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Sick Baby Guinea

WinstonPatrick

WinstonPatrick

New Born Pup
Joined
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Location
Canada
Hi guys, just seeking some thoughts from anyone who has had a baby guinea with a respiratory infection. I'm the petcare department manager at a large store chain. I am not fond of our guinea breeder, or any of our mass breeders. They sent us 3 baby guineas at 200grams, 186grams, and 156grams. Our littlest one was to me too small. He developed a respiratory infection within 2 days. He has been to our vet as an emergency because we were worried about his breathing. The vet said it's because he can't breath well through the mucus in his nose. He is on Septra antibiotic and they are culturing his discharge to make sure there isn't any other bacteria that would require a different antibiotic. We are also trying to get as much EmerAid Intensive Care liquid fed to him via syringe as possible. He has lost 30 grams of weight since Tuesday.

I'm wondering if there is anyone with experience that might have experience or thoughts as to what else we could do to help him. Our vet says it won't be till tomorrow that we would see improvement hopefully. I'm attaching a photo. I named him Baby Steve.
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WinstonPatrick said:
Hi guys, just seeking some thoughts from anyone who has had a baby guinea with a respiratory infection. I'm the petcare department manager at a large store chain. I am not fond of our guinea breeder, or any of our mass breeders. They sent us 3 baby guineas at 200grams, 186grams, and 156grams. Our littlest one was to me too small. He developed a respiratory infection within 2 days. He has been to our vet as an emergency because we were worried about his breathing. The vet said it's because he can't breath well through the mucus in his nose. He is on Septra antibiotic and they are culturing his discharge to make sure there isn't any other bacteria that would require a different antibiotic. We are also trying to get as much EmerAid Intensive Care liquid fed to him via syringe as possible. He has lost 30 grams of weight since Tuesday.

I'm wondering if there is anyone with experience that might have experience or thoughts as to what else we could do to help him. Our vet says it won't be till tomorrow that we would see improvement hopefully. I'm attaching a photo. I named him Baby Steve.
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Do you have any veterinary mucus thinning products in Canada? The UK brand name for it is bisolvon; it is prescription-only in the much more restrictive UK legislation.

Please also see whether a bowl of steaming water can help; if yes, please conduct half hour steaming /nebulising sessions. Ideally you add a little mild antiseptic to help tackle the infection from another angle.
I have been lucky to not have had to deal with any respiratory infections in my own adoptees for over a decade but other forum members may help you with practical nebulising tips. In a pinch, a steamed up shower with a warm and dry towel can help.
First Aid Kit: Easily available non-medication support products for an emergency

The third angle is support feeding. The need to breathe comes before the need to drink and only thirdly the need to eat, so support feeding is important to replace the lack in hay intake which makes over three quarters of the daily food intake and to also offer water to drink actively from a syringe during a feeding session. Support feeding babies is an extremely tricky process since the smallest bit of feed that gets into the lungs will cause pneumonia.
Here are our baby feeding tips that help you to prevent that: Hand-rearing-and-support-feeding-orphans-and-tiny-babies

All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures

I truly applaud your care and your will to help. Please be aware that it is very much a battle against the odds between the small weight and a not yet fully developed immune system. All you can do is try your best and make the little life count.
 
Wiebke said:
Do you have any veterinary mucus thinning products in Canada? The UK brand name for it is bisolvon; it is prescription-only in the much more restrictive UK legislation.

Please also see whether a bowl of steaming water can help; if yes, please conduct half hour steaming /nebulising sessions. Ideally you add a little mild antiseptic to help tackle the infection from another angle.
I have been lucky to not have had to deal with any respiratory infections in my own adoptees for over a decade but other forum members may help you with practical nebulising tips. In a pinch, a steamed up shower with a warm and dry towel can help.

