Apples
New Born Pup
Here I am again, I just seem to be having bad luck lately with the guinea pigs and was wondering about any opinions from other piggy owners. It’s a long story because we have been seeing vets for over 2 years now, in short my thoughts are in the bullet points at the bottom of the post.
Bonkie (sow, teddy, turning 4 next month) started having a bald V-shaped spot on her back 2,5 years ago. She wasn’t itchy. We saw 2 local vets and the rescue, tried two different treatments for mites and 2 different treatments for fungal but nothing helped.
A change in diet seemed to help for half a year, but then the baldness returned around one year ago. We then saw our piggy-savvy vet that we had found in the meantime, but nothing was found so we agreed to do nothing for as long as she seemed an otherwise happy piggy.
Last fall she started slowly losing weight. Late October she had a very strong season, and a week later she started squealing when peeing. The vet suggested we start novacam to see what would happen, she then started leaving small piles of sludge after urinating but her weight stabilised. I made lots of videos around this time to keep track of Mara's recovery, and looking back I can see Bonkie's fur starting to regrow after starting the novacam when she happens to be in the frame.
Bonkie had an ultrasound early December, which showed healthy kidneys, a slightly thickened bladder wall, a tiny ovarian cyst and from what I understand a slightly opened uterus indicating an infection of the lining of the walls. We started antibiotics to treat the infection but Bonkie got very bloated from the antibiotics. She had to be admitted to the clinic three days in a row, and then I had to continue giving her metamotyl injections at home for two more days every 8 hours before switching to oral medication for another week.
We then started a course of fertagyl injections. There was a clear upturn after the second injection: she started gaining weight (from 885 then to 960 grams now a month later), her hair has regrown fully, she is more energetic, and the squeals when urinating have gotten much less frequent (only a few wees a week are now painful).
The vet suggested trying without the novacam after the third injection, which I tried for a few days. Those days she was less energetic, started biting her back and dropped in weight, so I started up the novacam again after 3 days.
I spoke to my vet this week, and she suggested a spay as the way forward. However, flank spaying is not common around here so she will make some calls next week to see where we can go for a flank spay.
However, now it’s the weekend I am starting to doubt this decision:
Bonkie (sow, teddy, turning 4 next month) started having a bald V-shaped spot on her back 2,5 years ago. She wasn’t itchy. We saw 2 local vets and the rescue, tried two different treatments for mites and 2 different treatments for fungal but nothing helped.
A change in diet seemed to help for half a year, but then the baldness returned around one year ago. We then saw our piggy-savvy vet that we had found in the meantime, but nothing was found so we agreed to do nothing for as long as she seemed an otherwise happy piggy.
Last fall she started slowly losing weight. Late October she had a very strong season, and a week later she started squealing when peeing. The vet suggested we start novacam to see what would happen, she then started leaving small piles of sludge after urinating but her weight stabilised. I made lots of videos around this time to keep track of Mara's recovery, and looking back I can see Bonkie's fur starting to regrow after starting the novacam when she happens to be in the frame.
Bonkie had an ultrasound early December, which showed healthy kidneys, a slightly thickened bladder wall, a tiny ovarian cyst and from what I understand a slightly opened uterus indicating an infection of the lining of the walls. We started antibiotics to treat the infection but Bonkie got very bloated from the antibiotics. She had to be admitted to the clinic three days in a row, and then I had to continue giving her metamotyl injections at home for two more days every 8 hours before switching to oral medication for another week.
We then started a course of fertagyl injections. There was a clear upturn after the second injection: she started gaining weight (from 885 then to 960 grams now a month later), her hair has regrown fully, she is more energetic, and the squeals when urinating have gotten much less frequent (only a few wees a week are now painful).
The vet suggested trying without the novacam after the third injection, which I tried for a few days. Those days she was less energetic, started biting her back and dropped in weight, so I started up the novacam again after 3 days.
I spoke to my vet this week, and she suggested a spay as the way forward. However, flank spaying is not common around here so she will make some calls next week to see where we can go for a flank spay.
However, now it’s the weekend I am starting to doubt this decision:
- When she is on novacam she is a happy, energetic piggy. Still the leader of the group without a doubt, gaining weight, and only showing pain through a few squeaks a week (I counted 2 squeaks this week, their cage is right by the sofa on one side and the open-plan kitchen on the other so I can keep a very good eye on her)
- Bonkie had a really bad reaction to the antibiotics
- When she was bloated she had another injection other than metamotyl on two days as well, and she got very poorly precisely those nights. What if it was a reaction to that medicine?
- The fertagyl course apparently has a success rate of around 80%, so again Bonkie is in the small group where things don’t go as they are supposed to.
- If her body deals so badly with medicines, what will happen when she has to go under GA? And what if she needs antibiotics afterwards?
- If we do go for the surgery, it will likely be a car drive of around 2 hours back home with a piggy who has just undergone surgery. Is this fair? Won’t she die feeling miserable on the way home?
- Looking back the problems started 2,5 years ago already. Was she barbering because of a pain issue resulting in the baldness? If so, it is very slowly developing. Can’t we just continue with the novacam and would this possibly give her another year or so? By that time she will be a senior piggy and who knows what other health issues pop up by then.
- If we do go for the surgery and she survives, she will be a senior piggy soon, so who knows what health issues will arise next. What if I put her through surgery only to have her die from something else a few months later?
