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The most terrifying experience I've ever had - Found senior sow stuck on her back inside hidey, I almost lost her, possible seizure?

Dilly's Piggies

Dilly's Piggies

Teenage Guinea Pig
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Never in my almost 20 years of owning 20+ piggies have I ever seen anything like this, I'm still shaking right now, not even an hour ago my baby Paisley was fighting for her life, it seriously looked like I was going to lose her, it's literally a miracle.

I went in to check on them and give her cagemate Delilah her medication, and I was shocked to find Paisley (turns 7 years old next month) completely upside down on her back, legs in the air, stuck inside the soft fleece cave house, not moving at all. My heart immediately sank, I grabbed the hidey and put my hand on her, she did respond and started panicking, kicking her back legs to try and get up but she couldn't.

The fleece hide is kinda narrow with a small opening, closed backed, rectangular shaped, so it was difficult for me to just put my hand in and get her out, given the fact she was panicking so much, I opted not to even try that yet, so instead I immediately flipped her back up the right way and let her rest there for a good 5 minutes before I even tried getting her out. I didn't want to over stress her and cause a heart attack or trigger a seizure or something, she was clearly in a very bad way and I didn't want to make it worse.

After she had calmed down, I did very quickly slide her out, onto the floor and wrapped her in a fleece blanket. The state of her was heart breaking, she was floppy, lifeless, clearly exhausted from struggling, her eyes were almost crusted shut, she was laid on her side, legs stuck out behind her, she couldn't move, barely breathing. I'm all too familiar with this look and I've never had a piggie come back from this stage, so in that moment I really thought I was about to lose her.

I laid there with her on the floor for around 30 minutes, I dimmed the lights, turned off the loud air purifier, covered her with blankets and just let her rest without touching. I had to resist the urge to pick her up and cuddle her or touch her, but I knew that would just stress her more, I kept things calm and kept talking to her. She started responding to my voice which was so sweet, whenever I called her name in my normal, cutesy tone she perked up and started chewing, looking around for me with her eyes.

After about 15 minutes of rest, she started lifting her head and attempting to move, which ended up being a crawl dragging her back legs, she was still too weak but did try. Maybe I shouldn't have, but I did offer her a little syringe of critical care just to see if she'd respond and she surprisingly did! Only a little but she actually ate a bit, this gave me hope that maybe she wasn't dying like it looked, just exhausted from struggling to get on her feet, she also took some water.

I got around 3mls of water and syringe feed in, she was getting better and better every minute by this point, so I got her some hay out of the box and she dragged herself over to it, flopped down and laid for another 5 minutes or so, then out of no where she started eating it! Within 15 minutes from that point she was up, walking, pooping, peeing, eating like nothing ever happened, I'm still stunned by how quickly she turned around!

She's now back in her cage with Delilah eating out of the hay pile, she ate pellets and drank from the bottle too, walking around like nothing happened, it's crazy... I have no idea what happened or how long she was stuck on her back for, it could've been hours, given how bad she was when I found her, if I'd gone in there even an hour later I feel like it would've been too late for sure.

She recovered fully and quite quickly, but I don't know how she got stuck on her back in the first place, I feel that something must've happened, perhaps a seizure, and then she just couldn't right herself after? I've never experienced this before, I've used those fleece hideys for 10 years now too and never had it happen, but for a few days at least there won't be any hidey houses in her cage, I fear it could happen again. I will be keeping close watch and obviously a vet appointment is necessary as this is absolutely not normal, piggies don't just end up on their backs for no reason. My poor baby, I feel so guilty for not checking sooner, I don't know how long she was struggling for, she's eating everything in sight like she's starving so I worry it was quite a few hours.

Has anyone ever had this happen? Literally the only thing I can think of is some kind of seizure, which is terrifying, my poor baby, I really hope this was just a freak accident and it doesn't happen ever again!
 
furryfriends (TEAS) said:
We had a piggy, Earl, who had seizures. The medication, Gabapentin, really helped, but eventually they returned and we couldn’t get them back under control, so he was helped over rainbow bridge xx
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Yeah a seizure is the only thing I can really think of that could've caused her to end up on her back like that, however I never saw her have any seizure, I just saw the aftermath I guess of whatever happened, so I can't say for sure it's that and I'm not sure how a vet would diagnose it unless I've actually seen it. So I'm not sure what to do or think. There is one thing though, when she was in her flopped out of it state, every time I touched her she would aggressively flinch, after she came around completely she stopped doing that, does that indicate anything at all?

