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Help - my piggy is poorlt

  • Thread starter Thread starter Wendys piggy
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Wendys piggy

Hi there

I''m new to this forum and am need in some guidance. My little Saffy is just over three and for the last 4 weeks she's been up and down. She started with a chest infection which cleared up after a week on anti biotics. After a week she went down hill again and had a discharge on her nose so I took her to the vet again where the examined a bit closer and found tumours around her neck and said that they think that the chest infection she had is secondary to the lumps. So she was put on 10 days of anti biotics and anti inflamatories. She bounced back very quickly, she was eating ravanously, putting on weight, drinking and wheaking. The vet was pleased with her progress and told me to finish the bottle of antibiotics which ended on Tuesday morning and to continue with the anti inflamatories indefinitely. However, she has gone down hill again and has a discharge on her nose and is really struggling to breath .. I don't know what to do .. please help.
 
Hi sweetie,

Not sure what to advise just wanted to send a get well soon mesage, hope little Saffy improves soon for you x
What type of bedding do you use? i know Shavings have got very bad press on here for making chest problems worse. xx
 
Thank you for you good wishes .. My sweet little Saffy is an indoor piggie and is in a cage which has newspaper then lots of hay. She's always been such a character, its heartbreaking to see her in this sorry state.
 
have you tried replacing the hay with a fleece or something? any dust from the hay might be making it worse for her.
 
It is possible that the bedding has started causing a problem, is the hay very dusty or have you changed it recently?

What anti biotic was she on and what dose? It may be that she needs a different type or a higher, longer dosage. She should have a pro biotic whilst on an ab course too to keep her gut healthy :)
 
Hi

I have been using the same brand of hay since I got her. I haven't tried the fleece tho - might try that.

She was on batryil for 7 days 0.23 of a syringe twice a day and then a week after that course finished she was on it for just over two weeks, dosage 0.2 (lower because she had lost weight). She has had the probiotic, when she has allowed me to give it to her!

I've successfully just managed to give her her anti inflamatory (third time in a row, phew!) and also crushed up some gerty guinea in same water which she was ok with.
 
Do you know how much she weighs?
I had a problem a while back with one of my piggies and he was on 0.2ml baytril which did nothing so I asked the vet to up it to 0.4ml x twice a day. He was on it for 21 days in total. Not saying thats what you should do, but the dosage may not be high enough. Sunny had lost weight and was 850grams but was ok with the baytril.

Most of us here do not recommend gerty as it has loads of colourings linked with diabetes in guineas and they feed selectively thus not getting all the nutrients. Pellet food is a better option, have a look at the reviews under food. If you decide to change her over, do so slowly mixing a little pellet in with the gerty and gradually increasing the amount over a couple of weeks. All mine were on gerty when they came to me and now have supa guinea excel ;)

Spreak to your vet again about her treatment, she may just need a stronger antibiotic or a different one. Ask about septrin as an alternative perhaps.

Best of luck :)
 
I've tried switching food but she has always refused it and would rather go without .. she gets plenty of different foods and nutrients - well she did until recently. I don't know what she weighed - but I will take her to the vets but because of the lumps in her throat they did say that they didn't think the prognosis was good
 
You need to start handfeeding if she's not eating properly, something like Oxbow Critical Care or Science recovery (a proper handfeeding supplement) rather than gerty.

It's very important to weigh regularly when a piggy is sick. Let us know how you get on at the vet.
 
ok .. i've not heard of those .. i'll ask at the vets when i see them

thank you
 
Gerty just may be the culprit here.it has been shown in independant tests to cause renal problems in gps.I used to give my pigs Gerty and I had a high incidence of cystitis in my sows. After changing to another feed 2 years ago I have not had a case of cystitis,and a friend of mine has a boar which had symptoms of diabetis last month.After taking him off of Gerty,the urine test showed a normal level of glucose.

The dry mix I use is Chudley Rabbit Royale which has no colourants or other chemicals.
 
is that going to reduce the lumps though which are the reason she's getting the chest infections?
 
No ,it would make no difference to the growths in the throat,I was just thinking that the Gerty might be aggrevating her condiition in general.

Do you know what the growtha are,cysts,or tumours?.
 
the vet, and the the other vet she referred to both think its tumours
 
no they didn't recommend it because when they tried to examine her back teeth she went blue and had to be given oxygen so they don't think she would survive an op
 
Sounds like the piggy has a heart problem as well,so the vet is right,surgery would not be an option.All you can do is nurseher along.It is very sad when piggies get sick like this. The growths in the throat could make swallowing dificult so softer food might help.If you have a liquidizer you could liquidize some veggies,oe you could get some jars of Organix baby puree from the chemist or supermarket.The carrot and spinach ones are favourite.These food are soft and easy to swallow.ILf you cannot get Organix brand,Hippo is another good brand.Mashed banana is a good food to try and get into her.
 
its very possible .. the vet did mention that but their little hearts beat so fast the vet couldn't tell .. she's nibbled on some cucumber today along with grass and jut now a little bit of apple ... its so sad cos she's still young.

I've got some bananas so will try that and i'll have a look for the baby puree.
 
I took my darling Saffy back to the vets this afternoon because her breathing was very bad and she was very tired, she could barely walk around the cage, When the vet saw her she knew instantly that Saffy was very poorly and that the tumours had gotten worse. So I had to make the heart breaking decision to have her put to sleep .. it was terrible - my poor little darling girl.
 
Thank you - I'm going to miss her soooo much - she was such a cheeky little monkey
 
have just found this thread and i am so sorry for your lost of saffy :'( :'( :'( welcome to the forums from us in oz :smitten: :smitten: :smitten: RIP darling scaffy run free and popcorn amongst the clouds and look down on your mummy and friends 0:) 0:) 0:) you did all you could, saffy knew she was loved and she loved you O0 sending you big hugs :smitten: :smitten: :smitten: RIP saffy so much loved so sorely missed, find eternal peace and no more pain 0:) 0:) 0:)
 
So sorry to hear of your loss. Poor little saffy. She's running free now with all the other piggies xxxxx :smitten: :smitten:
 
thank you everyone for your kind words and thoughts - i am finding it hard adjusting to life without a piggie in my house .. i don't feel it's right to get some babies yet - but i will
 
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