Life or Death?

[shortlilcutie]

Last week I began sneezing and had runny eyes. I thought it was just alergies because it's that time of year. Then it got worse and developed into serious coughing and I thought it was my asthma working up. But then on monday, it got ALOT worse. My girlfriend developed the same symptons. She doesn't normally get allergies. Tuesday I went to the doctor on campus (college,UCF). The doc wasn't very nice to begin with, but she gave me some antibiotics, a pump(for the asthma like symptons), and Allegra for the allergies. She said I had an infection, but it wasn't asthma. I went home and slept for a long time. I woke up and I felt like i wanted to die. For the past 4 days I've been running a fever. Last night it got up to 102.9 and I was contemplating going to the hospital. All the while my mom has been yelling at me to get rid of my animals because its them that is making me sick.
For the past month or more I have been using fleece/puppy pads/newspaper bedding. I wash my hands whenever I give them fresh hay. I vaccum up their poopies. I clean there cage often.I also have a Febreze Allergen remover that I use daily. Today I'm still sick. My girlfriend left and went to her parents house to see if that would help. Yet we both are still sick. I don't think its completely from the guinea pigs, but I'm sure they probably have something to do with these flu like/allergy like symptons. I was doing some reasearch on air purifiers. I wanted to ask your guys opinions on them and if they work with our piggies. I really need help with this or my mom is going to make me get rid of my 2 pigs, and 3 hamsters. So as you can see, this IS technically a Life or Death situation. If I don't get better soon, my piggies will be dead to me....gone...out of my life forever :'o( and If i can find a way to fix this...that won't happen. Any help would be much appreciated! Sorry for such a long post! Thanks in advance!

 

[Teria]

Have you been sick after being around your pets before?

 

[uthoria]

Its not the pigs...their fecal matter doesnt work that way like rats do...besides, if it were the pigs, your girlfriend would be doing much better and your Mother would be sick as well

 

[Poohbear]

Hi shortlilcutie,

I think an air purifier would be fine if it works. I hope it does. It is also flu season, so that may be it also. Good uck, Queenie.

 

[aqh88]

I think it's time to go to more of a doctor than the campus one. I don't find them very useful beyond minor stuff. Our whole house has been sick. I avoided it for 2weeks but ended up with a fever for 5days, sore throat, hurt all down in my chest... I very highly doubt the pigs are making you that sick. A stuffed up nose maybe, sore throat maybe, but not a fever or anything like that. Unless you are having a very severe allergic reaction but I would think you'd have had alot more allergy problems before this if that were true.
I have a desktop ionic breeze and a quadra in my room cause I'm allergic to hay. It also helps remove the dust thrown up from the bedding. It must work some cause I've had no allergy problems and it collects like a 1/2inch of dust across the blades every week. Great for removing smell from a room but expensive. I got one that had scratches on the outside for one fourth the price.

 

[Ly&Pigs]

I would think if it's allergy related it could be more due to the hay than the animals themselves. I don't know what type of hay your feeding, but bluegrass is the best for people with allergy sufferers.

 

[shortlilcutie]

yes i've been sick from being around them before....
Uthoria--my mom doesn't live with me....
aqh88-- i think your right about the on campus doctors. but i tried to go to my regular doc off campus and i cant get an appointment for two weeks. how come you have two air purifiers? are they quiet?
Ly&pigs--i don't know where i can find bluegrass anywhere around here, i have timothy hay, and yes its pretty dusty.
thanks for everyones replies!! i think im going to go buy an air purifier just in case....

 

[dansamy]

With a fever that high, you really should think about a visit to ER. They will probably admit you with some IV meds, and it sounds like you need them.

