Lethargy Sort of lethargic guinea pig?

[Guineapiggie06]

She’s doing a lot better! I think she sneezed/coughed a few more times while I was at school and now she is pretty much back to normal. I am still a little concerned about two things though:
1. About two/three days after coming home from the vet and giving her her medicine, her pee was super red. I even took one piece of the bedding and put hydrogen peroxide on it to see if it would fizz and it did… this was the second/last time it happened so far and I was wondering if maybe I should ask the vet if it would be a good idea to treat her for longer?
2. Her average weight now is around 1140 when it was previously 1185, she is still eating normally but I was wondering if there are any specific veggies I could feed her or should I buy some critical care to get her to gain weight?

 

[Kelsie]

I do think it would be a good idea to mention the blood to your veterinarian. They would want to know this and may or may not change anything in her treatment.

As far as her weight loss, that really isn't much of a loss but I don't see how supplementing her with Critical Care would cause any problems. I believe some members who have senior pigs routinely give them a little Critical Care just as a dietary supplement. It's very good to hear that she is eating as normal.

Please continue to give us updates on how she is doing. I'll keep her in my thoughts.

 

[Guineapiggie06]

I just took her out of her cage to give her some water and I noticed there was blood on her bum. She is also vibrating which she hasn’t done in a long time so I think she is in pain. When I went to the vet with her a little while ago, she squealed when getting her temperature taken. This couldn’t be the cause, right? The blood seems quite thick and there is quite a bit of it. I think I have a vet appointment for her for tomorrow but do I need to take her sooner? I don’t think this would be from a uti because it’s not in her urine. Does anyone know what this could be? Is it possible she will need another x-ray? X-rays are really expensive at the vet I went to costing $300 (in Canadian dollars) so I really hope she doesn’t need another one. Could this be a problem with her uterus? That was the other thing the vet thought it could be, but I don’t really know what the symptoms are for that.

 

[Guineapiggie06]

I think she’s gotten a bit worse I had her in my lap on one of those puppy pads so I could see if her pee was red when she became hunched over, sort of squealed, and her ears moved. This happened a few more times when I realized she was trying to poop. Her poops were weird, large, and uneven sized sort of clumped together. They also looked a bit watery as well. There is quite a lot of blood now too and the vet I would usually go to is closed. She has seemed to stop doing that for now, but I just don’t know if she could wait until tomorrow. I don’t think there any emergency vets experienced enough with guinea pigs I could take her to including the ones over an hour away. One of my other guinea pigs is currently getting doxycycline and enrofloxacin for a uri and I don’t think any of those help with pain so I don’t know what to do. I think the vet will move up the appointment if it is an emergency, so I could see her in the morning tomorrow. The vet appointment would be over 12 hours from now if he could see her sooner, and I don’t think an emergency vet could do anything to help, so I really need some advice. My mom is also against seeing an emergency vet right now. I just hate how she is in pain and I don’t know how serious this is.

 

[Guineapiggie06]

During the night, I woke up several times thinking I heard Muffin drinking. I have two other guinea pigs, and somehow they all drink out of a water bottle differently but I could have also been trying to convince myself that she was okay. Then, when I checked on them, Muffin WAS drinking water out of a WATER BOTTLE!!! And she drank quite a lot too! She seems to be hiding a bit more than usual but I didn’t hear her making any noises that she was in pain so I think she might be okay to wait 7.5 hour until her vet appointment. Until then, I think I will give her less veggies to see if her poops will be more normal. Should I still be force feeding her water? Will too much water harm her?

 

[Guineapiggie06]

I got back from the vet a few hours ago and the blood is for sure coming from her intestines. He said she could either have some sort of serious infection, or a tumour He prescribed her quite a lot of things so I will list them below:
1. 0.5 ml of probiotics every 24 hours until it runs out
2. 0.2 ml of Panacur every 24 hours for 5 days
3. 0.1 ml of Gabapentin every 12 hours for 7 days
4. 0.1 ml of Metronidazole every 12 hours for at least a week
She is still in pain while pooping, and there is still quite a bit of blood as well. The vet said that if the antibiotics don’t help within 2 days then she probably has a tumour near her intestines which would be very bad because he didn’t think surgery would even work because of the location that it would be and it would also depend if it is benign or malignant. I’m hoping for the best but things aren’t looking too good for her

 

[ItsaZoo]

Did the vet do any diagnostic testing, blood test, or ultrasound to determine where this mass was located? I ask because the meds you received are to balance digestive bacteria, a dewormer for parasites, a pain med, and an antibiotic to fight infection. It just seems like a shotgun approach. Hopefully they mentioned probiotics should be given at least an hour after antibiotics, otherwise the antibiotic will affect the good bacteria in the probiotic.

I hope you see some improvement in her condition.

 

[Guineapiggie06]

Sorry if I wasn’t making much sense, but she doesn’t for sure have a tumour and she could just have an infection or something. The only test that was done was where they test the poo and there won’t be any results until 3-5 days from now which was why he gave her all that stuff I think. I’m just really worried she could have a tumour because I don’t think she will survive very long. No one mentioned to give her probiotics a little while after antibiotics but I already knew to do this from a year ago when one of my other piggies needed antibiotics and probiotics. Is 2 hours apart a good amount of time though? I also bought a big bag of critical care and the vet printed out instructions on the exact amount I would need to feed her if she stops eating, but she has lost a bit of weight over the past few weeks, so should I give her a little bit anyways throughout the day? And would I need to force feed her water if I feed her critical care if she won’t drink as well? Oh, and the vet didn’t do an ultrasound because it is $550, and would be pretty pointless if what Muffin has goes away in a few days with antibiotics.

