• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Unknow Blindness in my Guinea Pig

  • Thread starter Thread starter Piggie
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
P

Piggie

My guinea pig (Piggie/Molly) is only about a year old. Within the last few days she has started acting odd. My daughter Chris said that she was shedding so my youngest who is 16 and an aspiring vet checked on her she noticed Piggie wasn't being her usual self. She was staying cooped in her small house and not running around the cage as she did every time when you wanted to hold her. Jess, my 16 year old, said she felt thin and was shedding very much. She has gotten worse and I am very worried. She hasn't been eating unless we feed her by hand but then she only munches. We also got her to drink 2 droppers full of water when we got home but other then that she has barely touched her water bottle. When we came home tonight Jess got her out of her cage and her eye was cloudy and seemed to be having a slight discharge. She has always had slightly watery eyes but not like they have been the last few days. She has attempted to drink on her own but very seldomly. We fear she has gone blind and may have had a stroke...We love her very much and don't want to loose are little Piggie. We have not been able to find a guinea pig vet near our home and haven't been able to check due to it being Easter weekend. Any help from the forum would be very much appreciated by me and my girls.
 
Get some diabetic sticks from th chemist and check the urine. I had a similar situation with Eaton who now has cateracts. We picked up the problem early and managed to control it for about a year with glicazide tablets desolved in water. Make sure the surface is spotlessly clean so not to get a false reading.
We had Eaton nueatered when we got Honey, the diabeties went with his manhood! Although he is now visually challenged, his eys have improved a bit but it certainly has not spoilt his life.
 
Piggie

Shedding = losing weight or casting her coat?

If it's weight, get hand feeding now. Pellet slurry (regular food add boiling water til mushy, allow to cool) and dose with a 1ml syringe. Little and often or as much as she'll take. It's urgent.

And see a vet, soon as.
 
Best have her seen by a proper, specialist exotics vet as soon as possible! If necessary, you can get an emergency number from your vet's answering machine.

Mush up pellets in water and feed her that to keep her going. Make sure that she drinks.

Until she is out of the woods, monitor her weight daily (normal should be once a week).

Some of the sympoms coincide with that of upper respiratory tract infection as well.

Here are a few links that you might find helpful, but they do not replace an urgent vet visit!
http://www.guinealynx.info/hairloss.html
http://www.guinealynx.info/eyes.html
http://www.guinealynx.info/links.html#diabetes
http://www.guinealynx.info/uri.html
 
Welcome to the forum, I am sorry to hear Molly is not doing well!

There are a few thoughts that come to mind in terms of possible causes of her condition, of which I have to say stroke/blindness is fairly low on the list as there are a few simpler possibilities (going by what you have described); always best to start with the basics and work up from there. Diabetes is a possibility also but I would suspect that the symptoms have shown too suddenly; from what I understand, symptoms in diabetic guinea pigs tend to be a little more slow-building and long-term.

There are a couple of things you really do need to start doing to stop her deteriorating quite as rapidly:

1. Syringe-feeding - you should be able to find Oxbow Critical Care, a syringe-feeding preparation for herbivores, a vet or pet stores will stock it. She needs at least 60ml per day, split between at least 4-6 feedings, each one a few hours apart to mimic her natural eating habits. Also give a Vitamin C supplement or veggies high in Vitamin C blended in with the syringe-feeds.
2. Fluids - important as dehydration can seriously affect the condition of a guinea pig.
3. Weigh her daily - keep a track of her weight so you can see how much she is losing in what period of time. If she is not maintaining her weight, then she needs her syringe-feeds increasing.

I would ask a vet to check the teeth - molars especially, no anaesthetic needed. A symptom breakdown makes things a little easier to see why she's having certain problems and will help you see what you can do about them:

Not eating - almost any illness can lead to this symptom;
Weight loss - due to not eating;
Shedding - vitamin deficiency due to not eating, or perhaps mites, even dehydration;
Cloudy eye with discharge - may be injury, could be related to a skin problem (mites), can also be related to dental problems. Sunken eyes can indicate dehydration.

The underlying cause will have to be determined by a vet but it may be something fairly simple, such as a dental problem.

There's a list of recommended (guinea pig experienced) vets in Illinois here, if any fo them are close enough to you? A good vet is worth their weight in gold:
http://www.guinealynx.info/cabinet/index.php/Veterinarians_Illinois

Fingers crossed for Molly. xx
 
still nothing

thank you for everything the only problem is me dont have the money for anything.
 
If you really cannot afford to treat Molly, then it's in the best interests of her to surrender her to somebody who can. I am sorry to be harsh as I know you love her very much, but it will be far less painful to give her up to someone who can treat her than to watch her die. Sometimes a veterinary surgery will allow you to sign the animal over and they then pass the animal onto a rescue centre when the animal is fit. It has to be better for Molly than doing nothing, and I am sure that, as you do love her, you want what is best for her.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top