Worming advice

[raijahallam]

Hi, my guinea pig Gretchen has worms. We had been to the vet 5 times over the past 6 months trying to get a diagnosis from her losing weight, having diarrhoea but also being ravenously hungry and otherwise behaving normally, glossy coat, bright eyes, running around being completely herself, to no avail. So as a last ditch attempt to make her better I bought soluverm to put in her water and like magic her faeces became normal again and she put on weight instantly! Unfortunately, as our final vet visit confirmed, wormer treatments tend not to kill all the worms and some eggs and worms remain in the digestive system at low population levels. They then reproduce until they cause health issues like weight loss and diarrhoea again, so we wormed her for a second time a couple of months ago using the same soluverm treatment. She’s now losing weight and has diarrhoea again so looks like the worms are back in a much shorter space of time than before (it was about 3 months of work free time before first & second bout and has now only been about 6 weeks since her last treatment). Should I try a different worming treatment with a different worm killing ingredient? My worry is that the worms may have started to become resistant to the soluverm over time, does anyone have any advice?

I’m also posting this on here to raise awareness as it took months and me randomly trying worming treatment to find out that it was worms and was easily treatable- although not common in guinea pigs the rapid decline in her weight was terrifying and to be honest I’m surprised she survived. We fed her oxbow critical care about 6 times a day for months to keep her going while vets had no idea what was happening. We even had her poo looked at under a microscope but nothing was found. So if your piggy is rapidly losing weight (Gretchen went from 1000g to about 700g within just over a week), has diarrhoea, is ravenously hungry but otherwise seems healthy try a worming treatment!

Thank you for any advice!

 

[Siikibam]

Worms are not a regular occurrence in guinea pigs here. What symptoms made the vet diagnose it?

Diarrhoea is classed an emergency and the piggy should be seen as quickly as possible. Is the poo watery or very soft? You will have to take her off veg for now and start syringe feeding her to help with weight loss. You need to aim for minimum 60ml in a 24 hour period, and weigh her once daily. If she is still losing weight daily then you will need to up there amount. But you’d also need to get her checked out.

Has the vet checked for anything else except worms?

I’ll tag @VickiA @PigglePuggle

 

[raijahallam]

I know they’re not common in guinea pigs, but the vet confirmed it was worms based on her losing weight and having diarrhoea and also based on the fact that the worming treatment was the only thing that made her better. Before this the vet gave 2 courses of baytril and a course of fibreplex to see if it was an infection or digestive issues but nothing worked until we gave the worming treatment, so it’s definitely worms. She has the exact same symptoms as before so we are trying the worming treatment again and weighing daily to see if she improves like last time. If not we will of course take her to the vet and if they can’t diagnose her again we might ask if a different worming treatment should be given to see if that works.

She is on syringe fed critical care and hay only, no veg and her poo is soft but not liquid.

 

[Siikibam]

What other tests/checks did the vet do?

 

[VickiA]

Sorry, I’ve no experience of worms, but I know that they do occasionally cause problems for piggies. @Clare King has certainly had a piggy who needed to be treated for worms.

 

[PigglePuggle]

Hi, please can you tell us exactly what worms/worm eggs the vet saw on performing a faecal sample examination under the microscope?
Also please can you tell me exactly what "worming" medication was given?
Worms are possible, but "worms" can refer to about 6 or 7 different pathogens in guinea pigs which each have different pathology and may require different treatment. Positive confirmation of actual worms or worm eggs in a faecal sample is the only correct diagnosic method here, also really simple for your vet to perform. The exact parasites seen in the poop sample will help inform the correct treatment- tapeworms for example, like Hymenolepsis, will only respond to praziquantel, and very different medicine to that which may be prescribed for intestinal nematode infections.
Some "wormer" medications also incidentally target protozoan gut parasites, which are not worms at all, but may also kill the protozoa- for example, Panacur is a "wormer" which also affects protozoa.
So getting the specifics is really important, to further understand this case and to help you, and also to inform anyone who may view this thread in future looking for reliable health information on worms!

 

[raijahallam]

What other tests/checks did the vet do?

The vet felt her stomach, looked inside her mouth and ears, listened to her heart and breathing and asked about her behaviour including eating, drinking, pooing, peeing etc. then gave baytril in case it was an infection. The second vet did the same and gave baytril again. The third vet gave fibreplex and looked at her poo under microscope. The fourth said her weight wasn’t in the critical region and told us to keep feeding her critical care. Then we gave worming treatment and the fifth vet said that yes it’s probably worms seeing as the treatment worked and said to keep worming her every few months to keep on top of the worm population.

