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Suspected URI - vet tomorrow :(

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Thank you so much for your support, it;s so appreciated.

He made some horrendous choking noises in the night, after managing some cucumber, and then seemed to struggle to breathe. He was minutes away from going back to the vets, but then seemed to recover again.

Woke up this morning, and he was the same - still, breathing gently, not interested in food. The OH got his meds (baytril) and a syrynge of critical care down him, and then my marvellous mother arrived to help.

I haven't slept much, so whilst I grabbed a kip, she's cleaned the boys out, moved Pickle so he's now next to Branston (separated by grids) and managed to get ten syrynges of critical care into him. He's managed a couple of leaves, and that's where we are.

We're starting to worry that the breathing/URI may be a mask for a dental issue - after his injection last night he was eating quite well for 15-20 minutes.

We've also found a mass of poo under his hay, so at least something is passing through.

He's got dandelions, celery top, dry pellets, water, alfalfa hay, regular hay and cucumber if he wants it, and is due for more syrynges in an hour or so.

Thanks again for the support.
 
Gosh that must have shocked you so much. It is great he is managing to poo. It shows food is passing through his body. Get well soon Pickle.
 
Another five syringes (I've been spelling syringe syrynge for some reason) of CC, and half a dandelion leaf.

He looks brighter, and inquisitive, but still not eating by himself. His eye has also become milky.
 
Further update.

After successful syringing by my mam, we have made the difficult (for me, that is, not for Pickle) decision to move him to hers so he can be looked after 24/7.

I can't take another day off, and the OH is now ill, so it was going to be a hellish next day or two. The worry was wearing me down, too.

So, both he and Branston have gone to the piggy "hospital" and my mam is looking after them for now.

As I left, Pickle just started to eat some grass of his own accord, so fingers crossed for a good night.

I'm going for a sleep, and will find out about my wee man in a bit.

Thank you to my wonderful mam, I don't know what I'd do without you!

Again, thank you to you all for your concerns and care, and all the best for all other sick piggywigs out there.

Wheek x
 
aww I'm sorry too, i bet you will miss them both, but you need to look after yourself too.

Fingers crossed your little fella pulls through it all x
 
All paws crossed here still for Pickle and what a lovely mum xx>>>
Sure she will do a grand job caring for him and Branston, keep us updated please when you can and you take care - no one is ever alone on here x>>
Hugs x
 
Thank you so much again, all your kind wishes are being passed on to our little battler!

I am genuinely sure that we cannot do any more for him right now. He's safe, warm, comfortable, not in any obvious pain, he's got food and water, medicine and a comfy spot to plonk, and his best friend with him. Oh, and a wonderful nurse.

It's up to him now. Come on Pickley - chops.

Thank you again for your wishes x
 
Well, the nursing is slowly having an effect we think.

He's managing his meds, his critical care and his crushed dry, and now he's managing small amounts of greenery.

Not safe yet, though, as he's showing possible signs of a dental problem with his chewing. Am going to visit shortly, will know more then.
 
Well, here we go... some (very cautious) optimism!

Pickle ate some greenery tonight, and went looking for more. He ate it by himself, without any difficulty, and plenty of it.

Still not eating hay, though, and although he's producing poo, it;s small, sticky and requires occasional cleaning out.

Still, more positivies, though, as he's looking brighter, alert, inquisitive and his eyes look clearer.

We have also been able to observe greedy-pig Branston eating, and realised that Pickle may not have been getting his full rations in the past, as Branston is a complete hoover, whereas Pickle is a bit slower. So this is all good to know for the future.

Once again, thank you so much for the incredible efforts of the guinea nurse, and for all the wishes of support.

Will be getting an update tomorrow. Everything crossed.
 
This is all sounding much better and a typical description of a guinea recovering with good supportive care. Well done!

Is he receiving daily gut stimulants or did he just have the one injection? It might be worth disucssing with HH about putting him on oral gut stimulants for a few days (most partcularly ranitidine rather than metoclop or emeprid) just to keep things moving in his hind gut. The increase in amount of syringe food is definitely helping with his poos (it takes 24hours for what went in to appear out the other end) and you might see his poos alternate between mushy/ill-formed to small, dry with stringy bits whilst his gut is still trying to re-establish a smooth rhythm following the interruption to his food supply. The more food you put in him, the better his poos will start to look (24 hours later)

As for possible teeth problems - poorly Maple had his teeth done and didn;t eat ANY hay although he was syringe fed. It took two weeks with absolutely no hay for his teeth to overgrow and given Pickle first presented with problems on 15th and allowing for a few days before that when he might have reduced his eating.......I think you can leave it a couple more days before worrying about a dental exam.