I'm checking her constantly now and she's acting totally fine. Another thought is a stroke but don't they normally get some kind of lasting or permanent symptoms after that, like being wobbly/one sided etc? It really is very scary, especially not knowing how this happened 😰 I'm sorry you lost your boy Earl 😭🌈
 
What a terrifying experience for you.
I’m impressed with way you dealt with it.
Paisley is one lucky piggy to have such a caring and wise owner.

One of my first boars, Philemon, had seizures. It’s so sad to watch.
The vet diagnosed a brain tumour, or an infection in the brain and we made the decision to pts.

Hope this proves to be a one off incident with Paisley
 
Bless her, I'm so sorry you had that experience! The only similar thing I've seen is a piggy with very bad arthritis (not mine) somehow falling over a fleece join and ended up on her back overnight, and due to the arthritis couldn't right herself again, she developed a bad episode of bloat due to it. I believe it was one of Skinnypigs1s pigs on YouTube? It's been a couple years now so I could be mistaken, but I do wonder if she maybe was unable to turn around properly (maybe from arthritis/stiffness) in the hide, freaked out and ended up on her back that way?

I really hope it doesn't happen again and you find some answers. Must have been terrifying!
 
Eriathwen said:
Bless her, I'm so sorry you had that experience! The only similar thing I've seen is a piggy with very bad arthritis (not mine) somehow falling over a fleece join and ended up on her back overnight, and due to the arthritis couldn't right herself again, she developed a bad episode of bloat due to it. I believe it was one of Skinnypigs1s pigs on YouTube? It's been a couple years now so I could be mistaken, but I do wonder if she maybe was unable to turn around properly (maybe from arthritis/stiffness) in the hide, freaked out and ended up on her back that way?

I really hope it doesn't happen again and you find some answers. Must have been terrifying!
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That is actually entirely possible, I follow SkinnyPigs1 too and remember that video of her piggie getting stuck, I didn't even think about that as a possibility until now... These fleece beds I use are quite narrow rectangle shaped, they have to do a tight turn around, so I can see how that could happen to an arthritic piggie, I will have to stop using them now completely as it is a risk I didn't realise, even though they're soft beds they can still cause issues due to the shape. Her cagemate has confirmed arthritis and is on metacam, I do think Paisley has some too, they're both the same age (7 years next month) so it's entirely possible she has it too, I'll bring this up to my vet, thanks for reminding me of that!
 
Hi

I have it once with my Ffraid when I found her on her back and unable to get up again - obviously for a while; she was unable to swallow as well and unable to take any med. I had to rush her to the emergency vets. Just as the vet was picking her up to carry her to the back for pts/euthanasia after her injections, she started to revive and I brought her back home again. She lived another 3 weeks when her blood circulation was unable to cope with the up and down of a large one day heat spike. She was around 8 years old.

Older frailer piggies can sadly fall over and can be unable to get up again; just the same older people having bad falls, whether it is the heart/a mini-blank, stiffness from arthritis or a bad joint and no longer being able to catch themselves or twist around enough etc. I've had a few more of them towards the end of their lives (most with bad arthritis in both the spine and the limbs but thankfully, I usually got to them quickly.

It is however a very frightening experience. :(
 
Wiebke said:
Hi

I have it once with my Ffraid when I found her on her back and unable to get up again - obviously for a while; she was unable to swallow as well and unable to take any med. I had to rush her to the emergency vets. Just as the vet was picking her up to carry her to the back for pts/euthanasia after her injections, she started to revive and I brought her back home again. She lived another 3 weeks when her blood circulation was unable to cope with the up and down of a large one day heat spike. She was around 8 years old.

Older frailer piggies can sadly fall over and can be unable to get up again; just the same older people having bad falls, whether it is the heart/a mini-blank, stiffness from arthritis or a bad joint and no longer being able to catch themselves or twist around enough etc. I've had a few more of them towards the end of their lives (most with bad arthritis in both the spine and the limbs but thankfully, I usually got to them quickly.