 

[raijahallam]

Hi, please can you tell us exactly what worms/worm eggs the vet saw on performing a faecal sample examination under the microscope?
Also please can you tell me exactly what "worming" medication was given?
Worms are possible, but "worms" can refer to about 6 or 7 different pathogens in guinea pigs which each have different pathology and may require different treatment. Positive confirmation of actual worms or worm eggs in a faecal sample is the only correct diagnosic method here, also really simple for your vet to perform. The exact parasites seen in the poop sample will help inform the correct treatment- tapeworms for example, like Hymenolepsis, will only respond to praziquantel, and very different medicine to that which may be prescribed for intestinal nematode infections.
Some "wormer" medications also incidentally target protozoan gut parasites, which are not worms at all, but may also kill the protozoa- for example, Panacur is a "wormer" which also affects protozoa.
So getting the specifics is really important, to further understand this case and to help you, and also to inform anyone who may view this thread in future looking for reliable health information on worms!

They didn’t see any worms or eggs in the poo, but that was back in December so it’s probably worth having another look to determine exactly what is in her stomach. I’ve been using soluverm which contains piperazine citrate and is for the treatment of roundworms including ascarids, hairworms, cappilaria.

 

[PigglePuggle]

Ideally anthelmintic medicines (wormers) should only be given to guinea pigs if a faecal test indicates a clinical problem. I would also be curious as to where your guinea pig picked up worms, and where/how she has picked them up again. Guinea pigs do not generally have worms, here in the UK- your signature says you are in Bristol? Though they may pick them up from the grass if they have outdoor lawn time, and may also pick them up from other animals they have contact with, it really isnt common.
Usually a couple of doses should fix this, and ideally the poops should be collected the next day to see what worms have been expelled.
As pet animal poops are cleared away regularly, if she had 2 doses of wormer a week apart that should really have taken care of the problem for good, unless she is being reinfected. Were her companions wormed at the same time? Did they also get faecal samples taken? Clinical disease does not always correlate with parasite burden, possibly a healthy seeming more robust companion is also harbouring an infection but with no clinical signs- how many piggies do you have living together?
I would always be wary of claiming that an anthelmintic has cured a problem that has not even been diagnosed, and also in this case be looking very closely at where this problem has been picked up, if there are indeed any worms. Did you see worms expelled in her poops after worming? Did the vet ask you to collect the poops after worming to check what was there?

 

[raijahallam]

Ideally anthelmintic medicines (wormers) should only be given to guinea pigs if a faecal test indicates a clinical problem. I would also be curious as to where your guinea pig picked up worms, and where/how she has picked them up again. Guinea pigs do not generally have worms, here in the UK- your signature says you are in Bristol? Though they may pick them up from the grass if they have outdoor lawn time, and may also pick them up from other animals they have contact with, it really isnt common.
Usually a couple of doses should fix this, and ideally the poops should be collected the next day to see what worms have been expelled.
As pet animal poops are cleared away regularly, if she had 2 doses of wormer a week apart that should really have taken care of the problem for good, unless she is being reinfected. Were her companions wormed at the same time? Did they also get faecal samples taken? Clinical disease does not always correlate with parasite burden, possibly a healthy seeming more robust companion is also harbouring an infection but with no clinical signs- how many piggies do you have living together?
I would always be wary of claiming that an anthelmintic has cured a problem that has not even been diagnosed, and also in this case be looking very closely at where this problem has been picked up, if there are indeed any worms. Did you see worms expelled in her poops after worming? Did the vet ask you to collect the poops after worming to check what was there?

She lives with 3 others at my parents house in Worcester and they have regular grass time. But also she and her friend came from the farm park I used work at where there are hundreds of animals so I think she picked them up from here. The soluverm was put into their shared water bottle so all four have been treated at the same time every time.

The vet said that the worms will come back if the whole population isn’t all killed with the wormer so I’m wondering if I should get her poo looked at again to see if they can see any worms/ Protozoa/ tape worms this time so that they can be targeted with the correct medication. The vet didn’t ask to see any poos after the wormer was given the last time. Unfortunately Gretchen doesn’t live with me as my landlord doesn’t allow pets so I didn’t get to look at her poo after the wormer treatment to look for worms and my parents said they couldn’t see anything either. I think the vet was just pleased that she was better as they didn’t have a clue what was wrong with her so they were happy to confirm that it was worms without actually seeing them in the poo.

I’m visiting Gretchen today and I’m going to get her back to the vet to see what they can do and if they can look at her poo again. Hopefully they actually find out what’s going on this time. Thank you for your help, I really appreciate it!

 

[Piggies&buns]

@PigglePuggle - the OP mentions that the treatment went in the shared drinking water bottle. I know this isn’t a recommended way to provide medications generally given you cannot control dosage or in fact know if they are getting any at all (products added to drinking water can change the taste and cause them to not drink enough), just wondering whether this could be an issue? As we know, worms aren’t common so its not something I have knowledge of but just picked up on the fact it was added to the drinking water bottle

 

[Clare King]

Am so sorry @VickiA, I’ve only just seen your notification, our experience was with roundworms but they were actually seen in a poo sample and we treated with panacur (vet prescribed), I think it was an intensive 5 day course for both Bella and Barney. I’ve not heard of the treatment that the OP had prescribed and we didn’t put anything in their water, we just gave them the panacur orally via syringe.

This was Bellas thread

Update - Roundworms found