Hunt76
New Born Pup
To start, I’m not sure this is the right place to post this thread, as it’s more because I need to vent my negative emotions than anything else.
My young boar, who I rescued just about six weeks ago, had been dealing with an abscess under his jaw since shortly after we got him - whether this was due to a bite wound during initial bonding or just infection, we’re unsure. He recently had surgery to marsupialise the abscess, and we were flushing it with a Nolvasan solution and curved tip syringe as well as giving Metacam daily and Baytril twice daily. Everything was going great, he was slowly gaining weight and getting better, eating like a horse, and he was such a good boy about the whole thing. We found that the only way he’d let us get to the abscess was to put him on his back, and he was so cooperative and we learned that he quite enjoyed belly rubs. He’d only ever resist if it was actively hurting him - he’d even stay laying on his back, totally content, without anyone touching him for a minute after he was done! The abscess was getting smaller, we were getting bits and pieces of abscess material out, and he was doing great. Two nights ago, I left him to dry off in his towel with my girlfriend and got on the exercise bike for 20 minutes. I came back to find her asleep, with him sitting on her chest grinding his teeth. Something didn’t seem right so, upon further investigation, I noticed some labored breathing and a sudden onset of head tilt - he clearly wasn’t feeling well at all, because he eventually flopped over entirely onto his side nestled into my girlfriend’s neck, and later did the same with me when I was holding him. The last time I tried flushing his abscess, I strangely felt no resistance and noticed fluid built up under his skin - so I temporarily discontinued flushing it after this complication. Additionally, I noted some occasional coughing when he’d eat, whether on his own or via syringe. Per the rescue, he’d always coughed after eating veggies too quickly but had a clean bill of health, and I’ve only seen that specific behavior a couple of times since I’ve had him.
No 24-hour emergency vets would treat guinea pigs, so he stayed in bed with us overnight (I know, not a recommended practice) where he slept on my pillow, cuddled up against the back of my head for most of the night. As soon as our regular vet’s office opened, I made an emergency appointment and got him in with a vet we’d yet to meet. This vet was very knowledgeable, and was previously a zoo vet so he has wide-ranging experience. He prescribed doxycycline to be given twice daily on top of his other meds, and epsom salt compresses instead of flushing for the time being. The vet explained that the only way to truly stop an abscess is surgical excision, but that he’s not currently a candidate for surgery. We have an appointment tomorrow for a recheck, where euthanasia will be recommended if he hasn’t made significant improvement.
He’s doing well, given the circumstances, but I wouldn’t say he’s recovering. The head tilt subsided damn near entirely, if not 100%, although I don’t know if or how much he’s been urinating. He’s using a fair bit of energy to breathe, and I’ve noticed some fluid retention in the abdominal region - his stomach feels a bit soft and sloshy. He’s eating some - not enough, I don’t think - and getting as much Critical Care as he’ll tolerate. He’s historically loved Critical Care, and would happily slurp down 30mL in one sitting when I was trying to get weight back on him before his surgery. Now, we’re somewhere in the neighborhood of 6-12mL before he doesn’t want any more. He was very interested in the bowl of Critical Care, though, and ran over and nearly flipped it over trying to investigate it. He still gets very excited for veggies and will even climb the cage when he wants them from me, and he’ll then pick at them before laying down and coming back for more in a bit.
As the vet explained, he suspects the abscess’s infection spread to the lower respiratory system. I initially wondered if I’d accidentally caused aspiration pneumonia or something, as it could get a bit messy with the syringe if he started resisting mid-push, or from the handful of meds he gets every day. The vet said he doesn’t suspect this, but I can’t shake the feeling that it could be my fault. On top of it all, I noticed last night that they have lice which is just an annoyance on top of everything else - I talked to the vet, and he said he’s not worried about treating it right now but to make a non-emergency appointment to have them examined (August 8th).
