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Strange Convulsions

GuineaPig24

GuineaPig24

Junior Guinea Pig
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Location
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I was casually holding my guinea pig, Guinea, before he started to convulse wildly on my chest.
It was nothing like a seizure, but more of an abdominal tightening.

He arched his back up and tightened all of his gut muscles as hard as he could, kind of resembling a vomiting motion. (Yes, I am aware guinea pigs cannot vomit)

This motion repeated 5-15 times before I got worried and ran to my mom to show her his strange movements. When I set him down, he stopped.

Now he seems fine, albeit a little bit lighter on his feet. He’s happily purring when I pet him and is reacting normally to being pet in various places.

He is extremely old— somewhere between 7-8 years, and has minor health issues but none of them should have caused this.
(I’ll list them out just for safe measure)
- Arthritis in back ankle and hips
- Lipoma in left armpit
- slightly runny eyes and nose (this doesn’t seem to be a sick problem, and I’ve tried to put him on medicine for it, but he strongly dislikes taking it and is much happier without)

Anywho, are there any ideas for why he may have had such awkward convulsions?
 
Pop to the vets just to be sure obviously but it could be a URI especially if with runny nose etc.

However it sounds more like a UTI to me, Iggy convulsed like this when he was having severe urinary problems and he was straining to pee but was in pain. His particular issue was treated as sterile cystitis but it may not be the same thing.

What was he treated for originally for the runny nose? None of my piggies like having medicine and would prefer not to have it but sadly it's got to be done or it'll only get worse.

Hope he feels better soon!
 
Cavy Kung-Fu said:
Pop to the vets just to be sure obviously but it could be a URI especially if with runny nose etc.

However it sounds more like a UTI to me, Iggy convulsed like this when he was having severe urinary problems and he was straining to pee but was in pain. His particular issue was treated as sterile cystitis but it may not be the same thing.

What was he treated for originally for the runny nose? None of my piggies like having medicine and would prefer not to have it but sadly it's got to be done or it'll only get worse.

Hope he feels better soon!
Click to expand...

He’s had this same runny nose since July, and he was orginally treated for a small little cold. The medicine did nothing to help him, and just made him angry with me.

His urine has been relatively normal, too. It’s crunchy and smells bad, but it’s been like that for a long time.

He has been hunching over in the corner of his cage recently, looking angry at the whole world. Now thinking about how odd this behavior is, I’ll look into working up the necessary funds to get him checked by the vet.
 
His urine is crunchy and smells bad? That's the furthest from normal that I've ever heard. It sounds like it could be sediment and he could have a stone that is stopping him from urinating. If this is the case then it needs a vet now because he's in pain and if he can't pass it he could die :(

That's very serious and it sounds like he's been ill for quite some time with various things that aren't normal I'm afraid. I would imagine the medicine he's had is probably very weak baytril so it may be worth looking around for a better vet who can actually diagnose any illness and give the appropriate medicine.

If he's been ill this long it's important to get him seen by a good vet asap, I do hope you can get to the bottom of it soon and he's back to full health again :)
 
Crunchy, foul-smelling urine coupled with sitting hunched and hunching up while being held sounds like potential bladder sludge/bladder stone to me. This can be extremely painful and a workup should be done ASAP to diagnose and to give him pain relief.
 
I fully agree with @Freela ! Please have your boys seen as soon as possible.

A stuck bladder stone is excruciatingly painful. Smelly urine is a sign of a cystitis and crunchy urine points towards bladder sludge/crystals, which are again painful and very irritating to the poor beleaguered bladder walls. This really needs sorting!
 
I spoke to my dad and we are planning to take Guinea to the vet.
I did think that the crunchy pee was weird, but he’s always had white calcium blobs in his pee, so I assumed it was calcium. Plus, he never showed any pain peeing and seemed mostly fine.

I don’t have much money, but I’m willing to scrape together Christmas money to take him
 
@GuineaPig24 I have a pig that does it. You're right in that it does look like they're going to vomit. I think it looks like when a dog is about to be sick.

Thankfully my pig doesn't do it half as much as he used to. It's related to digestive issues. My boy has a very sensitive stomach and certain foods like tomato would make him convulse. I've worked out over time what he can't have.

He did do it a few daya ago and I have no idea why as he hadn't had any other veg. I guess his stomach issues flared up for some reason. I've been giving him probiotics since. I asked the vet about giving him probiotic in these circumstances and they're fine with it. It may not help him massively but it definitely won't harm.
 
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