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Urgent Advice Needed For David Hunched Up/eyes Sunken

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Craig David

Craig David

Teenage Guinea Pig
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Hi everyone

My beloved david is not very well. I noticed last night he was hunched up in the corner, wasn't keen on his veg, ate bits of it and went back under his hidey. Got up this morning, still hunched up in the corner facing the wall eyes sunken in. I took him to the vets straight away, Vet has weighed him hes gone from 1200g to 1000g vet thought it may be dental, they put him under anasestic and checked his teeth, they were fine. Gave him 0.3ml of metacam, no improvement. Nipped home on my dinner hour, hunched up in the corner again.eyes sunken in. Took him back to the vets tonight, Vet has upped painrelief to 0.6ml metacam and has asked me to give same again in morning, He has also given him a shot of anabolic steroid incase of kidney failure. if no improvement by morning he has suggested it may be kinder to put him to sleep. He has said could be arthirutus in his spine and in that case maybe it could be managed with the metacam. However, other possibility could be a tumour. Vet is excellent exotic vet who knows their stuff!

I know theres prob not much advice to be given here but I may be faced with a decision in the morning and I guess I'm just throwing it out there seeing if anyone has had any experience any ideas as I'm confused and really distraught as you can imagine x x
 
thanks wiebke, he has been eating bits of hay and a few nuggets and things, I'm going to go asda shortly and get some favourite veggies see if he shows an interest. he has drank today so he is still showing some interest but then at other points just hunched in the corner eyes sunken x x :-(
 
Craig David said:
thanks wiebke, he has been eating bits of hay and a few nuggets and things, I'm going to go asda shortly and get some favourite veggies see if he shows an interest. he has drank today so he is still showing some interest but then at other points just hunched in the corner eyes sunken x x :-(
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Please consider topping him up with hand feeding and water by syringe; seeing him nibbling on things can be deceiving, as I know from my own experience. the scales don't lie. Your care can make a major difference in getting him through this crisis if it can be got through!
 
So sorry to read this. How old is he? Sending lots of healing vibes, its just the worst when you dont know what you are dealing with. xx
 
I'm so sorry the lovely David is poorly, I haven't really got anything else to add, he is on pain relief which is the most important thing. As Wiebke says you could try hand feeding, but tempting him with his favourite foods is a good idea too. Am assuming the vet didn't find anything with his breathing or any bloat type symptoms?
 
He does sound a poorly boy. The sunken eyes would make me think he is dehydrated. When I have had piggies like this, some sub cut fluids have helped tremendously and really perked them up. Is he pooing and peeing? I really don't like the idea of a guinea pig being given an anabolic steroid.
 
Didn't think of that, I agree with Debbie it sounds like he needs fluids.
 
Just got off the phone to C-D. David has perked up! His eyes are no longer sunken.
Apparently he has a history of this type of "incident" which resolves itself with adequate pain relief.
I will let C-D update on the plan of action following our telecon tonight. - Suffice to say arthiritis (of spine as well as hips/hocks) and urinary/kidneys featured prominently in our discussions along with the use of tramadol or buprecare as an alternative pain relief.
The bottom line however is that even consideration of a decision to PTS tomorrow is no longer relevant at this point in time.
 
Thanks everyone and thanks pebble for your reassurance and fantastic advice as always. For everyone's info david is now 5 so he's no spring chicken.

Woke up this morning and he's still acting normal he's had another shot of 0.6 metacam and is currently eating his breakfast seems to of lost the puffed up hunched over position. Came out last night for his veggies behaving exactly as he normally does very bouncy. I'm going to continue with the 0.6 of metacam for now and he's booked into the vet on Monday I'm going to take it down the x Ray route after discussion with pebble. I'll keep you all posted on this. X
 
Hi Guys


Update from me, spoke to vet this morning to update him on the situation he is happy with progress. Vet suggested we keep him on metacam 0.6ml for 5 days and then stop to see how he gets on. In previous episodes he has had when we have stopped the metacam he has been fine, so I'm hoping this will be the case again, fingers crossed. Vet said when things have calmed down he is happy to get him in to do an x ray so we can have a look at what’s going on. Vet said he checked kidneys when they had him under yesterday and his kidneys felt fine and everything seemed as it should and felt that it was pointing more towards pain in his spine. He also said he couldn’t feel any stone


Anyway we will see how he gets on these next few days. Iv got an appointment booked in for Monday morning just in case we need it. If he is still ok, ill cancel and roll with what the vet has said for now.
 
Hhhm it's been 11 hours since he had his 0.6 ml shot looks to me like he's hunching up again he's been eating but it's when he is still he holds himself in a funny position. He's been facing corner again and it's all come on in the last hour. Going to give him a shot of metacam soon but surely this isn't right ?
 
So sorry to read the above. He sounds a very lucky piggy to have you and a good vet. Wishing you all the best x
 
You need to get the pain relief up to a an appropriate level and then keep that level consistent and constant
I am not surprised the pain relief has worn off 12hours from the last dose.

Metacam is most often prescribed in a once daily dose for most animals however guinea pigs have a faster metabolism
Therefore sometimes this type of once daily dosing regime doesn;t work very effectively when guinea pigs are reliant on quite a high amount of pain relief to function properly. In these case my vet splits the dose and I give a half dose every 12 hours

So - Is the 0.6ml once daily or twice daily? And is this cat or dog metacam?

Obviously you should not alter dosages without first discussing with your vet - however here are some options for your to consider:
If he's meant t have 0.6ml once daily - you could split the dose into 0.3ml twice daily and therefore you could maybe "top up tonight with an additional 0.3ml and then give 0..3ml twice daily from tomorrow and see how he goes.
Alternatively you could adopt the approach that as 0.6ml only lasts 12hours this would mean his overall dose should be 0.6ml twice daily rather than once daily.
HTH
x
 
I was just about to post when yours popped up Pebble. I second splitting the dose, it really can make a difference.

Also wonder if it would be a good idea to do a urine test? I have test sticks I can post if needed.
 
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