Dilly's Piggies
Teenage Guinea Pig
This is probably going to be a long one but I could really use some advice and support regarding my 7 year old sow Delilah. Delilah has quite a few problems going on, she's a complicated case at the moment. She has been very healthy all her life, never needed a vet until after turning 7, she's done extremely well and I'm very proud of her.
Delilah was first diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy (enlarged heart) via xray and ultrasound a few months ago, she has been on cardisure and frusol (diuretic) since and it has been successful, we've got that under control and she's stable in that sense. Then she was diagnosed with severe arthritis, she's on metacam and was started on gabapentin a few days ago as we are struggling to get that pain under control, but she's still okay and can move etc.
Around Christmas she did get symptoms of a URI (snuffly breathing, discharge from eyes and nose, laboured fast breathing, weight loss etc) so we treated her with antibiotics, sulfatrim for 3 weeks. It completely got rid of all her symptoms, she gained back the 100g she lost and all was perfect. We stopped the antibiotics and within 3 days she had gone right back to square 1 again, all those symptoms came back and she dropped over 100g instantly.
So of course I took her back to the vet. The vet felt a hard lump on her thyroid so did an ultrasound guided needle aspiration, they said it's consistent with sadly a tumour, which is likely cancerous, so she has been given the diagnosis of thyroid cancer. She has now been prescribed Thyronorm on top of her other medications.
I explained to the vet how well she was doing while on the antibiotics, it's since we stopped them that all of her issues have come back. I wanted to put her back on the antibiotics as I really think she has an infection, I don't think it's a coincidence that she was doing fine until stopping them. But the vet is unwilling to do it, they don't think she has an infection, they think it's all due to thyroid cancer.
Meanwhile Delilah is dropping weight way too fast for my liking, she's now down to 890g from 1050g a week ago, just before stopping antibiotics and I really don't think it's a coincidence. Based on the breathing, runny eyes and nose I think she has a respiratory infection on top of the thyroid issue, I don't understand why the antibiotics would make such a huge difference if she had no infection going on.
I also understand that at 7 she likely doesn't have much longer left, but that doesn't mean I should just give up and let her suffer when just a week ago she was absolutely fine. She still has a good quality of life even at this age and with her issues, I feel like by not at least trialling her again with just 1 week of more antibiotics just to see if it improves things just like it did last time, I can't see the harm in it at this point, if she continues to lose weight we haven't got much time. If there's no change I will admit defeat. Of course I am already syringe feeding as needed.
I hope I don't sound nuts, just seeing her decline so rapidly after stopping antibiotics makes me think it's worth trying again and if she responds we can go from there. It might not even be thyroid cancer as a sample wasn't lab tested, just needle aspirated, but I don't know how accurate they are. Regardless of whether or not it is, I still think she has a respiratory infection. I just want her remaining time on this earth to be as comfortable as possible, I don't want to give up on her just because she's old, especially when the antibiotics could buy her even just a few more happy todays.
To brighten the mood here Delilah is with her Teddy bear, she adores this bear and always sleeps on it like a pillow. She is so sweet and deserves the world❤
Delilah was first diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy (enlarged heart) via xray and ultrasound a few months ago, she has been on cardisure and frusol (diuretic) since and it has been successful, we've got that under control and she's stable in that sense. Then she was diagnosed with severe arthritis, she's on metacam and was started on gabapentin a few days ago as we are struggling to get that pain under control, but she's still okay and can move etc.
Around Christmas she did get symptoms of a URI (snuffly breathing, discharge from eyes and nose, laboured fast breathing, weight loss etc) so we treated her with antibiotics, sulfatrim for 3 weeks. It completely got rid of all her symptoms, she gained back the 100g she lost and all was perfect. We stopped the antibiotics and within 3 days she had gone right back to square 1 again, all those symptoms came back and she dropped over 100g instantly.
So of course I took her back to the vet. The vet felt a hard lump on her thyroid so did an ultrasound guided needle aspiration, they said it's consistent with sadly a tumour, which is likely cancerous, so she has been given the diagnosis of thyroid cancer. She has now been prescribed Thyronorm on top of her other medications.
I explained to the vet how well she was doing while on the antibiotics, it's since we stopped them that all of her issues have come back. I wanted to put her back on the antibiotics as I really think she has an infection, I don't think it's a coincidence that she was doing fine until stopping them. But the vet is unwilling to do it, they don't think she has an infection, they think it's all due to thyroid cancer.
Meanwhile Delilah is dropping weight way too fast for my liking, she's now down to 890g from 1050g a week ago, just before stopping antibiotics and I really don't think it's a coincidence. Based on the breathing, runny eyes and nose I think she has a respiratory infection on top of the thyroid issue, I don't understand why the antibiotics would make such a huge difference if she had no infection going on.
I also understand that at 7 she likely doesn't have much longer left, but that doesn't mean I should just give up and let her suffer when just a week ago she was absolutely fine. She still has a good quality of life even at this age and with her issues, I feel like by not at least trialling her again with just 1 week of more antibiotics just to see if it improves things just like it did last time, I can't see the harm in it at this point, if she continues to lose weight we haven't got much time. If there's no change I will admit defeat. Of course I am already syringe feeding as needed.
I hope I don't sound nuts, just seeing her decline so rapidly after stopping antibiotics makes me think it's worth trying again and if she responds we can go from there. It might not even be thyroid cancer as a sample wasn't lab tested, just needle aspirated, but I don't know how accurate they are. Regardless of whether or not it is, I still think she has a respiratory infection. I just want her remaining time on this earth to be as comfortable as possible, I don't want to give up on her just because she's old, especially when the antibiotics could buy her even just a few more happy todays.
To brighten the mood here Delilah is with her Teddy bear, she adores this bear and always sleeps on it like a pillow. She is so sweet and deserves the world❤
. She sounds a very determined lady, such a strong character. I wish vets listened to us owners more sometimes 