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Update - Roundworms found

Clare King

New Born Pup
Joined
Jul 12, 2014
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Location
Cheshire
Hello all...just wanted to give you an update of a situation that I’ve written about for the last 2 years.

This was 2019 -
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/uti-kidneys-stroke-bloat.168955/

and this was 2020 -
Specialist - Reoccurrence

well..approximately 3 weeks ago all was ok with Bella but her sister Rosie was very unwell with bladder issues and had been deteriorating over Christmas and then she had developed another stone so we made the decision to have Rosie pts. Bella and Barney had gone to the vets with Rosie so our vet checked them both before I collected them. Bella on the 20th Jan weighed 1400g.
Over the next week or so I noticed that Bella was quieter in herself and not eating as well but put it down to the loss of Rosie because despite being typically bickering sows I think they did have a close bond. Bella’s appetite didn’t pick up and she was starting to feel noticeably thinner so we started syringe feeding and I took her back to the vets last Wednesday. Emily (vet) gave her a thorough check over and could find nothing amiss apart from minimal gut sounds which wasn’t surprising due to lack of eating. She had lost 200g in weight though which I’m sure you’ll agree is significant in just 2 weeks. I explained to Emily how we’d had this sort of behaviour for the past 2 years and that it still niggled at me that worms could be the cause but I knew how daft that sounded especially as our pigs don’t have access to grass as our garden is all gravel.
Emily agreed that worms in pigs are extremely rare but as Bella had done 3 small poos whilst she’d been checked over then it would only take a few minutes to do a faecal float to just check so we decided to do it.

10 mins later and Emily came out to tell me that the faecal float had shown that Bella had roundworms and showed me a picture of one! To say I was stunned is an understatement...Bella’s worm burden must lie dormant every year and then around spring (or even possibly when stressed?) start to come out in her gut. I’ve no idea how long she has had this burden...she has been with us for 3 1/2 years and as I say has had no outside grazing in that time as we don’t have any so has only had hay so I presume she picked the worms up from her previous home?
Bella (and Barney) are now on a 5 day course of Panacur and we will then do another poo test in 2 - 3 weeks time to see if we have cleared the worms. Bella is starting to eat more but I think the effect that the panacur is having on her gut is possibly uncomfortable so I’ve got her on a large dose of Metacam to feel better. She finished the panacur tonight so hopefully she’ll start to feel more comfortable soon. Barney doesn’t seem phased by the panacur which is a relief.
Anyway, just wanted to update you all on what we think has been the cause of Bella’s strange but very unpleasant symptoms over the last few years and thankfully should their reoccur then we have a way of dealing with them.
We do give our pigs Xeno 450 every 3 months to just keep on top of possible mites from the hay but that’s not been enough to eradicate worms. I did give them all their last dose in mid January but it didn’t stop the worms from emerging.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thank you for the update. I’m glad you finally got to the bottom of it.

What I would say is that you don’t preventatively treat mites. This can lead to parasites building up resistance. You don’t want that to happen as that can cause issues when you really do have to treat them.
 
Thank you for the update. I’m glad you finally got to the bottom of it.

What I would say is that you don’t preventatively treat mites. This can lead to parasites building up resistance. You don’t want that to happen as that can cause issues when you really do have to treat them.
Thank you so much..I worded that wrongly...I should have said that we probably end up giving them xeno / ivermectin about 3/4 times a year so as soon as we see them becoming more itchy / scratchy and I’m an allergic horror so as soon as I start getting itchy lumps when I’m handling them then it normally indicates that they need treating. I’ve had / been around horses for years so unfortunately know all about the horrors that parasite resistance can bring and it’s probably what caused my old horse to have encysted red worm
 
It’s still not a good idea to treat preventatively when it comes to piggies. Hope the worm treatment does the job soon.
 
Wow, Clare, that is a fascinating read. Worms are always bottom of my list of considerations, it as all of ours are rescues , we have no idea what they have been exposed to before surrender. Hope Bella is ok now xx
 
Wow, Clare, that is a fascinating read. Worms are always bottom of my list of considerations, it as all of ours are rescues , we have no idea what they have been exposed to before surrender. Hope Bella is ok now xx
They absolutely would have been for me too...it was purely the fact that I had Charlie previously and even though he was a horse, he and Bella had some very similar situations. I wish now that I’d pushed my ‘hunch’ last year but with our new vet and lockdown then it didn’t seem appropriate. I said to Emily that Cristian would probably have thought me crazy. Emily said exactly the same, that worms would not have come to her immediately but it was very interesting that it turned out that she had them. It also helped that she’d seen and weighed Bella 2 weeks ago so we had a good comparison of how much change there was. Fingers crossed that she’ll improve now and we have the panacur to help should her symptoms reoccur.
 
