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I need help! Don't know what is wrong with my guinea pig

C

Cornelia

New Born Pup
Joined
Oct 12, 2024
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Location
romania
Hello! I have a lovely guinea pig that don;t want to eat anymore. At first, she was screaming when she pee and she pees with blood, I went to the vet and my poor piglet was having an xray and an ecography. The vet saw that she has cystic ovaries and wanted to operate her, but I said that she is too weak and he gave her antibiotics. I went to the vet 5 times for an injection with antibiotics and her condition didn t improve at all. She was happy, wanted to eat but couldn t and I went again to the vet and he didn t know what was wrong with her!

In my city Bucharest, that is the capital of my country there aren t vets that know anything about guinea pigs, this vet is the most experimented with guinea pigs and he doesn t know what to do.
I told him that she is sneezing a lot, she can;t chew, maybe she has pneumonia or problem with teeth because I read a lot about them, but the vet put a stetoschope on her and he said that is nothing wrong with her lungs and looked at her teeth and he said that her cheeks are red and sore. maybe from her back teeth and he sent me home.WITHOUT ANY MEDS, PAINKILLERS, NOTHING

I GAVE HER CRITICAL CARE WITH A SYRINGE BUT SHE DOESN T WANT THE FOOD, SHE KEEPS SPITTING OUT AND DRINK ONLY WATER AND CARROT JUICE. One of her back leg isn t moving anymore, she drags her foot. She doesn t pees with blood anymore, but is very weak, frail and can t walk

I went again at the vet and he remove her back teeth without any anestethic because he said that she will die and made her a painkiller and an anti inflamator. Her condition worsened. I don t know what to do. I love her deeply and I am angry that a better vet don t appear
 
Oh I am so sorry to hear this.
She sounds like she is in a very serious and poor condition with multiple issues.

So her back teeth have been removed? That is not something that should be done.
How many back teeth have been taken out?
I’m afraid that means she is in serious situation because piggies need to be able to chew hay with the back teeth.
The molars need to be able to wear against each other when chewing hay to keep proper function. If teeth have been removed then the opposing teeth will not have anything to wear against and will over grow. That means she may need repeated dental work to file the remaining teeth down every few weeks.
Depending on how many have been removed, It may mean she is not able to eat independently again.

Sorry to hear so blunt but she won’t survive with carrot juice and water. She needs the fibre from the critical care fed every two hours to keep her gut functioning.

Have you been weighing her every day to monitor her food intake?
I can only assume at this point that she will be losing weight given she isn’t eating.

Is she on painkillers now?

Whether she is in a survivable condition, I’m afraid i can’t say but she does sound to be very poorly.

Wiebke

Thread 'Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support'

1 Weight and Weight Loss
- Why regular weight monitoring matters
- How weight changes over a lifetime
- How to weigh on your kitchen scales (with video)
- The weight loss rules
- How critical is the weight loss for my piggy?
- Possible causes for weight loss
2 Body Mass Index (BMI) or 'Heft'
- Why is understanding your piggy's weight so important?
- 'Average' weight vs. individual weight - the big trip up
- How to check for the BMI
3 The...
  • Like
Wiebke

Thread 'All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures'

Introduction
1 Choosing the right place to medicate/feed your piggy
2 Guinea pig whispering and asserting your authority
3 Recovery products and emergency improvisation
4 Syringe recommendations
5 Weight monitoring: your biggest ally
6 Weight loss guidelines and when to step in with feeding
7 Syringe feeding amounts/frequency advice
8 Practical medication and syringing tips
9 Medicating and feeding cooperative guinea pigs (videos)
10 Medicating and feeding uncooperative guinea pigs (hold pictures and tips)
11 The line between life and...
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  • Love
Wiebke

Thread 'End of Life and Bereavement Support: Practical Advice for Owners, Kids and Cavy Companions'

The following guides have been written to support pet owners in the most difficult of times and to guide them in a very practical and hopefully sensitive way through a most heart-breaking and emotionally taxing period.

