[Gpdd] HEALTH - Kimba

[juliejohnson12 at bigpond.com]

Dear all,
Today is exactly 3 weeks since I lost my beloved guinea pig Snowdrop, and I'm still finding it hard to recover.
 
I am being helped in my recovery - because I'm struggling now, doing everything I can to keep Kimba alive.
 
On 15 June I wrote one line in my diary - Kimba not the same, he's very dizzy and wobbly.   Then nothing else was written.
 
Kimba has something wrong with his eyes (osseous something) where the white membrane or whatever it is, covers so much of both his eyes.    He's totally blind in one eye, and there's very little sight in the other eye. 
 
So, I didn't take enough care or notice of him, because I thought it was the blindness troubling him.   Occasionally he'd walk into something in his cage and give himself a fright, and he'd fall over on to you back before righting himself.   The alarm bells didn't go off in my head because I thought it was the blindness and also perhaps some fretting over no more Snowdrop.   Nothing else was changed, he  appeared happy, and continued to eat  every pile of grass I would put into his cage, and pooing as no other piggy does.   I was very proud of my precious poo-er. 
 
On the Friday, he was just the same as normal.   I'd given him some grass to go to bed with.
 
Then Saturday I noticed there was grass left in his cage, and he hadn't touched his veges.   Alarm bells rang and I stayed with him all morning, my eagle eyes studying.   At around 11am I rang the vet to find out who the vet on duty on Monday was.  Unfortunately it was not the vet I was hoping for, because she's had experience (from/with my other piggies) in using the bucchal pad separators and bone rongeurs etc.  That vet is away until next Monday.      After ringing, I decided I'd better take precautions and put Kimba on to Baytril.
 
By early evening, Kimba was wheezing very badly.    I rang the emergency out of hours vet, whose advice that piggies get pneumonia very easily, so keep him warm, in a humid environment, and keep up the Baytril.  I brought him into my bedroom, turned on the heater, and the humidifier and kept a very close eye on him all through the night.  I also gave him some of my asthma nebuliser, and it seemed to ease his wheezing.
 
I very naughtily fell asleep some time in the early morning and when I awoke I couldn't hear him breathing so thought the worse.   But he was still with me, he just wasn't wheezing.   He also showed interest in food and I got some grass and he started to eat that.  So I thought things were going to be fine again.
 
Not to be though.  On the Sunday I noticed when he was attempting to eat that he could not pick up the grass.   If I handed it to him with some stalk at the base he could take that in and eat.   However, I could see him flinch when the food got to a certain level in his mouth.   I fought with him to get the Critical Care in, and fluids, but he is very strong and determined and I found it was a difficult task and a stress on Kimba.
 
He remained in my room through the night and I attended to him through the night.
 
Monday morning arrives, and I woke to hear him wheezing again.  I continued to treat him Baytril and hydralyte and some nilstat.   I had a doctor's appointment on the Coast, so I was away until 2.30pm.   So in that time he had no food or water, so I desperately started feeding and syringing water.      I then rang the vet because I knew he was in a serious condition.
 
The vet said he was wheezing, didn't think it was a tooth issue (she only manually felt around his outer jaw, but she doesn't know much about piggies so I was fighting a losing battle to get her to look in his mouth.  She was concerned about anaerobes (I think that's its' name) in the lungs so Kimba is now on:
 
0.4ml Baytril twice daily
0.4ml Flagyl twice daily
85mg vitamin supplement
hydralyte
critical care
acidophilus
nilstat (in case its fungal infection in mouth)
0.18mg Metacam (as of 25  June @ 6pm)
 
I tried to feed him with the critical care and fluids, but he kept forcing his way through the towel and trying to run up my tummy.      He's so frightened, he needs me to cuddle him.  All of a sudden he's lost his best mate, lost his nearly full eyesight so living in a black world, can't eat even though he desperately wants to and then separated from the other 3 piggies.
 
My own diagnosis is that he has two conditions.   Definitely pneumonia.    And I think definitely a tooth problem.   His incisors are in the correct position and usually with a tooth problem the incisors turn crooked.    I know he's not getting enough fluid in because he fights me.    I luckily had the thought of using the iceberg lettuce rolled like a cigarette shape, and he ate as much as he could until he'd had enough and rang up towards my shoulder.   He'd eaten quite a feast so I was pleased, because that meant getting fluids into him.   For the first time since Saturday he actually did a real wee.
 
Kimba is so weak, and has lost weight.  I need to step up my act and be prepared to fight with him over food more often.
 
And I'm praying for next Monday to come quickly because I'll be on the vets' doorstep with the dental equipment.  I only pray he lives that long.  I've been thinking I should euthanize him, but I was to keep fighting until I can get his teeth seen too, before I take the decision.
 
It's nearly midnight here, so I'm about to go give him more Critical Care (if he doesn't fight too hard).  
 
Does anybody think I should have him xrayed - will that show anything amiss in his teeth?
 
I apologise for the length of this message, but this has come on so instantly, Kimba eating like a guts one day, to not eating and not pooing the next day, is very and far too quick a change.    it helps to put pen to paper as a record for me as well.
 
Julie & Kimba, Hugo, Treacle and Sooty
(Oh, also I put him back with the other boys because I think it's important he still hear them moving around and squeaking etc.  Being locked in my room meant no noise, no sight, no eat, no poo.  Mental health and familiarity  is also important).