Wondering if anyone can give me some advice with my poor ill little boy whose 4 1/2 years old.
This is the story so far:-
2nd august - found blood in urine so took him to the vets who prescribed him with baytrill for 1 week. He seemed to recover from this for 4 days after finishing the course of treatment. Eating fine but hardly drinking.
14th august - blood in urine again so yet again back to vets who said give him baytrill for 2 weeks and gave him metacam for the pain. Urine sample was given in and cultures grown from it which showed there was crystals in it and bacteria of some description but no clear cause as to what was going on.Eating fine but hardly drinking.
19th august - the blood in the urine reappeared so straight back up the vets who this time did an X-ray ( which showed only a small bladder) and put him on a 2 week course of septrim. Eating fine but hardly drinking and very lethargic.
26th august (today) - I get a phone call from my mother in law to say he has just had a full on nose bleed. So up to the vets he went with her as I was at work and they now reckon he has a chest infection on top of the bladder thingy as he has a wheezy chest. So now he is on baytrill for 5 days as well as finishing his course of septrim. Eating fine but hardly drinking and very lethargic.
Any feedback / comments / advice really appreciated as I'm not sure I trust what the vet has said as I have been mucked around so much by them trying to chase results etc. Help!
Answers & Comments
Is the vet an exotics vet that knows how to treat guinea pigs or a standard dog and cat vet?
If they know how to treat guinea pigs then you'll probably want to listen to them. If they're a dog and cat vet then you might want to find an exotics vet instead. Guinea pigs and other small animals require different treatment to dogs and cats.
If you're unhappy with your current vet you could take him to a different one anyway.
Hopefully he'll be ok :)
After all the vets know best and they do want to do the best for your pet. So just understand what's going on why it happened what they are gonna do and when they are gonna do it. Then if you hear anything that doesn't sound right then you can confront them about it. Hope your guinea pig gets better. Hope this helps x:)
Do you have a cavy savvy vet?
http://www.guinealynx.info/vet.html
If so you can probably trust him but if you don;t then seek out another cavy savvy vet. And even if you do trust him a second opinion wouldn't hurt.
So is he getting bladder stones? Is that what you mean by crystals?
http://www.guinealynx.info/stones.html
I have a girl that is prone to stones. I had to cut out all veggies high in calcium and oxalic acid. No more kale, collard greens, parsley etc. I also cut out romaine lettuce because for whatever reason it can contribute to stones in pigs and I noticed it did for my pig. I also originally cut out pellets because they seemed to contribute but I reintroduced them and she has not had any issues. I did switch to KMS because she does not use calcium carbonate (what most bladder stones are made up of).
http://www.kmshayloft.com/hay/
But some pigs do need pellet free so you may want to consider cutting them out. At least for now. Once hes stone free you can reintroduce them and see if he has problems.
If hes getting UTIs make sure his cage stays really clean. You can also give him plain unsweetened diluted cranberry juice.
Good luck. I know what its like to have sick pigs. Once my girls hit 6 years they started going downhill. One is prone to stones and has ovarian cysts. Another has heart disease. I recently lost one to lymphoma. One is currently sick and I need to take her to the vet today. Having sick pigs is scary and it sucks.