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Specialist Ear Mites

T

Tigger&Eeyore

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hi all,

Looking for some advice. Tigger (boar) was at the vets this week after I noticed he had a slight head tilt, seemed a little restless and was eating less dry food than normal. Still super interested in hay and veggies. He had a middle ear infection back in August which was first noticed by a very severe head tilt, eye darting and no balance so I am very conscious of any slight tilt now!

Anyway, vet suspects ear mites and pulled what she believed to be a dead mite from his ear. We have been given Xeno 200 spray to apply every 2 weeks. I had seen what looked to be a build up of wax in his ear which the vet either didn’t see or wasn’t concerned about (my sister took him to the vet). I’ve attached a photo, what do you think? In addition, he had lost 0.15 kilos and had gone from 1.35 to 1.2.

Does this sound like right diagnosis based on the symptoms and the right medication?

Vet is very piggy savvy and was recommended on here but wanted to pick your brains!

Thanks,
Zoe

8EB9F1A4-0148-4A31-9008-9483FDB8DE3C.webp
 
Sorry I have no experience of this kind of condition. What were your feelings about the vet? Did you think they were thorough in their examination? Did they give a reason not to be concerned about the wax?
 
Hmmm... has the vet seen that ear discharge? Guinea pigs form very thick pus, I'm wondering if it could be pus making its way from the inner ear from an infection that has perforated the ear drum. I know this sounds gross, but what does it smell like? A ruptured abscess tends to smell pretty nasty, though even if it's not that bad-smelling I still wouldn't rule out pus completely. It just doesn't look like ear wax to me.
 
Freela said:
Hmmm... has the vet seen that ear discharge? Guinea pigs form very thick pus, I'm wondering if it could be pus making its way from the inner ear from an infection that has perforated the ear drum. I know this sounds gross, but what does it smell like? A ruptured abscess tends to smell pretty nasty, though even if it's not that bad-smelling I still wouldn't rule out pus completely. It just doesn't look like ear wax to me.
Click to expand...

Hi Freela,
Hard to say as sister took him. The vet did examine the ears with a torch and did pull out what she believed to be a dead mite so I’m not sure how she could have missed it. He has lost a bit more weight since going to the vet on Monday so I’ll be taking him back tomorrow. He has started shaking his head more. Seems happy eating hay and veg but doesn’t seem to be eating any dry food. Have added some warm water to dry food to soften it up to see if that makes any difference. His balance seems off, not noticed it before this evening but he ended up upside down in his tube earlier. Not sure how that’s possible but think he shook his head while in tube and it rolled over. He doesn’t seem to be drinking water either. His behaviour is a little odd, seems restless and paces around in circles when he comes out (which isn’t often - he is hiding himself away). It’s lot of little things I have noticed but obviously most concerned about the weight loss.
 
Tigger&Eeyore said:
Hi Freela,
Hard to say as sister took him. The vet did examine the ears with a torch and did pull out what she believed to be a dead mite so I’m not sure how she could have missed it. He has lost a bit more weight since going to the vet on Monday so I’ll be taking him back tomorrow. He has started shaking his head more. Seems happy eating hay and veg but doesn’t seem to be eating any dry food. Have added some warm water to dry food to soften it up to see if that makes any difference. His balance seems off, not noticed it before this evening but he ended up upside down in his tube earlier. Not sure how that’s possible but think he shook his head while in tube and it rolled over. He doesn’t seem to be drinking water either. His behaviour is a little odd, seems restless and paces around in circles when he comes out (which isn’t often - he is hiding himself away). It’s lot of little things I have noticed but obviously most concerned about the weight loss.
Click to expand...

Head shaking and going in circles means that the balance organ is affected. Please ask your vet to treat for a potential ear infection to be on the safe side!

Please step in with syringe feeding fibre. It makes up to 80% of the daily food intake and is responsible for the weight loss. Just offering mushed up pellets is obviously not enough, you need to give them (or better recovery formula) directly. This is VERY important. Your care in this respect can really make the difference!
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
Administering Medications And Syringe Feed
 
Wiebke said:
Head shaking and going in circles means that the balance organ is affected. Please ask your vet to treat for a potential ear infection to be on the safe side!

Please step in with syringe feeding fibre. It makes up to 80% of the daily food intake and is responsible for the weight loss. Just offering mushed up pellets is obviously not enough, you need to give them (or better recovery formula) directly. This is VERY important. Your care in this respect can really make the difference!
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
Administering Medications And Syringe Feed
Click to expand...