The third angle is support feeding. The need to breathe comes before the need to drink and only thirdly the need to eat, so support feeding is important to replace the lack in hay intake which makes over three quarters of the daily food intake and to also offer water to drink actively from a syringe during a feeding session. Support feeding babies is an extremely tricky process since the smallest bit of feed that gets into the lungs will cause pneumonia.
Here are our baby feeding tips that help you to prevent that: Hand-rearing-and-support-feeding-orphans-and-tiny-babies

I truly applaud your care and your will to help. Please be aware that it is very much a battle against the odds between the small weight and a not yet fully developed immune system. All you can do is try your best and make the little life count.
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Thank you for your support. My staff are watching him round the clock. He is our little angel. Would a humidifier in our hospital room help? I am worried about aspiration of the EmerAid. EmerAid is supposed to give him nutrition and vitamin C. I'm not working today but keep calling to check on him.
 
WinstonPatrick said:
Thank you for your support. My staff are watching him round the clock. He is our little angel. Would a humidifier in our hospital room help? I am worried about aspiration of the EmerAid. EmerAid is supposed to give him nutrition and vitamin C. I'm not working today but keep calling to check on him.
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Yes, a nebuliser would help; for guinea pigs we usually make use of suitable plastic containers because they are so much smaller. Place him in there in his favourite cosy.

Please read the hand rearing guide link in my first post. It contains a range of tips and alternatives for baby safe feeding. EmerAid is a good product for critically ill piggies. You are aiming for 40-60 ml in 24 hours.

Fingers very firmly crossed.
 
Thinking of your little baby, hope he is doing ok 🤞 Poor little Steve should not have been separated from his Mum being so tiny, nor the others really
 
Is there any regulatory body that this breeder can be reported to? I'm definitely not one of the experts but it sounds like those 3 are either too young or have health issues. Does anyone from your company check the breeders set up?
 
Bless you little one hopefully now you can popcorn happily in a place full of lots of other guinea babies and friends 🌈
 
WinstonPatrick said:
After this I will go after them.
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It is disgusting that people can get away with this at the expense of innocent little babies thank goodness for people like you who care and hopefully you can do something to stop this. Baby Steve was loved at least by you and for however short a time. Sending hugs 🌈
 
WinstonPatrick said:
Baby Steve passed overnight. My heart is broken.
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BIG HUGS

I am so sorry. You have truly done all you could and done your best, including seeing a vet.

Anyway, I assume you are going to strike that breeder from your list? The average weight of a 3 weeks old boar at separation age is 250g and piggies should be ideally 400g to be sturdy enough to cope with the stressful change to a pet home and have a chance at beating opportunistic illnesses like respiratory infections for which breeders and pet shops sadly provide an ideal environment to pass it on between highly stressed animals in close contact with either an overloaded immune system or one that is under construction. Healthy older piggies can usually fend it off with their immune systems. All it takes is one new already infected arrival to carry it back in. :(

I know however that babies can be a lot smaller; my Begw was supposed to be an 8 weeks old boar at just 210g upon her rescue surrender - she promptly turned out to be a girl and arrived here as the regular fosterers only had boar space available whereas I had an adopted neutered boar from the same rescue looking for a new wife, so they did the obligatory 3 weeks quarantine together in a separate room in my home. I now do buy the 8 weeks since Begy has never grown large although she has just turned 5 years. So thankfully no major genetic issue in play in her case.

But those tiny babies are clearly the result of bad breeding practice and conditions.

RIP Steve

I hope that his two mates will survive.
 
I just checked on his 2 other mates and they are still OK. I'm going to weigh them and make sure they are maintaining or gaining. If not they are going straight to our veterinarian. I'm going to escalate this to our pet health team to look into the practices of this breeder.
 
Oh poor baby Steve.
I used to work for a large pet shop chain. I hated where the animals came from, hated selling them, so many tiny babies nowhere near old enough to be away from their mums, sick animals, pregnant females, missexed, animals dying, trying to comfort them all as they pass away one by one. Not just piggies, but hamsters, rabbits, rats, so many more. I quit.
At least the piggies have you at the shop doing your best to care for them and show them what love is.
RIP baby Steve, I hope his brothers get on OK.
 
WinstonPatrick said:
I just checked on his 2 other mates and they are still OK. I'm going to weigh them and make sure they are maintaining or gaining. If not they are going straight to our veterinarian. I'm going to escalate this to our pet health team to look into the practices of this breeder.
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You sound like a very good and conscientious pet shop! I wish there were more.

(PS: 400g is roughly the average weight of an 8 weeks old baby and it tallies with the age pet shop babies are sold here in the UK, just so you can put it into better context when discussing the matter).
 
