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Urgh Yet Another Sick Piggie!

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Cat&ThePiggies

Cat&ThePiggies

Adult Guinea Pig
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I have another sick piggie....does it ever end?!

I noticed a little lump on Patch's tummy but it wasn't causing him any pain when I touched it and hasn't grown any bigger. Then yesterday, I took Patch out for a cuddle and noticed that his fur on his tummy has thinned out a lot. I've had a good look at his skin and can't see anything...no dandruff and the fur isn't coming out in clumps or anything.

He's still eating and drinking but he has lost a bit of weight.

Going to phone the vets first thing tomorrow to get him seen. Just can't work out what on earth is wrong with him.....hopefully the vet can!

Here's a pic of the hair loss.

PatchTummy.jpg
 
I noticed my piggy Dobby had thinning hair and bald patches on her belly. I watched her closely over the next few days and found she was chewing off her own hair!

It would be best to bring him to the vet, especially because of the weight loss
 
Cat&ThePiggies said:
I have another sick piggie....does it ever end?!

I noticed a little lump on Patch's tummy but it wasn't causing him any pain when I touched it and hasn't grown any bigger. Then yesterday, I took Patch out for a cuddle and noticed that his fur on his tummy has thinned out a lot. I've had a good look at his skin and can't see anything...no dandruff and the fur isn't coming out in clumps or anything.

He's still eating and drinking but he has lost a bit of weight.

Going to phone the vets first thing tomorrow to get him seen. Just can't work out what on earth is wrong with him.....hopefully the vet can!

Here's a pic of the hair loss.


What hapened to the guinea pig. is he ok .Thanks
Click to expand...
 
HairlessWillow7 said:
I noticed my piggy Dobby had thinning hair and bald patches on her belly. I watched her closely over the next few days and found she was chewing off her own hair!

It would be best to bring him to the vet, especially because of the weight loss
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm hoping that's just the case. He does groom himself a lot but I can't be 100% sure, especially as I'm out to work between 7am and 4.30pm Monday to Friday. I've been watching him a lot today but haven't seen him chewing the fur on his tummy. Then, if he is doing it, he could be doing it when he's in his pigloo.

I'm going to phone the vets first thing tomorrow morning. Hopefully manage to get an appointment for tomorrow evening or Tuesday evening.
 
Got an appointment at the vets tomorrow at 5.30pm. Will update after the appointment.
 
Awwww! :( I'm so sorry to hear that patch is ill, they seem to come ill all at once dont they? :( Hope Patch is okay and its nothing to serious, send lots of "hugs* and *chin rubs* Patch's way xxxxxxxxxx
 
Sending Patchy lots and lots of wheeeeeeky loves from the girls and gentle nose kiss from me XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 
AudioHeart said:
Awwww! :( I'm so sorry to hear that patch is ill, they seem to come ill all at once dont they? :( Hope Patch is okay and its nothing to serious, send lots of "hugs* and *chin rubs* Patch's way xxxxxxxxxx
Click to expand...

It just seems to be one thing after another at the moment with my boys. Hopefully it's something easy to treat.

Patch says thank you for the hugs and chin rubs.

x
 
Glynis said:
Sending Patchy lots and lots of wheeeeeeky loves from the girls and gentle nose kiss from me XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Click to expand...

Patch says thank you for the wheeky loves from your girls and for the kisses from you xoxo
 
Well we saw the vet this afternoon. He says the little lump on Patch's tummy is a sebaceous cyst and at the moment it's nothing to worry about. However, if it gets bigger then it may have to be removed.

As for the hairloss, it could be mites but the vet wasn't 100% convinced it was. However, he's given me Xeno 450 to treat both Patch and Sneezy with. He did the first treatment today and I'll do the next ones.

On the box it says 2 weeks apart but from what I've read on guinea lynx and threads on here....most folk do it in 7-10 days, so think I'll go with that instead.
 
