[Gpdd] HEALTH: Donald is not doing very well - URGENT help needed

[Julie Juwles Johnson]

Dear GPDD friends, 
I'm sorry for the length of this message, but I wanted to put everything to paper, hoping someone might have some ideas to help me with Donald.
_____**____

I noticed early Saturday afternoon 16th August (that he was having trouble eating parsley, so got him out and paid particular attention to him, trying to feed him with grass, but he couldn't eat.  I weighed him, he has lost a tinsie bit of weight; but more particularly he feels lighter and I feel his ribs and shoulder joints.    Not too bad though, still healthy, vibrant, his eyes look good, his hair is still shiny and healthy (not losing any extra), etc.

As I thought about it, for the prior 3 or 4 days before I discovered the problem, he and Hamish hadn't finished their veges which are normally eaten before I cover them for bed!   (Hamish has adenocarcinoma, was operated on in March 2008, & is still going strong.  He's lost a little weight, but we are very happy with him.   He is not sick at all).  Then I remembered noticing their seed/pellets have not been going down very much from the bowl.   I just put it down to the fact I'm giving them more grass - but obviously Hamish has been eating the grass, and Archie has been starving.

He still can't eat, and now he's giving me heaps of trouble taking the syringe.   In the week since I discovered the problem, he has lost a bit of weight now - he looks quite tiny and I can easily feel his ribs/hips, etc.   I haven't weighed him, because, truthfully, I'm scared to know the result.

The things that keep me going, give me a purpose in life, make me feel loved and important - are my piggies.   My dear Donald is a piggy that is full of life and wants to eat - just can't.   

The full story with Donald is:

He's been to two vets - our local lady who cut his molars with the bone rongeurs I bought from eBay believe it or not! (at Vedra's suggestion), and she also used the bucchal pad separators & teeth files which Vedra kindly sent to me when I went through all this with Archie in 2007.   She did this without anaesthetic, at my request.   The vet told me his tongue was totally entrapped by the molar teeth, and she cut a lot off (enough that I have kept them in a plastic bag - they were so very long).

I continued with his Nilstat and baytril, thinking that a mouth infection could be the cause of the teeth overgrowing (as Vedra has said, a very very high percentage of malocclusion occurs because of mouth infections).    I continued syringe feeding him Critical Care and some blended veges and vitamin C.   I try to put grass into his mouth he takes it in to a certain point, then he'd sort of gag and pull it out with his teeth.   I even tried shoving a small piece of cucumber to the back of the mouth to the molar region, but he spat that out too.    

Then...... when Donald couldn't even eat the syringe food (He'd gag at it), that's when I decided to take him to a supposed cavy savvy vet some hours drive from me.     He used isofluorane (I forbid any other gas and said a definite no to injectable anaesthetic).  He filed the molars down as far as he could, said there was no ulceration or sores in the mouth, and after I definitely said not to cut the incisors as they were fine (they hadn't become slanted and were still working fine - he went & cut them back a bit, supposedly so he he close his jaw properly.     I still do not understand whey he did that, because now Donald cannot even pick up food, whereas before he could at least pick it up, even though he couldn't eat it.      Then I rang the vet & had a go at him, he tried to explain his reasons about cutting the incisors, which I still couldn't comprehend over the phone.     Then he talked about a chin sling and was going to inquire about that for me.

In the meantime I rang my local vet to get some metacam for pain relief, and more Baytril, and continue to give him baytril, metacam and Nilstat for any fungal infection.

I'm now back to syringe feeding Donald just like I did with Archie - and I'll be honest, I don't know if I can do this again!!      All the pain & suffering & memories have come back with a vengeance, and the actions of little Donald are exactly a duplicate of the way Archie acted with me - nuzzling me, cuddling close to me, talking to me, etc. etc.

I'm prepared to take Donald (oops.... nearly said Archie), back to the local vet and let her use isofluorane to get an x-ray and look down his mouth with a scope.

The little soul wants desperately to eat - he shows interest in everything.    The one curious thing is he will eat dried pine needles - which are so thin, but he does seem to be able to get them down.

When I syringe some food into him, I feel his jaws, and he is using both sides of the jaw to grind.  So I do not understand what the problem is.      

Does anyone have any ideas - could there be some blockage in the oesophagus?  Has anyone heard of that happening before?

I'm trying to be positive, but I just want to lie in bed and let sleep overtake me for a long time.

I've decided I won't keep him lingering like I selfishly did with Archie....... I will help him over the Rainbow Bridge myself.   

Does any member know if there anything I can give my beloved piggy that I might have in my own medicine cabinet that might just put him to a sleep without causing any upset tummy pain, etc., a peaceful sleep that he never awakes from?  Something that I can give him to overdose him so he can die peacefully in my arms, if it becomes necessary.   I do not want him to have that horrid needle of execution.

I'm quite beside myself with worry, desperation, fear, sadness and plain good old depression!      

Thanks for listening everyone....... please pray for Donald!  I'm a real mess at the moment.

Julie & all piggies





"You are the sun, you make me shine, or more like the stars, that twinkle at night
You are the moon, that glows in my heart,
You're my daytime, my nightime, my world....
....... you are my life!"
(Michael Jackson)