Hooting- Causes and Rule Outs

cattherabbit

Post   » Mon Nov 13, 2017 7:43 pm


On week 4 of antibiotics. Weight has been bouncing between 1010-980 g- weighing him daily. He fights the Critical Care tooth and nail to the point that it's almost not worth it. He's eating about 10 CCs once a day of the apple banana mixed with Odwalla orange juice. I've been using every trick in my restraint book, but I don't want to stress him too much.

He is eating great otherwise- loving his veggies, hay, and pellets. Appetite is still not 100%; I would say it's about 90% of what it was prior to him getting sick. Lots of poops. He's even doing the occasional zooms and wheeking. If his weight would start trending upwards, I could rest easy- he's so bony. :(

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Mon Nov 13, 2017 8:39 pm


You could try sprinkling a few rolled oats over his veggies. We've had several people use that for their pigs who need to gain weight.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Nov 13, 2017 9:39 pm


It sounds like he's doing lots better. You have been working so hard! I wish it was as easy to get these guys to put on weight (when needed) as it is for us to gain weight!

cattherabbit

Post   » Sun Nov 19, 2017 10:43 pm


Good news! He is up to 1040 g! He's 50 g away from where we were when this first started, and 400 g away from his peak weight. Appetite is back with a vengeance, and he's eating to make up for lost time. Last week of antibiotics coming up. :)

He's still bony and in poor muscle, but these little gains are very promising. And he's running zooms, squealing, and gobbling up everything in front of him again.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Nov 20, 2017 11:29 am


Super! I hope he continues to improve!

cattherabbit

Post   » Fri Jan 18, 2019 2:34 pm


Well, Wilbur dropped weight again down to 990 g, was sleeping puffed up in his igloo and reluctant to come out. Took him to the local exotic vet here. Bloodwork was normal, radiographs showed significant left knee arthritis, early bloat, as well as a prominent heart and lung changes similar to bronchitis. We believe the circle structure on the left part of the image is his soft tissue mass on his shoulder, rather than a lung nodule.
Here are the radiographs: https://imgur.com/a/EGz0lCn.

She started him on Metacam and cisapride. I bumped the metacam dose down to the lowest dose in Carpenter's, and have been weaning him down off the cisapride. Currently at 0.3 mg/kg cisapride every 12 hours, 0.13 mL of 1.5 mg/mL Metacam every 24, and up to 1040-1060 in weight. He is more active than he has been in years, and is finally talkative.

I am tempted to add Lasix to the mix; I am concerned for some edema- the area of skin around his elbows and chest just seems saggy and almost batwing-like. It's loose on palpation and mobile, but it looks similar to the edema in my last piggy who passed away due pericardial effusion secondary to what I presumed to be cancer. He also still has eye crusties, but the "saggy" skin worries me more. He's also brighter and more active when I am in the room which is tricky since we keep the room the guinea pigs are in gated off so the dogs can't get to them. I don't know that the weight gain is fluid retention since his body condition is palpably better- more coverage over spine and pelvis.

Plan is to repeat X-rays and do an ultrasound of his chest, but I'm tempted to go ahead and call in a compounded prescription for Lasix. Anyone want to take a crack at the X-rays before I upload new ones?

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Fri Jan 18, 2019 11:11 pm


I can't help you but hope someone else might be able to. You might have some pull getting a secondary opinion from a skilled radiologist.

cattherabbit

Post   » Wed Sep 04, 2019 7:31 pm


Well in other news, Wilbur has done well until recently...

Wilbur developed a mass in his right ear that grew relatively rapidly over the last 2 weeks. He began dropping weight pretty steadily over the last week between his initial exotics vet visit and his surgery today. Today, I noticed he had facial paralysis on the same side as the mass and I had noticed some veggie juice staining over the last few days. He lost his cage mate today, but given how quickly the mass is growing and how necrotic it looked, we moved forward with surgery to debulk the mass. The mass extends into his ear canal. We're now 4 hours out from recovery. He ate a few bites of hay prior to discharge, but now has eaten nothing except 10 cc's of Critical Care. Only 3 small poops this afternoon.

He's been groggy which is not too exciting. He's also on Baytril and still on metacam, which has been increased to 0.16 mL. I gave him a dose of Buprenex on the off chance he's painful. Ugh just worried.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Wed Sep 04, 2019 8:10 pm


Sending good thoughts! The growths inside the ear can be very difficult to get rid of (an awkward location).

I hope he recovers.

cattherabbit

Post   » Fri Sep 13, 2019 12:26 pm


The good and the bad news.

The good news is he is now able to blink on the right side.

The bad news is he now has a head tilt and slight turn of his body while resting, has developed raging pneumonia and a URI (snotty nose, coughing, sneezing). No chest rads were done since his exotics vet didn't want to stress him; heart looked good on ultrasound, but he has fluid everywhere in his lungs. He was on Baytril post-op and is now also on day 4 of doxycycline with minimal improvement. Weight is holding steady, but he's getting harder to hand feed. I'm tired- it's been over 10 days of round the clock hand feeding. Not really sure what our end game is or where we're headed.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sat Sep 14, 2019 12:02 am


He sounds very ill. I know you will do all you can to pull him through. Sending good thoughts your way.

cattherabbit

Post   » Sat Sep 14, 2019 10:33 pm


Well. He's gone. After not responding to the Baytril and doxy, it was chloramphenicol or euthanize. I think I brought bordetella home from work and gave it to him.

He fell asleep the fussy sweet man he is. He fussed when I stopped petting him even through the sedation. I'll miss his purrs.

Losing two within a week has been very hard.

Post Reply