For most people the loss of a pet is the first time they are ever confronted with death, whether that is the bad news that their pet won't be able to recover and caring for a dying guinea pig; the sheer physicality of the dying process; the difficult decision whether, when and how to euthanise and how it works as well as the instinctive fear of a loss are all being...
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Hi and welcome
HUGS

I am ever so sorry but I have to agree with @Piggies&buns . You are trying your best and you clearly care and love your girl. Not your fault. God guinea pig vets are hard to find in any country.

Please keep her as warm and comfortable as you can but allow her to move away from a source of heat if she is feeling too hot.
 
Piggies&buns said:
Oh I am so sorry to hear this.
She sounds like she is in a very serious and poor condition with multiple issues.

So her back teeth have been removed? That is not something that should be done.
How many back teeth have been taken out?
I’m afraid that means she is in serious situation because piggies need to be able to chew hay with the back teeth.
The molars need to be able to wear against each other when chewing hay to keep proper function. If teeth have been removed then the opposing teeth will not have anything to wear against and will over grow. That means she may need repeated dental work to file the remaining teeth down every few weeks.
Depending on how many have been removed, It may mean she is not able to eat independently again.

Sorry to hear so blunt but she won’t survive with carrot juice and water. She needs the fibre from the critical care fed every two hours to keep her gut functioning.

Have you been weighing her every day to monitor her food intake?
I can only assume at this point that she will be losing weight given she isn’t eating.

Is she on painkillers now?

Whether she is in a survivable condition, I’m afraid i can’t say but she does sound to be very poorly.

Wiebke

Thread 'Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support'

1 Weight and Weight Loss
- Why regular weight monitoring matters
- How weight changes over a lifetime
- How to weigh on your kitchen scales (with video)
- The weight loss rules
- How critical is the weight loss for my piggy?
- Possible causes for weight loss
2 Body Mass Index (BMI) or 'Heft'
- Why is understanding your piggy's weight so important?
- 'Average' weight vs. individual weight - the big trip up
- How to check for the BMI
3 The...
  • Like
Wiebke

Thread 'All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures'

Introduction
1 Choosing the right place to medicate/feed your piggy
2 Guinea pig whispering and asserting your authority
3 Recovery products and emergency improvisation
4 Syringe recommendations
5 Weight monitoring: your biggest ally
6 Weight loss guidelines and when to step in with feeding
7 Syringe feeding amounts/frequency advice
8 Practical medication and syringing tips
9 Medicating and feeding cooperative guinea pigs (videos)
10 Medicating and feeding uncooperative guinea pigs (hold pictures and tips)
11 The line between life and...
  • Like
  • Love
Wiebke

Thread 'End of Life and Bereavement Support: Practical Advice for Owners, Kids and Cavy Companions'

The following guides have been written to support pet owners in the most difficult of times and to guide them in a very practical and hopefully sensitive way through a most heart-breaking and emotionally taxing period.

For most people the loss of a pet is the first time they are ever confronted with death, whether that is the bad news that their pet won't be able to recover and caring for a dying guinea pig; the sheer physicality of the dying process; the difficult decision whether, when and how to euthanise and how it works as well as the instinctive fear of a loss are all being...
  • Like
Click to expand...
No, she isnt on painkillers because the vet didnt give me any. I tried to give her critical care, but she refuse to eat, she takes very small amounts.
 
Do you know which teeth were removed?
Does she still have some of her back teeth left?

Are you weighing her every morning? It is very important that you do this as you need to make sure you are feeding enough that she doesn’t lose weight each day

She absolutely needs painkillers. Would they give you some if you went back to speak to them?
She will be in a lot of pain and that will stop her from eating.

How many ml can you get into her each time you try to feed her critical care?
All you can do is continue to try to feed her - you are aiming for 40ml per 24 hours but that is the absolute minimum just to keep her alive. 60ml is better but if she is in bad condition it’s unlikely you’ll get that much into her

I’m so sorry you’re both going through this.
 
I’m so sorry your piggy is poorly. Sending healing vibes her way and hugs to you.

It must be so hard when there are no good vets around. I really hope they can give you some pain medicine.
 
