She does have crusty eyes though.
 
rowann said:
She has symptoms of scurvy, plus the vet recommended more vitamin C, but he never said scurvy. She has lost weight, hopping, not moving that much, and her skin feels normal to me. She does have crusty eyes though.
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How old is she? Please dont just think its scurvy, the symptoms match but they also match alot of other things. I am thinking arthiritis too. But its only an idea, you really need a vet to get to the bottom of this. 👍
 
Hopefully she feels better soon! So difficult if you don't have a vet with guinea pig experience. Is the smell urine? Could be a UTI.
 
Skypipdot said:
How old is she? Please dont just think its scurvy, the symptoms match but they also match alot of other things. I am thinking arthiritis too. But its only an idea, you really need a vet to get to the bottom of this. 👍
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I am thinking it is scurvy because one, multiple people on here have suggested it and two, I have seen this happen before, and extra vitamin C helped her a lot. So, I am not just diagnosing her myself, I am still open to other ideas. She is 3 and 1/2.
 
Yeah, the xray is way too much money and I do not have that kind of money. So that is off the table :/
 
Alright, the smell is gone, and her eyes arent crusty. It is about 2am and I can’t sleep because I like to monitor her. I don’t know of these are signs of her getting better?
 
rowann said:
Alright, the smell is gone, and her eyes arent crusty. It is about 2am and I can’t sleep because I like to monitor her. I don’t know of these are signs of her getting better?
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Eating hay, drinking, moving around, wheeking are all good signs. Can you get the vet to give her a vit c needle injection? Or try feeding red bell pepper. Best vit c source without any risks of bloating
 
Yeah, I am gonna call my vet. Right now she is doing terrible again.
 
Alright, she has passed away. I am calling the vet office and getting my money back. I am mad and saddended. Thank you all for the kind wishes, now all I need is tips for the lonely one.
 
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