[Gpdd] [HEALTH] Help with Guinnea Pig not eating or drinking

[warmbreath at comcast.net]

I'm terribly sorry I sent you all a draft copy of my letter this is the 
finished one, please toss the other

It is my opinion that the illness of your dear Faith has reached a critical 
point and because so she must go to the vet with you.  To stay home is 
almost certain death for 2 reasons. One a definitive diagnosis was not made 
and second you are not able to feed her enough to sustain her. The Third is 
that she may be bad enough off that she may need help to go to the Rainbow 
bridge    The next thing I am worried about is the vet a specialist in 
rabbits and piggies or does he do mostly dogs an cats. For that reason I 
have sent a message off to Ann Evans who is in Florida but knows good 
British vets

If I were you I would call, right now, Vedra Standley-Spatcher of the 
Cambridge Cavy Trust, she is very expert and can guide you in England, just 
look below for her numbers as proved by our Ann Evans
Right now you can give her ibuprofen, the infant type that comes in drops, 
and that will help with the pain until you can get her to the vet tomorrow, 
again quotes from Ann The dose of children's ibuprofen is 0.4 ml twice a 
day. This is per
Vedra Stanley-Spatcher of the Cambridge Cavy Trust.
http://www.britishassociationofrodentologists.co.uk/

If it is kidneys  I am attaching Ann's protocol and phone numbers for the 
Cambridge Cavy trust
The information I am going to give you I learned from Vedra Stanley
Spatcher of the Cambridge Cavy Trust (CCT) and Guinea Pig Hospital She
has operated a Guinea pig Hospital for over 30 years.
http://www.britishassociationofrodentologists.co.uk/.
Dr. Bonsack DVM of Tampa Florida has used this method successfully to
remove stones from the urethra of female cavies.
http://adventureanimalhospital.com/index.html
No pre-op fasting.
If guinea pig has not been drinking well give 10ml of lactated Ringer's
subcutaneously at shoulder prior to operation.
Syringe feed about 5 cc water prior to induction to clean out mouth.
Inject 10 mg of Rimadyl pre op for post op pain given 30 minutes pre-op.
Bland ointment may be used in the eyes if using a chamber or large nose
cone for induction.
Induction with 3.0% Isoflurane.
Remove any fluid or food particles from the back of the throat with a 1
cc syringe after induction.
Place cavy on microwaveable heating pad that has been heated for one
minute. Do not use an electric heating pad they get too hot.
Place small nose cone on cavy 2.5% Isoflurane for maintenance. May be
reduced to 1.75% after stones are removed.
Very important only use Rimadyl and Isoflurane for surgical procedures.
Perform operation, suture with vicryl.
On completion of operation turn off isoflurane flush patient with oxygen
put dollop of Vick's vapour rub on nose and guinea pig should be back in
cage and eating/normal within 15 mins.
Keep patient warm.
Dr. Bonsack has been able to send home his cavy patients within an hour
of surgery. They have all been eating, urinating and defecating within
15 minutes of the isoflurane being switched off.
Keep patient on clean towels or vet bed until sutures dissolve.
Give 10mg of Rimadyl orally twice daily for 3 days then reduce to 5 mg
Rimadyl twice a day for another 4 days.
Pediatric Bactrim 0.5 ml orally twice a day for 10 days is prescribed
prophylactically.
If you have any questions call Vedra's medical mobile line 44-7721026401
Remember she is in the UK and is 5 hours ahead of EST.

the vet may need to do an  x-ray or ultra sound to detrmine if its kidney 
trouble or older sows get cystic disease of the reproductive system which 
can bed treated with Human growth hormone I believe. Does she have a hi 
thirst and has she had significant hair loss on her flanks, these symptoms 
indicate the hormonal problems. An x-ray or ultra sound can easily be given 
without  anesthetic by a knowledgeable vet by rolling up towels tightly to 
hold her in place

Here is Ann's recommendation for the treatment of cystic ovaries
 it is very easy to treat cystic ovaries. I learned
this procedure from Vedra Stanley-Spatcher of the Cambridge Cavy Trust
and Guinea Pig Hospital.
http://www.britishassociationofrodentologists.co.uk/ Draining an ovarian
cyst is far less invasive than doing an ovio-hysterectomy. First take an
x-ray. No anesthetic is necessary. Then clip the hair and swab the area
with surgical scrub. Press the cyst towards the skin and insert a 21
gauge by 1 inch needle; it does not need to be attached to a syringe.
Keep pressure on the ovary and the fluid will drain out.   After the
cyst is drained administer Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) 1000 USP
units at a dose of 0.2 ml subcutaneously. Repeat the HCG injection after
four weeks. The vet may need to give a third injection of HCG to prevent
ovarian cysts from re-occurring. Reconstituted HCG is only active for a
few hours, thus a new vial needs to be used for each injection. I hope
this information helps.

Finally since you are syringe feeding her water successfully I suggest you 
immediately start dissolving her pellets in water, wait  and continue adding 
water for 10 or 15 miutes until the pellets have absorbed all the water 
possible, and add enough to make the mixture thin enough for you to give as 
easily as you do water. Is she pooping and peeing, what do they look like








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My Faith had started getting picky with her food and drinking a lot before 
Christmas. I took her to the vet who said she appeared to have an inflamed 
kidney. This could be an infection or the start of kidney failure. As it was 
tender she thought it more likely an infection and gave me Baytril, to give 
her 2 x 0.3ml dosage per day for two weeks.

During this week I have noticed her leaving some of her fresh vedgies and 
yesterday she stopped eating and drinking.

Neither Faith or I are very good at syringe feeding, but I have been 
syringing her water every 3 hours and, until I can get her some critical 
care tomorrow, I have been mixing baby vedgetable food with some of her 
pellets and have managed to get 2 syringes worth in to her today but under 
severe protest from her.

She is very week, cannot stand. She does not like being handled so every 
time I pick her up to feed her is stresses her up a lot. She is five and a 
half years old.

She is too weak to go to the vets, she would not take the travel or the 
prodding about. What I think I will do is first thing tomorrow is go to the 
vets and ask for critical care (or the UK equivalent) and maybe some metacam 
to help ease the pain (vet won't give me rymadyl?), hoping that if I can 
ease any pain she may be more inclined to eat.

Does anyone have any advice or recommendations that would help? I have read 
a lot on the group about giving probiotics when giving antibiotics. How 
essential is this given that I am already trying to get so much else down 
her. Is there something simple I can get for this from the supermarket (UK)?

Any help or advice you can give would be very much appreciated. Syring 
feeding is new to me and I want to make sure I am doing the very best for 
her. Its so stressful for her I want to make sure she is getting everything 
she needs to help pull her through.

Please keep us in your prayers.


Beki






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