It is however a very frightening experience. :(
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That's awful, I'm so sorry you lost Ffaid, that sounds even more traumatic than what Paisley did, at least Paisley came around and is okay now, but I feel that if I hadn't of caught her at that exact moment, she wouldn't have come back from it, I believe the timing was extremely lucky thank goodness. So many bad things happen to piggies stuck on their backs, it's why I really thought I would lose her, not something any owner ever wants to see, its not usually as simple as just flipping them back over.

Paisley isn't out of the woods yet for me either, I don't know how long she was stuck so she could still become sick and have after effects, I'm keeping a close eye, syringe feeding even though she's eating to make up for any lost food/water, it's so scary. I am hoping it was just a one off, but it could happen again and become regular as she gets even older so I'm doing a cage renovation and buying new beds, just simple floor pillows with a blanket draped over will have to do now, I trust no hideys lol!

Like you say there are many things it could've been, I'm not sure the vet can even test for the cause because of her age, bloodwork etc will be impossible, but I'll at least get her an xray and hopefully something can be done alongside environmental changes, watching them get old is the worst, they LOVE their fleece caves, I'll have to bring extra veggies to soften the blow when I break the news to them lol.

This is the house she got stuck in (this isn't her in this picture, that's another pig of mine, sadly no longer with us) just to show the hide and how big it is etc for reference), as you can see it's a tight turn around, fine for regular piggies but potentially problematic for others. I've never seen any of mine have an issue with it, even Delilah who has confirmed arthritis can turn around in this, but I think it would've happened eventually, it just happened to Paisley first... Paisley's positioning inside when I found her also suggests she fell over trying to turn around, her head was at the back and hind feet at the entrance, I've never seen her sit inside her hide in this direction so it does look like she went in, couldn't turn around and fell on her back in a panic. The little space combined with possible arthritis is the most likely explanation for me atm rather than a stroke or seizure like I first thought, especially as she hasn't had any illness before or after and recovered quickly once I got to her, if she had a serious health issue I feel like I would've seen it. I won't rule it out of course, that's for the vet, but I feel so guilty now for not realising the potential danger of this style hidey for senior piggies, aaah!
20221009_174737.webp
 
Glad that you did find Paisley sooner; Ffraid must have fallen over sometime during the night because I found her in the morning. It must have been quite a while and with an already weaker heart that was the worst possible position for her to be in since it would have put enormous strain on her heart; she was also quite bloated, which rendered her unable to turn over; the bloating also got worse from lying on her back. :(

Old age sadly doesn't come on its own. You only ever can do your best to give them a good life but you can never choose how and when their time comes. But what you don't get is a grand old age with a piggy without issues; and that is also where medical support gets to its limits and where the much faster metabolism is turning against them. :(

It can be hard to accept but please do try to bless every day Paisley is there to greet you as the special gift it is and don't waste all your energy on trying to stave off what cannot be staved off indefinitely. You will get a lot more out of it.

Just keep a slightly closer eye on her in case she has more falling over episodes.
 
Update: Paisley went to sleep for the past few hours under her blanket, I made veggies as normal, went in to give them, she woke up and was wheeking like usual, she made the effort to come over to the veggie pile, however she was initially dragging her back legs and laying down, right after getting up and moving after a while of inactivity.

This really worried me, so I got her out, fed her veggies alone so Delilah wouldn't steal, she ate them all perfectly fine with great enthusiasm and speed. After 10 minutes she actually stood up and started moving herself, when she finished veggies I put her on the floor to test how she's walking and she was perfectly fine, she did look a bit stiff though and had that classic hop that arthritic piggies do intermittently when they walk.

I'm thinking perhaps she just woke up stiff and sore after being inactive for so long, after that traumatic ordeal I should probably expect her to have some kind of pain and stiffness. It did really worry me at first but she went back to normal very quickly so with that I feel better and hope it's not serious. My vet has allowed me to give her some of Delilah's metacam until she can get an appointment so hopefully that will help!
 
Update: Paisley was doing well all night and was fine when I went to bed, but when I woke up I found her flopped on her side again. Got her out, she was alert, but seemed very tired and weak, she ate some veggies, but didn't want to get up. After about 20 minutes of veggies, syringe feed and water, she got up again and became fine again like nothing happened.

This seems to be becoming a pattern now, she will go down and after 15-20 minutes of my intervention she recovers? Not sure why, but it's almost like the food and water fixes the situation, I still can't figure out why this is happening. She will stay down for hours and only recovers after I intervene, very strange.

