MunchMummy
Junior Guinea Pig
Hi all,
Bear with me...long story but really need some advice.
I had 2 beautiful boys from RSPCA. Both older boars...we think around 5 or 6. Sadly one passed very suddenly leaving his neutered buddy Albie alone for the first time in his life.
We managed to track down a 2 year old girl at a local rescue who had just lost her boar. They had attempted to integrate her into their herd but she didn't take to it well and hid away. They felt she woyld be happier with a calm boar.
After a little while of settling Daisy in, we attempted a bond with Albie. It went so well. They seemed to adore eachother and Daisy was eating well, coming to us at the opening of a veg bag, taking food from us and was doing so well. About 3 or 4 days into the bonding, Daisybwas suddenly super doddery on her legs and seemed off-balance. We were luckily able to get her seen by a vet within the hour.
2 vets saw her (including an exotics vet who works for our local zoo) and they both agreed it seemed like a minor injury, certainly no breaks and prescribed Metacam for 3 days (0.2ml once a day). Albie went to the vet too and was given a clean bill of health.
By the next day however, Daisy was laying on one side and stopped eating. Back to the vet...and we had baytril (also 0.2 twice a day) and we started to syringe feed her. We were also told we could give a probiotic to keep her moving (we have fibreplex always handy as we had a pig with a bloat issue).
Today she seems more feisty but still mostly on her side. She takes the syringe feed well but seems to have pain in her front left leg and is more comfy on her side.
Not happy, she went back to the vet today. She was seen by the same 2 vets and they even called another guinea expert for advice. I was convinced we would lose her after only just over a week of having her.
She has however been diagnosed with probable vestibular syndrome (rather like vertigo I understand?) which can cause swelling and pain in a limb. They think the likely cause is that when she was in the herd, she may not have got as much in the way of veggies as she could have and that she lacks vitamin C...although trauma or infection can also be the cause. This is so frustrating as my pigs always have Oxbow vitamin C biscuits and we obviously in the short time of having Daisy, haven't had chance to get enough of those in her!
She is now on baytril as long as needed, and the dose of metacam has been upped to 0.4 ml a day. And they suggested grinding up the vitamin c tablet into her syringe feed. It could take some time but there is chance of a full recovery. They also gave her emeprid to keep her gut moving properly.
All this leads me to 2 question:
1) Has anyone else had experience of vestibular syndrome?
2) What do we do about Albie? We tried to keep Albie with Daisy but she hasn't moved far from the far corner and he was hassling her, clearly wanting to play and it was clearly distressing her. They have been in an 8x2 c&c but we decided to put a clear divider down the middle. However, Albie can't see her as she has decided the far end (near the radiator!) is where she wants to be! Albie seems fine but we don't know how long it will take Daisy to recover, if she recovers, and we are worried about him getting lonely. Any suggestions? Do we make arrangements for a new friend for him as he was only with Daisy a few days? And if Daisy recovers find a new friend for her? Or do we stay as we are and hope we can rebond them in time?
Many thanks for your patience in reading all this!
Bear with me...long story but really need some advice.
I had 2 beautiful boys from RSPCA. Both older boars...we think around 5 or 6. Sadly one passed very suddenly leaving his neutered buddy Albie alone for the first time in his life.
We managed to track down a 2 year old girl at a local rescue who had just lost her boar. They had attempted to integrate her into their herd but she didn't take to it well and hid away. They felt she woyld be happier with a calm boar.
After a little while of settling Daisy in, we attempted a bond with Albie. It went so well. They seemed to adore eachother and Daisy was eating well, coming to us at the opening of a veg bag, taking food from us and was doing so well. About 3 or 4 days into the bonding, Daisybwas suddenly super doddery on her legs and seemed off-balance. We were luckily able to get her seen by a vet within the hour.
2 vets saw her (including an exotics vet who works for our local zoo) and they both agreed it seemed like a minor injury, certainly no breaks and prescribed Metacam for 3 days (0.2ml once a day). Albie went to the vet too and was given a clean bill of health.
By the next day however, Daisy was laying on one side and stopped eating. Back to the vet...and we had baytril (also 0.2 twice a day) and we started to syringe feed her. We were also told we could give a probiotic to keep her moving (we have fibreplex always handy as we had a pig with a bloat issue).
Today she seems more feisty but still mostly on her side. She takes the syringe feed well but seems to have pain in her front left leg and is more comfy on her side.
Not happy, she went back to the vet today. She was seen by the same 2 vets and they even called another guinea expert for advice. I was convinced we would lose her after only just over a week of having her.
She has however been diagnosed with probable vestibular syndrome (rather like vertigo I understand?) which can cause swelling and pain in a limb. They think the likely cause is that when she was in the herd, she may not have got as much in the way of veggies as she could have and that she lacks vitamin C...although trauma or infection can also be the cause. This is so frustrating as my pigs always have Oxbow vitamin C biscuits and we obviously in the short time of having Daisy, haven't had chance to get enough of those in her!
She is now on baytril as long as needed, and the dose of metacam has been upped to 0.4 ml a day. And they suggested grinding up the vitamin c tablet into her syringe feed. It could take some time but there is chance of a full recovery. They also gave her emeprid to keep her gut moving properly.
All this leads me to 2 question:
1) Has anyone else had experience of vestibular syndrome?
2) What do we do about Albie? We tried to keep Albie with Daisy but she hasn't moved far from the far corner and he was hassling her, clearly wanting to play and it was clearly distressing her. They have been in an 8x2 c&c but we decided to put a clear divider down the middle. However, Albie can't see her as she has decided the far end (near the radiator!) is where she wants to be! Albie seems fine but we don't know how long it will take Daisy to recover, if she recovers, and we are worried about him getting lonely. Any suggestions? Do we make arrangements for a new friend for him as he was only with Daisy a few days? And if Daisy recovers find a new friend for her? Or do we stay as we are and hope we can rebond them in time?
Many thanks for your patience in reading all this!
