[Gpdd] HEALTH: Lost Wheek Re: Gpdd Digest, Vol 3, Issue 347

[Pam Bowyer]

         Marilyn,

         I wanted to let you know that I had a pig with that problem too. I 
took her to the vet's over and over again, and they had never heard of such 
a thing. We all thought that it wasn't serious. However, she was also 
losing weight over the period of about six months when she had no wheek, 
even though she was eating normally. And then in the space of less than 12 
hours she suddenly became seriously ill and then died. The vet never had 
any idea what was wrong. He did, however, have some suggestions as to what 
we could have done to investigate her lost wheek further: he suggested that 
they do a throat endoscopy under anesthesia and see if they could find 
something that may have been impinging on her trachea, such as an abscess, 
a cyst, cancer, or a foreign body of some type. An x-ray also could have 
been useful. They have heard of such things happening in cats,  where a 
hyper-thyroid condition might have been to blame, but they have no data on 
that in guinea pigs. I have also heard that it may signal some sort of 
congestive heart failure, although that data is also unconfirmed.

         So, I don't mean to alarm you, but it very well be a more serious 
issue than we all thought, and I would suggest getting it looked at by your 
vet as soon as possible! And please do let us know what, if anything, they 
find. I would really like to have an explanation for what happened to my 
piggie.

Pam











>I think Chiana'a "wheeeeeker" is broken.  She can chirp, purr,  whistle,
>everything else but wheek.  She acts fine, eating like the "pig"  she is, 
>happy,
>playful, drinking fine.  Never heard this before, but it  sounds funny.  It's
>like she wants to wheeek, but can't.
>
>Has anyone had this problem before?  Like i said, she is  prefectly fine
>otherwise, just the broken wheeeeker.  LOL

>Marilyn and her brood: Chiana, Callie, Sammy, Arturo, and  Kya