They both gained 30 grams, so they are 208 grams and 230 grams. I'm worried about them eating their alfalfa, I don't know if they understand it. They like their vitamin c tablets and we gave them some kale and they went crazy for it. But I'm worried are they getting enough hay Fibre.
 
WinstonPatrick said:
They both gained 30 grams, so they are 208 grams and 230 grams. I'm worried about them eating their alfalfa, I don't know if they understand it. They like their vitamin c tablets and we gave them some kale and they went crazy for it. But I'm worried are they getting enough hay Fibre.
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Alfalfa should never be their main source. Alfalfa isn’t a hay, it’s a legume and It is too rich and contains too much calcium. They don’t need it - they need a normal grass hay in unlimited amounts.
 
Bill & Ted said:
Good on you for trying your best with little Steve, it must be so sad seeing these tiny babies being sent to you far too young, that breeder must be so heartless!
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They just want the money. A purchase order is sent and I'm sure they grab whatever they think is old enough and send them. I have a great group of petcare associates that love and will do anything for the animals. This is the first guinea that has passed since I took over the dept 2.5 years ago and we've battled ringworm, eye infections, skin infections, respiratory infections etc. I'm going to go home and snuggle my skinny pigs an extra amount today.
 
Piggies&buns said:
Alfalfa should never be their main source. Alfalfa isn’t a hay, it’s a legume and It is too rich and contains too much calcium. They don’t need it - they need a normal grass hay in unlimited amounts.
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Piggies&buns said:
Alfalfa should never be their main source. Alfalfa isn’t a hay, it’s a legume and It is too rich and contains too much calcium. They don’t need it - they need a normal grass hay in unlimited amounts.
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I know, they get a mixture. We only offer it as a supplement to the youngest ones, per our veterinarian.
 
WinstonPatrick said:
I know, they get a mixture. We only offer it as a supplement to the youngest ones, per our veterinarian.
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That’s good - it’s just you said you were worried about them specifically not eating alfalfa - it doesn’t matter if they don’t eat the alfalfa.
If they aren’t eating normal grass hay then that is an issue, however if they are gaining weight then they will be eating hay.
 
WinstonPatrick said:
They just want the money. A purchase order is sent and I'm sure they grab whatever they think is old enough and send them. I have a great group of petcare associates that love and will do anything for the animals. This is the first guinea that has passed since I took over the dept 2.5 years ago and we've battled ringworm, eye infections, skin infections, respiratory infections etc. I'm going to go home and snuggle my skinny pigs an extra amount today.
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Perhaps you might consider introducing a weight qualifier together with a minimal age qualifier when sending out the order?

We had plenty of pet shop transmitted URIs on here in the early years of our forum until the biggest pet shop farm changed suppliers - and we have suddenly no longer seen much in the way of URIs in any newly shop bought piggies for over decade now. But there was real problem with thousands of ringworm cases in the years before and during the pandemic until the chain must have used one of the last lockdowns for a proper deep clean - hits on our ringworm guide have suddenly gone down from shooting up and holding at ca. 10'000 a year for about 3-4 years to just a few thousand per year although numbers have started climbing again. Hit on our medical section and care guides are just the tip of the iceberg but there are a good indicator for particular issues in several countries we have regular members and enquiries from. :(

Great that the other two boys are doing fine. :love:

Please feed normal grass hay and just top up with a little alfalfa until they reach 4 months at the latest; the actual extra amounts of calcium, protein etc. needed are in fact minute. Your babies will reach their optimal genetically determined size and weight on a normal good and balanced diet without the added risk of bladder stones - not quite as quickly but more sustainably in terms of longevity and long term health. It is the normal grass hay diet (timothy, orchard or meadow hay) with a moderate mix of preferably green veg and reduced pellets that carries the average healthy life span from the bottom end to the upper in our longer term experience on here.
Our guide does include hygiene tips, which are crucial for getting on top of ringworm if you are interested or contacted by customers: Reference Section


You are also welcome to recommend our forum to customers. We have got a new owners section and we also have a very practical new owners information collection that covers many of the issues that new owners come up against and encourges them to learn what is normal and what not.
Getting Started - Essential Information for New Owners
 
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