3 Sick pigs

[Guineapigfosterer]

Hello I'm new here and we have 2 herds of rescued piggies. 1 herd of 4 female long haired piggies and 1 that is a male and female short haired pigs.

At the moment our eldest Long haired piggie, Zelda has a chest infection which isn't budging. She is a bit lethargic but eating on her own and is on Metacam, Frusol and Baytril and her weight has stabilised following some big losses and syringe feeding.

Amy who is our smallest piggie went through a few weeks of sickness and diareah but the vets signed her off as there were no other signs of sickness so following some long weeks of the syringe feeding battles we managed to get her eating on her own and she isn't losing any weight but she isn't putting any on either.

and lastly Billy, when we rescued him just over a year ago he had been living in poor conditions and his cage wasn't regularly cleaned. he developed a fungal stripe which wasn't worrying in the first few months of being with us. then in June this year he got ringworm we are still unsure where from as non of our other pigs have/had it and they live close by. we got him treatment and it was very resistant and started to spread to his flanks and he was losing weight and his hair. then they thought he had mites so we treated all of our pigs but he still didn't clear up and now he is looking very poor. He has patchy hair and very dry skin. we are still treating him for ring worm but it isnt working.

Any advice for my poor piggies would be very welcome.

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m sorry to hear this.

Have any other antibiotics been tried for Zelda?
How long has Zelda been unwell?

How long has Amy been better?
How much weight did Amy lose?
Putting on lost weight can take a considerable time longer than it does to lose it, so knowing how long ago her illness was resolved would give us a better idea of whether you would be expecting to see weight gain from her having a normal healthy diet again.
Sometimes giving them some grated sweet potato or plain porridge oats can give them a boost but ultimately it comes down to a good hay intake.

Billy - Can you please tell us how you are treating his ringworm and what other hygiene measures you are taking.
Ringworm: Hygiene, Care And Pictures

 

[Roselina]

Hello I just wanted to offer support. You have a lot to deal with. Piggies&buns is the right person to help you.
Wishing all the poorly piggies ‘ get well ‘ wishes and much love

 

[Bill & Ted]

Hello and welcome, sending hugs, it must be so hard looking after three poorly piggies. I hope your little ones recover well from their illnesses

 

[Guineapigfosterer]

I’m sorry to hear this.

Have any other antibiotics been tried for Zelda?
How long has Zelda been unwell?

How long has Amy been better?
How much weight did Amy lose?
Putting on lost weight can take a considerable time longer than it does to lose it, so knowing how long ago her illness was resolved would give us a better idea of whether you would be expecting to see weight gain from her having a normal healthy diet again.
Sometimes giving them some grated sweet potato or plain porridge oats can give them a boost but ultimately it comes down to a good hay intake.

Billy - Can you please tell us how you are treating his ringworm and what other hygiene measures you are taking.
Ringworm: Hygiene, Care And Pictures

We've just got back from the vets with Zelda and a new antibiotic Co-Trimoxazole and some Bisolvon so hopefully this does the trick.
Previously just baytril had been used and she has been unwell since the beginning of September with weekly vet visits. Its started with some heavy breathing, lethargy and weight loss so they put on baytril and syringe feeding till her breathing returned to normal then as she still wasn't eating they filed her back teeth and then she developed the chest infection just over a week ago and she has a faster heart rate with visible jerking and a wheezy chest.

Amy started bein ill at the beginning of July and got better in the middle of August, she lost a little over 250g from around 1 kg. Thank you for the advice. Personality wise and hunger has definitely returned to normal.

Billy has Imaverol for his ringworm and Itrafungal. we have been bathing him with insecticidal and antifungal shampoos from pets at home and we have thoroughly cleaned their cage and toys with clean and safe but his cage mate Amy has not caught anything luckily but My husband and I have both caught ring worm from Billy and ours is very stubborn also and wont clear so we feel for the poor boy.

 

[Roselina]

I hope you and your husband and Billy recover asap

 

[Free Ranger]

We've only had ringworm once - very minor on my young son as a result of a scratch with a claw. That cleared up quickly with a cream - little ones heal fast!
But I've seen posts where people are plagued with it and that's why the link above (although a bit scary!) is so useful. There is something called F10 disinfectant which apparently blitzes everything. I'm not sure whether off-the-shelf products would be strong enough?
But wait for the opinion of someone with personal experience!

 

[Piggies&buns]

That’s good. Hopefully a different antibiotic will help shift it.
Is Zelda on any probiotics? This is recommended when a piggy is on antibiotics as it can help stabilise the gut and encourage appetite.
Something like Fibreplex or ProC.
Poop soup made from the poops of a healthy guinea pig is also fantastic at helping combat antibiotic effects.

Probiotics, Recovery Foods And Vitamin C: Overview With Product Links

So Amy has been better for about a month.
How old is she?
It’s great she isn’t losing weight anymore and is obviously what you are looking for. Feed a normal hay based diet and keep an eye on her.
Sometimes, particularly if they are older, they don’t regain lost weight and instead find their new normal.

It’s good you’ve got intrafungal. Imaverol is the recommended dip also.
I don’t know anything about the pet shop shampoos but generally we don’t tend to recommend pet shop products because they are usually ineffective (certainly the anti-parasite products don’t and can’t contain enough of the active ingredient that is actually needed to deal with parasites). Not sure if the shampoos are the same though.
We recommend a good vet grade disinfectant for cleaning with ringworm - F10 is the recommended product. Normal cleaning products aren’t enough. I’m glad Amy hasn’t caught it from him though but I’m sorry to hear you have.
Is Billy still developing new crusts?

 

[Guineapigfosterer]

We've only had ringworm once - very minor on my young son as a result of a scratch with a claw. That cleared up quickly with a cream - little ones heal fast!
But I've seen posts where people are plagued with it and that's why the link above (although a bit scary!) is so useful. There is something called F10 disinfectant which apparently blitzes everything. I'm not sure whether off-the-shelf products would be strong enough?
But wait for the opinion of someone with personal experience!

Thank you, I'll look in to F10

 

[Guineapigfosterer]

That’s good. Hopefully a different antibiotic will help shift it.
Is Zelda on any probiotics? This is recommended when a piggy is on antibiotics as it can help stabilise the gut and encourage appetite.
Something like Fibreplex or ProC.
Poop soup made from the poops of a healthy guinea pig is also fantastic at helping combat antibiotic effects.

Probiotics, Recovery Foods And Vitamin C: Overview With Product Links

So Amy has been better for about a month.
How old is she?
It’s great she isn’t losing weight anymore and is obviously what you are looking for. Feed a normal hay based diet and keep an eye on her.
Sometimes, particularly if they are older, they don’t regain lost weight and instead find their new normal.

It’s good you’ve got intrafungal. Imaverol is the recommended dip also.
I don’t know anything about the pet shop shampoos but generally we don’t tend to recommend pet shop products because they are usually ineffective (certainly the anti-parasite products don’t and can’t contain enough of the active ingredient that is actually needed to deal with parasites). Not sure if the shampoos are the same though.
We recommend a good vet grade disinfectant for cleaning with ringworm - F10 is the recommended product. Normal cleaning products aren’t enough. I’m glad Amy hasn’t caught it from him though but I’m sorry to hear you have.
Is Billy still developing new crusts?

Yes we have used both fireplace and pro c to help. Fingers crossed the new stuff clears it.

Amy is 3 this month but has always been a lot smaller than the others.

Thank you for the advice regarding Billy. We just wanted to try everything as we want him better and imaverol qnd intrafungal went working. New crusts are appearing and hair loss is quite prominent. I'm going to get some F10.