historickitty
New Born Pup
Hi all,
Looking for some advice please.
A fortnight or so now we rushed one of our guinea pigs, Corky, in as an emergency appointment on a Saturday evening due to that fact she had suddenly become extremely listless and was showing no interest in food. She was promptly diagnosed with an early URI and prescribed 0.5ml of Baytril once a day and 0.1ml of metacam. She didn't seem to get much better on this and was still displaying the same symptoms so we brought her back to the vets a couple of days later.
It was a different vet this time, who has some good experience with exotics and used to work in a practice that specialises in them although he professed he was no guinea pig expert. He assessed Corky and said that her breathing wasn't good still and that the best course of action would be to try another antibiotic - this time he gave us Sulfatrim, 0.25ml twice a day. He said not to bother carrying on with the metacam as he didn't feel it would be making much difference at this stage. He advised booking her in for a further check up in a few days time to see how the Sulfatrim was working and if it wasn't, further checks could be done on her teeth and possibly x-rays - although he was not keen to jump to the latter as she would have to be sedated and as she was already weak and having respitatory issues this could have a detrimental impact on her.
A couple of days passed before her follow up appointment and we were actually starting to see some improvement; she was helping herself to the odd few mouthfuls of hay (not a lot but it was better than nothing as was the case previously) and she was being a little more active. This whole time she had at least been drinking herself so we hadn't had to worry about dehydration. The follow up appointment (with yet another different vet - we had seen 3 at this point) rolled around on a morning and while she had lost some weight, this other vet seemed pleased that her breathing had improved and she was starting to eat a little for herself again. She also listened to Corky's heart and checked her teeth and couldn't find anything concerning on first look. She advised us to keep up the Sulfatrim until Corky had had a course of about ten days worth but she disagreed with the previous vet re the metacam as said we should have her back on that for a further 3-5 days or so.
After all of these positives, that same day Corky just seemed to go downhill again that very same day in the afternoon. Not only was she now not eating at all again but she seems to have stopped drinking for herself as well. We are supplimenting her with critical care every few hours during the day - I can't do all night because I'm 8 months pregnant and struggling as it is- we are also making sure she gets some water with every feed with some pro-c mixed in at first until I switched to Fibreplex. We are weighing her every day and she is losing weight and seems to be losing hair more than she usually does, although it may just be the time of year.
At this point we're at a loss as to what to do. She's hanging in there but she just seems constantly spaced out and is either sitting and staring into space or sleeping. When we feed her she perks up a bit and still shows some spirit when she's wriggling like a mad piggy and objecting to her medicine. Could the meds be killing her appetite and subsequently her energy is just low? We're so worried that the medication is doing more harm than good to her at this point and whether we need to take her back to the vets or whether we stick it until the end of the course? (It'll be done by this Thursday)
Looking for some advice please.
A fortnight or so now we rushed one of our guinea pigs, Corky, in as an emergency appointment on a Saturday evening due to that fact she had suddenly become extremely listless and was showing no interest in food. She was promptly diagnosed with an early URI and prescribed 0.5ml of Baytril once a day and 0.1ml of metacam. She didn't seem to get much better on this and was still displaying the same symptoms so we brought her back to the vets a couple of days later.
It was a different vet this time, who has some good experience with exotics and used to work in a practice that specialises in them although he professed he was no guinea pig expert. He assessed Corky and said that her breathing wasn't good still and that the best course of action would be to try another antibiotic - this time he gave us Sulfatrim, 0.25ml twice a day. He said not to bother carrying on with the metacam as he didn't feel it would be making much difference at this stage. He advised booking her in for a further check up in a few days time to see how the Sulfatrim was working and if it wasn't, further checks could be done on her teeth and possibly x-rays - although he was not keen to jump to the latter as she would have to be sedated and as she was already weak and having respitatory issues this could have a detrimental impact on her.
A couple of days passed before her follow up appointment and we were actually starting to see some improvement; she was helping herself to the odd few mouthfuls of hay (not a lot but it was better than nothing as was the case previously) and she was being a little more active. This whole time she had at least been drinking herself so we hadn't had to worry about dehydration. The follow up appointment (with yet another different vet - we had seen 3 at this point) rolled around on a morning and while she had lost some weight, this other vet seemed pleased that her breathing had improved and she was starting to eat a little for herself again. She also listened to Corky's heart and checked her teeth and couldn't find anything concerning on first look. She advised us to keep up the Sulfatrim until Corky had had a course of about ten days worth but she disagreed with the previous vet re the metacam as said we should have her back on that for a further 3-5 days or so.
After all of these positives, that same day Corky just seemed to go downhill again that very same day in the afternoon. Not only was she now not eating at all again but she seems to have stopped drinking for herself as well. We are supplimenting her with critical care every few hours during the day - I can't do all night because I'm 8 months pregnant and struggling as it is- we are also making sure she gets some water with every feed with some pro-c mixed in at first until I switched to Fibreplex. We are weighing her every day and she is losing weight and seems to be losing hair more than she usually does, although it may just be the time of year.
At this point we're at a loss as to what to do. She's hanging in there but she just seems constantly spaced out and is either sitting and staring into space or sleeping. When we feed her she perks up a bit and still shows some spirit when she's wriggling like a mad piggy and objecting to her medicine. Could the meds be killing her appetite and subsequently her energy is just low? We're so worried that the medication is doing more harm than good to her at this point and whether we need to take her back to the vets or whether we stick it until the end of the course? (It'll be done by this Thursday)
We've just done a feed with her and she did take 10ml quite easily so we'll just see how we go and adjust accordingly.