Clare King
New Born Pup
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.
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.
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