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Wish me luck

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LucyT

I know I haven't been on this forum for very long but can you all keep your fingers crossed for Pickle piggie this afternoon at the vets. I found this forum while scouring the internet for info on diabetes in pigs as Pickle has suspected diabetes. She went to the vets last week as cataracts developed in her eyes virtually overnight. The vet said that diabetes was a possibility and to keep an eye on her eating, drinking and urination. Yesterday morning I noticed that she was starting to lose a bit of fur and by last night loads had fallen out. Then when I was cleaning the cage I noticed that she was weeing blood - and quite a lot :( I can't believe how quickly it has happened, but she is still eating, drinking and being her usual piggie self.

She is booked into the vets this afternoon. Has anyone else got pigs with diabetes and does this sound like what Pickles got? I am really quite sad at the moment because she seemed ok on saturday :'(
 
Tons of luck for Pickles. Diabetes in piggies is pretty rare, although not uncommon. Hoping it's not for both your sakes :)
 
Hope you get on ok at the vets this afternoon.

Just be careful if diabetes is diagnosed as I remember Vedra at the CCT telling me about piggies being incorrectly diagnosed with diabetes due to something in the dried food they were being fed. Apparently piggies fed on Gerty Guinea Pig can show raised sugar levels and yet not be diabetic. Obviously treating a piggy for diabetes who isn't really can have catastrophic consequences.

Hope you are feeling better really soon Pickles! :-*
 
Oh you poor thing fingers crossed for pickles any news yet?
 
kellyandpiggies said:
Tons of luck for Pickles. Diabetes in piggies is pretty rare, although not uncommon. Hoping it's not for both your sakes :)
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Couldn't say it better, fingers crossed.
 
Hi again. Pickle has now been to the vets and I must say I'm not very happy :( first of all, it was a vet I had never seen and to be honest I didn't like her that much. In a round about way she told me that she thought it was an hormonal imbalance but that she wasn't really prepared to treat it because Pickle wasn't a dog or a cat! She said that hormone imbalances can show the same symptoms as diabetes, but are very difficult to treat. That is as may be but it upset me how blunt she was about it. However I can understand that it may not be fair on Pickle to put her through any treatment.

She gave me some antibiotics for her urine infection and that was about it. I had to ask her what the long term prognosis was, and she just sort of said 'not very good really' :'(

So basically I have just got to play a waiting game, or see if I can find another vet who may be able to help. What does everyone think I should do - I haven't a clue where I would go about finding a specialist vet?
 
If you can find a guinea pig charity and see one of their vets or they could recommend a good vets in your area. Because they deal with so many guineas they will know a little more. I would get a second opinion though. I hope Pickle is O.K. :)
 
Oh dear, poor little Pickle :(
We'll cross our paws for you :smitten: :smitten:
Def see another vet, that one sounded incompetent and uncaring :tickedoff: some don't like to treat exotics and small animals, tell us where you are and i'm sure somebody can advise a vet who will treat guineas.
 
I live between leeds and wakefield. I do get the feeling that the vet didn't particularly want to treat because she was a small animal. I perhaps would agree with not treating if it would cause too much distress for Pickle but I would like to get a proper diagnosis really. Is it very difficult to get a blood test from a piggie?

I could go back to my old vets in leeds where I used to take my mice. If the vet is still there he was a lovely man, really took his time even with my mice :)
 
It's not difficult if you have a good vet that knows what he/she is doing and genuinely cares :)
 
my squeak developed a cataracts in both eyes at 14 months and seemed to loose a bit of weight, i took her to the vets and they reckoned she was diabetic and sent me away to get a sample :( eventually i got one but she had been eating cucumber while sitting in a tray :D and i had to say to the vet i wasn't sure if the sample was urine or cucumber juice(felt a right idiot)

any way they ran a test and said it showed blood and other stuff but needed me to take another sample to be sure it was urine. well i can't say i was impressed, not easy getting a sample of squeak ;D due to lack of trust in my vets over other things i moved vets.

told them about squeak, they said they could test for it by taking a sample of wee but that if she was diabetic it can be awkward to treat but they would look into it. i also read articles about that some pig's can get over their diabetes. i went away to think about it and in the mean time squeak was on antibiotics for something else.

i kept an eye on her and she soon but her weight back on, well actually she is and always has been the biggest pig i have ;D her fur is healthy, one eye has a bad cataracts but the other hasn't got any worse. she seems very healthy now and i also read that in her breed it can be common for them to get cataracts.

i think you have to follow your gut instinct and keep an eye on her weight, squeak started drinking more but maybe that's cause she was eating more dry food ;) good luck and i hope you get sorted
 
I can't believe your vet was so dismissive. My vets are not necessarily geared to small furries but this doesn't stop them from being interested in them!

I really hope you find another vet so you can get a second opinion.

Good luck
 
LucyT said:
Is it very difficult to get a blood test from a piggie?
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Do you mean it is difficult to get your vet to do a blood test or it is just difficult getting blood from a guinea? As the vets normally refuse because it is next to impossible to get blood out of a guinea without causing damage or putting them under, which they would rather not do. Hope she is O.K. :)
 
What a cr*p vet - our vets are so good with our pigs and bunnies. Definitely think you should go to another vets, not one who is only bothered about dogs and cats.

Were all keeping fingers & paws crossed for Pickle here!

Katie x
 
We have just changed our vets as the one we were going to didn't really put my mind at rest saying things such as that is defiantly not normal and that shouldn't be happening but I wouldn't worry about it. :o The vet I take mine to now is extremely good, if it wasn't for them I think I would have lost one of mine the other week. I got their number from a rabbit and guinea pig rescue. Is Pickles any better, have you seen another vet or going to see another one? :)
 
Hi everyone,

Pickle seems to have made one of those miraculous recoveries (like the sort you always see when you have taken them to the vets :laugh: ). She hasn't lost anymore fur and she hasn't had anymore blood in her urine.

I am in the process of looking for a new vet for Pickle, in the mean time I am keeping a close eye on her but she seems very happy in herself. She is still climbing up the bars of the cage when its feeding time so I'm taking that as a good sign. Does anyone elses pigs do that? I would like to make a c&c cage at some point but I'm worried she would climb out!
 
She wouldn't be able to get out if it if is high enough. Glad she is much better and that you sound much happier. :)
 
One thing I forgot to mention is that the vet said that it could be Cushings disease. I have heard of this but I thought it was only dogs that got that. I've done a quick internet search and found out that piggies can get it but it doesn't sound too good :( There is a full medical report on a website called guinealynx, in part of the report it mentions that they were basically guessing with the treatment based on the dosage for dogs and cats. Perhaps this is what my vet was trying to tell me (allbeit in a very unsensitive way!). Anyone got any experience of Cushings? It really doesn't sound that nice and I know a person on a doggie forum whose dog has recently died from it (although he was very old).

Anyway, I am not going to let it get me down too much while Pickle is still happy :) thanks for the support
 
I have only had exprience with dogs having cushings, they have medication but they live normal lives. :)
 
I have come across cushings in old horses and ponies, Where i used to work the old pony had it he always had a long curly coat even in the summer its a endocrine disease affecting the piturity gland at the base of the brain the gland becomes swollen and over produces a steroid causing increased thirst, urination, hunger, weight loss, lethargy and the classic curly coat. I think he was treated by the drug dopamine can't really remember sorry, hope this helps




Oh forgot another symptom is laminitis
 
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