Pig & Pymble
New Born Pup
Hello! I've got a previous thread from the end of June when my boy Pig (aged 2) was struggling with squeaky wees/poos. To summarise - he had 2 CT scans, X-rays, ultrasounds and urine testing with nothing showing for it other than a little blood in the urine, and it seems like interstitial cystitis. After a night's stay at the vet in June, he came back really wobbly and was very poorly for a few weeks (freeze mode/not eating) and we had a lot of back and forth to the vets which didn't help the stress! Because he stopped eating, we stepped in with syringe feeding (at one point 80ml in 24 hrs) and have remained doing that for well over 2 months now. He's also had two courses of antibiotics and was previously on ranitidine and cerenia. He is still a little squeaky but it comes and goes and he's having 1/2 cystease capsule a day, and 0.5-0.8ml dog Metacam twice daily depending on how squeaky he's being.
Over the last 6 weeks or so, he's been so much better in himself - alert and perky, he loves his vegetables, will eat nuggets (unfortunately the naughty Burgess ones but he won't touch any others) and is eating way more hay. Our real concern at the moment is his weight as he is eating normally again but we're still supplementing with 45-60ml critical care a day and he just won't maintain his weight when we try to reduce it. He won't eat oats/supplement food of his own accord.
His weight has gone from around 1450g in May, to 1300g in mid-June. He then had his overnight vet stay and stopped eating for a while, and after a couple of weeks at the beginning of July was around 1200-1250g but in the last couple of weeks when we dropped syringe feed from 60ml to 45ml he went to 1170g. We tried last week 40ml and he went down again to 1140g. We can't understand why he can't maintain or gain any weight now he is eating on his own but we're still feeding critical care.
I've spoken to a few vets as was a bit desperate (Ellie the Guinea Pig Vet, Simon at the Cat and Rabbit Clinic) who both said not to worry too much about the weight (he's not loosing it unless we reduce syringe feed), but my exotic vet who obviously knows him well and has seen him as his heaviest wants to do a general anaesthetic, to get a sterile urine sample and take bloods and check his teeth.
I have such a fear of the anaesthetic, but do feel like we have to check to make sure there's nothing underlying? I don't know if anyone has had a similar experience with stress or interstitial cystitis having a lasting effect like this. Or any advice generally. I spent so much of June at the vets/crying/terrified he wasn't going to make it, I also have this huge fear that him going into the vets for 24-48 hours for the tests is going to put him back where he was at the start and that is such an overwhelming feeling. We also can't book him in til the start of October as my partner is away in Spain for a week at the end of the month and there's no way I could manage it all on my own, so I also worry I'm being cruel by not getting this done ASAP. Sorry for the long post - as you can probably tell, I'm feeling a little worried!
Over the last 6 weeks or so, he's been so much better in himself - alert and perky, he loves his vegetables, will eat nuggets (unfortunately the naughty Burgess ones but he won't touch any others) and is eating way more hay. Our real concern at the moment is his weight as he is eating normally again but we're still supplementing with 45-60ml critical care a day and he just won't maintain his weight when we try to reduce it. He won't eat oats/supplement food of his own accord.
His weight has gone from around 1450g in May, to 1300g in mid-June. He then had his overnight vet stay and stopped eating for a while, and after a couple of weeks at the beginning of July was around 1200-1250g but in the last couple of weeks when we dropped syringe feed from 60ml to 45ml he went to 1170g. We tried last week 40ml and he went down again to 1140g. We can't understand why he can't maintain or gain any weight now he is eating on his own but we're still feeding critical care.
I've spoken to a few vets as was a bit desperate (Ellie the Guinea Pig Vet, Simon at the Cat and Rabbit Clinic) who both said not to worry too much about the weight (he's not loosing it unless we reduce syringe feed), but my exotic vet who obviously knows him well and has seen him as his heaviest wants to do a general anaesthetic, to get a sterile urine sample and take bloods and check his teeth.
I have such a fear of the anaesthetic, but do feel like we have to check to make sure there's nothing underlying? I don't know if anyone has had a similar experience with stress or interstitial cystitis having a lasting effect like this. Or any advice generally. I spent so much of June at the vets/crying/terrified he wasn't going to make it, I also have this huge fear that him going into the vets for 24-48 hours for the tests is going to put him back where he was at the start and that is such an overwhelming feeling. We also can't book him in til the start of October as my partner is away in Spain for a week at the end of the month and there's no way I could manage it all on my own, so I also worry I'm being cruel by not getting this done ASAP. Sorry for the long post - as you can probably tell, I'm feeling a little worried!
