• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Wobbly Walking+erratic Movements+soft Limbs

Maruu

Maruu

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Jun 27, 2017
Messages
10
Reaction score
7
Points
70
Location
La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Hello! I'm sorry for the awful title but my Cobi has been acting strange since this afternoon (about 7 hours ago). He is having difficulties walking and standing straight, as if his limbs were suddenly "soft", when we carry him and cuddle him he doesn't curl up normally, he is like sprawled. His head is also tilting a lot, but if we "correct" it, it stays where we place it. He is also like trying to eat and smells everything and tastes the food but then he acts as if he loses interest. He eats a little from time to time.
He has a mammary tumour since almost 6 months ago, we can't perform surgery because there aren't any vets trained to do so in my city. The last couple of times we took him to the vet he stressed so much it became painful even for us, he squeaked and lost so much hair and in the end they told us to treat him with antibiotics so the bulge doesn't infect.but they can't do anything about the tumour and that is just so frustrating. He was treated with doxyciclin as an antibiotic and at that time it worked fine. But now he just behaves like this all of a sudden and we are so worried.
Any suggestions will be highly appreciated. Thanks for reading and sorry if there are any English mistakes.
 
oh my goodness... It's almost 3 AM, we've been with Cobi for about 4 hours. He had several short seizures. We were almost hopeless. Until we realized he was too warm. So we placed him on the floor (I've got stone floors which are cold this time of the year -It's Winter-) and after an hour of painfully seeing him making spasms and twisting, he started behaving a little bit better. Then an hour passed and his ears were a bit more colder. Now he is standing straight with the weight on his legs, eating chicory quite enthusiastically. He seems almost normal now, maybe a little "confused" or clumsy but he is nothing compared to one hour ago; we literally thought he was dying. We will be watching him for tonight. I'll keep you informed. For now it seems he had a high fever. We will restart the antibiotics... Thank you for reading!
 
Maruu said:
oh my goodness... It's almost 3 AM, we've been with Cobi for about 4 hours. He had several short seizures. We were almost hopeless. Until we realized he was too warm. So we placed him on the floor (I've got stone floors which are cold this time of the year -It's Winter-) and after an hour of painfully seeing him making spasms and twisting, he started behaving a little bit better. Then an hour passed and his ears were a bit more colder. Now he is standing straight with the weight on his legs, eating chicory quite enthusiastically. He seems almost normal now, maybe a little "confused" or clumsy but he is nothing compared to one hour ago; we literally thought he was dying. We will be watching him for tonight. I'll keep you informed. For now it seems he had a high fever. We will restart the antibiotics... Thank you for reading!
Click to expand...
I would ring the vets 1st thing this morning to get him in as something is not right x
 
Where abouts are you based? I can't promise anything but we might have members from your country or area that might be able to offer tips on a good vets
 
Maruu said:
oh my goodness... It's almost 3 AM, we've been with Cobi for about 4 hours. He had several short seizures. We were almost hopeless. Until we realized he was too warm. So we placed him on the floor (I've got stone floors which are cold this time of the year -It's Winter-) and after an hour of painfully seeing him making spasms and twisting, he started behaving a little bit better. Then an hour passed and his ears were a bit more colder. Now he is standing straight with the weight on his legs, eating chicory quite enthusiastically. He seems almost normal now, maybe a little "confused" or clumsy but he is nothing compared to one hour ago; we literally thought he was dying. We will be watching him for tonight. I'll keep you informed. For now it seems he had a high fever. We will restart the antibiotics... Thank you for reading!
Click to expand...

Please contact your vets as soon as possible and see whether there is an out-of-hours service in your area. If not, have him seen as an emergency first thing in the morning.

Cool him down gently with cool (NOT cold) damp rags.

All the best. Please be prepared to let him go if he is suffering too badly and is clearly in pain or discomfort.
 
Lady Kelly said:
Where abouts are you based? I can't promise anything but we might have members from your country or area that might be able to offer tips on a good vets
Click to expand...
Hello! I'm in La Plata, Argentina. Here we have a pet hospital in the University (Hospital Escuela de Veterinaria UNLP), we took him there several times because there are a couple of specialists in exotic pets, but last time they touched him quite roughly in his mammary tumour and he got so stressed he lost lots of hair and screamed and it was so awful, so stressful. The problem is that they only know how to treat "simple" things, like if he has conjunctivitis or sore feet, etc. They don't have the training or equipment to perform any kind of surgery or major diagnosis in small animals. They are really advanced with dog and cat treatment, but they are trained to treat minor things in exotics. It's sad but true. Last time it was terrible so that's why we are in doubt to make him go through so much stress only to be told the same. Anyway we are looking for a specialist outside the University to have a second opinion and then we will decide what to do.
Cobi is alert, he walks now and even did "cueeeeeee cueeeeeee!" when he asked for food this morning. I even teased him a little, touching his front leg (he never liked it) and he got grumpy so that's a good sign too because last night he was totally irresponsive. Right now he is eating well and walking from time to time, and stands firmly on his feet. He seems well, but of course we are alert to any changes. We gave him the second dose of antibiotics (every 8 hours), and he seems to be taking them fine. His poo looks normal, too. We are keeping him cool, moisturizing the back of his ears just a little and letting him walk around the stone floor. His fur is not fluffy so it seems he isn't cold either.
He wanted some darkness after eating so we placed some sort of curtain so he can feel safe with the cloth around him but his tummy still in touch with the fresh surface, so he doesn't start raising temperature again. It's amazing how much he recovered. Of course we gave him a lot of cuddles, too.
We will be looking for vets and then we'll decide what to do.
Thank you all for your answers, it means a lot. I (we) really appreciate it. I will keep you updated. (And sorry if there are any English mistakes)
By the way, this is Cobi! (the picture is a couple weeks old)

