Specialist I'm thinking maybe epilepsy

[Featheryfriend]

I'm going to be calling Penny's vet ASAP this morning, but I'm wondering what other possibilities I should ask the vet about.

Last night I witnessed Penny have two episodes, each lasting only a few seconds, where her neck twisted to the side, her eyes went unfocused, and her back legs seemed to lose function, followed by a brief moment of disorientation where she wouldn't respond to my voice and bumped into things. As soon as it was over she looked a little tired but immediately and cheerfully resumed her normal guinea pig activities.

I have had epileptic pets in the past (my current doggo is epileptic as well) and these episodes were strikingly familiar to minor seizures I've seen, which is the only reason I didn't totally flip out when I witnessed them. (If they're having a tiny seizure and not like, a grand mal, I've found it's almost always best to let animals rest and go to the vet in the morning rather than trying to drag them out of the house right away and risk triggering them to chain into another, possibly worse seizure.) Given her prior life of being manhandled by a toddler and kept in a tiny glass box, I wouldn't be surprised if she'd sustained some kind of neurological trauma in the past.

I covered her eyes and checked all of her piggy orifices with a flashlight, but didn't find anything exciting. Though I'd rather have the vet confirm that since I haven't looked into that many guinea pig ears. I've been spending a lot of time around my piggies (all day every day, basically) and haven't spotted anything else unhealthy or unusual. I read about a few things that can mimic seizures in guinea pigs (like mites) but I don't think that's going to be the case here.

If it turns out to be epilepsy rather than a hidden ear infection/parasite/whatever causing the episode, well, does anyone here have an epileptic guinea pig?

 

[Wiebke]

Hi!

Sorry, I don't have any personal experience with epilepsy in guinea pigs as it is rather rare and difficult to diagnose.
All the best with getting to the bottom of your upsetting experience!

@Abi_nurse @furryfriends (TEAS)

 

[Featheryfriend]

Hi!

Sorry, I don't have any personal experience with epilepsy in guinea pigs as it is rather rare and difficult to diagnose.
All the best with getting to the bottom of your upsetting experience!

@Abi_nurse @furryfriends (TEAS)

Interesting to know that it is rare, even with all the inbreeding guinea pigs have been subjected to.

Penny is eating breakfast now with her usual gusto (she actually stole her buddy's vitamin C biscuit this morning, argh!) and even had the zoomies when I opened the blinds to let some morning light in, which I doubt she would be doing if she was having, say, mini-strokes (I've seen that before too) or an advanced infection, so that's good.

 

[Wiebke]

Interesting to know that it is rare, even with all the inbreeding guinea pigs have been subjected to.

Penny is eating breakfast now with her usual gusto (she actually stole her buddy's vitamin C biscuit this morning, argh!) and even had the zoomies when I opened the blinds to let some morning light in, which I doubt she would be doing if she was having, say, mini-strokes (I've seen that before too) or an advanced infection, so that's good.

That is good news indeed and rather points to a neurological issue and not an infectious one or a stroke, which would take longer to recover from. The bad news is that any treatment for epilepsy in guinea pigs is entirely on an experimental level whenever it is being diagnosed.

 

[Featheryfriend]

That is good news indeed and rather points to a neurological issue and not an infectious one or a stroke, which would take longer to recover from. The bad news is that any treatment for epilepsy in guinea pigs is entirely on an experimental level whenever it is being diagnosed.

Oh dear. Well, I'm at least fortunate to live right around the corner from an excellent compounding pharmacy, if we ended up needing to try out different teeny tiny doses of medications to figure out what works for her. They make custom capsules of potassium bromide for my dog.

 

[Wiebke]

Oh dear. Well, I'm at least fortunate to live right around the corner from an excellent compounding pharmacy, if we ended up needing to try out different teeny tiny doses of medications to figure out what works for her. They make custom capsules of potassium bromide for my dog.

See what your vet says! We can only guess and don't have the qualification and hands-on wherewithal without seeing your piggy after all!

 

[Siikibam]

I would take her to the vet (piggy savvy) and tell them what’s been happening. Hopefully you get to the bottom of it.

 

[Featheryfriend]

Penny's vet visit went well, she got an detailed check-up and was in "beautiful" condition with great skin and hair. She even managed to score in the normal weight category this time so I was proud of her.

For the possibility of pseudo-seizures due to itchiness, I had the option of proactively treating the whole herd for mites or doing a skin scrape to check for oogy critters first. A "scrape" sounded painful, and I thought I'd read about it being painful, so I asked them about that. They told me that for sensitive animals like guinea pigs they don't really scrape so much as carefully flake off a bit of dandruff. (They didn't quite come out and say that other vets were doing it all wrong if the guinea pig was screaming or bleeding from a skin scrape, but it was implied.) Since guinea pigs are one of their specialties I decided to believe them, and when Penny came back from having her dandruff disturbed she was snoozing, so it couldn't have been too bad.

It was negative for mites but they said false negatives can happen. So my job is to watch for any further episodes. If other guinea pigs start doing the same thing, that would be a good indicator to go ahead and treat everyone for mites. If it happens again but only to Penny, then epilepsy could be a possibility. So I'm just going to watch and wait for now.

Juniper rode along with her to the vet, and had a turn getting weighed. She was a good helper buddy - though she did take the opportunity to hold Penny down and power-groom her while they were confined in the carrier together, so it was a noisy car ride. "MA, she's TOUCHING ME!"

 

[Abi_nurse]

The only time I have seen true seizures in piggies is when they are extremely poorly or like you described with very high levels of mites causing pseudo - seizure activity. Glad to hear she is otherwise well. If you see an episode it would be wise to film it so the vet can see it too. Often very helpful. On a side note you may be pleased to hear that animal epilepsy medications have a liquid form which makes dosing much easier. And have seen good results when used In a rat with seizure like episodes.

x

 

[Swissgreys]

I just wanted to add that when one of our boys was suffering with mites and they were causing the odd 'wriggly' behaviour, all of his skin tests came back negative (and he had many, since I have access to a microscope).
In the end as it was the simplest thing to do I treated all of the piggies for mites, and he never had another problem, so despite the negative skin scrape you might want to consdier treating anyway.
Another key sign (in my case) was when I scratched between his should blades he was clearly very uncomfortable - torn between itchy and sore.

 

[Featheryfriend]

I just wanted to add that when one of our boys was suffering with mites and they were causing the odd 'wriggly' behaviour, all of his skin tests came back negative (and he had many, since I have access to a microscope).
In the end as it was the simplest thing to do I treated all of the piggies for mites, and he never had another problem, so despite the negative skin scrape you might want to consdier treating anyway.
Another key sign (in my case) was when I scratched between his should blades he was clearly very uncomfortable - torn between itchy and sore.

Good to know. If I see the behavior again or any other indication of discomfort at all, I will definitely consider just treating them. So far, nothing. I also checked, prodded, and petted the four of them all over during lap time recently, no complaints from them.