Yes I’m taking him back to the vets today so will discuss this and presumably start on antibiotics. Yes I will get some recovery food (which luckily he absolutely loves) and start straight away. I will let you know how he is getting on
 
Update:
Went back to vet and started tigger on antibiotics to treat an ear infection. No change after 1 week so I went and got a second opinion. Vet didn’t think it was an ear infection, possibly parasites deep in inner ear. He prescribed anti inflammatory and worming paste. Tiggers weight remained relatively steady. Again, no change after 1 week so went back to new vet who booked him in for an X-ray. X-ray showed white mass in ears which should show clear. Vet has pierced ear drum to take a sample and sent this off for analysis. Stopped taking worming paste and atarted back on antibiotics. Best case scenario is that it is bacterial and can be treated with antibiotics over a long time period (weeks of not months in told) due to difficulty of antibiotics getting to problem area. Worst case it can’t be treats with antibiotics and could require surgery. Tigger been doing well since X-ray, eating and drinking ok until last night. He fell and couldn’t get up and it seems his balance has deteriorated. I can’t leave his side in case he falls. We are still waiting for lab results to come back. Vets have said if he is on antibiotics and anti inflammatory there isn’t much more they can do. Any advice would be appreciated
 
Tigger&Eeyore said:
Update:
Went back to vet and started tigger on antibiotics to treat an ear infection. No change after 1 week so I went and got a second opinion. Vet didn’t think it was an ear infection, possibly parasites deep in inner ear. He prescribed anti inflammatory and worming paste. Tiggers weight remained relatively steady. Again, no change after 1 week so went back to new vet who booked him in for an X-ray. X-ray showed white mass in ears which should show clear. Vet has pierced ear drum to take a sample and sent this off for analysis. Stopped taking worming paste and atarted back on antibiotics. Best case scenario is that it is bacterial and can be treated with antibiotics over a long time period (weeks of not months in told) due to difficulty of antibiotics getting to problem area. Worst case it can’t be treats with antibiotics and could require surgery. Tigger been doing well since X-ray, eating and drinking ok until last night. He fell and couldn’t get up and it seems his balance has deteriorated. I can’t leave his side in case he falls. We are still waiting for lab results to come back. Vets have said if he is on antibiotics and anti inflammatory there isn’t much more they can do. Any advice would be appreciated
Click to expand...

I am very sorry; you are doing your best for Tigger!

@furryfriends (TEAS) @Jaycey @helen105281 @Freela
 
The only thing I can think of is suggesting Zithromax, not sure what antibiotic he is on already? It may be that he is not on the right antibiotic for this particular bacteria.
 
helen105281 said:
The only thing I can think of is suggesting Zithromax, not sure what antibiotic he is on already? It may be that he is not on the right antibiotic for this particular bacteria.
Click to expand...

Hi helen,
Tigger is on endocare - a form of Baytril I am told. I’ve just had a call from the vet to confirm the lab results have come back and it is a bacterial infection - streptococcus. The vet has said this bacteria is responsive to the antibiotics he is on so need for them to change his medication. Popped him to vets this morning and they didn’t seem too concerned about the loss of balance. Heart was fine as was temperature. Tigger has lost a tad more weight and is down to exactly 1kg. I will really step up the game re syringe feeding, now more than ever as he is reluctant to come out of his igloo as he will fall. I will syringe feed him critical care and water. I am hoping this is just a blip although I can’t quite get my head around why, when he is on the right antibiotics. If no improvement in balance by end of week will take him back to vets. Fingers crossed!

I’ve reduced the size of the cage to make it easier for him to move around. I’ve put rolled up towels along sides of cage to help prop him up if he falls.

Any other advice or anything more I could be doing would be much appreciated!
 
Hi all,
I am devastated to say that tigger passed away yesterday evening. His condition continued to decline over the week. I continued syringe feeding and keeping him hydrated and told myself that as long as he wanted to eat he was still fighting. By lunchtime yesterday he didn’t even have the energy to be able to eat and was visibly getting weaker. The vet said to leave it till this morning and if no better he should be brought in to be put down. I wasn’t happy to leave it any longer and took him in yesterday evening. It was very upsetting but I felt it was absolutely the right thing to do by him. We took the other piggy with us (against the vets advice) so he could say goodbye. Thanks to all over the past few months for their advice. We did all we could and have been very unlucky. That said he has been incredibly loved for his 2 years and we will miss him lots
 
Oh no! You did all you could. I think you were right to take in your other piggy so that he understood what had happened. Sending you lots of love and hugs! x:hug::hug::hug:x
 
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