Uri Or Pneumonia? Problem With Antibiotics.

[Venus]

About a month ago I first noticed something strange in one of my piggies breathing. Kiss was otherwise fine exept her sides were pumping up and down very fast. Afterawhile the breathing eased but seemed slightly more troubled than normal. I thought I might have imagined it all so I just figured I keep an eye on her.

While back we had very cold weathers here in Finland and our upstairs where the piggys were, got really cold. Temperature dropped to +13 celcius and then Kisse's breathing started to rattle badly. Like she had something up her nose. Soon I realised that was not the case and started giving her an antibiotic. The brand I used is a guinea pig friendly antibiotic called Ditrim that contains trimetoprim and sulfadiazine.

She was on that for a week and it did nothing.

Breathing was still very rattly and noisy, VERY rattly so I called to the vet and asked a prescription on Baytril. I'm also giving her a load of probiotics.

I have given Baytril to her for 2 days now and she has complitely lost her appetite. Her appetite was fine when she was on the sulfa-antibiotic, she was even greedy. And now, no appetite. I started to syringe feed her today.

She has not lost any weight so far. She does not have any discharge around her nose, the only symptoms of her not being well is that god awful rattling sound and clearly a troubled breathing. And of course no appetite after baytril. And she seems more tired than usual.

I feel really worried. The temperature in the piggies room is now nice +21 celcius and she is going to the vet on monday. I fear there might be some fluid in her lungs.

What do you think, was I too hasty to stop the sulfa-antibiotic after a week when I didn't notice any improvement? She tolerated it so well. But it didnt do anything to her in healthwise eighter. Should I have just kept going on with that drug?

And what do you think this is? Uri? Pneumonia? She has had the slightly laboured breathing for a month now and the rattling and visibly laboured breathing started a week ago. And this whole mess started when the weathers got cold here so I don't think it's anything heart related.

If there is fluid in her lungs, would furosemide help?

And I read from here that some of you have used expectorants and particularly sudafed. Here you can only get that with prescription (which I dont have). A finnish expectorant has Guaifenesin as an active ingredient. Do you think would that be safe for a guinea pig?

Kiss is only 2 and very special, I would hate to loose her now. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. What would you do? My vet isn't of much help

 

[Stewybus]

Are you giving her any probiotics. Minky is on long term Baytril for her head tilt & I give her about 1/4 of a packet of Bio-Lapis mixed with 12ml of water a day usually 1/2 in the morning before her veggies & the rest in the evening. She also gets 1ml of Fibreplex each morning. If she has any other problems she will also have Sisapride, Zantac or Emiprid. I usually give one of these for 3 days then a break then a different one again for about 3 days. It seems to be working well for her but best to check with you vet but mention these meds because they are good. When she was really ill in December she was taking all of them daily but that's not necessary now.

 

[klee]

If she is not eating at all you will need to syringe feed her, you can use mushed up pellets ( if you use pelleted dry food) which is just handful of pellets into a bowl, add boiled water and leave to soak in and cool to a syringeable paste. You should use a 1ml syringe with the tip cut off so you don't get any food into her lungs. Make sure you insert the syringe from the side of the mouth, behind the teeth so it doesn't go directly down her throat. If she isn't eating at all she will need 120ml in 24hours and you need to keep an eye on her poo output if she stops she needs to go to the vets asap.
As for guaifenesin, it acts in a completely different way to sudafed in humans it causes them to cough any mucus up whereas sudafed is a decongestant . I don't think it would be safe and wouldn't give her any.
She sounds like there may be fluid on her lungs, based on the heavy, side heaving breathing. Thid can be caused by a bad respiratory infection, I.e. pneumonia or heart problems. A diuretic would help alot if there is fluid on the lungs ( I have had a heart pig myself).
Has she seen the vet and been diagnosed with a uri, or did you have the antibiotics in? I'm a little confused. You need to get her seen by your vet where they can listen to her chest, but also an xray would show any fluid.
Hope this helps and Kiss is feeling better soon.

About a month ago I first noticed something strange in one of my piggies breathing. Kiss was otherwise fine exept her sides were pumping up and down very fast. Afterawhile the breathing eased but seemed slightly more troubled than normal. I thought I might have imagined it all so I just figured I keep an eye on her.

