Why Is My Guinea Pig Self-barbering?

[Amba]

I've spent nearly $2,000 on vet bills. :-/ She has difficulty urinating and sometime pooing, she tenses up and sometimes sqweeks. She has been on baytril and bactrim various times which didn't help. She is now on the pain medication tramal. She is constantly chewing at her fur and has big bald spots. She only started losing fur when she was put on antibiotics, so I thought maybe it was because she wasn't given probiotics, and the long courses of antibiotics messed up her stomach (she was on antibiotics over a month). She been off antibiotics for weeks, and I've been giving her poo soup everyday and colloidal silver. For the past three days I've been giving her inner health plus. I can't afford an ultrasound. She is three years old.
Any help... please...?

 

[Elwickcavies]

Poor piggie! Has the vet considered that there may be a skin condition going on here? If she's chewing at her fur, it may be because it is irritated by lice, mites or fungal. It could also be a reaction to the antibiotic, which wouldn't be sorted out by probiotics. This is definitely worth checking out. If she is squeaking when she is urinating, this can indicate a urine infection. Baytril is not the best AB for this, Septrin (a potentiated sulfonamide antibiotic) would be my first choice. I'm glad she is on pain medication, but I feel that the underlying problem needs so be addressed. I think another vet visit is needed, I'm afraid. Has she been X-rayed to rule out bladder stones?

 

[Amba]

She had a few X-rays which showed no stones. I also, after many hours of research, do not want her operated on if she did have them. She was diagnosed with a uti (I think bactrim is the same as septrin, which she was on for weeks) she's been treated with two different types of medication for suspected mites, but it did nothing and the vet thinks she's trying to chew out her pain. She shows no fungus (and she's been treated for that too with no results) her skin is clear with no sores, just bald. When you say probiotics wont help her if she has problems because of the antibiotics she was on, do you know what could help her? Thank you, she's been sick for four months and is constantly on my mind

 

[Elwickcavies]

It does sound like you've covered everything! If it was an allergic reation to the antibiotics that made her itch, probiotics would not help, but if she has been off them for weeks, then none of the problems would be due to that, I wouldn't have thought. What a nightmare for you. Does the pain medication help at all or does she bite her fur?

I'll tag in a few others that might be able to help @helen105281, @Wiebke, @Pebble

 

[Wiebke]

Biting fur/skin can be a sign of pain. Has she been treated for mange mites with a full 3-4 rounds course of a good dosed ivermection product like xeno 450? Mange mites typically hit when the immune system is lowered. Please be aware that most pet shop products are too low dosed. http://www.guinealynx.info/mites.html or http://www.gorgeousguineas.com/photogallery.html

Self barbering can sometimes can also indicate internal pain after an operation or with a fast growing lump; but neither seems to apply here. Very occasionally self barbering seems to be just a nervous habit; I had two very nervous ex-breeder sows keeping on doing that every now and then.

It sadly seems that like you are looking at a cystitis rather than UTI problem; an inflammation of the bladder walls which doesn;t react much to antibitoics. You could try another course with bactrim/septrin, which is more slow working, but can cut through an infection where baytril isn't, at least to cap the top, but generally it is more effective to look at managing the condition with anti-inflammatories like metacam. It will go away in its own time, but you are looking at years rather than months. I have several interstitial cystitis piggies that have stopped for no obvious reasons after 1-2 or more years.
Coating the bladder walls with vegetarian glucosamine (about 1/4 of a human tablet ground up and dissolved in 1ml of water daily) or a glucosamine-based cat bladder food supplement like cystaid/cystease (1 week on a full capsule, then down to 1/2 capsule daily) can also help ease the symptoms or at least protect the bladder walls; these are prescription-free.
I would also recommend to look at a low calcium diet and trying to syringe water (half a 1ml syringe=1 mouthful in one go, then wait until has gone down; as much as she will take in one go) to help flush the bladder.
http://www.guinealynx.info/uti.html see interstitial cystitis
http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/low-calcium-diet-for-bladder-piggies.105930/

 

[Amba]

