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Signs Of Illness

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Piggly

Adult Guinea Pig
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My old boar Eddie (about 5 years 4 months) is showing signs of being poorly, more than usual. He has had suspected renal failure to some degree for several months (not confirmed) and so has been quite a heavy drinker and lost weight gradually. He feels like a bag of bones these days. Today I notice he has small poops, though appears to have a good appetite, and has been hunched up facing the corner the last two times I've been to see them. He has been getting sores on his feet suggesting he has been sat still for long periods of time in wee patches. He has also been drifting off and closing his eyes every few seconds which is not like him at all.

I'm in north devon and there are no piggy savvy vets on the vet locator. I'm heading back to Swansea tomorrow.

Can anyone advise please?
 
My first thought is whether he has been checked for heart problems. It can cause weight loss, bumblefoot and make them lethargic so they stay in one place most of the time. Is his breathing laboured? Does he look like he is nodding?

Doesn't fit in with the drinking more though.
 
Hmm.. he hasn't actually ever been checked for this specifically, but a vet has listened to his chest a couple of times in the last few months and not mentioned anything. Well the drinking is not massively excessive, but its noticeably more than average. He does have small poos as well though?
 
Forgot to add - his breathing seems ok and he doesn't nod as such. His eyes just close and he stays still.
 
It was just a thought really but something to ask the vet about. The small poos could be related to him eating less maybe. It sounds like he could be in some element of pain though if he is hunched up, is there a vet you can go to when you go back to Swansea? If he deteriorates tonight though he will need to see the emergency vet in Devon.
 
Poor lad. Definitely a vets visit. The small poo's can be a sign of the gut slowing down also... Let us know how he gets on at vets, love to Eddie.
 
Thankyou all, very helpful thoughts to mention to the vets! I think I will try to get a saturday appointment at st james in swansea for him, he is coping fairly well currently and eating and drinking so its not an emergency.

@helen105281 I have read that heart problems can relate to kidney problems, so whether he could have one or both is something to consider.

@Teddybear22 No sign of either, hopefully its not diabetes!
 
I think I have heard that too. Let me know if you need any more information.
 
I would talk to the vet about getting an Xray done to check firstly for stones/sludge (including kidney stones) and secondly to look at his heart and the size of it in relation to his ribcage.

Useful thread on guinea lynx here about heart pigs and half way down under the case studies are links to Xray images showing pigs with heart disease
http://www.guinealynx.info/heart.html
 
It's down to the individual vet.....it's not just whether the pig can sit motionless but also whether he will lie on his side for the view best needed to see if there are stones in the ureter or urethra. Most pigs can;t lie on their sides hence why vets Xray under GA. For Xrays vets tend to put them out using a whiff of gas not the full injection anaesthetic requiring reversal (which is the one that tends to cause the problems with piggies).

My vet has XRayed and taken bloods from several of my frail elderly piggies (including heart pigs) with no problem using the whiff of gas method.

If you;re going back to Swansea - best bet is to go to St James and try to see Lance or Geraint (cardiologist) at whichever practice they are at tomorrow or saturday.

HTH
x
 
Sorry to hear Eddie is unwell - I agree with what everyone else has suggested here but just thought Id mention that the small poos could be connected to his renal failure (if he does indeed have this and not something else). When Tango's kidney failure presented itself the first symptoms were tiny poo and discomfort when passing them.

I hope you can get some answers soon.
 
Hes got an appointment at st james in swansea tomorrow at 11am. @Pebble he wont be seeing Lance as hes only in that branch on Wednesday, but I'll be armed with plenty of information in any case. Just noticed you're in surrey - Lance does a monthly surgery somewhere there doesn't he?
 
The outcome was pretty much what I expected - the culprit is almost certainly kidney failure. I already knew he had something like this for the best part of a year, but its only now starting to cause him discomfort. He will be on metacam for foreseeable future, and baytril for 7 days in case there is any lingering cystitis which he had a few months ago. I've got a wee stick to check his wee for any sign of blood too. Teeths have been checked and look good, and no signs of any masses in him. The small poops are related to dehydration from the kidney failure. There are no signs of heart failure so that is great news! She thinks its possible he has a touch of arthritis which the metacam would help anyway.

