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Conditions Artista's Bella Rose Medical Thread

Artista

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What I wrote to her..

Bella Rose, seizure? Tia? Ear infection?

Wildwood Veterinary Hospital

ToWildwood Veterinary Hospital

Jul 7 at 9:01 AM

Hi Dr. Welsh,

On 7/2 Bella began displaying movement problems. It's happened 2-3 times in each eve ever since. I don't know if it's during the day too because we both nap. Same with in middle of the night.

The video on my facebook page is too long to email. My fb is public. My user name is ess enn.

In that video what is happening is mild compared to previous nights. I've seen her fall to the left side too. She seems responsive during as one time I said her favorite word, lettuce, and she wheek a bit. I've seen her belly crawl army style, leg drag so hard for me to think stroke.

I'm thinking neurological like seizure but others brought up tia and inner ear problem.

It lasts around a minute or less then she is back to being perfectly fine. One time she did let out a yell but the rest of them I have to be looking. She's even did zoomies afterward a couple times.

Nothing else has changed. She eats healthy like mooshy did, I have fan, a/c and ice mat so she's not hot. Appetite and activity hasn't changed. Socialness is the same. Drinks water and I give cucumber and extra wet lettuce. Plus it wasn't too warm this past tues and wed.

I'd appreciate it if you could look at the video on my fb page. It's public. Ess Enn. I'll try to capture more since this one is not as bad as what I've seen.

Please let me know if she should be seen and when or if you need more videos since she highly unlikely she'll do this during the visit time.

Thank you so much.

Shonta and Bella Rose
 

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How is the little girl doing today?

Any improvement or decrease in symptoms? Please keep us posted on what happens with the vet.
 

Artista

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How is the little girl doing today?

Any improvement or decrease in symptoms? Please keep us posted on what happens with the vet.

I didn't see anything off yesterday. I hope it's not happening when I'm asleep. She does sit frozen like for a minute or more which who knows if it's a seizure or her just siiting snoozing or just chilling. Saying lettuce doesn't snap her out when she's sitting like that and I don't want to make her move every time to see. I've seen her sitting like this propped up in the middle of the night or early am too forever now and thought it's just her. I don't remember mooshy doing this, well she was always in the igloo. Br has no igloo and is in one of the tunnels most of the time. So I don't know.

I will definitely keep up this thread as time goes on. Unless it's curable, it'll be a life long watch and see. :(
 

Artista

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Took bella yesterday. Did blood work and urinalysis. Below is the results. Already spent $500 and with the other 2 tests, it'd be $360. I'm on disability so it's even more for me. I had tossed oxbow urinary support because mooshy would never touch it. Ordered it.



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Bella Rose's lab results & estimate

Wildwood Veterinary Hospital

ToShonta

Jul 12 at 5:19 PM

1 attachment

Hi Shonta,


Bella Rose's lab results are as follows:


Bella Rose has a mild elevation in her white blood cell count due to an increased number of eosinophils. Eosinophils are elevated by allergies, parasitic infections, or some cancers.?

She shows signs of dehydration, which may also account for a perceived increase in the white blood cells.

Bella?s GGT (one of the liver enzymes) is moderately elevated. The remainder of her liver enzymes are within normal limits. The elevation in GGT may be due to inflammation of the liver or to hemolysis (breakdown) of the red blood cells. Hemolysis is more likely in this case.?

Her blood glucose, kidney values, electrolytes, and cholesterol values are within normal limits.?

Bella has a very basic (high) pH in her urine. There was some glucose seen in the urine, which is likely secondary to the high pH. There were high numbers of struvite crystals in her urine. This is not a type of crystal s normally seen in guinea pigs. The crystals can form into stones or calculi. This type of crystal formed in urine with a pH of >6.5 (Bella?s is >/= to 9.0, the highest reading available from the lab). Struvite crystals can also form when there is a bladder infection present. Although it would be ideal to culture the urine, Bella did defecate in this urine sample, so a culture would not be accurate on this sample. We were unable to collect a sample that was not contaminated while she was here. We can attempt to collect a fresh urinary sample for culture.?


Recommend increasing the amount of vitamin C rich foods offered to Bella daily.?


Recommend offering Bella Oxbow Urinary Support treats to help control the pH of her urine better.?

https://www.oxbowanimalhealth.com/our-products/supplements/natural-science-urinary-support/


Recommend whole body radiographs to allow us to screen for the presence of any stones (calculi), screen for any evidence of tumors (none was found on her recent exam),? and to make sure her liver if the appropriate size and shape.?


The urinary changes may be responsible for some of Bella?s clinical signs.? Pending radiographs findings +/- urine culture, we should start her on appropriate antibiotics.?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________


I have attached the radiograph and urine culture estimate for you to review. These 2 tests would help Dr. Welsh narrow down the causes of her seizures.

The radiograph would let us see tumors in the body. A tumor in the central part of the brain could be a cause of her seizures.

A urine culture would help us see if there is any bladder infection. Discomfort from a bladder infection can cause an altered mental state, which could explain her seizure-like symptoms.?


Regarding the ear cleaning, Dr. Welsh recommended to hold her against your body with one hand and putting in the drops with the other. She said you could also soak a cotton swab with the cleaning solution, but this would only clean the outer part of the ear and not the deeper part.


For other vitamin C rich foods besides bell pepper and cherry tomato, you can go to this link:?https://www.guinealynx.info/diet_order-c.html


Please let me know if you have any questions.


Thanks!

Gwen Lee


--?

Please call with any questions or concerns!

