Where People & Piggies Thrive

Newbie or Guinea Guru? Popcorn in!

Register for free to enjoy the full benefits.
Find out more about the NEW, drastically improved site and forum!

Register
  • ONE THREAD per pig please!
    We really want your pig's history all in one place to help you. Please don't start a new thread for a new issue. Just reply to your old one. We can edit the title for you if needed.

Hair Loss Fungus or mites?

mimipig

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Oct 14, 2014
Posts
130
Joined
Oct 14, 2014
Messages
130
Thanks so much Iluvmypigs :)

The vet today gave her fluids and the long acting/3-day pain med. She also looked in her mouth thoroughly and didn't see any injuries or causes of her not eating and drooling. She wasn't sure why. She mentioned something about maybe kidney disease. We have her back at home now and are going to continue with the force feeding etc. The vet said if she's not eating on her own within 3 days that she should be hospitalized and put an IV and have bloodwork and more looking into other causes besides her teeth. I'm not really sure what to make of it or what will happen next everything is just stressful and I'm still very worried about us leaving town in 12 days. I asked the vet about the boarding they offer as well but she said she would want her to be eating on her own by then. So, if she is not eating on her own within 12 days I don't know how she would survive us being gone for the 6 nights. My mom would do her best force feeding but I don't know if it would be enough as she's gone full time at work, and she is also allergic to guinea pigs so it would be a huge thing to ask of her anyway. I'm kind of at a loss, thinking about the possibility of having to cancel the whole trip will put us out of non refundable several thousand dollars and have to cancel some important business plans as well. I'm trying to stay positive and just continue with the force feeding but so far no improvements :(
 

spy9doc

Well-known member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Oct 9, 2011
Posts
48
Joined
Oct 9, 2011
Messages
48
First of all, is it certain that your mother is truly allergic to cavies? Has she been specifically tested by a competent allergist for a guinea pig allergy? Most people who think that they are allergic to them are really allergic to hay.......and in particular, timothy hay. These same people are usually just fine with orchard grass or bluegrass hay. We've had a good deal of experience with this in our household.

In order to sort this out, you will have to remove all traces of the hay, thoroughly scrub the cage and everything in it, and bathe your piggy(s). People "think" that they are allergic to the cavies when it is the hay dust and spores that are residing in their fur.

I'm so sorry that you are going through this. From my own experience, I understand how stressful it may be and pray for a good outcome for you and Mimi!
 

mimipig

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Oct 14, 2014
Posts
130
Joined
Oct 14, 2014
Messages
130
I never thought of that spy9doc, I will check with her if that's possible. I'll bring some timothy hay over to her house and see if she has any reaction to it. Thanks!

Is it possible Mimi could be not eating because of constipation? She is pooping but they are not frequent or regular, and have been dry and small because of dehydration from all the drooling. Since the vet seemed to think her teeth should be fine I'm just trying to think of why else she is not eating. I should mention too she is getting around 60cc of the critical care a day as well as plenty of pedialyte and water syringe fed so I'm not sure if her poop should be normal at this point and if its worrying if they aren't?
 

mimipig

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Oct 14, 2014
Posts
130
Joined
Oct 14, 2014
Messages
130
@spy9doc, how did you manage your sleep schedule when Chester needed the force feeding for a whole month? I'm only 4-5 or so days in and the lost sleep is really hard for me, feeling very groggy and having a hard time thinking straight. So far I've been doing the feedings at 1am, 4:30am and then 8am. Each feeding takes me 45 mins to an hour, as it takes her around 3-5 minutes to chew and swallow and she only holds 1ml at a time in her mouth...When I try to rush it or put more in her mouth at a time it piles up and I get a lot oozing back out. Do you have any recommendations of things that worked best for you on feeding times at night?
 

mimipig

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Oct 14, 2014
Posts
130
Joined
Oct 14, 2014
Messages
130
Hi again, just giving an update. Mimi is still not able to eat or drink anything. She is still obviously hungry and looks at her food whenever I put it in the cage. I have also seen her looking at her hay and pellets. However she never even opens her mouth, she just smells them. She doesn't try to pick up or bite anything, or even lick it. I've been adding vitamin C into her critical care. I need to go get some new pedialyte because I read on the bottle its only good for 48 hours after opening, so she's having plain water and watermelon juice right now.
She's still constantly drooling a lot. I feel like the problem must still be with her mouth/teeth. The vet didn't seem very knowledgeable and when talking about treatment going forward the only thing she mentioned was the hospitalization/IV, doing full bloodwork and looking into kidney disease. However she's drooling and not eating, and obviously not comfortable with her teeth so I feel that must be the issue? I checked on the website of certified dental vets and the nearest one to me is a 2 hour drive away so I'm not sure about it but considering it. Does anyone have any opinions on whether I should try getting to this other more qualified vet? I just feel like the issue must be with her teeth still, just basing that off my instinct/observations so I could of course be wrong, but the current vet I have may not be able to resolve it. Her incisors, top and bottom were trimmed quite short so that is probably giving her so much difficulty that even if she tried picking something up she wouldn't be able to...
 

sallyvh

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Mar 23, 2014
Posts
1,392
Joined
Mar 23, 2014
Messages
1,392
If you have access to a vet experienced with rodent dentistry, even if it's far away, I would be looking into getting an appointment.

Something clearly isn't right here, the drooling definitely isn't normal and it sounds like your current vet doesn't seem to have many suggestions going forward. It seems likely to me that the issue is still in her mouth and I'm concerned that the vet has trimmed the incisors so short. It's possible this vet did something incorrectly, but doesn't realize it's wrong. Has she had dental x-rays to rule out elongated roots or abscesses under the teeth?

