Sick Head tilt/twitching to one side

[nikki789]

Last week I adopted two guinea pigs, Herbie and Bandit, who are about 4 months old. I got them checked over by the vet and both appeared fine. However, tonight I noticed that Bandit was tilting his head slightly to the side. This seems to be like a twitch to the side and then he straightens up again, its not constant. He has also beeen scratching quite a lot. I'm worried he might have an ear infection? or could it be mites? I picked him up to check him over but as we are still very new to eachother when i hold him he just freezes so this meant he kept his head straight. The tilt/twitch seems to be most pronounced when he is eating, I can't see any discharge from ears or nose etc, his breathing (thought very fast as he was terrified) sounds fine, to be honest to look at he looks fine. He is also still eating and drinking, rumbling at his cage mate and occasionally popcorning. Other than the head tilt, you would never know anything as wrong, but I know guinea piigs try and hide their illnesses.

Does this sound like an ear infection or could there be another reason for his head tilt? I am trying to get him to the vet tomorrow but as I am working I am hoping a friend can take them, but it might have to wait until Tuesday which worries me if it is an ear infection, as I have read that these can be quite serious.

 

[CavyTV]

Does he scratch his ear? Can you see anything in his ears? Other symptoms of mites can be flakes in the fur or bald patches. I'm not sure what it is exactly. Somebody else may be able to help you a little more, but my only advice to give you is to just take him to a good exotics vet as soon as you can.

 

[nikki789]

I think he is scratching his ear but it's hard to tell as when i go close to the cage he runs away. He will come back out if I stay still but if i movve to ty and get a better look then he runs away again, so im not sure if its actually his ear or if its just near his ear. When I checked him there I couldn't see anything in his ears or fur. He is completely black and his coat is very shiny and he has no bald patches that I can see. Yeah I will do, hopefully my friend can get an appointment in the morning.

 

[bpatters]

If it's an ear infection, which it may be, the quicker it's treated the less likely it is that the tilt will be permanent. It's unlikely that mites would cause that without your noticing a lot of scratching.

 

[extremelysoup]

When I got coconut, she did this after I had held her a bit too much. She stopped after a day and is perfectly healthy. You may just have a weird pig, but I'd definitely get him checked out ASAP.

 

[bpatters]

Holding a pig, for however long, does not cause head tilt. It's either an ear problem or a brain problem.

 

[nikki789]

Bandit stopped tilting his head after a few hours, and seemed absolutely fine in himself but I still took him to the vet and they have said that they don't think he has an ear infection, and also checked his chest and there is no issues there either. They are prescribing both guinea pigs invermectin as they suspect mites (I have to pick this up tomorrow as they didn't have it in today). So hopefully this works.