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Post by bunchesofjoy on Nov 27, 2010 9:44:29 GMT
One of the guinea pigs has been sneezing and I can't figure out who, because they never seem to do it when they're separated. Anyway, I could tell one of the girls was kind of wheezing. I listened and finally figured out it was Skittles. I picked her up to listen closely and check her out, and to see if she would stop. She got poo all over me and I looked and she had bad diarrhea. I called the ER vet and told them. They asked if she was lethargic and I said no. They said I could wait until morning and then go to my regular vet. I said I wanted to come there as soon as possible because when Chewy got diarrhea, he was fine at first, but then got cold, lethargic, and shaky by the time we got there and was showing multiple new signs of brain damage. His odds weren't good, but I gave him the best I could. He died a few hours later. I didn't want that to happen to Skittles (even though I couldn't prevent it the first time).
She was still doing well by the time I got there although the diarrhea was still bad (and stinky). He said I had two options: either give her antibiotics at home or leave her there for a few days to hook her up to IVs. He said the IVs could scare her more and cause her death. He said he thought I wasn't giving her enough vitamin C because my regular vet said that Ruby was getting too much vitamin C and so I had to remove the supplement from their cage. I try to give her as much as I can from veggies, but now he's saying it wasn't enough. So I guess I'm going back to the supplement. I still want to get a few opinions though.
She said that if the diarrhea doesn't get better (very soon) and she doesn't put on some weight (in 3 weeks) that I have to get blood tests and other tests. I hope this helps. I'm going to keep a close eye on her though. I hope I overreacted. I'd rather do that than under-react.
If you guys have any input, that would be great. If not, that's okay, too. Thanks.
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Post by Kayleigh on Nov 27, 2010 16:42:50 GMT
Im sorry to hear about your piggie. Diarrhea is something that can be lethal to piggies as once they start go loose weight, stop eating drinking etc then its an up hill battle. Have you changed her diet recently? are you giving her any veggies or fruit she hasnt had in a while?
Is she still eating hay? are your other piggies all ok?
I very much doubt this is caused by lack of or too much vitamin c. Im assuming you feed a guinea pig pellet/mix which would have vit c incorparated along side hay, and a range of veggies, therefor theres no need to supplement the piggie with vit drops of any kind.
I would feed her plenty of hay,meadow, timothy everything as this is high in fibre and should help her digestive tract.
I know it sounds daft but is the diarrhea black and watery or is it just very soft brown pellets?
Kayleigh
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Post by bunchesofjoy on Nov 27, 2010 17:31:03 GMT
She's getting the hay and I try to mix up the veggies so she doesn't get the same thing to often, so she's always getting stuff she hasn't gotten in a little while.
It seems like a very dark green/brown but I think I have issues with the green and brown colors. For example, I thought our coffee table was green but it's brown and I thought my shirt was brown but it was green. Anyway, it seems like it was coming out the same way soft-serve icecream comes out onto a cone. It wasn't complete liquid but it was still bad. At the vet, she started doing her "I'm about to pee" dance like she was uncomfortable. She did that before a new thing of poo came out. I think she was uncomfortable with how it was getting on her and not falling into her cage and leaving it.
Should I go into another vet? The diarrhea seemed to stop.
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Post by Kayleigh on Nov 27, 2010 20:00:07 GMT
Diarrhea in piggies is usually a dark brown/black and very watery and smells really awful. It sounds like she is having trouble passing what most people call night pellets, a soft faeces which guinea pigs usually eat (perfectly natural) and the normal word is Coprophagy. rabbits and guinea pigs do this.
I would stop giving her fruits and give her lots of hay and a small amount of veggies, greens etc. I would also seek another vets advise as you shouldnt have been told to "wait" 3 weeks, if it was serious she wouldnt make it past a week let alone 3.
If shes still eating and drinking then shes may be on the road to recovery.
Kayleigh
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Post by bunchesofjoy on Nov 27, 2010 21:37:39 GMT
It does smell awful... but she hasn't had any bad stools since getting home from the vet early this morning.
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Post by bunchesofjoy on Nov 27, 2010 21:40:00 GMT
Also, she's being pretty stubborn about taking her antibiotics. I use one of those (not needle) syringes that sucks it out of the bottle then squirts into the mouth. She took it well at first, but now she's fighting me on it. Do you have any tips to calm her down or to help restrain her without hurting her? I don't want to spill and waste the antibiotics.
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Post by Kayleigh on Nov 28, 2010 9:22:18 GMT
Also, she's being pretty stubborn about taking her antibiotics. I use one of those (not needle) syringes that sucks it out of the bottle then squirts into the mouth. She took it well at first, but now she's fighting me on it. Do you have any tips to calm her down or to help restrain her without hurting her? I don't want to spill and waste the antibiotics. Iv replied to this in your other topic, as mentioned there, you just need to make her take them, its for her own good and like all animals they dont seem to realise this. Kayleigh |
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Post by kellyb on Nov 28, 2010 16:48:03 GMT
Aw, sorry to hear about Skittles. I hope she's getting better and hopefully no more diarrhea. Poor thing.
Is she still sneezing and wheezing?
Keep us posted.
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Post by bunchesofjoy on Nov 29, 2010 0:22:26 GMT
No, the wheezing and sneezing seems to be gone, but it hasn't been very long.
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Post by kellyb on Nov 29, 2010 23:27:07 GMT
Glad it's stopped. Hopefully it won't come back.
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Post by bunchesofjoy on Dec 1, 2010 0:21:07 GMT
It still isn't back. The last time it happened was very early Saturday.
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Post by kellyb on Dec 1, 2010 4:03:12 GMT
Yay! Is the diarhea gone as well?
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Post by Kayleigh on Dec 1, 2010 6:51:56 GMT
Thats great news, Seems to be on the mend!
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Post by abby on Dec 1, 2010 10:05:35 GMT
I lost Parsley to diarrhoea in a few hours. i believe the bvest treatment is 0.6mls of Kaolin which you can buy from a chemist and keep in your 1st aid kit for emergencies. If they stop eating they go down hill very quickly and die. i didn't know about kaolin and tried to keep parsley going with syringed baby food but he was in too much pain to eat and we had to take him in the middle of the night to help him on his way. it was so awful that i never wnt to go through that again and make sure i have kaolin but would still get them to a vet if i could. it's so frustrating to get an unknowledgable vet though. I am glad it sounds like she is recovering for you.
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Post by bunchesofjoy on Dec 1, 2010 17:47:39 GMT
She doesn't have diarrhea either since later that same Saturday. I had a guinea pig that also died a few hours after getting it, but it was during the day so he went to a regular exotic vet. I had to convince the er vet it was an emergency. It was 1 am so I had no other choice. I wish I could have seen an exotic vet then. I'm going to see my favorite (exotic) vet today.
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