Post by Orlaith on Oct 24, 2012 15:22:50 GMT
My girl Snoop has a REALLY crackly chest and I'm pretty worried about her.
It started last Thursday, completely out of the blue. We started her on baytril right away as we always have a supply in the house (we checked with our vet, don't worry!)
She didn't improve, but on Sunday night she seemed to get worse, making a squeaking sound along with the crackles, so we brought her to the emergency vet, where they said it sounded like an allergy. They gave her an injection of an anti-inflammatory (dexamethasone) and two puffs of a salbutamol inhaler. About five minutes after we left she sounded almost back to normal, but by the time we got home (another 10-15 minutes) she was just as bad as ever.
I brought her to our normal vet the following day, who also said it sounded more like an allergy or some sort of reaction, rather than an infection. Her temperature, demeanour and appetite are all normal. He gave her some steroids by injection and gave us some to give to her at home. So, we've been giving her 0.1ml colvasone daily for the past two days, but she hasn't improved at all. Not a single bit.
I thought she might be allergic to certain hay like my Xander is, so I changed her hay for a dust-free one but nothing has changed. There have been no changes in her environment, leaving the window open or closing it doesn't seem to make any difference, I'm at a bit of a loss. The only change she has had is that she went for a trip in the car on Wednesday to keep her sister company while she went to the vet for a check-up, but even if she had gotten a chill or reacted to something in the car (she never has before), I would expect her to be getting better by now.
I've already decided to bring her back on Friday if there's no improvement (there's a locum on tomorrow who knows very little about guinea pigs, so it would be a waste of a trip to go tomorrow).
Am I being impatient? Should I wait for longer for the medicine to kick in? I know she's eating and happy, which is a good sign, but it can't be nice for her to be having such laboured breathing. Anyone have any experiences like this?
It started last Thursday, completely out of the blue. We started her on baytril right away as we always have a supply in the house (we checked with our vet, don't worry!)
She didn't improve, but on Sunday night she seemed to get worse, making a squeaking sound along with the crackles, so we brought her to the emergency vet, where they said it sounded like an allergy. They gave her an injection of an anti-inflammatory (dexamethasone) and two puffs of a salbutamol inhaler. About five minutes after we left she sounded almost back to normal, but by the time we got home (another 10-15 minutes) she was just as bad as ever.
I brought her to our normal vet the following day, who also said it sounded more like an allergy or some sort of reaction, rather than an infection. Her temperature, demeanour and appetite are all normal. He gave her some steroids by injection and gave us some to give to her at home. So, we've been giving her 0.1ml colvasone daily for the past two days, but she hasn't improved at all. Not a single bit.
I thought she might be allergic to certain hay like my Xander is, so I changed her hay for a dust-free one but nothing has changed. There have been no changes in her environment, leaving the window open or closing it doesn't seem to make any difference, I'm at a bit of a loss. The only change she has had is that she went for a trip in the car on Wednesday to keep her sister company while she went to the vet for a check-up, but even if she had gotten a chill or reacted to something in the car (she never has before), I would expect her to be getting better by now.
I've already decided to bring her back on Friday if there's no improvement (there's a locum on tomorrow who knows very little about guinea pigs, so it would be a waste of a trip to go tomorrow).
Am I being impatient? Should I wait for longer for the medicine to kick in? I know she's eating and happy, which is a good sign, but it can't be nice for her to be having such laboured breathing. Anyone have any experiences like this?