Monty had a quick check while he was there as its good to take advantage of opportunities for checking their health! He got a clean bill of health and an official diagnosis of 'chubby tummy' haha.
 
At least you know what is going on now. Hopefully the Metacam will keep him comfortable.
 
huge hugs to you, I have just lost my renal piggy today and she was on daily metacam for the last couple of weeks as she was doing a lot of what you describe (sitting in her own urine or possible incontinence, hunching up, small poo's etc). Sending strength to your boy
 
Oh I'm sorry to hear it's the diagnosis you feared. You will just have to take every day as it comes and try not to put a number on his days. When Tango's renal faillure was diagnosed we still had about two months with him and with pain management he still lived a great life until the day came.

You might want to look at tramadol as an alternative to metacam as prolonged metacam use can put more stress on the kidneys. Tango was on tramadol, glucosamine, fibreplex to sort his poo out again and metacam as well at the very end.

Hugs to you and your little chap.
 
Tbag said:
Oh I'm sorry to hear it's the diagnosis you feared. You will just have to take every day as it comes and try not to put a number on his days. When Tango's renal faillure was diagnosed we still had about two months with him and with pain management he still lived a great life until the day came.

You might want to look at tramadol as an alternative to metacam as prolonged metacam use can put more stress on the kidneys. Tango was on tramadol, glucosamine, fibreplex to sort his poo out again and metacam as well at the very end.

Hugs to you and your little chap.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I was worrying that the metacam was damaging, so I will enquire about getting some tramadol. Do they get many side effects from tramadol?

What was the glucosamine for? Did he have fibreplex because he was eating less?
 
Piggly said:
Hugs to you too :( My sympathies. How long had she had it for? What dose of metacam did she have? X
Click to expand...

She was diagnosed with renal in August 2013 at the same time as having ovarian cysts. The cysts went but came back in December along with an abscess. We knew the last couple of weeks were near the end so she was on 0.25ml metacam with the vet telling me up to 0.5ml was acceptable if she still seemed to be in pain on the lower dose.
 
A lot of vets have an aversion to prescribing tramadol as pain relief for guinea pigs because, as an opiate, it THEORETICALLY has the potential to slow down the gut movement.
In Cats and dogs this is not so bad (being carnivores) , but in guinea pigs who are herbivores with a much more extensive length of intestines, there is a worry it can contribute to gut stasis.

My extremely experienced and reputable exotic vets now routinely prescibes tramadol vs metacam for my pigs now. for PURELY pain relief. We have never had a stasis problem related directly to Tramadol (ill and in-pain piggies who don;t eat develop stasis anyway regardless - often it is attributed to e.g. baytril or whatever drug..but the condition was already there!) and Tramadol is a far better/effective pain reliever than metacam (which has the added issue of long term usage affecting kidney function and is therefore obviously a concern for urinary pigs).

However, Metacam is not just a pain reliever - it has anti-inflammatory properties which tramadol doesn't, If there is inflammation in the bladder or other areas, that wcould still warrant its prescription.

The fact is - You can give both - they are not contraindicated....My vets frequently do that here chez Pebble. We use Tramadol for pain relief and add in metacam purely for its ant-inflammatory properties.

HTH
x
 
He was on glucosamine (human tablet ground up and diluted in 4ml water - 1ml given per day) to help line his bladder and ease the discomfort. It's particularly good for cystitis.

The fibreplex was given to help get his poop regular again and as a general boost really to keep him stable whilst on all the meds.

We syringe fed him water (with very very diluted smoothie or juice as an incentive if needed) to keep things flushing through (he also had a lot of stones/sludge as a result of the kidney faillure). And to try keep his weight up he got daily portions of oats, banana and baby corn.

This is his thread if it's of any use:
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/small-poos-and-possible-difficulty-passing.118512/
 
I have spoken to exotics vet today about the urine test results and what to do for medication at the moment. She thinks theres a possibility the stick doesn't show any real results, and to hold on with 7 days of baytril and metacam for now. I will review his condition on saturday by taking him off both, and see if I can possibly take a wee sample to the vets.
 
Good news so far - hes a bit brighter and has much bigger poops now! He still sits still from time to time but doesn't seem to have much pain. Its normally when hes pooping hes a bit hunched, but that might be his poor muscle tone as he can't push them out all the way! He's up 40g to 914g :)
 
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