 

[Ly&Pigs]

Here is a link to the best bluegrass (blue orchard grass) on earth.
(broken link removed)

 

[aqh88]

You can also get oxbow orchardgrass from oxbowhay.com but it tends to be dustier so I'd reccommended kmshayloft unless it's alot more expensive shipping like it is for me. It definitely makes a huge difference using that hay instead of timothy or alfalfa. Even 2 ionic breeze couldn't keep up with that. I forgot another option is to buy timothy hay cakes from oxbow. They basically take the leftover hay droppings and use a binding agent to stick them together. No dust or hay bits flying around so they don't bother my allergies at all. Also don't use any wood products for bedding except maybe wood pellets that have been heat treated so much they have no smell at all. The dust from those can still bother you. My boyfriend and I won't be breathing if we use even aspen and any timothy or alfalfa hay. With the ionic breeze I can give them a handful of alfalfa to the young ones and use wood pellets.
I have 2 cause they are expensive and got mixed reviews so I didn't want to buy a huge one to start out. Then it worked but was slightly too small so I found a deal on a refurbished quadra which is 3 times as big and set it right next to the gp cage. Ionic breeze are completely silent unless they need cleaned then they make a little sparking/popping noise. They are expensive initially but have no fan and require no filter replacement(just don't try to clean the inside and break the little expensive wires). Occasionally they cause headaches the first week but I just turned mine off at night until I got used to it. Even with sometimes severe allergies to things I've managed to keep 7guinea pigs and 2 dwarf hasmters in my room with no symptoms and no meds but I'm not allergic to the actual animals. The other top air filter is HEPA but I didn't like that they used a fan(sound/breeze blowing on you) and had to replace filter cartridges.

 

[mefingas]

Hi shortlilcutie. I hope you are feeling better. What it sounds like to me is the flu, I had what you had in Jan and it was just as bad. I had high fevers for 3 days and then it slowly, and I mean slowly went away. Just rest up. I at first thought it was my pigs too, but then I had my husband do most of the caring for the pigs and I got worse. About the Ionic breeze, I have mixed feelings. At first they seemed to work really well, then I moved back to Michigan and they don't seem to do much. Well I hope I helped you a little.

 

[RubyPiggie2]

I've heard Febreeze is very bad for humans and animals alike.

 

[Ly&Pigs]

Hay cakes really aren't a suitable replacement for hay. They are compressed bits and pieces of hay. Pigs need regular hay everyday to wear down their molars and help their digestive systems.

 

[aqh88]

It's far better than nothing. I know several people that are completely allergic to hay use those alfalfa cubes but they are chopped up so small and so compressed they're about like feeding pellets. Oxbow haycakes are the leftover small pieces of hay all stuck together. They're basically hay just the shorter pieces.

 

[fawnmarie]

I know more about human health than pigger health, and it sounds to me like you just got the flu.

There has been a bit of an epidemic of flu going around and it lasts about 4-8 weeks. It's REALLY bad, and it takes a LONG time to get over.

If you're allergic to the hay or the bedding or the pigs, well, what that's going to do is suppress your immune system. The mucous membrane will attempt to deal with the allergens (by watering eyes, running nose, etc.) and if you don't keep this flow going, you'll get infected and sick and more likely to pick up a bug going around.

You need to take the antibiotics the doc gave you and get plenty of rest and fluids. It may be a couple of weeks before you feel entirely normal again. Get lots of sleep, lots of fluids, take some extra vitamin C.

In the future, you need to anticipate your allergens and make sure you take your antihistimines or decongestants before it gets out of hand. If you KNOW it's "that time" start taking them pre-emptively.

An air purifier will definitely help.

But, it sounds to me like just the flu, and your allergies just made you more susceptible. There's some nasty flu going around this year.

And BTW - if your mom doesn't live with you, it's not her decision whether or not you have hamsters & GP's - it's your decision (and your girlfriend's).

Fawn

 

[Jess1ca]

Hope you feel better! I had the flu and it sounds exactly like what you have. It was awful. That was probably a few months ago and I still have a bit of a cough. Sorry I can't help anymore than that. Get well soon!