FuzzyFrankin
Member
Cavy Slave
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2018
- Messages
- 5
Hi all, first of all this is Franklin's previous med thread, although it's just about his skin. I'm not sure how to edit the post.
In my one year of having him, Franklin has had one UTI and one URI. After a recent scare that he had another URI due to constant sneezing and white snot coming out of his nose (the sneezing has always been a problem, but the snot was new), the vet checked him up and said there was strangely nothing up with his breathing, eyes, ears, mouth, nose, etc and concluded that either he has an allergy or he has smaller than usual nasal pathways and has a hard time clearing his nose. She prescribed him one drop of Usnea (respirafect) per ounce of water a day*** to see if he stops sneezing as much. He actually hasn't sneezed all week (no discharge either!), so it seems to be working, even though I haven't set my humidifier up yet!
My issue is A) that upon doing research I can't find evidence it's even used on guinea pigs? I saw like, one study claiming usnea reduced the occurrence of TB and some other respiratory illness in guinea pigs but that was it. I can't find a single testimonial, forum post, resource, whatever, claiming this is a well known or effective treatment for guinea pigs. My vet has always been great with Franklin, but this is a giant red flag to me.
And B) Franklin's gut started gurgling so loud an hour ago I heard it across the room. I legitimately though there was a cat meowing in my room or something and it freaked me out. I could also feel part of his tummy vibrating. It did stop ten minutes or so ago but his tummy has never done that before, even when he was on baytril earlier this month (which he had a horrible intolerance to). Pretty worried it's the Usnea.
Which leads me to; Has ANYONE ever heard of Usnea drops on guinea pigs, have anything on this, had a pig on this. Frankly I'm not comfortable giving it back to him until I have confidence that it is safe, although I am admittedly happy about the lack of constant sneezing. Sorry if this is dramatic, info is appreciated.
***I don't actually give him one drop per ounce of water though, I give him a drop every 2-3 ounces because he drinks enough water a day that if I did 1 drop per ounce he'd drink about 16 drops of this stuff, which feels excessive, though I could be wrong in doing that.
In my one year of having him, Franklin has had one UTI and one URI. After a recent scare that he had another URI due to constant sneezing and white snot coming out of his nose (the sneezing has always been a problem, but the snot was new), the vet checked him up and said there was strangely nothing up with his breathing, eyes, ears, mouth, nose, etc and concluded that either he has an allergy or he has smaller than usual nasal pathways and has a hard time clearing his nose. She prescribed him one drop of Usnea (respirafect) per ounce of water a day*** to see if he stops sneezing as much. He actually hasn't sneezed all week (no discharge either!), so it seems to be working, even though I haven't set my humidifier up yet!
My issue is A) that upon doing research I can't find evidence it's even used on guinea pigs? I saw like, one study claiming usnea reduced the occurrence of TB and some other respiratory illness in guinea pigs but that was it. I can't find a single testimonial, forum post, resource, whatever, claiming this is a well known or effective treatment for guinea pigs. My vet has always been great with Franklin, but this is a giant red flag to me.
And B) Franklin's gut started gurgling so loud an hour ago I heard it across the room. I legitimately though there was a cat meowing in my room or something and it freaked me out. I could also feel part of his tummy vibrating. It did stop ten minutes or so ago but his tummy has never done that before, even when he was on baytril earlier this month (which he had a horrible intolerance to). Pretty worried it's the Usnea.
Which leads me to; Has ANYONE ever heard of Usnea drops on guinea pigs, have anything on this, had a pig on this. Frankly I'm not comfortable giving it back to him until I have confidence that it is safe, although I am admittedly happy about the lack of constant sneezing. Sorry if this is dramatic, info is appreciated.
***I don't actually give him one drop per ounce of water though, I give him a drop every 2-3 ounces because he drinks enough water a day that if I did 1 drop per ounce he'd drink about 16 drops of this stuff, which feels excessive, though I could be wrong in doing that.