Paisley has an appointment with my usual exotic vet on Thursday, however I did get her an emergency appointment today with a regular vet just to get her checked out. Of course by the time we got to the vet, Paisley was back on her feet and acting normal again, but I predicted that would happen so I got pictures and videos of how she was, so the vet can see what's happening.

For a regular vet I was impressed, she has no idea what's going on so has told us to wait for our exotic vet for more thorough investigation, tests and diagnosis etc. But this vet was very thorough and checked absolutely everything, even down to reaction tests, she purposely put Paisley in weird positions to test whether she would put herself right and she was perfectly fine, passed them all with flying colours. She checked her heart, lungs, used a tool to look at her teeth, inside her ears, thermometer for temperature, eye response to light etc, everything was normal.

She even found a small lump that I didn't even know about, she has one on the right underside of her neck, said it could be anything so my exotic vet will check it out. She does have waxy ears but no infection, also has dry flaky skin on her rump, a skin flake with hair attached came off, but does not look to have a skin infection or anything.

So todays results were inconclusive, she wasn't given any medication, but we will find out more when my exotic vet sees her, hopefully we can find out what's going on. Seeing this pattern Paisley goes through is kind of relieving for me, because I am now predicting it and know what to do when it happens, I know she will get back up and be okay, so now I'm trying to find ways to prevent it in the first place but that seems difficult since I don't know the cause yet. But at least I know there is something I can do to help, simply syringe food, veggies and water seems to fix it, its almost like she's diabetic or something and has low blood sugar crashes, it's like episodes of weakness, strange!

This is what she looks like during an episode, terrifying:
20221010_165502.webp

20 minutes later after intervention, up, eating, back to normal:
20221010_180957.webp
 
Update: Paisley had another episode tonight, a couple of hours ago, she's fine now, it kept to the same pattern as it has been, lasted 20 minutes again and she recovered completely. I got some videos, I'm trying to get as much evidence as possible for my vet since these episodes are very short, when she gets to the vet she looks totally normal and I look crazy lol.

Only difference is today she is head shaking a lot more, like something is bothering her ears, I've seen her scratch them a lot too. She will violently twitch and head shake if I touch her anywhere while she's in an episode, but stops afterwards, she never likes her ears being touched though and will head shake. Sometimes she will bolt, like whatever the sensation is, is too much and she panics, runs off, sometimes into things while shaking her head and scratching, mainly at her left ear I've seen. She's still aware of everything during the episode and will even eat while still on her side, so not sure about seizures, they seem different to what Paisley is having. Of course lots of love and treats afterward and she is okay again now, until the next one. The wait for the vet on Thursday is agonising ❤

I have no idea how to upload videos here, is there a better way to do it other than uploading to YouTube and posting the link here? Let me know if you guys can see these...

Paisley mid episode, starting to come around, nibbling food, she's always extremely hungry when she gets up:

Paisley head shaking, twitching and bolting after recovering:
Paisley twitches
 
Dilly's Piggies said:
Update: Paisley had another episode tonight, a couple of hours ago, she's fine now, it kept to the same pattern as it has been, lasted 20 minutes again and she recovered completely. I got some videos, I'm trying to get as much evidence as possible for my vet since these episodes are very short, when she gets to the vet she looks totally normal and I look crazy lol.

Only difference is today she is head shaking a lot more, like something is bothering her ears, I've seen her scratch them a lot too. She will violently twitch and head shake if I touch her anywhere while she's in an episode, but stops afterwards, she never likes her ears being touched though and will head shake. Sometimes she will bolt, like whatever the sensation is, is too much and she panics, runs off, sometimes into things while shaking her head and scratching, mainly at her left ear I've seen. She's still aware of everything during the episode and will even eat while still on her side, so not sure about seizures, they seem different to what Paisley is having. Of course lots of love and treats afterward and she is okay again now, until the next one. The wait for the vet on Thursday is agonising ❤

I have no idea how to upload videos here, is there a better way to do it other than uploading to YouTube and posting the link here? Let me know if you guys can see these...

