Advice Needed

Sounds like a URI Guinea Lynx :: URI
If she doesn't receive treatment then she will more than likely die. Weight loss in guinea pigs is often only a few ounces, which is hard for us to "feel" or see. Best thing to do is print off the URI page and toxic medication page on Guinea Lynx and get her to a vet asap.

You're right. You need to get antibiotics for her. The infection will not go away on its own and can quickly develop into pneumonia. Can you argue with the vet who saw her before? Perhaps they will prescribe ABs without having to see her again?

tiffanyAtt, I have unapproved your post for giving bad advice. In the future, do not post in the medical section on any threads unless you are medically knowledgable about guinea pigs.

Ly&Pigs said:

tiffanyAtt, I have unapproved your post for giving bad advice. In the future, do not post in the medical section on any threads unless you are medically knowledgable about guinea pigs.

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I did not mean to give bad advice Im a farm girl and here if you dont have alot of money you give your own med I have saved many animals by doing this and I plan on continuing doing this as long as I can help animals I dont think there is anything wrong with this Im sorry you guys dont think this is aporpeate(sp). I was just try to help!

The problem is you can't give guinea pigs just any old antibiotic. When there is a suspected illness, it's not a good idea to self diagnose or self medicate. Your advice could cause the death of a guinea pig and we do not allow advice like that here.

Treating mites at home is one thing. Treating diseases or illness is quite another matter. The advice you gave could end up killing someone's pig. I don't want to see you telling people to go to a feed/farm store and buy antibiotics to give their pigs ever again. I would appreciate it if you'd just not reply to any medical threads from now on if that is the kind of advice you are going to give.

I know you were trying to help but your advice was bad advice.

My vet got really angry when she found out that I treated for mites at home as a precaution. She told me that the horse paste is not (I can't remember the right word) but it's not the same throughout and you can overdose on that too. She really wasn't happy that I had done that.

Re: Angel gone downhill - Help?

What are the symptoms and what did the vet say was wrong with her? Were her teeth examined or was an x ray done?

So she is not on any oral ABs or pain meds right now?

Re: Angel gone downhill - Help?

I am merging this with your other posts as threads about the same pig and their current medical problems need to be kept together so people don't have to go hunting down previous posts and we can keep everything together. It's a rule to have one thread per pig and to update that thread as necessary.

She is intolerant of the antibiotics. If you don't have any healthy guinea pigs around, ask the vet for a probiotic gel (the name escapes me at the moment) or give her acidophilus tablets or capsules (available wherever vitamins are sold).

You will have to handfeed her until she eats on her own again, and supplement extensively with the probiotics to try and get her gut back to normal. I don't know how much pellet mash you're getting into her now, but she needs 60-100cc per day. Most people split it up into 4-6 feedings.

P.S. I have to say that it's very nice to see such a mature, responsible, and well-spoken individual your age on the forum. I hope that you will continue to participate and enrich the forum.

She's probably going to the dish more because you have Vit C in her bottle. That does nothing but make the water taste bad to them. The Vit C breaks down too quickly for it to do any good. You really need the tablets or try and feed more veggies that are rich in C.

It is good that she seems to be recovering, but do stop the Vit C in the water immediately.

I'm so sorry she is doing so poorly still. It sounds like it's been really tough on you.

You might want to reconsider your decision not to try another antibiotic. Not all ABs have a negative effect on appetite. I had a pig who was resistant (or her infection was) to an AB once so she continued to get worse despite a two-week course. Once the vet figured it out, she prescribed a new med and the pig was fine in no time.

Is the vet sure there is nothing more going on here besides an infection?

Best of luck to you both.