IMG-20170522-WA0001.webp
 
Maruu said:
Hello! I'm in La Plata, Argentina. Here we have a pet hospital in the University (Hospital Escuela de Veterinaria UNLP), we took him there several times because there are a couple of specialists in exotic pets, but last time they touched him quite roughly in his mammary tumour and he got so stressed he lost lots of hair and screamed and it was so awful, so stressful. The problem is that they only know how to treat "simple" things, like if he has conjunctivitis or sore feet, etc. They don't have the training or equipment to perform any kind of surgery or major diagnosis in small animals. They are really advanced with dog and cat treatment, but they are trained to treat minor things in exotics. It's sad but true. Last time it was terrible so that's why we are in doubt to make him go through so much stress only to be told the same. Anyway we are looking for a specialist outside the University to have a second opinion and then we will decide what to do.
Cobi is alert, he walks now and even did "cueeeeeee cueeeeeee!" when he asked for food this morning. I even teased him a little, touching his front leg (he never liked it) and he got grumpy so that's a good sign too because last night he was totally irresponsive. Right now he is eating well and walking from time to time, and stands firmly on his feet. He seems well, but of course we are alert to any changes. We gave him the second dose of antibiotics (every 8 hours), and he seems to be taking them fine. His poo looks normal, too. We are keeping him cool, moisturizing the back of his ears just a little and letting him walk around the stone floor. His fur is not fluffy so it seems he isn't cold either.
He wanted some darkness after eating so we placed some sort of curtain so he can feel safe with the cloth around him but his tummy still in touch with the fresh surface, so he doesn't start raising temperature again. It's amazing how much he recovered. Of course we gave him a lot of cuddles, too.
We will be looking for vets and then we'll decide what to do.
Thank you all for your answers, it means a lot. I (we) really appreciate it. I will keep you updated. (And sorry if there are any English mistakes)
By the way, this is Cobi! (the picture is a couple weeks old)

View attachment 65682
Click to expand...

Cobi is a lovely boy! Glad that he is better in himself. Please keep an eye on him, weigh him daily at the same time and if necessary offer additional top up syringe feed and water if loses over 50g in a short time or is not eating right. Over 80% of the daily food intake should be hay, and you cannot control that. Make sure that your vet checks his ears in case it is an inner ear infection and not a stroke or something in the brain gone wrong.
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide

Fingers firmly crossed for Cobi!

Since you are our first member from Argentina, could you please add your country and city to your details, so we can always adapt any advice to help you work out your local brands instead of recommending UK brands. Please click on your username on the top bar, then go to personal details and scroll down to location. This will make it appear on the left in every post underneath your avatar picture. It saves all of us time and prevents misunderstandings since we have got members from all over the world. Thank you!
 
Wiebke said:
Cobi is a lovely boy! Glad that he is better in himself. Please keep an eye on him, weigh him daily at the same time and if necessary offer additional top up syringe feed and water if loses over 50g in a short time or is not eating right. Over 80% of the daily food intake should be hay, and you cannot control that. Make sure that your vet checks his ears in case it is an inner ear infection and not a stroke or something in the brain gone wrong.
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide

Fingers firmly crossed for Cobi!

Since you are our first member from Argentina, could you please add your country and city to your details, so we can always adapt any advice to help you work out your local brands instead of recommending UK brands. Please click on your username on the top bar, then go to personal details and scroll down to location. This will make it appear on the left in every post underneath your avatar picture. It saves all of us time and prevents misunderstandings since we have got members from all over the world. Thank you!
Click to expand...
Thank you, Wiebke, for your answer. I'll read the syringe feeding guide right away and do all you recommended.
Cobi seems stable for now and that's so wonderful.
 
Hello everyone, I've got great news! Cobi is developing wonderfully. It's been aproximately 40 hours since his episode of being weak and with fever and seizures happened and he is great now. He has eaten all his veggies today (yesterday he didn't eat as much as he normally does), is fully alert and standing in his normal position as well. He has a lot of pain on his mammary tumor, which since we started administering antibiotics is less swollen or tense. But we are also giving him meloxicam as analgesic and he is taking it well, it diminishes his pain so much he started eating well and also pooping and peeing normally (he is also able to reach his butt to eat his poo now), so we are happy! Thank you so much guys for your advice and good wishes and also just for being there!
We'll be keeping an eye on him closely for the next days, reinforcing his diet with water and veggie juice and keeping track of his weight and temperature.
If anything changes I'll inform you guys right away.
Thank you so much for your support, it means a lot!
 
Thank you for the update! I am glad that Cobi is recovering so well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top