Ollie Roberts
New Born Pup
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2017
- Messages
- 9
- Reaction score
- 7
- Points
- 55
Hi Everyone
We've just joined this forum hoping for some help or suggestions from a community, as we're struggling to reach any clear way forward for our 4 year old female guinea pig Noisy.
Last Saturday, day 1, we noticed she was breathing heavily and a bit slowly, she's eating well, very greedy in fact, and seems quite happy overall, no real change there.
Sunday, day 2, I took her to our vet, a well recommended exotics vet in Newmarket. Initial diagnosis was harsh sound in her chest, later confirmed as right side only, and we should administer baytril and metacam twice daily, in addition to a diuretic shot by the vet on the day.
No improvement 3 days later so Wednesday, day 5, we returned to our vet, left her there with partner Scruffsy for the day, they did an X-ray first and saw something in upper chest, either a) thymoma, b) abscess, c) pneumonia. They needed to do ultrasound, which was done, and showed irregular mass plus vessels common with cancerous tumour. Biopsy was offered but considered unnecessary and somewhat dangerous given location and her breathing issues. Recommendation was palliative care due to size and location, so metacam and F10 nebuliser just to help her airways. Deemed probably OK to stop the antibiotic so her gut stays OK at least. Monitor decline in behaviour then pts. Obviously we were very upset by this diagnosis, we had lost our beloved rabbit only 4 weeks earlier suddenly (non contagious). That said, at least the way forward was clear, we switched to just metacam and F10 on day 4, and have continued as such to now, day 8.
We reached out to a contact around day 6, just to see if any natural supporting remedies were out there. The contact said we should get a 2nd opinion from an expert guinea pig vet in Broxbourne for various reasons. We did this, and after he had seen all the scan copies from our local vet, on day 6-7, he concluded that it was unclear to see what the chest issue is. He said it's hard to see thymoma in dogs let alone guinea pigs, just from a scan. He also said he wouldn't do biopsy in this scenario though, too risky. His recommended treatment is, back on the Baytril, add Frusol diuretic because he thought he could see fluid in the x-ray, go with that for now. We did not take Noisy to see this vet due to 3 hour round trip and he would not do further diagnostics anyway. (Also said we could consider prednisone if it truly is cancer but it's not possible to tell, our local vet thinks prednisone could do more harm than good, so for now it's off the table.)
So ... overall, we're feeling a bit lost and out of our depth. Noisy's behaviour is the same, the breathing seems the same. When she's active it seems slightly better, relaxing or laying down it looks worse. We did pick up some Frusol diuretic today, day 8, off our local vet, we are planning to add the frusol diuretic to the metacam and F10 for next few days. The frusol dosage is 0.03ml very low just to see if it makes any difference, we think the local vet thinks it will make no difference based on what they've seen and heard, which may well be true.
We have no idea whether to restart the Baytril again or not, we're leaning towards not, just because of how certain our vet is about the thymoma, and we hate the idea that she'll feel even sicker on all these drugs and antibiotics makes can stop the gut. We have probiotics but the instructions are weird, mix 1 whole sachet in 50ml (huge amount for GP), and it's designed for rabbits, so currently no idea what to do with that. For now, anti and pro biotics are not in the immediate plans.
We are contemplating a 3rd opinion, but, it's just getting more confusing and less clear. And, we don't know of a GP expert in the Norfolk/Suffolk area. Does anyone know somewhere close to Thetford we could send the scans or travel too whilst not putting her under too much stress with her breathing?
Sorry for the long and convoluted message, it's become a very difficult situation, it's pretty urgent of course, but also, unclear what we should or shouldn't be administering for her due to conflicting opinions on the scans. We are not sure what is best now, from the perspective of any chance of improvement, vs making her comfortable and not feel too sick in case it's her final days.
Any advice, on any section of this scenario, much appreciated.
Thanks
Ollie
PS I'll try to post a video of the breathing later, once I know the text has worked.
We've just joined this forum hoping for some help or suggestions from a community, as we're struggling to reach any clear way forward for our 4 year old female guinea pig Noisy.