That is a relief then PHEW!
I know that you'll be keeping a strict eye on him, take regular photo's this also helps.

Give Patchy some more loves and wheeeeeeeeeks from us all XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 
Patch has taken a sudden turn for the worst. I heard a funny noise coming from the cage just after 8pm this evening. Like a baby whimpering. I worked out it was Patch. I listened to his chest and his breathing and it was very fast and crackly. I rushed him to the emergency vets.

They think there is something wrong with his lungs, possibly an infection or could be something more sinister. Fortunately, the vet seemed quite cavy savvy. She gave him an injection of baytril and an injection of a diuretic to help with clearing any fluid on his lungs. Then recommended I give him some pro-biotic when I got him home. She also took his temperature.

I need to take him to my own vets first thing so he can x-ray his lungs to establish what's wrong.

The poor wee mite is in such a bad way. I've had to put a divider in his cage so I can monitor how much he's eating, drinking and pooping. His brother seems to know he's not well and is watching over him.

I'm going to stay with him all night, so doubt I'll be getting much sleep.

I'm so scared I'm going to lose him 8...
 
Firstly ...hugs! Must be scarey!

I don;t think this latest development is connected with the earlier hair thinning/sebacious cysts problem.

I'm impressed....Your vet is pretty on the ball ....many would not think to give a diuretic.

We have had some massive temperature changes between night and day and between one week and another over the last two weeks and it could be that the "environmental stress" has made him more sucseptible to a respiratory infection. Alternatively it could be the fluid is a possible long term (treatable) heart problem.

My Maple is slightly overweight boar with a heart problem and he tends to have thinning hair on his belly (because he is lazy/unfit and can;t be bothered to lift his belly up and so it drags on the ground). I monitor his thinning patch to make sure it is not developing a fungal infection (he tends sometimes to sit in his wee)..but to date he has had this patch now for over a year with no problems. Maple is a VERY well-endowed boar ...I cant hep thinking that the weight of his treasure is contributing to his bald patch :))

Who is your vet?...definitely one to add to the cavy savvy list
Hope Patch makes a full recovery
x
 
Edit: Weigh him every 12 hours to make sure he is eating and not losing weight. Be prepared to syringe feed him untill he can beat off this bug as his apetite (and therefore gut) might slow down. Also monitor the size/frequency of his poops as this will also indicate if his gut is slowing down and if he is not eating enough.

x
 
Thanks Pebble...was hoping you'd be on and see this!

Hopefully the x-ray tomorrow morning will pick up what is wrong.

Patch is quite chubby and lazy, so perhaps his tummy is rubbing on the floor. Also, I would say Patch is quite large "downstairs".

The vet that I saw was the Emergency vets. I didn't catch the woman's name but she was Indian.

The vets was Vets Now in Kingswells, Aberdeen.

Cost an absolute fortune to be seen but money doesn't matter when it comes to the piggies.

I weighed Patch just before I took him to the vets. He weighed 925g then. I'll weigh him in the morning again before I take him to the vets.

He's eating his pellets and hay but I will be keeping a close eye on his poops.

It's going to be a long night.
 
How is your little fella doing ?
Aren't piggies a worry when they're not well. I'm still up with my boy who's worried me sick today but he has just snoozed off into piggy dreamworld at last zzz
My daughter has been sleeping on the sofa next to the pen so he has got 24/7 slaves bowing to his every need :)
 
Guinea pig slave said:
How is your little fella doing ?
Aren't piggies a worry when they're not well. I'm still up with my boy who's worried me sick today but he has just snoozed off into piggy dreamworld at last zzz
My daughter has been sleeping on the sofa next to the pen so he has got 24/7 slaves bowing to his every need :)
Click to expand...

His breathing is better, he's not making the whimpering sound so the injections the vet gave him must have helped. He's obviously in pain though as he's sitting in his cage all fluffed up looking very sad. I've given him a small amount of metacam to try and help with the pain as the vet said it would be ok to do this.

