hi I'm new here and after a bit of advice. We bought two baby piggies around 10 weeks old just over 2 weeks ago. Both were checked over for any problems at the pet shop and were perfectly fine and healthy. Anyway the other night I was holding Blanche and noticed a little bold patch on her, I took her back to the pet shop along with beryl to be checked and they sent us down to their instore vet who treated them both for mites just in case and gave us some oral drops for Blanche to treat ring worm. This morning beryl who was perfectly fine is all snuffly and sneezy She's eating fine but doesn't seem her usual self she's usually running around chasing and playing with her sister, I'm really worried about her. Has anyone else had this after being treated for mites?
Hi and welcome!
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Please have your girl seen by a vet again as soon as you can. She may have respiratory infection (URI), which needs prompt treatment with an antibiotic as it can kill.
Until you can get hole of a vet, please place a bowl of steaming water next to the cage and keep refreshing it to help ease the breathing.
Weigh her daily at the same time in the feeding cycle (weight can swing about 30g over the course of 24 hours depending on how full tummy and bladder are). If her appetite is muted or goes off completely, you need to step in with syringe feeding promptly to keep the guts going. Up to 80% of the daily food intake is unlimited hay, which is ofen the first food group that is dropped when a piggy is in pain or not well, hence the importance of weighing. Cheap kitchen scales from the supermarket will do.
Ideally you feed little but often round the clock if a piggy is totally off food; with each feed as much as they will take. Make sure that you never give more than a mouthful at once (adjust to size/age), especially with a with respiratory problems, as the last thing that you want to happen is things going down the wrong way (see our guide for the detailed tips and recommendations).
The need to breathe comes before the need to drink and thirdly the need to eat. Your care in a serious illness is as important as the medication to help keep her as fighting fit as possible.
You can use mushed up pellets and get a syringe from a pharmacy. The sooner you can treat, the better the chances of a quick and straight forward recovery!
I am very sorry that you are having a such a steep and expensive learning curve. As exposure to the bacteria that cause URI must have happened at the shop, you can claim any vet cost on them. Like mange mites and fungal (which require repeat treatment to get on top of them), URI is the third most common problem that gets passed around stressed out young shop piggies whose immune system is not yet full developed. The constant upturn of their world coupled with close proximity to other young ones makes them particularly vulnerable. Outbreak of these opportunistic issues takes often up to 10-14 days after infection, so it is often not yet visible when the youngsters are being sold.
Here is more information that you may find helpful:
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
Guinea Lynx :: URI
Guinea Lynx :: Mange Mites
Guinea Lynx :: Fungus
Our guide collection for new owners also contains a section about preparing for and spotting illnesses and what is normal/not normal in guinea pigs.
New Owners' " How To" Starter Kit
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All the best!