While back we had very cold weathers here in Finland and our upstairs where the piggys were, got really cold. Temperature dropped to +13 celcius and then Kisse's breathing started to rattle badly. Like she had something up her nose. Soon I realised that was not the case and started giving her an antibiotic. The brand I used is a guinea pig friendly antibiotic called Ditrim that contains trimetoprim and sulfadiazine.

She was on that for a week and it did nothing.

Breathing was still very rattly and noisy, VERY rattly so I called to the vet and asked a prescription on Baytril. I'm also giving her a load of probiotics.

I have given Baytril to her for 2 days now and she has complitely lost her appetite. Her appetite was fine when she was on the sulfa-antibiotic, she was even greedy. And now, no appetite. I started to syringe feed her today.

She has not lost any weight so far. She does not have any discharge around her nose, the only symptoms of her not being well is that god awful rattling sound and clearly a troubled breathing. And of course no appetite after baytril. And she seems more tired than usual.

I feel really worried. The temperature in the piggies room is now nice +21 celcius and she is going to the vet on monday. I fear there might be some fluid in her lungs.

What do you think, was I too hasty to stop the sulfa-antibiotic after a week when I didn't notice any improvement? She tolerated it so well. But it didnt do anything to her in healthwise eighter. Should I have just kept going on with that drug?

And what do you think this is? Uri? Pneumonia? She has had the slightly laboured breathing for a month now and the rattling and visibly laboured breathing started a week ago. And this whole mess started when the weathers got cold here so I don't think it's anything heart related.

If there is fluid in her lungs, would furosemide help?

And I read from here that some of you have used expectorants and particularly sudafed. Here you can only get that with prescription (which I dont have). A finnish expectorant has Guaifenesin as an active ingredient. Do you think would that be safe for a guinea pig?

Kiss is only 2 and very special, I would hate to loose her now. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. What would you do? My vet isn't of much help

 

[Venus]

Yes, she is on probiotics.

She has not seen a vet yet, we'll go on monday. When she got sick, it was weekend and the vet was closed but I managed to get her a prescription to the first antibiotic by phone from a vet from another town. The second antibiotic I got to her when I tried to make an appointment but they didnt have any until monday so I insisted at least a prescription to a new antibiotic.

Thank you for the advice about the Guaifenesin, so I wont be giving that to her. And thanks also about the amount of how much to feed her, I wasn't sure about that.

She eats some hay. But nothing else really and the hay-amount is smallish. Yesterday she still ate cucumber, tomatoes, parsnip... But not today. It's the baytril that's affecting her appetite.

 

[Wiebke]

Please weigh daily and top her up with hand feed if necessary - mushed-up pellets will do perfectly fine if you haven't got recovery food in; they have also got the advantage that they taste familiar. It is very important that you keep up the weight as much as possible for her to have the strength to fend it off.

Use a 1ml syringe whose narrow tip you cut off just below where it widens. Feed 0.5ml (half the syringe) in one go; that way you avoid asphyxiation (food ending up in the lungs). Give 1ml water for every 5ml of hand feed if she's not drinking or eating much fresh veg. http://www.guinealynx.info/handfeeding.html

Breathing takes priority over drinking and eating in third place; loss of appetite is very common for both URI and baytril.

 

[Venus]

Thanks for helping. My poor Kiss. I'm thinking wheter I should take her to the vet today to another city. It's just a long drive and I'm not sure if I can get anyone to drive me there.

Edit. I was wondering do you know in which way diuretics work? I mean, of course they drain the lungs from the liquid but does that somehow help the antibiotic work better? I'm only wondering is the reason that she might have fluid in her lungs the reason why the antibiotics haven't worked.

 

[helen105281]

I agree with Klee, it does sound like she may need diuretics especially if it is pneumonia. Diuretics can save lives. Also if you do go to a vet as if Bisolvon is available where you are too as this will help if she has a stuffy nose too.

 

[Venus]

After a long struggle it seems Kiss is making a full recovery.

Thank you everyone for your support and advices!