Eriathwens piggies

What brilliant news. So happy that Fern is continuing to improve. xx
 
Fern joined us for Delilahs appointment today, Delilah had a little sore on her foot, her wrists are pretty fused now with her arthritis, walking unnaturally is causing her foot pads issues, so we're going to try the bio oil that worked for Ebony..see what happens.
Fern got good news in that the lung that was a little crackly on Friday is now clear, it's now all airways which should continue to clear as the course of antibiotics goes on. Her bloat is all gone which is great, and I can begin reducing the syringe feeds and reduce her nebuliser treatments to 3xs a day instead of 4 hourly so I should finally be able to get some sleep! Which I'm relieved about, I'm just starting to feel unwell from it, not just tired. That should also mean her emeprid etc can be reduced and then removed too.

For the first time ever, we had a little scuffle in the carrier on the way home, Ferns definitely feeling more herself, grumpy cow 😂 luckily I wasn't the one driving so I was able to jump into the back and get Delilah out. She enjoyed her ride in the car looking out the window in my arms.

20231016_171331.webp
 
So pleased Fern is doing so well …at the risk of lovely Delilah having to be rescued it’s great Fern has enough energy to be ‘grumpy’ 🥰
 
Beautiful little Fern has come off of the gabapentin and ranitadine, shes still doing well! The raspy breathing she had at the vets has gone, she sneezed out a load of mucous Monday night which seems to have been the last of things. She's now getting fed and nebulised 3xs a day which she is doing well on and I'm finally getting to go to sleep, although I am still jumping awake an hour or so after my alarm should have gone off 😬 but I'm sure I'll adjust back soon.

Another day or so and I will try removing her emeprid, then her metacam until she's only got her baytril to deal with. She has another week or so left of that and then it seems like we're done!

20231016_210904.webp20231016_210849.webp
 
What great news. Fingers crossed that Fern continues too improve.xx
 
Just a little update, Fern is still doing well however she dropped about 70g and became a little snotty again over night Wednesday night and went back to the vet Thursday. Luckily the new practice manager called me to arrange a day (next Tuesday) to bring in all my piggies on gabapentin (6 of them!) to redo all their prescriptions individually rather than in bulk to bring us up to scratch with the new prescribing legislation so while she was on the phone I managed to grab an appointment.

Anyway.. Her lungs were still clear and she was all in all OK, however between the vet I saw, my usual vet and the new practice manager who was the vet who originally saw and hospitalised her, they've scrambled to find her a second antibiotic to try, baytril is the only piggy safe antibiotic they can currently easily get hold of after sulfatrim being discontinued, but they've managed to order us some of what I'm assuming is bactrim by what they've said about it.

So here's Fern, blissfully unaware of all the havoc she's caused my poor vets 🤣 eating her hay, and Delilah just because!

Can't say I'm looking forward to Tuesday but I mean.. half an hour to do nothing but talk about 6 of my pigs can't be all that bad as long as I get some help juggling carriers 😂😂

20231019_125722.webp20231019_130316.webp
 
What is the new legislation that's coming ?.I hope Fern remains to get better.ive been given septrin for my UTI piggie.its the paediatric medicine .
 
Thankyou! This explains it probably better than I can, essentially though as they're on controlled drugs they need to be seen before prescribing, rather than getting a bulk amount under one pig to last me a few months, I'll now need to renew it every 28 days and collect a prescription for each individual animal. I'd imagine this is to prevent people collecting controlled human drugs for animals that have passed away and either taking it themselves or selling it on.

It's not all bad, although vet nurses won't be able to prescribe flea and worm meds I think from next year?

It's all a bit controversial and not very clear. My vets don't seem too happy about it, along with a lot of others, but in theory it seems like it might be a good thing? I'm not sure.

New prescribing rules for UK vets - Vet Help Direct
 
I understand that at some point in the near future animals in general will not be able to use any antibiotics that are prescribed to humans. This is going to make life very difficult for owners that have pets with long term infections. It’s to protect the antibodies from over use and bacteria becoming resistant to our very limited base of antibiotics
 
Yes my vet has been mentioning the issue with antibiotic resistance for a while! Worrying considering how few antibiotics are available for guinea pigs already.

Today has been fun 🤣 I got up to find Pumpkin drooling and hunched up, pawing at her mouth and very unhappy. Me being me, I wanted to figure out what was going on so checked the inside of her mouth, full of food.. trying to eat but acting like she had something stuck in her mouth. I swabbed inside her cheeks etc out with cotton buds much to her annoyance, there was so much food in there it was impossible to see much with an otoscope so I begged her not to bite me and had a feel with my little finger 😅 teeth were fine that I could feel.