Last Saturday, day 1, we noticed she was breathing heavily and a bit slowly, she's eating well, very greedy in fact, and seems quite happy overall, no real change there.
Sunday, day 2, I took her to our vet, a well recommended exotics vet in Newmarket. Initial diagnosis was harsh sound in her chest, later confirmed as right side only, and we should administer baytril and metacam twice daily, in addition to a diuretic shot by the vet on the day.
No improvement 3 days later so Wednesday, day 5, we returned to our vet, left her there with partner Scruffsy for the day, they did an X-ray first and saw something in upper chest, either a) thymoma, b) abscess, c) pneumonia. They needed to do ultrasound, which was done, and showed irregular mass plus vessels common with cancerous tumour. Biopsy was offered but considered unnecessary and somewhat dangerous given location and her breathing issues. Recommendation was palliative care due to size and location, so metacam and F10 nebuliser just to help her airways. Deemed probably OK to stop the antibiotic so her gut stays OK at least. Monitor decline in behaviour then pts. Obviously we were very upset by this diagnosis, we had lost our beloved rabbit only 4 weeks earlier suddenly (non contagious). That said, at least the way forward was clear, we switched to just metacam and F10 on day 4, and have continued as such to now, day 8.
We reached out to a contact around day 6, just to see if any natural supporting remedies were out there. The contact said we should get a 2nd opinion from an expert guinea pig vet in Broxbourne for various reasons. We did this, and after he had seen all the scan copies from our local vet, on day 6-7, he concluded that it was unclear to see what the chest issue is. He said it's hard to see thymoma in dogs let alone guinea pigs, just from a scan. He also said he wouldn't do biopsy in this scenario though, too risky. His recommended treatment is, back on the Baytril, add Frusol diuretic because he thought he could see fluid in the x-ray, go with that for now. We did not take Noisy to see this vet due to 3 hour round trip and he would not do further diagnostics anyway. (Also said we could consider prednisone if it truly is cancer but it's not possible to tell, our local vet thinks prednisone could do more harm than good, so for now it's off the table.)
So ... overall, we're feeling a bit lost and out of our depth. Noisy's behaviour is the same, the breathing seems the same. When she's active it seems slightly better, relaxing or laying down it looks worse. We did pick up some Frusol diuretic today, day 8, off our local vet, we are planning to add the frusol diuretic to the metacam and F10 for next few days. The frusol dosage is 0.03ml very low just to see if it makes any difference, we think the local vet thinks it will make no difference based on what they've seen and heard, which may well be true.
We have no idea whether to restart the Baytril again or not, we're leaning towards not, just because of how certain our vet is about the thymoma, and we hate the idea that she'll feel even sicker on all these drugs and antibiotics makes can stop the gut. We have probiotics but the instructions are weird, mix 1 whole sachet in 50ml (huge amount for GP), and it's designed for rabbits, so currently no idea what to do with that. For now, anti and pro biotics are not in the immediate plans.
We are contemplating a 3rd opinion, but, it's just getting more confusing and less clear. And, we don't know of a GP expert in the Norfolk/Suffolk area. Does anyone know somewhere close to Thetford we could send the scans or travel too whilst not putting her under too much stress with her breathing?
Sorry for the long and convoluted message, it's become a very difficult situation, it's pretty urgent of course, but also, unclear what we should or shouldn't be administering for her due to conflicting opinions on the scans. We are not sure what is best now, from the perspective of any chance of improvement, vs making her comfortable and not feel too sick in case it's her final days.
Any advice, on any section of this scenario, much appreciated.
Thanks
Ollie
PS I'll try to post a video of the breathing later, once I know the text has worked.
My own guinea pig died from a cancerous tumour located in a similar place earlier this year, it is possible it was also cancer of the Thymus. What happens is the fluid around the tumour starts to compromise the heart & lung function. The trick is to get a balance of heart drugs & diuretics to stabilise the fluid build up so that your piggy can breathe easily enough to have a decent quality of life. Mine had 6 months where she was very happy eating & doing normal piggy things, the mass started to metastasize & eventually just caused her heart to stop within a few hours, her passing was relatively quick & peaceful at home. We also made sure she was on Metacam & Tramodol for pain relief.
