[Gpdd] HEALTH: Sparkles has 'bacteria'

[corrine sakumoto]

Hello everyone and everypig!  As usually is the case, the vet was out until Friday and our other vet is on vacation until next week.  So we had to wait a few days (I called on Tuesday) for an appointment for Friday.  Well, Sparkles saw the vet and he said he saw 'bacteria' (not giardia) in her soft poo.  So he gave us some baytril and panacur.  Because I was worried she might have an infection, I had asked, when we called on Tuesday, if we could have some baytril for her, so they had some ready for us on Wednesday, and I'm glad too! because she seemed to feel better with it.

The vet was all sniffly and so are Michael's co-workers.  Turns out the vog has been affecting a lot of people.  We live on the Big Island of Hawaii.  So the vet said he thinks the vog has affected the piggies too.  People are advised to 'remain indoors' if you have breathing problems when the vog is bad.  When Sparkles was 'snuffly' on Tuesday, I freaked out.  I immediately put Vicks on her nostrils and she seemed better but I called the vet anyway.  But the next day she was worse, wheezing and such.  So I put more Vicks on her nose.  What worried me more is that Snoopy, whose pen is in the same bedroom as hers, also started snuffling on Thursday.  So I applied Vicks to him too.  I've kept all the windows and doors closed as much as possible and put on the air cleaner.  So far, it's been okay.

The vet said to give the baytril AND the panacur.  He said he's not sure if they can be given both now or if we have to wait until we finish the baytril (in one week) before we give the panacur, so we'd like to get an opinion on this?  We're withholding the panacur for now until we're fairly sure it'll be okay to give both meds.

I was worried about her teeth as she doesn't seem to chew as fast as the others, but, lacking much memory on this, I guess she's just a 'normal' chewer as the vet said her teeth seemed fine.

I was worried also about her scratching but the vet said he didn't see any evidence of mites but he said it's common for a guinea pig to have a dry patch and sure enough she had a dry patch just where he thought it would be on her rump.  She doesn't scratch constantly, but does scratch.

Currently, we give her a brewer's yeast tablet, one a day; also Critter Be Better by syringe once or twice a day; greek yogurt two hours after she has the baytril (twice a day); Vicks under her nostrils as needed (once or twice a day); we also feed her a bit of banana at the end of the day.

The vet said to limit her fresh foods, forcing her to eat more dry foods, to see if that'll help her soft poo situation.

Sparkles was certainly MAD at me!  Michael took her to the vet's and when he brought her home she grumbled and went straight into her little 'cave' and stuck her butt out.  When I tried to pet her she'd have none of it! grumbling loudly and hopping mad!!  I tried to pick her up but she ran away quite quickly.  I finally managed to pick her up and I showered her with kisses and apologized to her and said that I don't like her to go to the doctor but hopefully he made her feel better.  I tried to make up with her the rest of the day and she seemed to 'accept' my apology after awhile.  I still see her glaring at me every so often though.

So any advice especially about giving baytril and panacur together would be helpful.  We've had a bad experience with Flagyl (metronidizole) so we want to avoid that.

Thanks for listening!!!

Corrine and Michael