[Gpdd] [HEALTH] Pneumonia

DebJonSara at aol.com DebJonSara at aol.com
Thu Apr 8 07:25:39 EDT 2004


I think one of my three rescued "mamans", Poivre, has pneumonia. She was one 
of the 27 I rescued from freezing to death over a year ago at the enterprise 
of the lady who sold her surplus piggies to a reptilarium to be fed to 
crocodiles, and she went on to have five beautiful babies, one of whom was my precious 
paraplegic Cherub, who crossed The Bridge at the age of 5 weeks, and another 
of whom is my daughter's piggie, Red Dandy. 

Regular subscribers will know that there are no exotics vets here in 
Northwest France, so I did a search of the gpdd archives - and came up with just one 
reference to pneumonia in guinea pigs, and that was my posting last June, 
announcing that my dear first-ever guinea pig, Bâfreur, had crossed The Bridge 
after suffering for several days. He was already foremost in my mind, as Poivre's 
symptoms are almost identical to what his were. 

There is yet hope for Poivre though. When Bâfreur was ill, I rang the 
Cambridge Cavy Trust, and wrote down exactly what treatment they told me should be 
given to a piggie with pneumonia. I took it to the vet then, and she gave me all 
she could identify, although some of the drugs didn't seem to exist in 
France. It was all too late for Bâfreur. But the good news is that Poivre is still 
eating. She's not coming out of her house to eat, but I took her out and fed 
her some dandelions and plantains and some banana with marbofloxacine powder on 
it, which had been given to me for Bâfreur, but for him it was too late as it 
had to be taken by mouth and he wasn't eating. 

Anyway, I have a vet's appointment at 2.45 pm, and I will take the same list 
of medications with me, the one I was given for Bâfreur, and ask for it again 
- I even did some research on the Net to find out generic names, which might 
help the vet identify the items she couldn't find last time. I only hope she 
will realise this time how ill Poivre is - with Bâfreur, the first time I took 
him in, I knew how ill he was because I knew his behaviour was abnormal for 
him, but you know how prey animals hide the fact they are ill when they feel 
stressed, and of course he did his best to seem like a healthy pig. To me, 
Poivre's breathing is obviously noisy and laboured - and I know how quickly URI''s 
can prove fatal in these little guys. 

I have no idea of Poivre's age - she was just used as a breeding sow, and 
kept in appalling conditions. Since she was rescued, she has always shared her 
cage with the two other pregnant "mamans" we rescued, and we have always 
considered them to be in retirement. They had had no kind human contact, so are our 
most timid pigs, and we tend not to handle them more than we need to, because 
they have every reason to mistrust humans and we feel they deserve peace and 
tranquillity. They are also our biggest, fattest pigs, I think largely as a 
result of an inappropriate diet before they came to us and having been almost 
permanently pregnant. I have read that a piggie with pneumonia should be isolated, 
but her two cagemates seem fine at present, and I am really reluctant to put 
Poivre anywhere on her own when she's feeling poorly - I feel she needs to 
feel secure and to have the support of her two buddies. Obviously I will monitor 
them closely. 

Anyway, please send positive vibes for Poivre, and if she does recover, I 
will post exact details of the medication she was given, so that the next person 
who searches the archives for "pneumonia" will obtain some positive, useful 
advice instead of just a very sad tale. 

Fingers crossed - condolences to everyone whose piggies have recently crossed 
The Bridge

Debbie and her 13 "dolly mixtures"



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