[Gpdd] [HEALTH] Little Suzy has a heart condition

Sherry B. cavyfriend at gmail.com
Sun Jan 11 06:56:22 EST 2009


Hello,

Last weekend my sweet Little Suzy began to have trouble breathing. Of
course, these things always seem to happen on a weekend when there is no
help to be found for a little guinea pig. By Monday morning she was nearly
exhausted from her struggles. I was able to drop her off at the vet's office
that morning, but was not even sure if she would be able to survive the
examination. I have had very few piggies who did not struggle to some extent
when being examined, and I felt sure that if she put up too much of a
struggle it would not go well for her. I was afraid that there might be a
problem with her heart, as her mother died before she was a year old of a
heart attack...the second one that she had had in her short life. Anyway,
they had to put her on oxygen just to be able to do the examination, which I
was told they did very quickly to keep from stressing her out too much. She
was then given a shot of lasix, which, after it had taken effect, allowed
them to be able to do an x-ray of her chest. They couldn't make a definitive
diagnoses from what they saw on the x-ray, but she was stable enough for me
to take home with meds and instructions to bring her back in 3-5 days for a
re-check. They were better able to hear her heart sounds after much of the
fluid had moved out of her lungs, and it was then that I got the news that
her heart was not in good shape...instead of the normal "lub dub" sound,
hers was more of a swoosh swoosh...with some arrythmia as well. To look at
her now you would never know that she is ill, although her breathing is
still a little labored at times. When she is resting, her breathing looks
almost normal. She has a good appetite, but doesn't seem to be drinking alot
of water, which really worries me because she is still on lasix and may have
to be for the rest of her life. She is perky and still gets excited at
"salad time", wheeking away along with all the other piggies. My question is
this...has anyone out there had a similar experience with one of their
piggies? If so, I would love to hear from you. Any advice or info. that you
would be willing to share would be of great value to me. We have another vet
visit coming up in about 10 days, and I understand that there are other meds
that can be tried if the lasix does not prove to be enough. I look forward
to hearing from you.

Whee hope that everyone is enjoying a happy and healthy New Year! :o)

With love,
Sherry & the Piggie Pals


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