I've had a few pigs that have had dental work over the years and we never had any ongoing issues like this. Generally they would come home and already be eating decently. Over a couple of days they would be 100% back to normal or better. No drooling, no continuous avoidance of food.

Hopefully you can find something that works and get her back to a good place. I can only imagine how stressful this is.
 

mimipig

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Oct 14, 2014
Posts
130
Joined
Oct 14, 2014
Messages
130
Thanks so much sallyvh for your input! I called the vet that was 2 hours away and the first thing he said was well since you're in (my city) you should go to the university hospital. I have been there with my other guinea pig Lulu, as well as Mimi and while they are great I'm sure for many pets they haven't been great with the guinea pigs. It's a teaching hospital as well, so it will always be students doing much of the care on the pets, guided by some more experienced vets. However none of them have the dental certification or much experience on it. The dental vet told me he would give me a call back later this afternoon to discuss it more and see if he could help but its 5:30pm and haven't heard from him yet so I'll try calling him again tomorrow. I also called our vet who did her most recent dental, and they told me to come in tomorrow again. The last visit I had with them was with one of their other vets and not our usual so hoping that the vet who has seen Mimi lots of times before may have a different perspective tomorrow. She will at least get some fluids then if nothing else...She has been slowing down on chewing and swallowing even more painfully slow than before. It's taking me 8+ hours a day to get around 50ml in her, plus all of the liquid she needs, I wish I was exaggerating :(
 

spy9doc

Well-known member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Oct 9, 2011
Posts
48
Joined
Oct 9, 2011
Messages
48
spy9doc, how did you manage your sleep schedule when Chester needed the force feeding for a whole month?

I didn't............I simply did not get up at night to feed him. I managed to get enough food in him doing 2-3x /day during my waking hours to sustain him. He was able to eat a little bit on his own at other times. When I did syringe his food, he would often consume at least 30ml and often 60ml at one sitting.

I'm not at all good with sleep deprivation and when it came to my health, that had to come first. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to take care of him.
 

pigmommy89

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Apr 1, 2014
Posts
984
Joined
Apr 1, 2014
Messages
984
I didn't do middle of the night feedings for my Dutchess when she was sick either. I fed her first thing in the morning, between jobs in the afternoon, and when I got home at night. Always made sure she had food of all kinds available in case she decided to eat something on her own, which she did once in a while. This went on for about six weeks.
 

mimipig

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Oct 14, 2014
Posts
130
Joined
Oct 14, 2014
Messages
130
Thanks so much for sharing your experiences spy9doc and pigmommy89! I'm glad both Chester & Dutchess were able to pull through that long. Unfortunately Mimi isn't eating anything on her own, or drinking although I keep offering everything fresh. She doesn't even open her mouth to attempt to pick up food, even though she is visibly hungry and goes over to look at or smell it or something. Its really heartbreaking, she still comes up to the bars to beg for a treat but when I offer it she just walks back to her bed and lays down again. I think the main battle is with her constant drooling dehydrating her. She's gotten fluids at the vet 3-4 times since this all started, been drooling for at least a week now. I am giving her lots of syringe fulls of liquids 4-5 times throughout the day and a couple times during the night, its getting harder and harder to get her to swallow anything though, a lot of liquid dribbles out with her drool, she leans forward and spits it even if I have held her up for a long time waiting for her to swallow. Same with her food, where a couple days ago I was able to get 10ml in her in around an hour-1.5 hours, now I was just able to get 5ml in 1.5 hours, but I was taking lots of time for giving fluid during that. Anyway, I guess I'm just documenting what's all going on with her. I'm very worried because she had been acting very "out of it" just now when I was trying to get her more critical care and fluid. Tomorrow at the vet she can get more sub fluids, I'm going to call that dental vet first thing in the morning again too since he never called back today.
 

sallyvh

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Mar 23, 2014
Posts
1,392
Joined
Mar 23, 2014
Messages
1,392
Poor girl. It sounds like you are doing everything you can, something just isn't right in her mouth. I hope you and whichever vet you visit can get to the bottom of it.

Will she eat any critical care or pellet slurry out of a dish? Also, if she isn't really into the critical care it may help to grind up some pellets and then make a slurry of the pellets and critical care combined. I had a pig who really didn't like either flavour of the critical care, but she would eat it just fine if I mixed the CC with her regular pellets that I grinded up in a magic bullet. I honestly do that combo all the time now if I have a pig that needs handfeeding. It makes the CC last longer and they all find it more palatable.

In terms of overnight feeding, if she is eating absolutely nothing on her own, you should be able to safely go 6 hours between feedings. It's not a full nights sleep, but it's better than waking up every couple of hours. Just make sure she has a big meal right before bed. I've only done middle of the night feedings a few times when I had a very life or death situation with my one girl. Other than that I would do a big meal before bed and a big meal as soon as I got up in the morning, as well as some regular feedings during the day.
 

mimipig

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Oct 14, 2014
Posts
130
Joined
Oct 14, 2014
Messages
130
Thanks sallyvh, I tried some mushed pellets this morning but she had no interest :( However then we brought her in to the vet and she saw her regular doctor this time. She suggested she may be nauseous so they gave her 2 types of meds for her stomach/nausea. She has seemed to have picked up a bit since that so we're holding out hope, seeing how she is tomorrow. She was down to only being able to eat 3ml critical care per hour, but after the meds today she ate 10ml in an hour, and she also showed some more interest in the foods around her cage however didn't or couldn't pick up anything in her mouth.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.

Similar threads

failur3byh3art
Replies
0
Views
204
failur3byh3art
failur3byh3art
TandM
Replies
1
Views
337
bpatters
bpatters
alicee
Replies
8
Views
928
Kids0519
K
M
Replies
11
Views
554
Anawilliam850
A
M
Replies
10
Views
680
bpatters
bpatters
Top