Uri

[Daisy's piggies]

Hi, I'm new and my daughter has two male piggies. They're both 1 year old and sleep separately. One of the piggies (Scruffy) became ill with a respiratory infection so my vets gave him 5 days course of baytril, he didn't seem to get any better so I returned to the vets and was given another course of baytril for 7 days. He was still no better so I returned and was given sulfatrim. I immediately started his course but found his breathing worse and his poo's were very large/congealed, so I've stopped giving it him. I was advised if he didn't show signs of improvement then I should find an exotic animal vets. Please help as now the second piggie (Squeake) is starting with the same symptoms as the Scruffy. Any advice appreciated.

 

[sport_billy]

Hello, welcome to the forum. Sorry your post got missed,

Can you let us know you location as we may be able to suggest a cavy savy vet in your area.

One thing you could discuss with your vet is about the possibility giving a diuretic such as furosemide in case of pneumonia and fluid on lungs this can be heard with a stethoscope Guinea Lynx :: Cardiovascular Agents

Any discharge from the nose? eyes?

Also a tiny pinch of Bisolven powder could help with congestion another thing to mention to a vet

EDIT

I have checked your IP address and you have two recommended vets in your area, i would advise seeing one of these as soon as possible

• Gilmoor Veterinary Group
  Deborah Stafford
  39 Sunderland Road
  Durham
  County Durha, DH1 2LG
  0191 386 4477
  
  
• 
  Gilmoor Veterinary Clinic
  Deborah Stafford
  81 Durham Road
  Spennymoor
  County Durham, DL16 6JW
  01388 811311
  

 

[Daisy's piggies]

Thank you so much, I will be in touch with one of the suggested clinics.
Scruffy had a small discharge from his eyes which cleared after the first course of baytril. The vet did all the checks, she also gave Scruffy a steroid injection before the second course of baytril. I'll post any updates.

 

[sport_billy]

Thank you so much, I will be in touch with one of the suggested clinics.
Scruffy had a small discharge from his eyes which cleared after the first course of baytril. The vet did all the checks, she also gave Scruffy a steroid injection before the second course of baytril. I'll post any updates.

Definitely get to another vet, Steroid is an odd choice for a uri.

 

[Daisy's piggies]

After calling the clinic mentioned I was told it would be classed as a second opinion and before the vet even assesses my piggies there would be a charge of £61.99 each.
I decided to return to my vet which after checking both piggies and ruling out URI have concluded they have bordatella. Looking into this it seems viable as I had family stay recently with their pet dog before our piggie became ill. The dog is a french bulldog, a lovely little thing but you wouldn't tell if it had breathing problems as it sounds so noisy anyway. So now we're treating both piggies to get the immune system built back up.

 

[Freela]

I would wonder if the antibiotic prescribed was not a good match for the bacteria in question. Would the vet consider a different antibiotic (they could also potentially culture any nasal discharge or sputum, but this can be costly and is ideally best done before antibiotic therapy is begun.) We went through this with Hadley about this time last year and required two or three antibiotic trials before finding a good match. With the earlier antibiotics, she would improve a bit but relapse once the antibiotics were stopped. In our case, they were initially treating her for potential bordatella because it can be so severe in guinea pigs, but as she did not respond to the antibiotics targeted at that bacteria, she likely had a different respiratory infection.