So my poor little piggie Hector who was 5 1/2 had dental issue, front 2 lower teeth were fractured and removed. Vet prescribed baytril and meloxaid, he ended up taking it for 3 weeks. He went rapidly down hill, not eating probably and has since died. My husband has been reading up on these medications and says we should have been given a probitotic with the Baytril and the Meloxaid can cause issues if the piggie has a kidney problem. Neither myself or the vet could have known this at this point but my husband feels really bad that he didn’t read up on this before. But of course we trusted the vet. In future I’m think we will go to the specialised exotics vet. Although even they wouldn’t have been aware of kidney issues. Can anyone comment on the medication info my husband has discovered?
HUGS
I am extremely sorry for your loss! Losing a piggy in an operation or post-op is always hard to take.
Unfortunately only a proper post mortem examination of the kidneys can find whether this has actually been the case and whether the cause has not actually rather lain in the pretty tricky tooth removal procedure itself, which can push any vet's skills.
Incisors are 4 cm long and run along the upper and lower jaw to the back teeth; their roots are far further back in the mouth than you would expect. This makes their removal a rather difficult procedure, especially if it has to happen in pieces and the operation is taking longer than planned. The longer an operation takes, the higher the risk of a bad reaction to GA and problems with the recovery.
I have lost a piggy of mine in the wake of a abscessed incisor removal by a very experienced vet that ran into complications - and there was no baytril involved. She just didn't cope well post op after a procedure that obviously pushed her small body too far.
Fact is:
- baytril can cause loss of appetite in some piggies. It is however by no means necessarily the reason for a decline post-op. Loss of appetite can happen with any antibiotic; baytril is the one that is most often prescribed and that seems to impact the gut a bit more than other antibiotics - but in the vast majority it causes only slightly softer poos at the most.
I have had to nurse piggies through total loss of appetite on other antibiotics more than once, but never had a negative reaction to baytril. If there is a bad reaction, you can always ask your vet whether they will change the antibiotic.
Key to post-op care is syringe feeding support if your piggy is not eating properly. In many cases, your support care can make the crucial difference, but sadly not always. It depends on what is behind the decline.
- use of probiotics: Probiotics are NOT a medication, and therefore NOT prescribed by vets. They are classed as food supplement. Their effectiveness is also scientifically not proven.
Piggies of mine on baytril have recovered equally well with or without them; this experience is mirrored by other forum members.
If you want to do something that really works, opt of really freshly made 'poo soup' (syringing the water in which just excreted poos from a healthy piggy have been soaked) or opt for a course of fibreplex.
- metacam (which is being sold under a number of brand names, incuding meloxaid) is actually much better tolerated in guinea pigs than in other pet species and can usually be given at pretty high dosages in the long term without there being kidney damage. My own athritic oldies are proof of that - they have still to grand old ages like 8 or even 9 years old despite being on metacam for several years. Kidney failure caused by metacam does not happen from just a comparatively short course of medication. We have also in over a dozen years and with well over 10'000 (more like 20'000 piggies) passing through this forum never seen a piggy die, not even from a massive metacam overdose.
Pain medication post-op is absolutely vital, and is now prescribed by piggy savvy vets at a higher dosage than even 5 years ago.
Losing a piggy post-op or during an operation is always a very gutting experience; having had piggies from an age that we now consider medical stone age, I have had my fair share of what can go wrong in that respect, so I feel for you. You have a right to your feelings of anger, betrayal etc. They are normal for this stage although most members usually seek the fault by themselves and experience strong feelings of guilt and wonder where have they gone wrong or what they could have done better. All too often they have simply done the right thing; it has just sadly not worked out.
Vets are neither villains nor gods in white coats. They simply try to do their best with what is still a very fragile small animal and are not always able to pull it off when are are operating at the limits of skill (which are massively exanding compared to old times, but that doesn't mean that there are not limits).
But it can be extremely dangerous to come up with some online home research and then propagate this as your gospel without any medical basis for your own case as to what actually has happened. There are far too many DIY horror stories and warnings like that around online. They have sadly cost piggy lives from people who believed them and did not seek the appropriate medical care. Unfortunately these kind warnings then make it into the urban online myth collection where they develop a life on their own.
