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Poor Tomie cannot catch a break! URI and a couple of questions

Freela

Freela

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Poor Tomie cannot catch a break! She was diagnosed hyperthyroid over the summer. We were JUST getting her weight up when, Saturday night, I noticed that her breathing was abnormal. Not noisy, but she was definitely using her abdominal muscles to breathe. Still eating but a little lethargic and subdued. We rushed her to the vet as an emergency on Sunday morning and she was diagnosed with a URI. She was sent home on Baytril and doxycyline, plus her usual thyroid meds. Within 24 hours, her breathing had improved dramatically, but her appetite was down, probably due to the Baytril, so I started syringing her some Critical Care to support her. She's lost all the weight we had finally managed to get to her gain, she really can't afford to lose more. So she's on meds twice a day and I'm syringing her Critical Care every 2 to 3 hours, as much as I can get her to take before she gets bitey and uncooperative with me. Also adding some nice 'poop soop' to the recovery food for her to try and repopulate her gut flora.

The vet's office did call and check today and said that if she's still not eating well I can look into changing her antibiotics... I'm thinking I'll get through today with the syringe food but may ask about alternatives tomorrow. What's an alternative drug that covers the same spectrum as Baytril but is easier on the gut?

I'm also wondering now if she has had a low-grade URI brewing for awhile that we just didn't notice until it moved down to the lungs. She has had gunky eyes for ages, but the discharge always looked like normal cleaning fluid and the vet kind of shrugged and said that eye irritation can be part of thyroid issues too. But her eyes have completely cleared on the antibiotics. She had an awake blood draw from the neck last summer and was very sneezy for a few weeks in the wake of that, but the vet said that she could have breathed in some of the disinfectant that got sprayed on her neck and that unless there was nasal discharge or breathing abnormalities not to worry overly about it. Now wondering if the stress from the visit precipitated something in her upper tract that we just didn't notice until it affected her lungs.

Anyhow, please send Tomie good vibes, she is doing lots better but she is not having a very good week!
 
Freela said:
Poor Tomie cannot catch a break! She was diagnosed hyperthyroid over the summer. We were JUST getting her weight up when, Saturday night, I noticed that her breathing was abnormal. Not noisy, but she was definitely using her abdominal muscles to breathe. Still eating but a little lethargic and subdued. We rushed her to the vet as an emergency on Sunday morning and she was diagnosed with a URI. She was sent home on Baytril and doxycyline, plus her usual thyroid meds. Within 24 hours, her breathing had improved dramatically, but her appetite was down, probably due to the Baytril, so I started syringing her some Critical Care to support her. She's lost all the weight we had finally managed to get to her gain, she really can't afford to lose more. So she's on meds twice a day and I'm syringing her Critical Care every 2 to 3 hours, as much as I can get her to take before she gets bitey and uncooperative with me. Also adding some nice 'poop soop' to the recovery food for her to try and repopulate her gut flora.

The vet's office did call and check today and said that if she's still not eating well I can look into changing her antibiotics... I'm thinking I'll get through today with the syringe food but may ask about alternatives tomorrow. What's an alternative drug that covers the same spectrum as Baytril but is easier on the gut?

I'm also wondering now if she has had a low-grade URI brewing for awhile that we just didn't notice until it moved down to the lungs. She has had gunky eyes for ages, but the discharge always looked like normal cleaning fluid and the vet kind of shrugged and said that eye irritation can be part of thyroid issues too. But her eyes have completely cleared on the antibiotics. She had an awake blood draw from the neck last summer and was very sneezy for a few weeks in the wake of that, but the vet said that she could have breathed in some of the disinfectant that got sprayed on her neck and that unless there was nasal discharge or breathing abnormalities not to worry overly about it. Now wondering if the stress from the visit precipitated something in her upper tract that we just didn't notice until it affected her lungs.

Anyhow, please send Tomie good vibes, she is doing lots better but she is not having a very good week!
Click to expand...

Hi

I am so very sorry. Poor Tomie! A somewhat compromised immune system from an underlying longter/chronic health issue can open the door to opportunistic germs. :(

Doxycycline is probably even more of a gut knocker than baytril (enrofloxacin), only that it is used a lot less than baytril for guinea pigs.

There is no 'ideal' antibiotic for respiratory infections. We have also seen a rise in resistance issues due to overuse in recent years, which makes it all even more difficult. I am sorry but I am not a medications specialist.

If you have healthy companions, try 3 ml of water in which totally freshly dropped poos have been shortly soaked twice daily. 'Poo soup' sounds a bit gross but it mimics natural behaviour in recovering piggies. Live cavy gut microbiome transfer when done correctly can be more effective than any other probiotic because it is really tailored. Ideally you keep 1-2 hours each way between the antibiotic any transfer.

Fingers crossed for Tomie. I am glad that she is responding, though!
 
Thanks! I'll talk to the vet tomorrow to see what antibiotic they think might be most responsible for the lack of appetite and if there's something else we can try. Right now she is bright and happy and running around and breathing fine and it's quite a turnaround from how sick she was on Saturday night. Saturday night her poor little sides were heaving and she kept trying to lay down flat with her head down. Now she's feisty enough to make syringe feeding difficult! She is eating a bit on her own, but she's having small poops and really clearly isn't eating enough to maintain her weight. We are giving her poop soup from Misa, who is doing fine, mixing it in with the syringe feeds, so hopefully that is helping a bit. I'll update after I talk to the vet.
 
I'm in total shock. Tomie passed away really suddenly this morning. My husband and daughter both saw her around 6 or 6:30 a.m. and she was fine. Husband said she was picking at her pellets, daughter said she came over to investigate whe she gave them hay. I came down at 10 and she had collapsed, was floppy and really out of it. We rushed her to the vet but she passed in the car. I'm still stunned... she was only 3.5 years old. She was doing so much better with her breathing and was bright and feisty yesterday. We know she had an underlying thyroid issue, all I can think is that with her underlying health issue this was somehow too much fir her and precipitated some kind of heart failure or stroke or something.
I'll post a tribute on the Rainbow Bridge page when I feel better... right now I'm too upset to even process things.
 
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