Poor piggy and poor you, I'm so sorry you're in this horrible situation.
I agree though she really does need done pain killers or there's next to no chance she will be willing to eat.
Could you return to the vet and ask for done? Meloxicam is the most common one.
 
Thank you all for your messages. I am desperate because the vet doesn t seem to care about my poor piggie. I went to him and I said that she wants to eat but when she gets near food, she smells it and then tries to get some in her little mouth but can;t and goes away. The vet didn;t gave her anything, said that she will start eating, to have patience, but I know she is ill. It breaks my heart!
Calpol isn t in my country, I gave her NO SPA because i read on a blog that it is good for tummy issues, I don;t want her to be in pain. It breaks my heart!

Now she is tilting her head in the left and it is very weak. I hate that there aren;t good vets for her!
 
I think she has pneumonia, because she sneeze a lot, she is wheezing, her sounds are muffled, also something in her mouth because ske wipes all the time her lips when she touches the food. I told the dr that she has pneumonia, she listen her lungs 4 sec and said that it does not. But why is she wheezing and growling ?
 
These are the photos from the ecography. The vet said that he thinks it is an ovaryan cysts but isn t sure. Can someone help me to descipher them?
 

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Cornelia said:
I think she has pneumonia, because she sneeze a lot, she is wheezing, her sounds are muffled, also something in her mouth because ske wipes all the time her lips when she touches the food. I told the dr that she has pneumonia, she listen her lungs 4 sec and said that it does not. But why is she wheezing and growling ?
Click to expand...

Calpol is a UK brand name for 'liquid paracetamol for children'. You will find the Romanian brand name when you google for this. I am sure that you have got it in Romania since paracetamol is the most common painkiller worldwide. ;)

If the lungs are free, then there is likely a bit of an obstruction in the nasal airways - something may have gone up the nose when your girl tried to swallow. You can check where the noise is coming from by holding your ear against the nose, the throat and the chest (for the lungs). According to your vet, the lungs will be clear - a trained vet can hear that immediately as it works the same for all species.
But unfortunately, your vet really has no idea about guinea pigs. They are not predatory pets that are designed for irregular eating. Guinea pigs who don't eat are very ill and dying. They are not going to start eating by themselves again. Your girl is for some reason unable to eat or to swallow.

Has your vet checked the back of the mouth for overgrowing teeth? Rodent teeth grow nonstop unless they are ground down by lots of chewing tough hay/grass fibre that is rich in silica - the same stuff that is also in toothpaste to help remove plaque from human teeth.
 
Oh I'm so sorry. Try searching for children's liquid paracetamol as @Wiebke has said, this will work as pain relief for her and should be widely available. Just don't tell anyone it's for a guinea pig as they may not sell it to you.
At least this will help keep her pain under control and then continue to syringe feed. Perhaps your vet could email a specialist to see if they can help?
There is one called The Cat and Rabbit Clinic here in the UK, perhaps they could contact them?
 
Poor girl. A thin preparation of critical care or soaked guinea pig pellets might go down, just to get things going. The paracetamol is a good idea. She might drink it with the carrot juice. I hope she gets through this.
 
Yes as said above, can any expert on here clarify the dosage of liquid paracetamol she can give at the very least this girl shouldn't be left in pain 😢
 
CTWC said:
Yes as said above, can any expert on here clarify the dosage of liquid paracetamol she can give at the very least this girl shouldn't be left in pain 😢
Click to expand...

We would need to know her weight to even begin to start to work out what dosage would be appropriate.
I have never given infant Calpol so I can’t be the one to give that advice.

@Cornelia

Can you please tell us whether you are weighing her every day?

What is her weight?

Your original post said that the vet ‘removed her back teeth’ because her mouth was sore.
Please can you tell us how many of her teeth have been removed?
I’m concerned that as your vet doesnt seem to know what they are doing that they really have caused a huge amount of damage in removing teeth. (You don’t remove piggy teeth, they need to be appropriately filed but not removed).
Your piggy will not eat if she is in pain and if she has now had (too many?) teeth removed.
 