I feel that I’ve failed my boy, and that I’ve failed his cage mate. His cage mate is a 4.5 year old boar who’s had a handful of traumatic experiences before I adopted him, and was wrongly labeled an aggressive pig and kept entirely on his own - he’s finally found a friend in my newer boar, but now he very well may lose that friend just as quickly as he bonded with him. It was always my hope that the new boar, a perfectly happy and healthy 1.5 year old, would outlive my old boy so he’d get to live out his golden years knowing friendship of his own kind. Sadly, with the young boar’s guarded prognosis, I don’t know if this will get to be the case.
I’m devastated, and feel like a total piece of garbage. He was a perfectly happy and healthy boy, apart from the abscess issue, and had really come out of his shell, but less than two months with me and he’s on death’s door despite doing everything I thought I could to give them a comfortable life, and despite $1,400 in vet bills.
I so badly want him to recover, but know full well that he has a guarded to poor prognosis. He doesn’t appear to be in pain, just feeling unwell, so I’m not sure I want to have him euthanized or let him ride it out at home, with his cage mate, way less stressed than he would be spending his final moments in an exam room.
I don’t really have the words, other than to repeat that I’m crushed. I’ve found it hard to sleep, hard to exercise, hard to leave for work, hard to do much of anything productive. I just want to be with my boy, and for him to be okay. I’m a fireman by trade, and encounter sick people daily and death fairly frequently, and I’ve always been relatively unbothered. The prospect of losing a pet, however, is shattering. I can’t face it with nearly the placid, somewhat detached nature that I can at work. I can feel the tears welling up in the back of my throat just thinking and writing about it. I get out of work in a couple hours, and I know we only have this morning and afternoon together before I have to go back to work, and an hour or so in the morning before he goes back to the vet - and who knows, after that?
I feel like I’m responsible, like I must have done something wrong. For him to go from 100% healthy to this poorly in such a short period of time, especially as such a young and energetic boar. I hate to say it because I love guinea pigs but, if he doesn’t make a miraculous recovery, I think this will be my last herd. I can’t continue to feel secure and happy with the way things are going, only to have my beloved little guys yanked away from me suddenly. I’m not cut out for the uncertainty, or for the suddenness with which guinea pigs decompensate.
Sorry to post such a long and wide-ranging thread here, but I had to voice my grief. If anyone has dealt with this before and has any amazing tips neither I nor the vet knew about, by all means, let me know.
My young boar, who I rescued just about six weeks ago, had been dealing with an abscess under his jaw since shortly after we got him - whether this was due to a bite wound during initial bonding or just infection, we’re unsure. He recently had surgery to marsupialise the abscess, and we were flushing it with a Nolvasan solution and curved tip syringe as well as giving Metacam daily and Baytril twice daily. Everything was going great, he was slowly gaining weight and getting better, eating like a horse, and he was such a good boy about the whole thing. We found that the only way he’d let us get to the abscess was to put him on his back, and he was so cooperative and we learned that he quite enjoyed belly rubs. He’d only ever resist if it was actively hurting him - he’d even stay laying on his back, totally content, without anyone touching him for a minute after he was done! The abscess was getting smaller, we were getting bits and pieces of abscess material out, and he was doing great. Two nights ago, I left him to dry off in his towel with my girlfriend and got on the exercise bike for 20 minutes. I came back to find her asleep, with him sitting on her chest grinding his teeth. Something didn’t seem right so, upon further investigation, I noticed some labored breathing and a sudden onset of head tilt - he clearly wasn’t feeling well at all, because he eventually flopped over entirely onto his side nestled into my girlfriend’s neck, and later did the same with me when I was holding him. The last time I tried flushing his abscess, I strangely felt no resistance and noticed fluid built up under his skin - so I temporarily discontinued flushing it after this complication. Additionally, I noted some occasional coughing when he’d eat, whether on his own or via syringe. Per the rescue, he’d always coughed after eating veggies too quickly but had a clean bill of health, and I’ve only seen that specific behavior a couple of times since I’ve had him.
No 24-hour emergency vets would treat guinea pigs, so he stayed in bed with us overnight (I know, not a recommended practice) where he slept on my pillow, cuddled up against the back of my head for most of the night. As soon as our regular vet’s office opened, I made an emergency appointment and got him in with a vet we’d yet to meet. This vet was very knowledgeable, and was previously a zoo vet so he has wide-ranging experience. He prescribed doxycycline to be given twice daily on top of his other meds, and epsom salt compresses instead of flushing for the time being. The vet explained that the only way to truly stop an abscess is surgical excision, but that he’s not currently a candidate for surgery. We have an appointment tomorrow for a recheck, where euthanasia will be recommended if he hasn’t made significant improvement.
