Sick: 5yo Male stumbling around after eating pine needles

[Shpunta]

Hi friends,

My 5 year old male cavy is behaving strangely today. Yesterday we took him outside for about an hour, he ran around, was very playful, everything fine. Today my wife called me at work saying he was not moving around much and when he did he would take a step or two then kind of stumble and lay down, normally he'd be walking around enjoying his freedom but today he won't even follow a piece of lettuce in my hand. I sat down and thought and thought about what it could be and the only thing I came up with was that I noticed him eating pine needles yesterday night when he was outside. I didn't think much of it at the time (other than that I couldn't imagine those things being tasty) but now that I thought about it I figured maybe it was causing constipation or really is hard on his little intestines. Then I read somewhere that pine needles are poisonous for guinea pigs. Is this true? Is there anything anyone would recommend doing?

I have an appointment with a vet in about 45 minutes but I wanted to see if I could get a response prior to that here. Thanks in advance.

John & Mr. Pigglesworth

[VoodooJoint]

Is trhe yard, grass, gardens or trees treated with any pestisides, fertilizers, weed killers or any other chemicals for any purpose? The pine needles could be the culprit but it could also be chemical poisoning. Hopefully the vet will figure it out and be able to fix up your friend. Good luck.

[Shpunta]

no chemicals that I'm aware of...

[TallulahBear]

I'm thinking about your little guy.

[Shpunta]

Just got back from the vet center, the vet didn't seem to know much (if anything) about pine needles or what can be done to help a cavy who has consumed them. Vague recommendations were made about what can / should be done everything from blood work & x-rays to immediately reinstating vitamin c (he's been off for a little while since our local pet store stopped carrying the vitamin c biscuits that he likes & we're trying to find a new source).

Anyway the fact that he's been fine up until today and then all of a sudden took a nose dive suggests that something happened when he was outdoors yesterday.

We took the vet's recommendation to put him on antibiotics (10ml / day) and are on our way to the pet store to try to find another suitable source for his vitamin C.

Wish us luck, thanks all.

[VoodooJoint]

Are you feeding him fresh veggies every day? If you are feeding a good quality pellet, unlimited hay and appropriate fresh veggies them supplemental Vit C is not necessary.

It is quite possible this is scurvy or pseudo scurvy. Did the vet give him a dose of Vit C to treat for possible scurvy? Was this even an exotic specialist--dog and cat vets rarely understand cavies and other exotics. You may need to find a better vet and you should probably do that immediately.