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Continued Health Issues

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BenjiAndButtons

BenjiAndButtons

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hi Guys, I have two 2 year old boars. One of them has had a few issues lately.

He was acting strange and had a slight interest in food but couldn't seem to eat, we thought it may be his teeth but after a trip to the vets, she decided he had a temp and possible tummy bug, he was given baytril for 8 days, and improved dramatically, after the course had finished he had a few normal days.

Then he became odd again. He showed little interest in food and was very quiet, and when he was given play time, he just laid down on the floor, with his head tilted slightly to the side, we immediately took him to the vets, who decided he was dehydrated and a possible chest infection. He again had baytril for 12 days this time. Again he became his happy wheeky, fatty self.

he came off his treatmeant around 5 days ago and had been fine, untill yesterday, when he started leaving some of his food, and during play time, laid on his side like he was, but then went straight back to be normal. He ate all his fresh food and most of his hay, but has not touched the nuggets, and he has only had around 10ml of water. His cage was cleaned yesterday evening and there is only around 10-15 stools. Should i be concerned, do you think he needs to see the vets again?
 
we took him to the vets yesterday, turns out he has now developed 'bloat', poor guys belly was the size of a balloon. he's been prescribed emeprid and zantac, after a tender night of emergency food and belly rubs, his belly as halved in size and he has stopped laying on his side. i can only assume that this means the discomfort of laying on his belly has passed. he's not better yet, but we are continuing in the same fashion as last night.

We've had a couple of very small poo's and a few yellow wees after syringing some water into his mouth, but he's only really eaten 2 pieces of cucumber and 2 pieces of carrot.
 
Hi if he has bloat, you must take him of veg until he's better. Then slowly reintroduce it very slowly. Are you going to a cavy savvy vet.
 
Hi thanks for the reply,

If he is to come of veg what should we feed him? Should we request some more emergency feed from the vet? He shows little interest in his hay, would fruit be okay? We have always used Vets 4 Pets and have never had an issue with their competence before now, though i have googled and their are no guinea specialists in my area.
 
Hay makes up something like 80% of the diet so make sure there is plenty of hay available. No veggies for a few days will cause no problems at all (I recently had to take Daisy off veg for nearly a full week as she had diarrhoea). If you have any emergency syringe feed a top up would be good but if he's eating on his own he won't need too much. If you don't have any you can make some up by adding some boiled water to a few pellets and mushing them up after they have cooled. All being well he might be willing to eat off the spoon (Daisy would take a small amount by herself but then she was eating lots of hay and pellets herself anyway). Poop output is based on what went in yesterday so keep an eye on what he is passing and any irregularities, you won't see an improvement in poops until 24 hours after he has improved
 
Some vets 4 pets are ok, have a look at the "meet the team" page which should show the area's of interest. If they have trained in small animals or have a specific interest in that area you should be ok. I use a vets4pets like this and they are always very good at telling me when I need to go to a more specialised vet and will point me in the direction of one.
 
Thank you everyone for your replies, Lady Kelly, we will try Buttons on some mushed up nuggets later, he has hay and nuggets in his cage already but has showed little interest in them ( More interested in biting his tunnel). The swelling of his stomach has really gone down and his eyes have become less sunken, he certainly seems like he is much happier then yesterday, at the moment we're just encouraging him to fight and get better. We are looking after my brothers house at the moment so have moved him in with us, but left his cage mate at home with my mother, they are separated by a fence due to some wounding from Benji to Buttons (Buttons is the poorly one now) Buttons appear to be missing his buddy though, more fool him :) the vets asked us to return if he was not eating properly by monday, as stated in my first post he has recently been ill and i wonder if theres an underlying infection that baytril hasn't cleared properly that has created this GI Stasis, certainly would explain his interest in food but not actually eating.
 
