Sick Charlie's Medical Thread

[rolandinthehay]

Wow, this has been an awful month for guinea pig illness...

I woke up to a call from my partner today that Charlie has been coughing and hooting now, too. We'll be taking him to the vet in an hour or so, but I need some advice.

If the vet thinks it is respiratory (URI) rather than heart related after the x-ray, should I still keep Alfie and Charlie in separate cages? They've been living in the same room, side by side for over a month now because they were both sick and I wanted to keep them quarantined from Ben and Roland who have been living downstairs. We were going to introduce them tomorrow! Such awful timing!

We also wanted to move all the cages into the same room this weekend because our roommates are moving back in next weekend and we didn't want to have guinea pigs taking over the entire house... Bad luck, bad luck.

 

[bpatters]

You could ask the vet, but I tend to come down on the side of leaving them together unless there's a really good reason for separating them, such as confining one to recuperate after surgery or an injury. Separating them just adds tp their stress, and if they've been together all along, they're both thoroughly exposed to whatever illness one of them has.

 

[rolandinthehay]

But we should probably leave them side-by-side and NOT start the introductions, right?

Vet gave us Baytril. We are going to see if that helps. If he doesn't improve within a day or two, she said she'd recommend an x-ray.

 

[rolandinthehay]

Edit: I wasn't there, but apparently she said his lungs sounded clear, she just wants to rule out infection before anything else more unlikely, I guess.

 

[bpatters]

Do give him probiotics while he's on Baytril -- an hour or so before or after. I prefer after, but it probably really doesn't make any difference.

 

[rolandinthehay]

Yes, yes. We still have a ton of probiotics left from Alfie which is why she didn't give us anymore!