Admitting defeat I call up the out of hours vets, no piggies dying on my birthday!
So we rush her down and wait for an hour or so, in that time she's happily munching the hay in her carrier and seems very pleased with herself. She's taken out the back to be triaged and after another wait (made interesting by someone bringing in a stray cat from not far from me, who has been worring a large neighbourhood so I'll be checking their Facebook post in a bit to see if the poor thing was microchipped and finds his way home) we're called in, the vet has also had a clear of her mouth with cotton buds and also cannot find anything wrong with her mouth, no abscesses or anything so it's likely she had something stuck somewhere it shouldn't be and I managed to dislodge it at home.

She was absolutely lovely and sent Pumpkin home without charge, with instructions to bring her back if worried or to have her rechecked by my regular vet when they open in the week. Luckily she is one of the 6 already going in Tuesday and I'm hearing from them Monday with results from my cats blood test so.. we will see how she goes.

Now she's back home she's up and about, eating and back to her old self like nothings happened, panic over!

Wish they would stop scaring me like that lol

20231021_145219.webp
 
Eriathwen said:
Thankyou! This explains it probably better than I can, essentially though as they're on controlled drugs they need to be seen before prescribing, rather than getting a bulk amount under one pig to last me a few months, I'll now need to renew it every 28 days and collect a prescription for each individual animal. I'd imagine this is to prevent people collecting controlled human drugs for animals that have passed away and either taking it themselves or selling it on.

It's not all bad, although vet nurses won't be able to prescribe flea and worm meds I think from next year?

It's all a bit controversial and not very clear. My vets don't seem too happy about it, along with a lot of others, but in theory it seems like it might be a good thing? I'm not sure.

New prescribing rules for UK vets - Vet Help Direct
Click to expand...
An interesting read.
I think we need to wait and see what the impact is on vets and owners
 
Of course nothings simple, shes still a bit drooly, somethings definitely bothering her. She has a bite on her ear, I'm wondering if she took a bit of a smack to the face by one of the other pigs, aggravating her arthritis? Not sure.

Will see how she goes and get her in on Monday for a full work up unless she needs seeing sooner. She's very cooperative taking critical care and her poops are great so whatever it is, happened very suddenly.

20231021_205559.webp20231021_205611.webp20231021_205624.webp
 
Pumpkin is still "ok" but still being bothered by whatever it is, so I'll call first thing in the morning to have her seen. I have a feeling she's going to need sedating to have a proper flush out and check.

I was thinking this morning she looks like I do when my TMJ is acting up so I'm really hoping is isn't a jaw issue 😔 but it's too coincidental that they were fed the timothy hay + dried veggie pieces for me to not be expecting something stuck somewhere it shouldn't be. Fingers crossed anyway. She's still a happy, bouncy little lady, but she's very hungry.. snatches the critical care at this point. She does eat well for herself apart from when she's drooling which isn't often now, she's just very slow with it.

20231022_164209.webp20231022_161628.webp
 
I cant fault my vets, I really can't.. I set an alarm so I could call them the second they opened at 9am to book Pumpkin an appointment, however I've not long got off the phone to them after they called ME to make sure she was OK after getting the email from the out of hours vets this morning. So, shes booked in for 11:15. I'm not even mad that they woke me up 😅
 
Back home from the vet, I've left Pumpkin with them as they found a spur growing over her tongue! So she's having dental work done by the exotics specialist who is luckily in today 🙂 I'm concerned this is going to be an ongoing issue, given her arthritis, but we will have to wait and see. I'm so relieved they found the problem even if it's probably one of the worst likely outcomes, it's manageable for now.
 
Bill & Ted said:
poor Pumpkin, hope it’s goes well.At least you know what’s wrong and that’s half the battle x
Click to expand...

Yes, one less stress now we know for sure what it is! The why is still worrying me, but hopefully once they've had a good look in her mouth they'll have a better idea.
Hopefully won't be too much longer until I hear how she is, although they said to call at 4-5pm if I've not heard by then.
 
So they've put it down to "one of those things" which is unfortunate but hopefully it won't be a reoccurring issue 🤞

She's currently eating a dandelion leaf, very, very slowly. She's still very sleepy but hopefully she will be feeling more awake soon. I'm getting some nice warm critical care into her in between trying to encourage her to eat for herself.

20231023_164036.webp
 
Glad all is well.
When the anaesthesia works out her system, she should be brighter and hopefully munching happily for herself
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top