BenjiAndButtons said:
Thank you everyone for your replies, Lady Kelly, we will try Buttons on some mushed up nuggets later, he has hay and nuggets in his cage already but has showed little interest in them ( More interested in biting his tunnel). The swelling of his stomach has really gone down and his eyes have become less sunken, he certainly seems like he is much happier then yesterday, at the moment we're just encouraging him to fight and get better. We are looking after my brothers house at the moment so have moved him in with us, but left his cage mate at home with my mother, they are separated by a fence due to some wounding from Benji to Buttons (Buttons is the poorly one now) Buttons appear to be missing his buddy though, more fool him :) the vets asked us to return if he was not eating properly by monday, as stated in my first post he has recently been ill and i wonder if theres an underlying infection that baytril hasn't cleared properly that has created this GI Stasis, certainly would explain his interest in food but not actually eating.
Click to expand...

One thing to watch out for is depression. Some piggies can be affected by being removed from their cage mate and may eat less or stop eating altogether because of that. I'm very lucky in the last 7 years with 9 piggies in total I've only ever had one who point blank refused to eat when housed on her own which was a nightmare as she was severely ill (and did end up passing not long after) but I couldn't monitor her food intake as a result
 
We began a gentle massage with an electric tooth brush under his belly, he passed 7 very small solid poos which has brought great joy to us. Showing no interest in his hay though other than to walk through it. His eyes have also popped back out to their normal position instead of being so sunken is like yesterday. Continuing with the same treatment, was wondering if any of you have experience with infacol? I see it recommended alot around the forums.
 
If you want to try something like infacol, I would opt for Woodward gripe water instead. Same idea, but it breaks the gas up into tiny bubbles to be passed rather than making it collect into one big bubble like infacol- which isn't ideal.

There's a good chance that your piggies baytril courses have distrupted the good bacteria in the gut, causing the bloat. Antibiotics can be harsh on the guts and its normally good practice to keep the good gut bacteria at a consistent level by giving probiotics 1-2 hours after each antibiotic dose.

Since he's not on baytril currently, you can just give some probiotics 2-3 times a day until his guts start working properly again. You can use pro-c from pets at home or fibreplex from the vet.

Hope your piggy is on the mend soon x
 
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Thank you all, we were at the vets again today, she claims his bloating has decreased and is getting better. I agree on the bloating, but his breathing is a little erratic, like when he have stuffy noises, but the vet claimed that his chest was clear. She say that if he is not better, she will have to gas him, to examine his teeth, to me this seems like something that could be done with him awake, if i as untrained as i am have seen and felt inside his mouth. Going to ring a vet that is recommended for piggies, its worth the trip if they can treat him, i dont mean to second guess a medical pro, but it certainly seems to me like he was a 'stuffy noise'. More cuddles for my little baby.
 
there is crusting around his noise, i wonder if its from the food that we've been feeding him. still no interest in his food. anyone know a mixture of hay that can be syringed in? had to massage poo out of his bum earlier and clean it with some wet tissue, wonder if this is signs of impaction?
 
BenjiAndButtons said:
there is crusting around his noise, i wonder if its from the food that we've been feeding him. still no interest in his food. anyone know a mixture of hay that can be syringed in? had to massage poo out of his bum earlier and clean it with some wet tissue, wonder if this is signs of impaction?
Click to expand...
It does sound like it's impaction or it could just be from having soft stools.

How is his breathing? What dose the vet think about the crusty nose? Is it nasal discharge that's dried up?
 
We've cleaned it up anyway and keeping an eye on him. the nose crust drys clearish, it wasn't there when the vet saw him, she said his breathing was fine, it seems fast to us, like when we're out of breath. He was drooling from his bloat, and we're still syringe feeding him, I'm not sure if this is something that could of dried on his nose or he's brushed up it there when he's cleaning himself. He certainly has more fight in him today, he really didn't like the gripe water.
 
Hi Guys,

I just wanted to say thank you for all your help and advise on our problems with Buttons.
But sadly he has passed away this evening, we dont know why as he seemed like he was on the mend.

But thanks again.
 
So sorry to hear of your loss. Please feel free to post a tribute to Buttons in our Rainbow bridge section when you feel ready
 
Thank you all. We were just wondering now thats Buttons has gone leaving just Benji, what signs we should be looking out for, to show loneliness, depression, boredom maybe? I'm not sure, we just wanted to do the best we can for Benji now.
 
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