Uri, Advice Please

[Hannah Boyd]

Hi all,

I have a 5 year old female piggie who has a suspected URI. I first noticed a wheeze and slightly closed and little bit runny eye on Thursday evening but as she was still active, eating (lots) and drinking, I booked her in to the vets (Holly House, as recommended on this forum) for Friday morning. By Friday, her wheeze had died down quite a lot. The vet said that she had harsher sounds on her right side (right eye was runny) and that she would give us antibiotics (Baytril). She hasn't got pain relief as she is still fairly much fine in herself (a little more subdued than usual), is eating and drinking fine. She is also being give Avipro plus a few hours after her antibiotics.

She is now at the half way point on her course of Baytril (twice a day for 5 days). She is booked in again next Saturday on the vets advice for a visit if she has not recovered to full health.

Since Friday, she has developed a little bit of a runny nose as well. Her wheeze has not returned as much as it was on Thursday night and there is little sign of this illness by listening to her breathing alone now. It sounds fairly clear, perhaps slightly more chesty than usual but nothing like how my boy sounded when I lost him last year to a URI and pneumonia.

So my questions are, is this typical for this stage in a course of Baytril? Is the saying 'it will get worse before it gets better' true for guineas? The 'snottiness/blocked up' side of things has got slightly worse but her breathing has improved. She is still eating veggies, grass, hay and pellets - all her usuals, and drinking as usual. She also still comes up to the front of the cage to see if I've got anything, though she is not quite as active as normal.

She is still in with her 3 cage mates (all female) as the vet said they would have already been exposed to it but just to keep a close eye on them. This makes it hard to put a bowl of hot water for steam relief in a place where she will actually breathe it in as their cage is fairly big.

Any advice appreciated.

 

[Freela]

It's possible that the antibiotic is not a good match to the bacteria. We recently went through this with Hadley, she had a respiratory bug and did two courses of trimethoprim- she improved each time but it didn't completely clear. They changed her to Baytril and that did the trick for her. If she has some nasal discharge, you can ask the vet to culture the discharge to identify the bacteria and tailor antibiotics to the organisms present (Hadley never had any nasal discharge so we weren't able to culture a sample and had to guess until we hit the right med.) If you're seeing new symptoms on an antibiotic (the runny nose you mention) I would probably call the vet and update them and ask if they want to see her sooner. It can take a few days for an antibiotic to kick in, but if you're seeing new symptoms emerge I would wonder if she needs a different medication. It's good that she's eating and drinking as normal- keep an eye on that too! Hope she makes a full recovery soon!

 

[Hannah Boyd]

Thanks that is really useful! She is very particular about keeping clean so it is possible that in the beginning she was keeping her nose clean but she is now letting that slip a little. Is trimethoprim another antibiotic to try if the Baytril doesn't work? Or what would be the next antibiotics you would suggest to try? I am not sure how much nasal discharge they need to take a culture, but there is never any wet discharge on or around her nose, it is just a little bit of crusting. They are really good vets so I am hopeful!

 

[Hannah Boyd]

I just had another look at her nose, no discharge! at the moment anyway, it seems to come and go, sometimes her eye looks fine, then other times it is more runny and closed. Overall, I think she is improving, especially since her breathing seems to be improving. I am just curious / worried about how well the antibiotics should be working.

 

[Hannah Boyd]

Hi again, we had our second vet visit on Tuesday evening - Honey had slightly better chest sounds but had lost 20g. I had already started topping her up with Critical care the day before our visit though. She has now gained 30g since Tuesday and also seems to be eating more too (I also got some alfalfa hay to assist her weight gain and tempt her, and some oat hay should be arriving soon). The vet gave her 5 days more baytril and also some metacam. So far, she is possibly slightly better, less runny eye, I've only once seen a little crust around her nose, and she is no longer just flopping down like she is totally exhausted. So overall, I'd say she is improving, but it is minimal and I am not sure if she will be 100% by next Tuesday (our next vet visit).

The vet also said if this course of baytril and metacam doesn't shift it then we will start looking at other options - so my question is, what is she likely to suggest? and also, what should I suggest? I read that Zithromax can be good for stubborn URIs?

 

[Hannah Boyd]

Another update - we went back to the vets on Tuesday last week and got doxycycline plus a prescription (not sure what yet, I have forgotten the name) for a nebuliser which is on the way in the post. Honey is still doing ok but not a huge amount of change, I'd say she is very slowly improving. She has been popcorning and bossing the other pigs around which she hadn't been. But her appetite has possibly lessened since being on the doxy - is this usual? She has probiotic around 2 hours after the anti biotic whenever I am I the house at that time. This is just an update really, I am very much hoping that the doxy and nebuliser will clear it up, I am not sure what the next course of action would be after that. She is possibly sneezing less though, so perhaps I could say that the URI symptoms are lessening (except her eye doesn't seem to be improving, though it has good days and worse days), but that she seems a bit more tired with less appetite since starting the doxy. The vet we have seen is great, she has checked her heart and doesn't think it is that, and is happy with the small progress she is making.