Hello all...just wanted to give you an update of a situation that I’ve written about for the last 2 years.

This was 2019 -
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/uti-kidneys-stroke-bloat.168955/

and this was 2020 -
Specialist - Reoccurrence

well..approximately 3 weeks ago all was ok with Bella but her sister Rosie was very unwell with bladder issues and had been deteriorating over Christmas and then she had developed another stone so we made the decision to have Rosie pts. Bella and Barney had gone to the vets with Rosie so our vet checked them both before I collected them. Bella on the 20th Jan weighed 1400g.
Over the next week or so I noticed that Bella was quieter in herself and not eating as well but put it down to the loss of Rosie because despite being typically bickering sows I think they did have a close bond. Bella’s appetite didn’t pick up and she was starting to feel noticeably thinner so we started syringe feeding and I took her back to the vets last Wednesday. Emily (vet) gave her a thorough check over and could find nothing amiss apart from minimal gut sounds which wasn’t surprising due to lack of eating. She had lost 200g in weight though which I’m sure you’ll agree is significant in just 2 weeks. I explained to Emily how we’d had this sort of behaviour for the past 2 years and that it still niggled at me that worms could be the cause but I knew how daft that sounded especially as our pigs don’t have access to grass as our garden is all gravel.
Emily agreed that worms in pigs are extremely rare but as Bella had done 3 small poos whilst she’d been checked over then it would only take a few minutes to do a faecal float to just check so we decided to do it.

10 mins later and Emily came out to tell me that the faecal float had shown that Bella had roundworms and showed me a picture of one! To say I was stunned is an understatement...Bella’s worm burden must lie dormant every year and then around spring (or even possibly when stressed?) start to come out in her gut. I’ve no idea how long she has had this burden...she has been with us for 3 1/2 years and as I say has had no outside grazing in that time as we don’t have any so has only had hay so I presume she picked the worms up from her previous home?
Bella (and Barney) are now on a 5 day course of Panacur and we will then do another poo test in 2 - 3 weeks time to see if we have cleared the worms. Bella is starting to eat more but I think the effect that the panacur is having on her gut is possibly uncomfortable so I’ve got her on a large dose of Metacam to feel better. She finished the panacur tonight so hopefully she’ll start to feel more comfortable soon. Barney doesn’t seem phased by the panacur which is a relief.
Anyway, just wanted to update you all on what we think has been the cause of Bella’s strange but very unpleasant symptoms over the last few years and thankfully should their reoccur then we have a way of dealing with them.
We do give our pigs Xeno 450 every 3 months to just keep on top of possible mites from the hay but that’s not been enough to eradicate worms. I did give them all their last dose in mid January but it didn’t stop the worms from emerging.

Hi!

I am very sorry for your loss.

Thank you for the update. Worms in guinea pigs are rather rare, especially in indoors piggies so they are not the first place to look for any vet or owner; we usually don't see more than perhaps one case, if that, on here in a year.

But such a relief for you to have finally got to the bottom of it! Panacur should hopefully do the trick as it is the standard treatment for any worms.
Unfortunately, our rescue adoptees can occasionally come with some stowaways from bad times that show their hand only when the immune system is lowered. :(

@PigglePuggle is our parasite specialist and may find this thread interesting.
 
Very interesting read. I remember when Odin had Giardia infection (gosh. It really does sound like he had everything when I comment on here)!.
Again rare, but most likely from an awful breeder! A course of Panacur, gut motility drugs and lots of syringe feeding helped him through. He was very young at the time.

so sorry to hear about Rosie. Hope Bella and Barney continue to do well 💕
 
I am so sorry to hear of the loss of Rosie.
When my pigs had Giardia and worms the vet told me they may have come from the grass they eat but equally they could have come from the breeder in one of them and then been passed on, we will never know!
 
Thank you @eileen, @piggieminder, @Bradshaw Piggies and @Wiebke, your kind words and thoughts are very much appreciated. I’m glad that this thread may be of interest and use, i know when i use the forum to gain info then updates are always useful. I completely agree with you that with rescue pigs then unfortunately we never know their history so never quite know what we are taking on when we adopt them. I think that fortunately having lovely vets who are interested in guinea pigs and who are willing to listen and not dismiss our thinking is probably one of the most helpful things in helping our piggies. I’ll update this in a couple of weeks when we do the next faecal test to see if the worm burden has gone.
 
I hope you manage to eradicate the worms and it is the end of your problems. 2 weeks of Panacur and daily cage deep cleaning was the answer for us. I think I went a bit over the top with the cleaning to be honest but I wanted to be sure everything was gone once and for all. Was afraid of the humans getting Giardia as well!
 
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