• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Lab Test

Wizzy

Wizzy

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Feb 19, 2018
Messages
391
Reaction score
145
Points
340
Location
Tunbridge Wells, Kent
Hi everyone, bit of an update with Rexy and Pepper.
Pepper has no yellow discharge from her eyes or nose anymore, they’re both completely clear. However her breathing hasn’t improved, if anything it’s gotten a little worse
Rexys crusty eye has improved a little bit but it’s still not looking right, and neither does she. She’s eating but a bit puffed up.
So i will be taking them back to the vets (7th time!) next week. As Baytril didn’t work long term, and now neither has sulfatrim, it’s a case of a stronger antibiotic this time. I’ve read about a lab test to see the specific antibiotic that would make them both better for good this time, but i’m not sure how much it would be. Does anyone have experience with this and could tell me approx how much it would cost? They’ve also started drinking a bit more water. They seem to have days where they’re back to normal and then days were they get worse again, very stressful! They’re still eating normally and neither of them have lost any weight.
 
Aw sorry that Rexy and Pepper are not back to full health, hoping they get better soon x
Sorry I can’t offer any help or advice I’ve no experience of their problems
 
I had a lab test done when various antibiotics failed to cure my Zebedee's URI. It was done in house I think, in all it only cost about £30. If it has to be sent away you'd probably pay more.
On that occasion in turned out that the only common antibiotic we hadn't tried, Sulfatrim, was the one we needed. The first time he had an infection after I adopted him, baytril and Septrin failed but then a specialist recommended Zithromax which worked - you could try that while waiting for the sample to be tested.
Best of luck 🤞
 
Qualcast&Flymo said:
I had a lab test done when various antibiotics failed to cure my Zebedee's URI. It was done in house I think, in all it only cost about £30. If it has to be sent away you'd probably pay more.
On that occasion in turned out that the only common antibiotic we hadn't tried, Sulfatrim, was the one we needed. The first time he had an infection after I adopted him, baytril and Septrin failed but then a specialist recommended Zithromax which worked - you could try that while waiting for the sample to be tested.
Best of luck 🤞
Click to expand...
great thank you! I’m saving a lot of my birthday money so i should be prepared for the costs. Can’t tell you how helpful that is though! Pepper isn’t as photogenic as rexy so all hopes at photos fail with her:
 

Attachments

  • 29F05476-8FF4-4120-B820-58777B0F6E04.webp
    29F05476-8FF4-4120-B820-58777B0F6E04.webp
    30.1 KB · Views: 8
  • 5B82D9AE-04BD-41FB-85F8-8FC27042C2E3.webp
    5B82D9AE-04BD-41FB-85F8-8FC27042C2E3.webp
    62.9 KB · Views: 8
  • B0F12210-E288-4507-8731-6F2CE767529D.webp
    B0F12210-E288-4507-8731-6F2CE767529D.webp
    29 KB · Views: 8
  • 756C4327-AB38-4290-B819-4B9DD2154655.webp
    756C4327-AB38-4290-B819-4B9DD2154655.webp
    45.1 KB · Views: 8
£100 to be sent away at my vets plus the cost of sedation to get the sample £200. It varies greatly from vet to vet!
 
The
piggieminder said:
£100 to be sent away at my vets plus the cost of sedation to get the sample £200. It varies greatly from vet to vet!
Click to expand...
The sample I had tested was nasal mucus, so no need for sedation. I was given a sealed swab and just had to wait until he sneezed out a bit of mucus and grab him before he could clean it off. :vom: :xd:The sample was tiny but they still managed to get a result from it.
 
Qualcast&Flymo said:
The

The sample I had tested was nasal mucus, so no need for sedation. I was given a sealed swab and just had to wait until he sneezed out a bit of mucus and grab him before he could clean it off. :vom: :xd:The sample was tiny but they still managed to get a result from it.
Click to expand...
how much did yours cost? would eye discharge work? as mines eyes keep watering lol
 
Qualcast&Flymo said:
The

The sample I had tested was nasal mucus, so no need for sedation. I was given a sealed swab and just had to wait until he sneezed out a bit of mucus and grab him before he could clean it off. :vom: :xd:The sample was tiny but they still managed to get a result from it.
Click to expand...
Our vets used go do that sort of thing, and test in house. Now they say all samples have to come from deeper inside the nasal passages otherwise they get contaminated. They used to do things like in house urine tests with urinalysis strips for £25, now everything is sent away and starting costs are £100 and all need sedation. They used to do conscious xrays, but no more. OH thinks the vets are all on commission for as many tests as they can sell. It's going to be to the detriment of animals because it will stop people going to the vet.
 
piggieminder said:
Our vets used go do that sort of thing, and test in house. Now they say all samples have to come from deeper inside the nasal passages otherwise they get contaminated. They used to do things like in house urine tests with urinalysis strips for £25, now everything is sent away and starting costs are £100 and all need sedation. They used to do conscious xrays, but no more. OH thinks the vets are all on commission for as many tests as they can sell. It's going to be to the detriment of animals because it will stop people going to the vet.
Click to expand...
Oh .... Zeb had the test done over 2 years ago now. Haven't had any test like that since, it's conceivable that my vets have changed their practices since, but I hope not!
£300 is very off putting price for that kind of thing. :no:
 
Wizzy said:
how much did yours cost? would eye discharge work? as mines eyes keep watering lol
Click to expand...
As I said, I believe it was about £30. I don't know if eye discharge would be any good for testing. You could try emailing your vet and asking them about that and about prices.
 
Qualcast&Flymo said:
Oh .... Zeb had the test done over 2 years ago now. Haven't had any test like that since, it's conceivable that my vets have changed their practices since, but I hope not!
£300 is very off putting price for that kind of thing. :no:
Click to expand...
I suspect it's just our's that have done this, there may have been a change of ownership or something. The first consult fee has gone up from £50 to £66.
 
Qualcast&Flymo said:
:yikes: Yikes that's pretty eye-watering on its own. They do seem to be exploiting their clients rather :(:td:
Click to expand...
My vets only charge £14 for a consultation, we switched vets after the other one ended up being £40 just to be seen! I’m constantly paying £24 at the vets for a consultation and about 30ml of antibiotics... done that about 4 times now! i’d really have a budget of around £40. I was thinking to try zithromax but we’ll see. their sulfatrim course ends on tuesday
 
Was wondering if anyone could tell me how long the results from the lab test took? And does sedation effect guineas in anyway? I have a budget of about £45 for this so hopefully that’s enough- i’m going back to the vet either tomorrow or wednesday so we’ll see exactly what the vet says- maybe zithromax is the answer? No results with sulfatrim and baytril :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top