Wildwood Veterinary Hospital
1115 Luchessi Drive, San Jose, CA. 95118
408-265-8811
408-265-8355 (fax)

Bella Rose - Radiograph & urine culture estimate.pdf

13.7kB
 

Artista

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Note. There aren't any ? in the text. Don't know why it copied that way.
 

Artista

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Made appt for 7/27 for radiographs and urine culture. That way the 2 weeks of ear meds will be done and she can check them.

Cleaning with q tip and solution is hard. I'm holding her against my stomach, her head too, and she still shakes her head when the q tip touches and when the med goes in. So not getting a great job of doing either. I have no one to help me either. So we'll see.

If I see odd behavior I'll try to capture the vid and post to my fb page and let you guys know. Otherwise, until the 27th when I'll have radiograph results.
 

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Hoping for the best for you and Bella Rose. Is she still having episodes?
 

Artista

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Hoping for the best for you and Bella Rose. Is she still having episodes?

Thank you. Haven't seen any in a week now like that. But don't know if her sitting still for a few min is or isn't a seizure now.
 

Artista

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Got the oxbow urinary support tabs. Mooshy never touched it. Bella likes it and is slowly eating it. Whew. Read so many great reviews on it for calcium deposits and uti. Will put 1 out in the ams so she has all day to eat it. Hopefully this solves her calcium issues and decreases chances of uti.
 

bpatters

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I hope the urinary support tablets help,but I had a guinea pig develop a stone even while taking them and eating a low-calcium diet.
 

Artista

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Even though my girls have never had any issues with calcium deposits or UTI's I've always given them the Oxbow Urinary Support tabs. I guess I always used them as an insurance against problems. Whether they help or not is anyone's guess. My girls aren't crazy about them but they will take them each evening.

I've been keeping your Bella Rose in my thoughts. I'm happy to read that you haven't seen any seizures in the past week. My pig Teddi will often sit very still and just stare into space. At times it almost seems like she is in a trance. I'll watch her for a few minutes and then she just seems to come back to earth and starts behaving normally. She never fell over or seemed uncoordinated so it never really alarmed me.

I really hope Bella Rose continues to do well. She is such a sweetheart and I know she means the world to you.

Thanks Kelsie. I get attached fast since I'm by the cage almost 24/7. Hopefully that fri was the last of that activity. 4 nights in a row, the first 6 times worse than what I finally got on video... just unreal. I was used to various infections handled with antibiotics and calcium deposits with mooshy but not seizures.

Bella is a little easier in what she will eat. She's more dialed into me than mooshy was, who was always pigloo bound. Ditched those and bella has 2 tunnels and a curtain to choose from. She's not into hiding. She does sleep out in the open. But of course I'll always miss mooshy. It appears I have a special needs gp in bella now that she's seized 7 times so I'm glad she is with me and not in a pet store or some other house. I doubt anyone is eye level with their gps every waking hour, spot cleaning a few times a day, socializing, best diet, etc.

I'm happy bella ate the oxbow. At least there's a chance it'll help. With mooshy she never touched it. She never developed stones, max was crystals.
 

Artista

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Well, that was short lived. Went from devouring the tablets the first 2 days to half to today a nibble. I don't get it. :(
 

sallyvh

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My pigs are always off and on with the oxbow tablets. The only ones I can get mine to consistently eat are the vitamin c. My oldest girl Mavis also gets the joint support one, but half the time she only takes a nibble. Not really much to do about it.
 

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@Artista, I have the same problem with Sly. He will not EVER eat an Oxbow Joint Support tablet. HOWEVER, if I crush it into power and mix it with a little apple banana CC, he gobbles it like candy. Maybe worth a try?

Maybe not mixing with critical care, but baby food or something else she just loves?
 

Artista

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I looked at the ingredients and it looks like things they'd like. Thankfully she eats bell pepper daily or it'd be the same stress with tablets. She's not into regular size green, yellow, orange or red peppers right now but eats the mini sweet colorful ones. She'll eat 1 an the am and I try to get a second one in at dinner. Thankfully she loves her kms pellets which has stabilized vit c in it for miss picky. Ugh
 

Artista

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So ear cleaning and meds were interrupted sat night when i noticed my radiated breast from cancer in 2015 was red and hot. Went to er and had lots of antibiotics. Released yesterday on more antibiotics. Exhausting. Cancelled Bellas appt for fri for radiographs and urine with culture. No energy and it's hot again.

Haven't seen any seizure symptoms since that video. Unless I see it again i decided no radiographs. As for the very high ph urine, I'm guessing its the white calcium depositsand sometimes white pool of sludge is the cause. I don't give her anything with calcium in it. Veggies are lowest. So ill hold off on this. My luck is stuff goes south for my gps in warm months which makes it hard for me to drive that far. I have heat issues from meds and menopause.
 

Guinea Pig Papa

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So ear cleaning and meds were interrupted sat night when i noticed my radiated breast from cancer in 2015 was red and hot. Went to er and had lots of antibiotics. Released yesterday on more antibiotics. Exhausting. Cancelled Bellas appt for fri for radiographs and urine with culture. No energy and it's hot again.

Haven't seen any seizure symptoms since that video. Unless I see it again i decided no radiographs. As for the very high ph urine, I'm guessing its the white calcium depositsand sometimes white pool of sludge is the cause. I don't give her anything with calcium in it. Veggies are lowest. So ill hold off on this. My luck is stuff goes south for my gps in warm months which makes it hard for me to drive that far. I have heat issues from meds and menopause.

Very, very glad to hear that you're home now, and that Bella hasn't had any more symptoms.

Wish you both the best of health going forward. Please keep us posted! :D xo
 

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Ditto [MENTION=35161]Guinea Pig Papa[/MENTION]. Hoping for the best of health for you.
 
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