 

[Guineapiggie06]

I was looking at some old posts about anything similar to this and I came across this one that seems exactly the same with what is happen right now with Muffin: https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/69039-HELP-SEVERE-DIARRHEA-mushys-poops
The only thing that’s different is that Muffin’s poos are more mushy and she squeals a bit louder.

Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any improvement with her and the pain medication doesn’t seem to be working at all. She mainly hides and occasionally comes out to eat some hay or veggies.

I will list all the changes that happened around the time she started having sort of bloody diarrhea:
1. The vet took her temperature and squealed really loudly so maybe he made her bleed from that? The second time he took her temperature which was yesterday, she squealed SO much more and a lot of blood came out with it.
2. I had just stopped giving her enrofloxacin for her suspected uti
3. This was a few weeks ago but I gave her green leaf lettuce for the first time and they have been eating quite a bit of it every day. (Usually I give them Romain lettuce)
4. This was also a few weeks ago but I have been giving her (even though she doesn’t usually eat it) oxbow digestive tablets as well and oxbow urinary tablets

I am pretty sure this is all that has changed around then so please let me know if any of those things could cause this.

 

[ItsaZoo]

Is this vet clinic an exotics clinic or just small animal clinic? The vets I have gone to don't use rectal thermometers. They take temperatures using a digitial thermometer and scan in the ear canal. Also, in a previous post, you mentioned not being able to get a urine sample because the vet couldn't get her to pee. Usually the vet gets a sterile sample by drawing urine directly from the bladder with a needle.

If her weight is low or dropping, supplement her food by giving Critical Care. You could try to mix it a little thinner if she needs to get more liquid into her system.

 

[Guineapiggie06]

I think the vet is mainly a small animal one, but is very experienced with rabbits. On their website, they mention many types of exotic animals including rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, ferrets, hedgehogs, gerbils, hamsters, and chinchillas.

Muffin’s weight is still dropping, even though she is eating quite a lot. It has gotten to 1118 which is VERY low for her so I will definitely be feeding critical care until she gets to at least 1160 on average. She has also gotten so much better since last week and is no longer having mushy poos with blood. She was drinking like usual for a bit, but now I’m not sure if she is or not so I will make her critical care with extra water.

I also think she might be developing bumblefoot too unfortunately. The bottom of her feet have always been a bit red but about a month ago it started a tiny bit worse and hasn’t gone away. She lives on paper bedding so I think that it’s getting worse from her lying in the same spot for so long. I bought some Epson salt and coconut oil to try and use but I think I will bring her back to the vet next week if I can to check in and mention that.

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

I'm sorry she still isn't feeling well.

I don't have any experience with bumblefoot so I have no tips to offer for that. What I can say, is that from reading back her normal weight is 1180 grams. She is now 1118 grams after what appears to be almost a month?

Even though weight loss is generally regarded as not a good thing, her rate of loss is not bad at all. She has only lost 62 grams in roughly four weeks. 28 grams in a WEEK is considered normal fluctuation. If she had lost 62 grams in a week, that would be cause for concern. I'm not at all saying nothing is wrong with her. What I AM saying is that her rate of weight loss isn't concerning, YET. She could be holding her weight due to the critical care you're supplementing her with but as you've said, she's eating plenty on her own.

My last night with Punkin, he lost 100 grams OVERNIGHT. Try not to worry so much about her weight just now.

 

[Guineapiggie06]

I’m so glad I shouldn’t be super worried! Her behaviour is completely normal and she has a big appetite again so I don’t think she will continue to lose much more weight. I thought that if she ever lost 100 grams in total, even over a month or two, then I would need to take her to an emergency vet. I had no idea that If it was over a long period of time, then it is mostly okay. Also I just want to say thanks to everyone on this forum, I honestly don’t know what I would have done without all of your advice

 

[bpatters]

Be sure you keep her from drinking any of the Epsom salts soaking water, and rinse her feet very well after using it. Upside down bottle caps make good pig foot baths.

Also make sure the coconut oil is the cold pressed kind. Heating it destroys the medicinal properties.

See https://www.guinealynx.info/pododermatitis.html.

 

[ItsaZoo]

If her appetite is coming back that’s great. One way to prevent bumble foot is to get her moving around more. So maybe scatter food around the cage so she forages.

When Lacey was ill, she had red spots on her feet and what looked like little areas where the skin was peeling. I tried coconut oil and vitamin E oil, but what ended up working best was just a small amount of athlete’s foot clotrimazole cream. I massaged it in real well so there was nothing on her skin to get in her mouth. I used that morning and night and her feet looked much better.

 

[Guineapiggie06]

The coconut oil I have been using is cold pressed, but it still hasn’t been super helpful. I’ve tried using epsom salt + water but I’ve only managed to do this twice because she is so squirmy and won’t let me soak her feet for longer than a minute. Even though I’ve only used it twice, it seems like it’s working which is nice. I will see if there is any clotrimazole cream in my house but I’m kind of worried about her ingesting it. How safe is it for guinea pigs? Oh, and Muffin seems to be gaining some weight back so I think I will not give her any critical care anymore because she hates it so much when I force feed her anything. I also think her appetite is back to normal which is nice. She has even been standing up begging for treats sometimes!

 

[bpatters]

Clotrimazole isn't usually a problem if you use only a tiny amount and rub it in well.