Paisley mid episode, starting to come around, nibbling food, she's always extremely hungry when she gets up:

Paisley head shaking, twitching and bolting after recovering:
Paisley twitches
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Poor sweetie 😢
 
Dilly's Piggies said:
Update: Paisley was doing well all night and was fine when I went to bed, but when I woke up I found her flopped on her side again. Got her out, she was alert, but seemed very tired and weak, she ate some veggies, but didn't want to get up. After about 20 minutes of veggies, syringe feed and water, she got up again and became fine again like nothing happened.

This seems to be becoming a pattern now, she will go down and after 15-20 minutes of my intervention she recovers? Not sure why, but it's almost like the food and water fixes the situation, I still can't figure out why this is happening. She will stay down for hours and only recovers after I intervene, very strange.

Paisley has an appointment with my usual exotic vet on Thursday, however I did get her an emergency appointment today with a regular vet just to get her checked out. Of course by the time we got to the vet, Paisley was back on her feet and acting normal again, but I predicted that would happen so I got pictures and videos of how she was, so the vet can see what's happening.

For a regular vet I was impressed, she has no idea what's going on so has told us to wait for our exotic vet for more thorough investigation, tests and diagnosis etc. But this vet was very thorough and checked absolutely everything, even down to reaction tests, she purposely put Paisley in weird positions to test whether she would put herself right and she was perfectly fine, passed them all with flying colours. She checked her heart, lungs, used a tool to look at her teeth, inside her ears, thermometer for temperature, eye response to light etc, everything was normal.

She even found a small lump that I didn't even know about, she has one on the right underside of her neck, said it could be anything so my exotic vet will check it out. She does have waxy ears but no infection, also has dry flaky skin on her rump, a skin flake with hair attached came off, but does not look to have a skin infection or anything.

So todays results were inconclusive, she wasn't given any medication, but we will find out more when my exotic vet sees her, hopefully we can find out what's going on. Seeing this pattern Paisley goes through is kind of relieving for me, because I am now predicting it and know what to do when it happens, I know she will get back up and be okay, so now I'm trying to find ways to prevent it in the first place but that seems difficult since I don't know the cause yet. But at least I know there is something I can do to help, simply syringe food, veggies and water seems to fix it, its almost like she's diabetic or something and has low blood sugar crashes, it's like episodes of weakness, strange!

This is what she looks like during an episode, terrifying:
View attachment 212314

20 minutes later after intervention, up, eating, back to normal:
View attachment 212315
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Mystery illnesses are always very taxing; especially with neurological problems in guinea pigs where there is extremely little known. All vets I have met get a rather panicky expression in their eyes when it could be something neurological... :(
 
Wiebke said:
Mystery illnesses are always very taxing; especially with neurological problems in guinea pigs where there is extremely little known. All vets I have met get a rather panicky expression in their eyes when it could be something neurological... :(
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Yeah, the biggest worry is it being something permanent and untreatable, which I'm preparing for at this point. We might not even find out what it is, from what I've read it seems quite difficult to diagnose problems like this, do you know what tests the vet might do? I know nobody here can tell me whats wrong with her but it is really helpful for me to have you all to talk to during the difficult times, thanks for being here😊
 
Update: Paisley had a fantastic day yesterday and today, she hasn't had any seizures, besides a small one at the vet today in a stress response to the vets needle aspiration, I feel so bad as she was doing amazing.

We've just got back from Paisley's appointment with my exotic vet, sadly the news isn't good, but it was honestly expected not to be great news given her age. We don't know 100%, but the likely diagnosis we are going with is some type of Intracranial lesion, could be a protein deposit in the brain but it's more likely to be a brain tumour. Without doing an MRI we can't know for sure but given they cost thousands of pounds, include anaesthesia and there won't be any treatment anyway, it won't help at all to do one.

The vet did some more tests, flipped her upside down and Paisley was a bit slow to correct herself, she was stuck on her back for a few seconds, so because of that we think she suffers with vertigo, caused by the brain tumour. The vet also needle aspirated Paisley's neck lump, nothing came out so we think it's a fatty lump. Paisley had a horrible stress reaction to this and actually started having a seizure while the vet did this, she had a head tilt, walked in circles while jerking, twitching and squeaking, it was horrible to watch, me and the vet were both very worried and felt horrible! She did stop though and didn't go into a full blown seizure thank goodness, she is fine now, back home eating.

