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Eye nystagmus and tilting head.

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Gojira

Gojira

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Thought my guinea pig was playing cute hiding under the hack rack. When I went to give him a tickle he didn't really move and was all tilted to one side. Needless to say, I freaked out, called a cab down to the vet and carefully put him into the carrier with some nice comfy towels.

I'm back now. His right nostril had some blood on it, a tiny amount. And he was walking in circles at the vet. He gave him a steroid injection in case of any brain swelling and an oral antibiotic I think. I have to bring him down again tomorrow.

Anyway, is this vestibular disease? The nystagmus and the tilting seems to suggest it is according to google. Of course I'm just after opinions from people with similar experiences and such, my vet still has the final say of course, been with him for almost 20 and gets a lot of guinea patients compared to others where I am.

What can I expect quality and length of life wise if it is vestibular?
 
I'm not a vet but my guess would be that the prognosis is not great. He sounds very much like he has had a stroke affecting his vestibular function so I am not sure how much he will improve but the vet should be able to tell you more.
 
Did your pig have any eye nystagmus or anything like that?

The problem I'm having is that java is eating fine, he finds it eventually, but cant seem to find the water nozzle and doesn't do anything with a saucer of water in front of him.

Spent last night taking 2 hour shifts with my girlfriend at syringe feeding him water. Obviously this cant continue forever, just wish I knew how to get him to drink. He's a rescue pig, I figured he would have a clean run of things after a bad start in life.

How can I get him to drink? I've stopped giving him water hoping that its lack of thirst stopping him from trying to drink. But I have no idea how long to do this for.
 
Vet says its an up down, but to me it just looks diaganol. The nose bleed still has no explanation. His inner ear looks a tiny bit raw according to the vet inspection. Today he got more steroids and antibiotics. His temperment is better today, but he still cant drink. So it's another night of shift feeding and watering with a syringe.

I'm going to get some good expensive organic veg in the morning. The kind with much higher nutrient content than super market stuff. I'm hoping it will perk him right up.
 
Get plenty fluids down him and syringe feed.Give metacam for inflammation and keep warm.May be cerebral in origin or could be inner ear infection.I have two piggies who had similar they made full recovery and apart from a little head tilt they are fine.
See our web site for information if needed
Helen
 
I'll be completely honest here. I spent five months battling ear infections, seizures and strokes with my little Bingo. It it rough but you know when it is time to say goodbye. I found adding probiotics (the kind you can get in pet shops) to his water made him drink because it was tastier. However there were two months were he had to be syringed water which is exhausting.

Some piggies battle through and make a full recovery, some don't. It does depend on the severity. My boy had an inner ear infection and some issues that were neurological so his case was particularly complicated. It is great that you have a good vet you can trust to discuss options with.

Please don't hesitate to ask any questions you might have here and I am send healing vibes to your piggy.

Amy
x
 
Left to right nystagmus suggests inner ear/vestibular disease. If it is up and down then it would suggest a central nervous system problem, usually in the brain. There usually is no such thing as diaganol, it may look a bit odd if there is a head tilt. Main things you can do are usually the following:
- ensure hes eating/drinking plenty, which it sounds as though you are doing
- really good antibiotics, zith-romax would definatly be advisable in this situation, and maybe even several different types of antibiotics
- treat for mites, to rule out ear mites
- topical ear treatment - if the ear drum is in tact
- if no improvement is seen then it may be advisable to do an MRI scan to find out the origin of all these symptoms, this would mean a referral to a specialist

Hope you start to see some improvement

x.
 
Well. No more than 5 mins ago I just spotted him drinking from the bottle. I gave him some probiotic powder in water last night and it seems to have worked like you mentioned.

You are right about it being exhausting but it's only for a little while and its worth it if he gets better. Don't think we are out of the woods yet though, however the nystagmus is gone as of yesterday. He puts up a fight now when being picked up, which seems good, that's typical for him.

I'm still going to continue watering and feeding just in case, for the moment.
 
Gojira said:
Well. No more than 5 mins ago I just spotted him drinking from the bottle. I gave him some probiotic powder in water last night and it seems to have worked like you mentioned.

You are right about it being exhausting but it's only for a little while and its worth it if he gets better. Don't think we are out of the woods yet though, however the nystagmus is gone as of yesterday. He puts up a fight now when being picked up, which seems good, that's typical for him.

I'm still going to continue watering and feeding just in case, for the moment.
Click to expand...

I'm so glad the probiotics in water helped. It works wonders on my boys and I now syringe them a little as a treat occassionally to make them see the syringe as a friend not something they need to fight.

Just keep up the water and food help but you are doing everything right!

As I said before just ask if you have any questions. We have great people like Abi Nurse who are just fonts of knowledge!

Amy
 
Abi_nurse said:
Left to right nystagmus suggests inner ear/vestibular disease. If it is up and down then it would suggest a central nervous system problem, usually in the brain. There usually is no such thing as diaganol, it may look a bit odd if there is a head tilt. Main things you can do are usually the following:
- ensure hes eating/drinking plenty, which it sounds as though you are doing
- really good antibiotics, zith-romax would definatly be advisable in this situation, and maybe even several different types of antibiotics
- treat for mites, to rule out ear mites
- topical ear treatment - if the ear drum is in tact
- if no improvement is seen then it may be advisable to do an MRI scan to find out the origin of all these symptoms, this would mean a referral to a specialist

Hope you start to see some improvement

x.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this can i use this info on my web site ?
Helen x
 
Java passed away a few hours ago. The medicines didn't help. We ended up going to a specialist vet in a different county and got some oxbow fine grain critical care feed. I'm pretty much broke down to my last penny and exhausted from the hours, but he was awesome and worth the effort. The syringe feeding I guess just wasn't enough and it was his time. He passed away lying in his fleece while sleeping. I'll miss him. He had the best coat I've ever seen or felt on any piggie. His brother got to snuggle beside him and give him a sniff mere minutes before he passed. I don't think he realises. There is a lot of attention in his future.

It's hard enough to even write this much, so I'll leave it at that. RIP kiddo.
 
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