Thank you both so much for helping, in western australia nobody knows anything about guinea pigs, most vets refuse to even treat them. I have been so weighed down with sadness these past few months, I'm just so miserable for her. I thought her pain while urinating was lessoning, because she stopped sqweeking (she generally only sqweeks once at the end). Then four days ago she had an attack of sqweeking and urinating over and over, she just lay still and I laid on the floor with her for an hour stroking her and crying. Her eyes glazed over and went grey. At one point I thought she was dead. It was awful.I decided to not let her die on the ground and I scooped her up and hugged her. After the hug she got back to how she was before the attack (standing up for food ect) The only thing that I thought could have triggered that was I stopped giving her poo soup for two days (because she hates it so much -- i don't blame her), now I'm afraid to miss a dose incase that's what caused it. She is still curious and sometimes even jumps on her igloo. Is metacam better than tramal? she was on it once before, but with every thing shes been on I can't remember how she reacted. Will she be able to safely remain on that for years? She was seeing a guinea pig 'specialist' and was put on some new mite killer for guineas and when that didn't work ivermectin. After the ivermectin she stopped scratching and for weeks latter only now pulls at her fur. I was flushing her bladder with 40ml a day, but have lessened it to about 5ml, because for some reason it seemed to make it worse. I also only buy her very low calcium foods and give her lots of hay and a tiny amount of pellets.I haven't had cats or dogs, and after this don't see myself having pets again, I can't take the emotional toll. I will look up those pills to coat her bladder, hopefully they have them in Western Australia - thank you!

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you both so much for helping, in western australia nobody knows anything about guinea pigs, most vets refuse to even treat them. I have been so weighed down with sadness these past few months, I'm just so miserable for her. I thought her pain while urinating was lessoning, because she stopped sqweeking (she generally only sqweeks once at the end). Then four days ago she had an attack of sqweeking and urinating over and over, she just lay still and I laid on the floor with her for an hour stroking her and crying. Her eyes glazed over and went grey. At one point I thought she was dead. It was awful.I decided to not let her die on the ground and I scooped her up and hugged her. After the hug she got back to how she was before the attack (standing up for food ect) The only thing that I thought could have triggered that was I stopped giving her poo soup for two days (because she hates it so much -- i don't blame her), now I'm afraid to miss a dose incase that's what caused it. She is still curious and sometimes even jumps on her igloo. Is metacam better than tramal? she was on it once before, but with every thing shes been on I can't remember how she reacted. Will she be able to safely remain on that for years? She was seeing a guinea pig 'specialist' and was put on some new mite killer for guineas and when that didn't work ivermectin. After the ivermectin she stopped scratching and for weeks latter only now pulls at her fur. I was flushing her bladder with 40ml a day, but have lessened it to about 5ml, because for some reason it seemed to make it worse. I also only buy her very low calcium foods and give her lots of hay and a tiny amount of pellets.I haven't had cats or dogs, and after this don't see myself having pets again, I can't take the emotional toll. I will look up those pills to coat her bladder, hopefully they have them in Western Australia - thank you!

How many courses of ivermectin did she get? It takes about 3-4 rounds, spaced 1-2 weeks apart in order to get rid of mites, otherwise they can come back. it may be perhpas not a bad idea to consider another course to see if that is helping. you should know whether it makes a difference about a week after the first round.
Glucosamine for humans you can get in a pharmacy or you can look for providers of cystaid etc. online on ebay or with vet/pet product importers.
As for medications, I am tagging @Pebble for you. She is our specialist in that area, has got plenty of experience with bladder/cystitis issues and will hopefully be able to work out with you what works and what you can get hold of in Australia.

 

[Amba]

Thanks again, which is better the glucosamine or cystaid, can I give her both? Can they be given for years every day?

 

[Wiebke]

Thanks again, which is better the glucosamine or cystaid, can I give her both? Can they be given for years every day?

Both are glucosamine, so you can give only one, but you can do so indefinitely as it is not a medication but a food supplement. The biggest consideration for which to go for is availability and price. If you go for human glucosamine, it would be good if you were looking for vegan or vegetarian glucosamine.

 

[Amba]

will try to get the vegan one -- Beano and I appreciate it