Most important is to give the guinea nurse a big hug so she keeps getting those syringe fees down him at regular intervals.

Be careful about the type of greenery you feed him as given his gut problems he may have a tendancy to develop gas. Best to keep away from brassicas, beans and spinach. Fresh grass is the best thing as if he was developing toothie problems it is easy to pick up and provides the right type of roughage to start wearing those teeth down again. Also cucumber (if necessary cut into long thin baton strips) to keep up his fluid intake. Dandelions are also good - and how he handles those will give you a good indication of whether there are inded any problems going on in his mouth.

Keeping fingers and paws crossed but like you, cautiously optimistic.

x
 
I'm the piggy nurse (aka NotFondOfCarrots mum!) and just wanted to do a quick post to say a Huge Thank You to everyone for your best wishes, support and great advice (Pebble - found your last post really helpful, thank you). xx>>>

Pickle is continuing with his syringe feeds but is more interested in the fresh stuff although he still hasn't eaten any hay. He seems to prefer to sit on my knee to eat his grass and dandelions, so we got ourselves comfy and caught up with 'The Great British Bake Off' whilst he slowly ate his food. It seems to go in ok but he just eats slowly compared to other piggies.

Please continue to keep fingers crossed for him and thanks again everyone x
 
I'm so caught up with this little fella and thrilled he is in such good hands, very well done xx>>>
Really hope Pickle continues to recover and sending lots of gentle hugs and healing vibes :laluot_29:
 
You're all so lovely, thank you. I'm sure the piggy grapevine and all these wheeks of support are helping him along!

I'm collecting more critical care tomorrow, and hopefully we can get him eating hay soon.

Thanks so much again to you all, the support is really helping, and the advice is wonderful. And thanks to my mam!

I'll update again soon.
 
OMG i've just caught up with this thread.......

HUGE HEALING VIBES AND SPECIAL LOVES FOR PICKLE FROM VELVET ONYX AND ME XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

This is all way to familiar to me, but i'll tell you that it's sounding like you're starting to take little steps forward! x)
Keep offering the hay, cut it up into small pieces, try offering different pieces too i found some days the long plain bits were the fav and other times anything that was like a dried dandelion or other 'hairy' bits were the fav.
Good ole poop soup is another thing that is really helpful. I'm sure Branston wont mind supplying some, then mix them with some water and syringe feed to Pickle or if he'll eat one whole that's fine. Sounds gross but it does help! If Pickle doesn't like just keep up with the probiotics.

HUGS FOR YOU ALL XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 
Thank you Glynis! Pickle and I really appreciated your lovely message!

Little update...

After Pickle had made a steady, slow progress, I decided to call the vets to ask their opinion. They agreed - if Pickle was alert, bright and eating, then we should postpone his catch-up appointment for a couple of days, and see how he is then.

As it stands, he is still very much up and down. He has now completed a 7-day course of baytril (14 doses), and has continued to be syringe fed critical care and mashed dry for five days. He is eating (slowly) grass, dandelions and other small bits, but still not to his usual extent, and he still hasn't touched any hay.

His poo is still very small, with the occasional clumped-together bundle, and he has regained a little of his voice - some mild wheeking and burring, along with a little teeth gnashing.

When he is out in his cosy/on the table, he's bright, alert, actively seeks food and tries to reject the critical care, and then tucks into his grass/dandelion mix, but then back in his cage he goes back into a subdued, slumped piggy. He looks distinctly "meh".

So, we have decided that as his breathing now seems to have returned to normal, and he's trying to eat of his own accord, that as he has completed the prescribed week of antibiotics, that we will now have Sunday and Monday without Baytril, and see what it does to his appetite. He will still be syringed and monitored. Unless anyone thinks this is a bad idea?

He's due to see the vet on Monday. Hopefully he discovers a more significant interest in the hay before then.

Once again, your help, advice, wheeks and support have been wonderful and inspiring, so thank you again to you all x x x
 
Aww poor baby not being able to eat much. He does sound a lot better though which is great to hear. At least he has found his voice.xx>>>
 
oooops meant to add....... syringing wont hurt at all!
Keep up fluids and make sure he's getting enough food via syringe per day (120mls is required to maintain weight) and keep offering food and hand feeding.

You're doing fab love XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 
Update on little Pickley-chops...

He deteriorated further over the weekend sadly, and was refusing his syringes. His appetite was now almost non-existent, and he was looking less and less healthy.

He then began to whimper when weeing, and on further inspection he had a dried sperm rod an inch long stuck. After some (delicate) removal and care, his relief was obvious, he stopped whimpering, and seemed to pick up again.

