Dilly's Piggies
Teenage Guinea Pig
Hi, so yesterday I got some very sad, but expected news. My sow Delilah is just two months shy of 7 years old and has been having breathing issues on and off for a couple of months now.
Her breathing is laboured, her sides move faster and with more effort than normal, and sometimes she can get a stuffy nose which is very loud (doesn't sound like hooting, it's more congested sounding) she has also been steadily losing weight and is a 'pancake pig' who lays flat all the time, unwilling to move much. Her symptoms are intermittent also, one day she can struggle and the next be totally fine.
We initially thought it was a URI so treated her with antibiotics, which actually helped a bit, but her issues came back after finishing the course. My vet suspected heart problems so we xrayed and did a heart scan ultrasound yesterday and she was found to have an enlarged heart, dialated cardiomyopathy specifically.
So she has heart disease, but is not so bad that she needs euthanasia or anything at this time, she is still bright, alert and LOVES to eat, so that's good enough for me to try her on heart medication and see how she goes which the vet agreed, hopefully it'll work. I'm already seeing some improvement, the difference before and after medication is noticible.
She's getting 0.5ml of Frusol and 1/4 tablet of Cardisure twice per day, as well as metacam for arthritis. The issue is, I can't get her to take the Cardisure tablet, the vet said to slide it behind her front teeth, however Delilah is quite a sassy and stressy pig, it's nearly impossible for me to do this, I've tried every way possible. I was trying for 30 minutes last night, she tries every kung fu move possible to avoid it, she's so fast I'm not quick enough, when I do finally get it in her mouth she immediately spits it back out.
Because she is a heart pig and gets extremely stressed, I feel really mean and uncomfortable forcing this on her, I worry she'll have a heart attack or something. I did manage to get it in wrapped in a piece of lettuce, but she spat it back out. It went in and out of her mouth so many times that it became mush so I was able to smear it on cucumber and she ate it then.
This morning I had to hide it inside a small piece of tomato and she took it without questions, so this seems to work better, however Delilah is incredibly smart and has worked out that I'm trying to trick her with veggies lol, I can't see this trick working for long.
The tablets are made for dogs and have a strong beef smell and flavour, which is making it harder for me as she hates it, it would probably be better if they were unflavoured but as they're made for dogs I don't think that's possible. Looking online it says not to give these tablets with food for dogs, I don't know if this is the same for piggies. I don't know if my tactic of giving it with food is affecting the medication from working properly.
Am I allowed to hide these tablets in food, or crush in water and syringe it to her instead? Delilah has to take these tablets for the rest of her life, this is going to be a challenge, she's just too smart and sassy lol. Thanks
Her breathing is laboured, her sides move faster and with more effort than normal, and sometimes she can get a stuffy nose which is very loud (doesn't sound like hooting, it's more congested sounding) she has also been steadily losing weight and is a 'pancake pig' who lays flat all the time, unwilling to move much. Her symptoms are intermittent also, one day she can struggle and the next be totally fine.
We initially thought it was a URI so treated her with antibiotics, which actually helped a bit, but her issues came back after finishing the course. My vet suspected heart problems so we xrayed and did a heart scan ultrasound yesterday and she was found to have an enlarged heart, dialated cardiomyopathy specifically.
So she has heart disease, but is not so bad that she needs euthanasia or anything at this time, she is still bright, alert and LOVES to eat, so that's good enough for me to try her on heart medication and see how she goes which the vet agreed, hopefully it'll work. I'm already seeing some improvement, the difference before and after medication is noticible.
She's getting 0.5ml of Frusol and 1/4 tablet of Cardisure twice per day, as well as metacam for arthritis. The issue is, I can't get her to take the Cardisure tablet, the vet said to slide it behind her front teeth, however Delilah is quite a sassy and stressy pig, it's nearly impossible for me to do this, I've tried every way possible. I was trying for 30 minutes last night, she tries every kung fu move possible to avoid it, she's so fast I'm not quick enough, when I do finally get it in her mouth she immediately spits it back out.
Because she is a heart pig and gets extremely stressed, I feel really mean and uncomfortable forcing this on her, I worry she'll have a heart attack or something. I did manage to get it in wrapped in a piece of lettuce, but she spat it back out. It went in and out of her mouth so many times that it became mush so I was able to smear it on cucumber and she ate it then.
This morning I had to hide it inside a small piece of tomato and she took it without questions, so this seems to work better, however Delilah is incredibly smart and has worked out that I'm trying to trick her with veggies lol, I can't see this trick working for long.
The tablets are made for dogs and have a strong beef smell and flavour, which is making it harder for me as she hates it, it would probably be better if they were unflavoured but as they're made for dogs I don't think that's possible. Looking online it says not to give these tablets with food for dogs, I don't know if this is the same for piggies. I don't know if my tactic of giving it with food is affecting the medication from working properly.
Am I allowed to hide these tablets in food, or crush in water and syringe it to her instead? Delilah has to take these tablets for the rest of her life, this is going to be a challenge, she's just too smart and sassy lol. Thanks
Love the critical care idea with the syringe too, I'm going to attempt that later... The tomato trick worked again this morning but not as well, I quartered a tomato, found a juicy one, pushed the tablet into it and then let her eat it. She didn't notice before, but this morning she kept eating the tomato and spitting the tablet out haha, it took all 4 pieces of tomato and she finally ate it, so cheeky. 
is there any similar heart tablets that don’t taste beefy?