Spot under nose.

[Emmamarie123]

Hi everyone my eldest boar Alaska has just been out on pain meds for his arthritis and I have just spotted this spot under his nose. He also suffers with chronic nose discharge problems and is blind in one eye. He has another appointment tomorrow morning to check his pain meds dosage so will mention it then but just wondered what everyone else thinks it could be ?

 

[Wiebke]

Hi everyone my eldest boar Alaska has just been out on pain meds for his arthritis and I have just spotted this spot under his nose. He also suffers with chronic nose discharge problems and is blind in one eye. He has another appointment tomorrow morning to check his pain meds dosage so will mention it then but just wondered what everyone else thinks it could be ?

Hi!

Without a closer hands-on examination, it is difficult to say whether it is just a little, slightly infected scab or some mild cheilitis (lip infection).

All the best for tomorrow!

 

[Emmamarie123]

Hi @Wiebke
Alaska was diagnosed with a chest infection and is on antibiotics. He is on 0.23ml of cat metacam but I only have the dog one, just wondered if you know how much to give him of the dog one.
Thank you

 

[Wiebke]

Hi @Wiebke
Alaska was diagnosed with a chest infection and is on antibiotics. He is on 0.23ml of cat metacam but I only have the dog one, just wondered if you know how much to give him of the dog one.
Thank you

Dog metacam is triple the strength of cat metacam but you can safely give the same amount as the prescribed cat metacam dosage is about as low as your vet could get away with and won't do much.

All the best for a good recovery!

Please contact us asap if you notice loss of a appetite or a drop in weight. Please weigh daily to monitor the food intake; it is an important health monitoring tool during illness.
Weight - Monitoring and Management

Piggies with a respiratory infection are most prone as the need to breathe comes before the need to drink and only thirdly the need to eat. If Alaska happens to be one of the piggies that reacts negatively to baytril then she has to deal with a double whammy and will require syringe feeding support. You can try to bolster the impact of an antibiotic on the gut with a probiotic or poo soup.
You can find illustrated information on support feeding and support products like probiotics in this link here:
Probiotics, Recovery Foods And Vitamin C: Overview With Product Links

 

[Emmamarie123]

Thank you! Will keep weighing him daily

 

[Emmamarie123]

Eating his pellets on mums blanket

 

[Emmamarie123]

We went back to the vets today and little Alaska’s breathing is worse he has also lost weight. The vet thinks we should consider having him put to sleep as she suspects cancer in the lungs. At the moment after much sobbing I am giving him porridge oats and lots of love and hoping he will improve.

 

[Wiebke]

We went back to the vets today and little Alaska’s breathing is worse he has also lost weight. The vet thinks we should consider having him put to sleep as she suspects cancer in the lungs. At the moment after much sobbing I am giving him porridge oats and lots of love and hoping he will improve.

Please step in with syringe feeding top-up and weighing daily.

How piggy savvy is your vet?

 

[Emmamarie123]

She has good experience with guinea pigs. She did say to syringe feed but she thinks that he is a very poorly pig. She still said to wait 2 weeks to see if there is any improvement. She is just very worried about his breathing as it is very heavy now which it wasn’t at the last appointment.

 

[VickiA]

Has he had an X-ray?

 

[Emmamarie123]

Hopefully this week, they are worried about doing an X-ray as he will probably have to be under anaesthetic. Today he has been quite well. Walking down the hall with his friend and eating pellets. (But he hates oats). His chest does sound very bad though. Just going to watch over him and give metacam and syringe some food.

 

[Merab]

Sorry you are having such a rough time.
Holding you in my heart.

When Micah was dependent on syringe feeding I mashed some banana into his Critical Care.
It went down very well

 

[Emmamarie123]

Super happy to say that Alaska is starting to gain weight! He was losing weight but he has put on 15g since 2 days ago! I am obviously still very worried but he is being such a good boy and doing so well! He is also eating his pellets no problem. I still give critical care once in the morning and once at night though. Hope that’s okay?

 

[Nassala]

That's a good sign! If he loses weight again then increase the feeds. You will be able to tell by how his weight is going if you can feed less or not. Hope he continues to improve x