I'm an old member and am desperately seeking some help with my girl Rowan, 4 years 8 month old neutered sow.
Since around April 2020, Rowan has been having "flares" of excessive drinking, air filled teardropped poos, stomach full of gas and weight loss. She would eventually get over these flares with no real understanding of what helped after trying so much.
In July 2020 we moved vets and Rowan has been under the care of 2 specialist exotics vets who are excellent. Rowan was found to have extensive athritis in her spine and knee, with a few compressed disks in her spine. Despite all of this, Rowan's mobility is not affected and still walks/ runs normally but was painful on examination. We believed these flares to be as a result of pain.
After a few months of juggling, Rowan's pain is fully under control with several pain killers and accupuncture sessions. We thought we had got her sorted, but then she had another flare. She was found to be non painful in her joints, so we successfully ruled out pain as the cause.
This time Rowans weight loss continued despite her "flare" seemingly ending i.e the bloat and excessive drinking stopped.
Rowan has went from 1250g when this started to 930g this morning- she is a large girl, and is currently skin and bone with extensive muscle wastage. The vet believes she has a protein losing enteropathy - basically leakng protein from her guts.
Rowans flares have gotten closer and closer together to the point now the weight loss won't stop. Rowan has always ate well throughout and has still lost weight despite syringing feeding every 4 hours on top of her eating hay and veg. I only manage 60mls when I'm working but up to 100ml when I'm off. Rowan has not been fed pellets for over a year due to bladder sludge (no longer an issue). Rowan has only gone off her food once due to antibiotic treatment.
Things to note- Rowan remains bright, active and cheeky. Despite her bloat flares making her abdomen absolutely huge with gas, it never affects gut motility I.e she still poos during it and doesn't go into stasis (this has happened once, again due to antibiotic treatment ). She does however get painful in her abdomen when it is full of gas.
We have tried :
The usual gut stimulants i.e cisapride, metacloprimide
Gripe water to ease gas (does help )
Daily famotidine to support the stomach (still in use)
Pancreatic enzymes incase of pancreatic insufficiency (still in use)
Hay only diet i.e no veg (still flared)
Both benebac and fibreplex (still in use)
Fully controlling her joint pain (still flared)
14 day 20mg/kg metronidazole course for overgrowth of bad gut bacteria (recently finished but weight loss continues)
Petbiom stool culture (have been waiting over a month for these results due to covid)
Xrays (only show joint issues)
Full blood panel 6 months apart (both all normal)
Urine tests all clear
Teeth are perfect
Rowans vets held a meeting with the others today and they have agreed that the next (and only) course for Rowan is to treat her for a protein losing enteropathy with steroids. Rowan stopped her metacam today in preparation for starting steroids in the morning... I am aware of the risks and I am incredibly nervous about this, but we are out of options and I'm not sure what to do!
I've requested Rowan has an ultrasound in the morning to check her kidneys as it's known guinea pigs can have kidney disease with normal kidney parameters. She will have these and the rest of her abdomen scanned in a last ditch attempt to get an answer.
The only thing we haven't done is open her up, but realistically there isn't anything to be gained from this.
Thank you if you've gotten this far.. any advice would be much appreciated. Realistically Rowan will be facing put to sleep if these flares continue as she just has no reserves left. She is bright, active and eats great however does get uncomfortable in her abdomen when it's full of gas.
Current weight/ muscle loss
Her poos this morning
Muscle/weight loss
Bloated abdomen during a flare
When she was her normal weight
This evening, relaxing with her feet out after her syringe feed ❤
Since around April 2020, Rowan has been having "flares" of excessive drinking, air filled teardropped poos, stomach full of gas and weight loss. She would eventually get over these flares with no real understanding of what helped after trying so much.
In July 2020 we moved vets and Rowan has been under the care of 2 specialist exotics vets who are excellent. Rowan was found to have extensive athritis in her spine and knee, with a few compressed disks in her spine. Despite all of this, Rowan's mobility is not affected and still walks/ runs normally but was painful on examination. We believed these flares to be as a result of pain.
After a few months of juggling, Rowan's pain is fully under control with several pain killers and accupuncture sessions. We thought we had got her sorted, but then she had another flare. She was found to be non painful in her joints, so we successfully ruled out pain as the cause.
This time Rowans weight loss continued despite her "flare" seemingly ending i.e the bloat and excessive drinking stopped.
Rowan has went from 1250g when this started to 930g this morning- she is a large girl, and is currently skin and bone with extensive muscle wastage. The vet believes she has a protein losing enteropathy - basically leakng protein from her guts.
Rowans flares have gotten closer and closer together to the point now the weight loss won't stop. Rowan has always ate well throughout and has still lost weight despite syringing feeding every 4 hours on top of her eating hay and veg. I only manage 60mls when I'm working but up to 100ml when I'm off. Rowan has not been fed pellets for over a year due to bladder sludge (no longer an issue). Rowan has only gone off her food once due to antibiotic treatment.
Things to note- Rowan remains bright, active and cheeky. Despite her bloat flares making her abdomen absolutely huge with gas, it never affects gut motility I.e she still poos during it and doesn't go into stasis (this has happened once, again due to antibiotic treatment ). She does however get painful in her abdomen when it is full of gas.
We have tried :
The usual gut stimulants i.e cisapride, metacloprimide
Gripe water to ease gas (does help )
Daily famotidine to support the stomach (still in use)
Pancreatic enzymes incase of pancreatic insufficiency (still in use)
Hay only diet i.e no veg (still flared)
Both benebac and fibreplex (still in use)
Fully controlling her joint pain (still flared)
14 day 20mg/kg metronidazole course for overgrowth of bad gut bacteria (recently finished but weight loss continues)
Petbiom stool culture (have been waiting over a month for these results due to covid)
Xrays (only show joint issues)
Full blood panel 6 months apart (both all normal)
Urine tests all clear
Teeth are perfect
Rowans vets held a meeting with the others today and they have agreed that the next (and only) course for Rowan is to treat her for a protein losing enteropathy with steroids. Rowan stopped her metacam today in preparation for starting steroids in the morning... I am aware of the risks and I am incredibly nervous about this, but we are out of options and I'm not sure what to do!
I've requested Rowan has an ultrasound in the morning to check her kidneys as it's known guinea pigs can have kidney disease with normal kidney parameters. She will have these and the rest of her abdomen scanned in a last ditch attempt to get an answer.
The only thing we haven't done is open her up, but realistically there isn't anything to be gained from this.
Thank you if you've gotten this far.. any advice would be much appreciated. Realistically Rowan will be facing put to sleep if these flares continue as she just has no reserves left. She is bright, active and eats great however does get uncomfortable in her abdomen when it's full of gas.
Current weight/ muscle loss
Her poos this morning
Muscle/weight loss
Bloated abdomen during a flare
When she was her normal weight
This evening, relaxing with her feet out after her syringe feed ❤
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