Help please? Losing weight and sebaceous cysts

[Hannah_R]

Hi,

I'm new to the forum. I have two guineas, both 5 years old. One of my guineas, Emily the rex, is losing weight despite eating and running around as usual. I have attributed this to two sebaceous cysts she has had recently but am worried it could be something else. I'd be very grateful for any advice on how to at least maintain her weight or if you think there is something more worrying going on.

Thanks so much, more detailed info below.

Hannah x

***************************************

Medical history:

Emily had a gurgly belly over Christmas which I treated successfully with Infacol. It has happened once since then (I think March) but she has been fine since.

5 weeks ago I took her to the vet with a large (approx 1.5cm diameter) sebaceous cyst on her back. The vet advised me to leave it to its own devices and clean it if necessary when it burst. A week later it had burst. I was worried about blowfly being attracted to the area so I took her back for a checkup and got some Xeno spot on.

Now, the cyst is healing well, although there is a small hard granule under the skin but I'm guessing that's just scar tissue.

She has been losing weight slowly for the past 5 weeks. Before she was around 950g. I don't have accurate scales but she is now quite bony when I handle her whereas she is usually quite plump with large areas of fat either side of her belly (not ovarian cysts, I have had her checked). She doesn't look any different (being a rex she is quite fluffy), she is still eating normally (ALL DAY!). I noticed a new cyst on her today, around 0.5cm diameter. It wasn't there 2 days ago when I handled her (I don't handle them every day).

Although my vet is very good I don't think taking her to the vet again will bring up anything new. She has already been checked for ovarian cysts. They have told me her sebaceous cysts are nothing to worry about, and will probably tell me her weight loss is age/stress from the cysts. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I'm more than happy to take her back but don't think it will help in this case.

Her stools are perfect. No change at all. She's eating normally and her incisors look fine so I don't think there's a dental issue.


Husbandry info:

For the past 6 weeks the guineas have been grazing grass all day and locked in an outdoor hutch during the night. They have as much hay as they want - meadow hay from Pets at Home, Sainsbury's, wherever I am shopping at the time. I feed them pellets rather than the guinea pig mix as they can be fussy, and I give them any suitable kitchen scraps as well as some veg that I buy especially for them (e.g. celery, carrot peelings, carrot leaves, very small amounts of salad leaves...)

2 days ago I bought them a new hutch and so far they haven't ventured outside alone! It's a double-decker hutch and the ramp is steeper than they're used to so I think they just need to build up the courage.


What I intend to do:

I have bought some Critical Care for herbivores to fatten her up. That should arrive in a couple of days. I'll also buy some treat sticks.

I am a parasitologist so will take some stool samples to check for worms. I intend on treating with Panacur for giardia just in case. However, I have Panacur granules for dogs. It is exactly the same active ingredient as found in the solution. Can I give Emily this at a dose of 50mg/kg (0.2g of granules per day for 5 days)? This is the suggested dose on guinealynx http://www.guinealynx.info/antiparasitics.html#panacur

 

[LucyMc]

To be honest hun i'm not a very experience guinea owner. sounds to me like your vet isn't as cavy savy as they could be though. There is a sticky link somewhere on here of good guinea vets to all areas. (ill try and find it and post it here)

Sounds like your doing all the right things but if she is still losing weight i would say you need to get her to a savy vet now.
Took me a little while in bristol to find my vet and they are so much more knowledgeable its unreal the difference.

chin up hun. long as she is eating and drinking she will be good but defo get her checked out asap by a more ginny savy vet.

 

[LucyMc]

p.s i would avoid treating your piggie for worms. if there is non present in the stools its quiet unlikely they will have worms. as long as they haven't eaten any foods that could have gone off or moldy.

MY vet said she rarely treated piggies for worms unless they ABSOLUTELY had them as it can upset their tummies and make them unnecessarily ill.

 

[Hannah_R]

Thanks for your quick reply. I'm in Bristol. Who do you use? I tried loads of vets for my rats until I found my current vet (Clifton Vet Practice). They were great with my rats and I know a local guinea rescue uses them. I just wasn't sure they could tell me anything they hadn't told me already.

I won't worm her then. I don't want to upset her belly and cause her to stop eating. Its weird as she was just popcorning in her run so no obvious reason (other than sebaceous cysts) to lose weight.

Thanks again x

 

[Hannah_R]

I just thought I should post an update in case anyone else is having problems like I was.

So Emily still has the cyst but the vet isn't worried. She had actually put on weight so she seems to be losing form, probably because she's old, rather than losing form. They don't live long enough

To be fair, my boyfriend thought I was overreacting. She still had her fat saddlebags (as I call them) and looked the same, it's just I could feel her spine and pelvis when I handled her and I hadn't noticed that before.

Thanks for the help though.

Had to go back to the vet today. I bought a new hutch and despite TWO water bottles they have been drinking less and developed a UTI. They were pretty unhappy with the change and didn't squeak for a week. Back to their happy selves now though (despite having to endure a syringe of Baytril twice a day for a week)!

x