He’s doing well, given the circumstances, but I wouldn’t say he’s recovering. The head tilt subsided damn near entirely, if not 100%, although I don’t know if or how much he’s been urinating. He’s using a fair bit of energy to breathe, and I’ve noticed some fluid retention in the abdominal region - his stomach feels a bit soft and sloshy. He’s eating some - not enough, I don’t think - and getting as much Critical Care as he’ll tolerate. He’s historically loved Critical Care, and would happily slurp down 30mL in one sitting when I was trying to get weight back on him before his surgery. Now, we’re somewhere in the neighborhood of 6-12mL before he doesn’t want any more. He was very interested in the bowl of Critical Care, though, and ran over and nearly flipped it over trying to investigate it. He still gets very excited for veggies and will even climb the cage when he wants them from me, and he’ll then pick at them before laying down and coming back for more in a bit.
As the vet explained, he suspects the abscess’s infection spread to the lower respiratory system. I initially wondered if I’d accidentally caused aspiration pneumonia or something, as it could get a bit messy with the syringe if he started resisting mid-push, or from the handful of meds he gets every day. The vet said he doesn’t suspect this, but I can’t shake the feeling that it could be my fault. On top of it all, I noticed last night that they have lice which is just an annoyance on top of everything else - I talked to the vet, and he said he’s not worried about treating it right now but to make a non-emergency appointment to have them examined (August 8th).
I feel that I’ve failed my boy, and that I’ve failed his cage mate. His cage mate is a 4.5 year old boar who’s had a handful of traumatic experiences before I adopted him, and was wrongly labeled an aggressive pig and kept entirely on his own - he’s finally found a friend in my newer boar, but now he very well may lose that friend just as quickly as he bonded with him. It was always my hope that the new boar, a perfectly happy and healthy 1.5 year old, would outlive my old boy so he’d get to live out his golden years knowing friendship of his own kind. Sadly, with the young boar’s guarded prognosis, I don’t know if this will get to be the case.
I’m devastated, and feel like a total piece of garbage. He was a perfectly happy and healthy boy, apart from the abscess issue, and had really come out of his shell, but less than two months with me and he’s on death’s door despite doing everything I thought I could to give them a comfortable life, and despite $1,400 in vet bills.
I so badly want him to recover, but know full well that he has a guarded to poor prognosis. He doesn’t appear to be in pain, just feeling unwell, so I’m not sure I want to have him euthanized or let him ride it out at home, with his cage mate, way less stressed than he would be spending his final moments in an exam room.
I don’t really have the words, other than to repeat that I’m crushed. I’ve found it hard to sleep, hard to exercise, hard to leave for work, hard to do much of anything productive. I just want to be with my boy, and for him to be okay. I’m a fireman by trade, and encounter sick people daily and death fairly frequently, and I’ve always been relatively unbothered. The prospect of losing a pet, however, is shattering. I can’t face it with nearly the placid, somewhat detached nature that I can at work. I can feel the tears welling up in the back of my throat just thinking and writing about it. I get out of work in a couple hours, and I know we only have this morning and afternoon together before I have to go back to work, and an hour or so in the morning before he goes back to the vet - and who knows, after that?
I feel like I’m responsible, like I must have done something wrong. For him to go from 100% healthy to this poorly in such a short period of time, especially as such a young and energetic boar. I hate to say it because I love guinea pigs but, if he doesn’t make a miraculous recovery, I think this will be my last herd. I can’t continue to feel secure and happy with the way things are going, only to have my beloved little guys yanked away from me suddenly. I’m not cut out for the uncertainty, or for the suddenness with which guinea pigs decompensate.
Sorry to post such a long and wide-ranging thread here, but I had to voice my grief. If anyone has dealt with this before and has any amazing tips neither I nor the vet knew about, by all means, let me know.