But due to the stress of that and how she reacted I'm expecting another seizure tonight, stress is definitely a trigger, so we have to be more careful with Paisley and try to be very slow, gentle, not hold her up on her back legs etc as it seems to cause vertigo if she's held up, on her back or you're too fast/rough, so I am making an effort to handle her as little as possible and just let her be from now on, I will only handle her when necessary, to avoid stress. The vet said her 'episodes' are likely seizures, just not the grand mal ones, so I'm glad I've been doing everything right by not touching her, keeping the room dark and quiet, no stimulation etc.

The vet also managed to get some blood from her, she checked her glucose levels for possible diabetes and it came back normal, she is also running a full blood panel to check for infection, as its possible she might have an infection in her ears or brain causing this too, we will find out the results later.

But her xrays looked completely normal, but we cannot see inside the brain itself without an MRI, so we don't know how big the tumour is, or how long she has left etc. It's likely to get worse, so I'm expecting more seizures in the future and them becoming more frequent. Right now Paisley doesn't have any ill effects before and after seizures, so her quality of life is still very good at the moment, however if they become more severe, last longer, more frequent or she starts becoming quite ill, I will have to make that last decision. I will know when the time comes, but me and the vet don't think we are there yet.

She was prescribed metacam which may help any pain/inflammation, but no other medications at this time, we may try antibiotics or anti seizure medication later down the line if needed. For now it's just a case of being there for her, supportive care and letting her live the rest of her days as comfortable as possible. Poor baby girl, she's such a fighter❤

Her cagemate Delilah went to the appointment too for moral support, but hasn't been well lately either, she is the same age (7 next month) and she has Dialated cardiomyopathy and is on heart medication (Cardisure). She recently stopped her diuretic (Frusol) as she improved a lot but went backwards recently, I mentioned it to the vet today so she was just prescribed the diuretic again, which will make her feel better. There's something comforting about these two old ladies, they get to grow old together and support each other through their problems, which is bittersweet. Watching them grow old is emotional for me, I've had them both since they were teeny little 6 week old bubs, I hope they know how loved they are and I'll be here for them until the end❤
 
I wanted to use the 🥲 as well.
So much love radiates from your post.
So sorry that the prognosis isn’t good for Paisley- I know how difficult such a diagnosis can be.
Lots of photos, lots of making memories and lots of happy todays will help you too.
Hugs :hug:
 
Merab's Slave said:
I wanted to use the 🥲 as well.
So much love radiates from your post.
So sorry that the prognosis isn’t good for Paisley- I know how difficult such a diagnosis can be.
Lots of photos, lots of making memories and lots of happy todays will help you too.
Hugs :hug:
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Thank you! The biggest thing I want to do for them is give them more fresh grass, they weren't able to go out all year due to the blistering hot weather, all the grass burned to a crisp so they couldn't have any, then it suddenly became too cold. I'm going to go out tomorrow and see if I can salvage some, it's their favourite thing besides veggies. Wish they could actually go outside and sit in the fresh air with the sun shining on them, they loved that, would be nice if they could do that again, even one last time, but it's too cold, ahhh❤
 
I just wanted to let everyone know that Paisley sadly passed away an hour ago, her seizures were getting much more lengthy, frequent and violent, she had 4 big ones yesterday and it completely exhausted her. She wouldn't give up without a fight and kept recovering, I bet she would've come back from that too, but it just wasn't fair anymore, I couldn't bare to see her suffer any longer. She ended up having around 15 seizures total over the past couple of weeks, it's amazing she survived them all, this girl didn't want to give up, but today I knew she'd had enough.

She began losing weight, not really eating or drinking, she was just flopped in a corner all night, out of it and she hasn't been getting a break to recover for the past couple of days, the 4 seizures yesterday were just too much, so the vet helped her cross the rainbow bridge. The poor baby was getting to the point of suffering, she wasn't bouncing back anymore and I didn't feel good about going for medication or forcing her to keep going through that hell.

Rest in peace sweet Paisley 😔❤ Now I have two single bereaved piggies, my last two standing out of the 13 I once had. I hope to bond them, but one is younger, totally blind and a bit of a bully, and the other is almost 7 with heart disease, I hope they will want each others company and the bonding will go well, it would be nice for them and me, but I worry about stress on Delilahs heart ❤
 
I’m so sorry to hear that. You made the kindest decision for sweet Paisley. I hope your two remaining piggies want each other’s company 🤞
 
I'm so sorry to hear your news 😔
It might not feel like it right now but it's a blessing that she didn't leave you in any doubt about what to do and when to do it. It was the kindest choice and it sounds like she had such a rich, full life right up to the end. Best of luck with your last two piggies and I hope it works out for them x
 
Dilly's Piggies said:
Update: Paisley had a fantastic day yesterday and today, she hasn't had any seizures, besides a small one at the vet today in a stress response to the vets needle aspiration, I feel so bad as she was doing amazing.

