Sorry, this is a long one. Background - Pumpkin and Crabapple are about 6 years old. They had been classroom pets their whole lives. They were in too small of a cage, on very dusty aspen bedding, and absolutely hated each other and were always fighting. When the teacher said she had to get rid of them at the beginning of this month, I gladly stepped up and took them in with the intention of finding them new good homes.
They are now in separate cages and on fleece. They're noses and eyes were running heavily and they were always sneezing, but once separated and on fleece they improved. I took them to the vet, who prescribed 2-3 drops baytril for 10 days. This didn't seem to help much, they still coughes and sneezed and Crabapple still had a runny nose.
I took them back into the vet. Pumpkin weighed 100 grams less, and I had noticed he felt like skin and bones. We took an xray, nothing strange there. The vet said he didn't want to give any more antibiotics due to possibly that it could hurt the guinea pigs gut, and that I should just keep their cage as clean as they can.
I'm not sure what to do... I could go to an emergency specialty clinic that would probably be able to diagnose them better, but that would be very expensive. They already old guys... And I'm not sure if I should really spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars when they might just live a few more months regardless. Does it make me a bad guinea pig owner to think that way?
They are now in separate cages and on fleece. They're noses and eyes were running heavily and they were always sneezing, but once separated and on fleece they improved. I took them to the vet, who prescribed 2-3 drops baytril for 10 days. This didn't seem to help much, they still coughes and sneezed and Crabapple still had a runny nose.
I took them back into the vet. Pumpkin weighed 100 grams less, and I had noticed he felt like skin and bones. We took an xray, nothing strange there. The vet said he didn't want to give any more antibiotics due to possibly that it could hurt the guinea pigs gut, and that I should just keep their cage as clean as they can.
I'm not sure what to do... I could go to an emergency specialty clinic that would probably be able to diagnose them better, but that would be very expensive. They already old guys... And I'm not sure if I should really spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars when they might just live a few more months regardless. Does it make me a bad guinea pig owner to think that way?