I've just syringe fed him some critical care and some water. His poops are a bit mushy so I mixed in some probiotic again. He hates being syringe fed so it was a real fight....poor little guy.

Thankfully he's still eating his pellets and pooping.

All in all, he's in a bad way and to be honest, so am I.

I'm going to try and get some sleep.

Hope your little one gets better very soon!
 
poor little Patch he sounds poorly. Keep up with the good work and although he hates the syringe feeding keep at it, just think to yourself it's for the best while feeding him. Lots of love x x x
 
Patch is at the vets at the moment. He is being monitored closely by them and they are going to do a chest x-ray (with no sedation obviously!) Also, if need be they'll do an ultrasound too.

Then we'll take it from there.

We've got a few plans of action depending on the outcome of the tests. We're also stopping the treatment for mites as both of us are certain it is not mites and we don't want to be overloading his system with Xeno on top of everything else he may need.

As I was leaving, my vet was off to get some dandelion leaves for Patch from the back garden bit...bless him.
 
Keeping everything crossed for Patch. Am also impressed that the emergency vet gave him the diuretic. It took lots of persuading for my vet to even consider it with Nigel but now he has been on it for a while and has had a couple of larger kickstart doses his fluid has gone so it does work. Hopefully the vet giving Patch the diuretic would help with them seeing what is happening on the x-ray.
 
Thanks everyone.

Just spoken to the vet and they've x-rayed him and been monitoring him. He has a severe injection in his lungs.

They also attempted to do an ultrasound and got a reasonable-ish picture but he was getting stressed out so they stopped. The vet is going to have another go at scanning him in a little while. Though he is fairly certain that there is no fluid round his heart but he wants to be 100% sure.

The vet said that Patch was eating plenty and pooping, so that's reassuring. I think I will keep syringe feeding him though, just to help him build his strength up as the more strength he has, the better he'll be able to fight off this infection.

Going to pick him up at 4.20pm. Can't wait to see him and give him cuddles.
 
Well, I'm happy to say that Patch is making a very good recovery from the pneumonia. He's being such a good boy and is taking his medicine well and is eating the critical care off of a spoon.

I'm so relieved he's improving so well and hopefully he'll be back to normal very soon.
 
Well Patch seemed to make a recovery, then last Sunday the wheezing started again, so I put him straight back onto the Septrin. By Tuesday he was no better, so contacted the vet. We discussed Zithromax and he contacted Simon and Kim Maddox as he'd not used Ziithromax with piggies before.

Started Patch on the Zithromax straight away and he'd been doing really well. His weight is the highest it's been for a month. This afternoon he's wheezing again, so I gave him his Zithromax early and some Furosemide.

My OH cuddled up with him wrapped in a fleece on the sofa for a while and he's starting to sound a little bit better.
 
Aww poor Patch, he's having a rubbish time of it! Get well soon Mr Patch x>> Your vet seems great by the way, I can imagine some vets being a bit funny about contacting other vets if you know what I mean, Patch is in great hands xox
 
carrot_and_parsnip said:
Aww poor Patch, he's having a rubbish time of it! Get well soon Mr Patch x>> Your vet seems great by the way, I can imagine some vets being a bit funny about contacting other vets if you know what I mean, Patch is in great hands xox
Click to expand...

Yeah, he's having a tough time but fingers crossed, he'll be all better soon.

My vet is great and always is willing to listen to my suggestions and speak to other vets. He's so caring as well. He's become rather fond of Patch, which is understandable because Patch is such a sweetheart.

Don't know what we're going to try next if the Zithromax doesn't shift the pneumonia. Any suggestions are very welcome!
 
Oh!..it's not good he has had a relapse...but it's VERY good he is now in zithromax......

Figners and paws are all crossed here......

If t's pneumonia..try furosemide diuretic alongside a pretty feisty antibiotic treatment: (septrin, xithromax or oxytet) Works wonders!

x
 
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