We've just got back from Paisley's appointment with my exotic vet, sadly the news isn't good, but it was honestly expected not to be great news given her age. We don't know 100%, but the likely diagnosis we are going with is some type of Intracranial lesion, could be a protein deposit in the brain but it's more likely to be a brain tumour. Without doing an MRI we can't know for sure but given they cost thousands of pounds, include anaesthesia and there won't be any treatment anyway, it won't help at all to do one.

The vet did some more tests, flipped her upside down and Paisley was a bit slow to correct herself, she was stuck on her back for a few seconds, so because of that we think she suffers with vertigo, caused by the brain tumour. The vet also needle aspirated Paisley's neck lump, nothing came out so we think it's a fatty lump. Paisley had a horrible stress reaction to this and actually started having a seizure while the vet did this, she had a head tilt, walked in circles while jerking, twitching and squeaking, it was horrible to watch, me and the vet were both very worried and felt horrible! She did stop though and didn't go into a full blown seizure thank goodness, she is fine now, back home eating.

But due to the stress of that and how she reacted I'm expecting another seizure tonight, stress is definitely a trigger, so we have to be more careful with Paisley and try to be very slow, gentle, not hold her up on her back legs etc as it seems to cause vertigo if she's held up, on her back or you're too fast/rough, so I am making an effort to handle her as little as possible and just let her be from now on, I will only handle her when necessary, to avoid stress. The vet said her 'episodes' are likely seizures, just not the grand mal ones, so I'm glad I've been doing everything right by not touching her, keeping the room dark and quiet, no stimulation etc.

The vet also managed to get some blood from her, she checked her glucose levels for possible diabetes and it came back normal, she is also running a full blood panel to check for infection, as its possible she might have an infection in her ears or brain causing this too, we will find out the results later.

But her xrays looked completely normal, but we cannot see inside the brain itself without an MRI, so we don't know how big the tumour is, or how long she has left etc. It's likely to get worse, so I'm expecting more seizures in the future and them becoming more frequent. Right now Paisley doesn't have any ill effects before and after seizures, so her quality of life is still very good at the moment, however if they become more severe, last longer, more frequent or she starts becoming quite ill, I will have to make that last decision. I will know when the time comes, but me and the vet don't think we are there yet.

She was prescribed metacam which may help any pain/inflammation, but no other medications at this time, we may try antibiotics or anti seizure medication later down the line if needed. For now it's just a case of being there for her, supportive care and letting her live the rest of her days as comfortable as possible. Poor baby girl, she's such a fighter❤

Her cagemate Delilah went to the appointment too for moral support, but hasn't been well lately either, she is the same age (7 next month) and she has Dialated cardiomyopathy and is on heart medication (Cardisure). She recently stopped her diuretic (Frusol) as she improved a lot but went backwards recently, I mentioned it to the vet today so she was just prescribed the diuretic again, which will make her feel better. There's something comforting about these two old ladies, they get to grow old together and support each other through their problems, which is bittersweet. Watching them grow old is emotional for me, I've had them both since they were teeny little 6 week old bubs, I hope they know how loved they are and I'll be here for them until the end❤
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Hi

Very sorry that the news is not good. Looking after frailer old piggies is a very bitter-sweet experience but it is a sweet or bitter as you make it. Treasure the time you have with your ladies and see every extra day as the special gift it is.

My three oldest (and frailest) girls have thankfully agreed to move in with each other they are all working their way up to 7 years of age. Two of them are widowed and the other keeps breaking off her lower incisors. They are all somewhat to pretty arthritic. It's my third golden oldies group.

You may find this link here helpful: Caring for Older Piggies and Facing the End - A practical and supportive information collection
 
I have just caught up with your thread. I am so sorry that you have lost Paisley 😞 but you have made the kindest decision for her and she’s no longer suffering (((hugs))) x
 
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