Hi cp
I'm sorry to hear you have a poorly piggie - I can't believe that it was actually last summer when I PM'd you with my phone number (thought it was just before Xmas!) ...but please feel free to ring if you want clarification on what I'm about to post!
I'm afraid I do not have personal experience of pigs with liver problems . However I can share with you the following information which I hope will serve to "aid" rather than "confuse" you!
GENERAL - HEART/LIVER DISEASES
In humans you can get liver diseases affecting the heart, heart disease affecting the liver and joint heart/liver disease with a common etiology.
Without getting too technical - the type of disease where one organ affects the other is normally some type of cirrhosis (a chronic disease marked by degeneration of cells, inflammation, and fibrous thickening of tissue also causing damage/alteration to circulatory vessels).Your blood tests show necrosis and inflammation.
However often a disease where both organs are jointly involved is infection......a bug that has got into the bloodstream and spread to liver and heart. Blood tests would again show a high white cell count - with possibly inflammatory cells so may show a similar profile to what has been reported for your piggie. One of the most important thing about a blood test is to to do a differnetial white cell count - as depending upon the type of white cell, this can aid the vet in determining whether for instance there is bacterial, viral, parasitic or fungal infection going on or cancer, or an auto-immune inflammation. I'm assuming a differential white cell count was done on the blood sample (it normally is as a matter of course) - but if it hasn;t then the lab should have kept the sample and the vet can request this be done.
YOUR PIGGY
I have not had a pig with a diagnosed liver disease - but I have had heart pigs.
All the symptoms you list above suggest the heart/circulation is challenged - and it is interesting that the Xray did not show what you would expect to find in heart piggies - ie fluid around the heart or an enlarged heart. However I have had a heart pig that displayed all the classic symptoms yet was negative on ultrasound and Xray for heart problems. It wasn't until we had a specialist echocardiogram done that the diagnosis of bacterial endocarditis was arrived at.(scarring/damage of the heart valve caused by a past infection - normally with a streptococcus found commonly in the respiratory tract)
Given the results of the blood test and the scan - I think your vet is taking the best option by treating with anitbioitics in the hope it can knock out any potential "systemic" infection that may be affecting the liver with associated implications for the heart. You may need to try a couple of different anitbiotics as bugs of this nature may be resistant to the normal baytril and septrin. The liver is one of the main organs of defence against bugs that get into the bloodstream as it acts as a filter to remove them. Unfortunately some bugs actually take advantage of this and have developed a whole range of mechanisms to resist the "killing" actions of the protective liver cells and in fact can set up a focus of infection in the liver. Salmonella is just one I can think of. Also - in terms of choices of abx - given the blood tests do not show kidney function impairment - it may very well be that your vet has nothing to lose by trying gentamycin injections (3 of my pigs have contracted a Pseudomonas infection resistant to all abx except gentamycin)
I'm not saying the cause is definitely an infection - but it's a good call by the vet to treat for this as it's not really possible to diagnose and treat other potential chronic non-infectious conditions causing these symptoms in piggies yet......unless you are prepared to either put the piggie through exploratory abdominal surgery (not a good idea in this case) or spend a lot of money on a couple of very "avant garde" options listed below that would need to be conducted by extremely experienced vets
FURTHER OPTIONS TO DISCUSS WITH YOUR VET
The first "avant garde" option is liver biopsy via endoscopy: I am aware of a case recently where blood tests came back with liver abnormailities and the vet suspected maybe an abcess on the liver...(no heart involvement though). In that case - the vet (who was very experienced with the technique in parrots) offered to do a "keyhole surgery endoscopy" on the piggie concerned to look at the liver, take a biopsy, and/or if they felt it possible, to possibly remove part of any infected lobe depending upon what they saw. (The liver is good at repairing itself) All this done through an incision of only 2-3mm and costing no more than the price of a normal operation with GA.
The second more expensive option (which may not yield any more definitive information) is to have a CT scan done to try to identify what type of structural abnormalities are present in liver and heart and contributing to organ failure - but you would need a good imaging specialist to interpret any results. This again would ivovle a GA. (I do know Holcroft vets in Bristol are good with guinea pig CT scans)
YOUR VET
I believe we spoke on PM last year about suitable vets and you have been using 2. I can assure the forum that both are extremely cavy savvy! I have not put details in of the vet offering endoscopy - but if you and your vet wish to at least contact the vet concerned to explore the option I would be happy to provide details via PM
EDIT: Just seen the new posts whilst I have been writing this one - I would definitely pursue the "infection" route.
If you want to discuss the suggestion of poisoning as an alternative then please give me a ring so we can chat about possibles/likelihood........Because unless you have allowed your piggies access to bulbs (daffodils etc or leeks or chives)...or sphagnum moss/celandine/buttercup on the lawns ...or certain houseplants....or mouldy feed.....it's not really that likely
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HTH - sending you hugs
x
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