Then, unfortunately, he took another downturn. It was now pointing towards a dental issue - he couldn't eat - he was wanting to, but his body language was suggesting he couldn't or wouldn't. It was very very strange.

So, off to the vets he went. After a thorough check-up and assessment of his appetite and overall health, the vet checked his teeth, and there were some sores and slight molar spurs.

He went in for an operation the next day, to remove the spurs. The op went fine, and the nurse advised that he was eating when he came round.

After a couple of good days, where he seemed to be slowly eating, and seemed more and more alert, we arrive at today, and he's in a very poor way.

His post-op check up was due, but earlier today he took another downturn, and was returning to his breathing problems (which we thought the baytril had eliminated).

As we arrived at the vets, he began to get agitated and worked up, and was restless - he couldn't sit in one place in his box, and wouldn't stop trying to get out. His breathing became ever-more heavy, and an awful teeth-grinding sound was coming out of him. His eye also became bloodshot. It was heartbreaking to see. We saw the nurse & vet, and after further assessment, it now looks bleak for the little man.

It could be a return of the original issue, or it could be pneumonia, which may have been caused by him accidentally taking some syringe-fed food into his windpipe/lungs. It looks like he may have been over-fed/full by syringe feeding, which has led to him not wanting to eat normal food. The tooth-gnashing is apparantly an expression of pain or discomfort. It also now looks possible that all the symptoms may have another, underlying cause - a heart/cardiac problem.

To my eyes, when he's resting, he looks like he's just run up a hill when you look at his breathing and demeanour. IT could be that he has an enlarged heart, had a small cardiac issue or other problem, which has caused the breathing (and not a URI) and the subsequent lack of appetite has led to the mild overgrowth of teeth - as the assessment of the vet seems to indicate that the teeth, although slightly overgrown, were not the initial cause.

He calmed down a lot in the car, and his breathing returned to normal.

As we stand, he is at home, resting. He's warm, cosy, has food if he wants it and will be receiving pain relief, baytril and a probiotic and a small dose of food in the morning, and we shall see where he is then.

Going through the wringer/emotional rollercoaster doesn't even describe the last 10 days. It's awful to see him lurch up and down from health to not well at all - but throughout all the vets trips, feeds, meds, poking and examinations, he has been as good as gold as you could ask for, and has continued to be a little fighter.

Hopefully this next 48 hour period will see him come through.

Thanks again for all the good wishes & wheeks x
 
Oh poor little baby. He sounds like he is very uncomfortable. What a worrying time for you. I really hope he can pick up and pull through this. Come on little one.
 
I'm so very sorry to hear this....because it did feel like he had turned a corner (before the forum went down)

We have had guineas recover from suspected food aspiraton although it has been an agressive therapy of septrin, fruseamide and syringe feeding....plus pain relief - which can include both metacam (for it;s anti-infalmmatory properties) and tramadol (good pain relief for certain issues)

The sprerm rod issue is possibly a result of his teeth problem so he has been unable to remove it (have had this with one of my dental guineas)

Keep at it - so many times my guineas have surprised me on their powers of recovery when it all seems so bleak - provided i diligently give them the syringe food and meds.....and they still want to eat.

Keeping all paws crossed for Pickle.

x
 
Thank you both.

Tomorrow and Saturday are going to be crucial I think.

I'm scaling the syringing right back to see if he does eat by himself. If not, he's back on it.

The painkiller, baytril and probiotic will be going in first.

I just hope it's something that he can recover from. As long as he is not in discomfort and has a fight for life, I want to give him every chance possible.
 
Our little man stopped running today.

Despite the wonderful efforts of my mam, dad, the vets and my OH, Pickle sadly took another downwards turn, and his very brave little fight came to an end. It became obvious that he'd had enough, so we had to do what was right by him, and he was pts.

We've gone over the decision a hundred times, and cannot come to any other conclusion than it being the correct thing to do for him, and he's now no longer suffering.

Once again to all those of you who sent wishes, advice and wheeks, I can't tell you how much your support has meant to us - thank you so much.

It has been a very difficult day. In fact, a very difficult two weeks. Goodbye little Pickle x

552702_10151082479337379_1529185072_n.jpg
 
So sorry, I have only just discovered this thread and read through it from the start, what a sad end to a hopeful story. You did everything you could do for him and hopefully you can take some heart from the fact Pickles is now at peacex
 
oh sweets, I'm so sorry, you gave him such a big chance, but sometimes its just their time...

Rip Pickle, sleep well beautiful.

Thinking of you x
 
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