Possibly sick?

[Aislinn]

I have two piggies, one whom is 7 months [Marshmallow], and 1.5 years [Reeses]. Both are females. When I got them from the rescue, they had had them such a short time, that they had not been able to take them to the vet for a check-up. All seemed well, when I picked them up, but I noticed, once home, that Mallow had a case of the sniffles. My friend said to keep on eye on it, and just to watch for any signs of illness, and I have, and I've noticed a few things. I've noticed she's grooming/licking herself, CONSTANTLY, she isn't eating as much as she was when I first brought her home, her sniffles haven't gone away, and when I put her little body to my ear, I hear a slight clicking noise.

Has anyone experienced this, or something similar, before? I'm concerned she might have a URI. I'm bringing her to the vet, tomorrow, early afternoon, as well as Reeses, just to make sure she's not sick, too, though she seems fine.

[CanadianComforts]

Sounds to me like a URI.

http://www.guinealynx.info/uri.html

[bpatters]

Definitely sounds like an URI. If she seems worse in the morning, just take her in and tell them she needs to be seen. Pigs with URIs can go downhill in a big hurry.

[Aislinn]

Thanks. :( We have an appointment tomorrow, at 1:20 PM CST, so I'm hoping she won't be any worse in the morning, when I wake up. I'll definitely update this, when I know something.

[Aislinn]

So, it turns out poor little Mallow has the very beginnings of a URI. So, she's on a course of antibiotics, [no penicillin based meds,] and some eye drops for the discharge from her eyes. She's already eating better, today, and is more back to the way she was when we first got her. She's 1.7 pounds, but she's only 7 months, so it's not terrible. She has the itches, still, though, so I'm going to call her vet tomorrow, and talk to her about it, because she said that if the itching doesn't go away, then to give her a call, and she'll give me some medication for it. She has also managed to pull off part of one of her back nails, and her quick is hanging out of her nail, from the bottom of the nail, so I'm just a little concerned about that possibly getting infected. So, going to talk to the vet about that, as well.

Reeses is good. She's nice and healthy, and is a whopping 2.8 pounds! No signs of any illnesses, and not signs of mites or anything. So, glad about that.

I'm so glad that Mallow didn't get too sick, and we're able to treat her early, so we're not risking anything.

[Aislinn]

So, update on Marshmallow:

She's been taking her antibiotics and eye drops for six days now, and seems to be doing much better. She had been fighting a lot with the antibiotics, though, and I was sometimes struggling to give them to her. I talked to the vet about her itches, and she gave me Revolution to treat both Mallow and Reeses for mites. I had noticed Reeses was starting to itch, and squirm, and didn't like being touched, either, anymore. So, I treated them both yesterday, and they are both MUCH better. I gave their cage a good scrubbin', and changed their bedding early, as well, to make sure they didn't get re-infected with the mites, as the vet told me to.

Today, at breakfast time, Mallow seemed to be back to her old self, from when we first got her. She's grooming and scratching a LOT less now, and is eating well, again. I'm so happy. Even Reeses is eating more vigorously, today, because she didn't want to eat much yesterday. I am SO happy! They're itching so much less, already, and I didn't fight with them, to get them out of the cage today, and I was able to pet both of them without them jumping around and twitching. Marshmallow has eight more days of antibiotics, and I can stop the eye drops whenever I notice the discharge is gone, which there is barely any left of, so I'll probably stop them this weekend.