I am disgusted that they removed teeth without any anaesthetic (not that the should have removed them anyway) and have given no medication is this really how bad it is in some areas? 😥
 
The vet remove 2 teeth that had corners and said that these ones were harmful for cheeks. 40 ml per day of food is a lot for her unfortunately, barely can feed her 15 because she spits out the food, only water and juice can swallow. I tried giving her baby food but she doesn t like it. I do not know why her head is tilting now. She is so weak I think she lost over 200 grams because also her tiny feet and hands seem to be shrinking. She can t walk anymore :((((((
 
Cornelia said:
The vet remove 2 teeth that had corners and said that these ones were harmful for cheeks. 40 ml per day of food is a lot for her unfortunately, barely can feed her 15 because she spits out the food, only water and juice can swallow. I tried giving her baby food but she doesn t like it. I do not know why her head is tilting now. She is so weak I think she lost over 200 grams because also her tiny feet and hands seem to be shrinking. She can t walk anymore :((((((
Click to expand...

I’m so sorry. Removing the teeth is not what should have happened if she had sharp spurs. The sharp points should just have been filed down to make them smooth.

40ml is the minimum amount of fibre food needed to keep a very poorly piggy alive. Anything less simply isn’t enough, and only taking liquid definitely isn’t going to keep her gut function. The gut needs need the fibre of mushed pellets or proper recovery feed. Baby food would be a start but it also isn’t the fibre the gut needs
Once she starts to refuse food and refuse to swallow then that means her system is shutting down.

The guide below explains syringe feeding amounts

Wiebke

Thread 'All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures'

Introduction
1 Choosing the right place to medicate/feed your piggy
2 Guinea pig whispering and asserting your authority
3 Recovery products and emergency improvisation
4 Syringe recommendations
5 Weight monitoring: your biggest ally
6 Weight loss guidelines and when to step in with feeding
7 Syringe feeding amounts/frequency advice
8 Practical medication and syringing tips
9 Medicating and feeding cooperative guinea pigs (videos)
10 Medicating and feeding uncooperative guinea pigs (hold pictures and tips)
11 The line between life and...
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The head tilt could be due to the pain in her mouth or perhaps a neurological event.


I don’t like to have to link in this guide it be may useful to you to know what is happening if she continues to get weaker

Wiebke

Thread 'A Practical and Sensitive Guide to Dying, Terminal Illness and Euthanasia in Guinea Pigs'

1 Your mental health, sensitivities and work commitments
- Mental health and support resources
- Sensitivity aspects
- When work and other commitments clash
2 Life or death emergency – Can my piggy be saved?
- Contacting a vet clinic at all times and link to life and death emergencies list
- What to do if I cannot access vet care instantly?
- The need to save up for emergency vet access
3 Is my...
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I wonder if he actually removed them root and all, or if he just clipped them off? If he just clipped them, they will grow back, and it would not hurt her as guinea pig teeth have no nerves except in the root. I find it hard to believe it would be possible to pull out a molar by the root in a living guinea pig, so perhaps it's not as bad as we are thinking.

As far as the blood in the pee, a bladder stone seems more likely than ovarian cysts?
 
I’m so sorry to hear about your situation, I feel for you and your piggie. As others have said the vet should not have removed any of her back molars. If she still isn’t eating, weak and has lost a lot of weight it may be kinder to have her put to sleep, I’m so sorry to suggest that. It may be the kindest option not only for her but for yourself also :luv:
 
Cornelia said:
She doesn;t want to live anymore meaning she gave up or her body doesn;t let her swallow?
Click to expand...

The weaker a piggy gets and the more weight they lose, their body stops to function properly, they lose the ability to swallow as a part of the body closing down and they will sadly eventually pass away.
As I said a minimum of 40ml of syringe feed is needed to keep her alive (to give you an idea, when syringe feeding actually at least 60ml is the amount you aim for, they can need as much as 100ml per day to keep their weight stable. As your piggy seems to be so unwell that is why we have told you to feed 40ml as she sounds far too ill to take more).
Anything less than 40ml per day simply isn’t enough food and her body will close down.

Are you weighing her every morning?
What does she weigh?
How much weight has she lost?

There is also the consideration that if her mouth is too sore that she will be reluctant to swallow due to pain.
 
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