URI or heart problem?

[annahahn42]

We have a little guinea pig named Ted that is probably just around a year old. Towards the end of November/early December we started to notice that he sounded congested and was wheezing a bit with breathing, but he was still eating his normal amount of food and exercising like usual. He sneezed every now and then and had minor eye crusts but no nasal drippage. After a few days passed and he was still congested we took him in to our vet, who we have taken our previous guinea pigs to and specializes in exotic and pocket pets. He said he had a URI and prescribed us doxycyclin due to his age, .6mL 2x a day for 2 weeks. During the course of the treatment he stayed the same, and continued eating and exercising. After the two weeks were up our vet extended the prescription and said sometimes it takes a while to combat URIs. After another week we took him back in because he had not gotten better, and our vet changed the medication to Baytril. 2 days after starting the Baytril he was completely normal again, no wheezing or accelerated breathing like he had been having. After about 3 or 4 good days however he went back the his rapid breathing and wheezing, and he even started making little sounds every time he was breathing.

Before he got sick he would rarely sit still and let you hold him; he had so much energy he just always wanted to be on the move. Since this URI has started he still has energy, but then he gets pretty tired and loves to be wrapped in blankets to sleep. This past Sunday he had a really bad day where he was essentially limp, when you moved him he was pretty floppy and we thought he was going to die. However the next day he was perky and ate tons of hay, some lettuce, carrots, and a few green pepper slices. He was still very tired, he would sleep then wake up and eat and then go back to sleep. During this whole time he has lost some weight but is still eating and going to the bathroom. Then today which is Thursday, he was sleeping and started to move, and started spazzing and twitching; to me it appeared like he was having a seizure, but I have seen our other guinea pigs twitch before they die and this was different. I picked him up to comfort him and he stopped flopping around, however he is very tired again today. I am wondering if anyone else have every experienced something like this with one of their pigs before? We are going to take him back in to see our vet again because now we are concerned he has a heart problem and has fluid in lungs. What happens from here?

[bpatters]

He could have a fungal infection in his respiratory system, which wouldn't respond to antibiotics. But antifungal medicines are really hard on the patient, whether human or guinea pig.

I'd probably want to try him again on the Doxycycline. It sounds like he was responding well enough to it that it kept the symptoms at bay, and I don't think there's any limit to the amount of time they can be on it.

Heart problems in guinea pigs are hard to definitively diagnose. But an x-ray can show if the heart is enlarged or if there is fluid in the lungs. There are some good links on treating heart disease here: https://www.guinealynx.info/heart.html.

Good luck with him, and keep us posted on how he gets along.

[Lynx]

Are you weighing him daily and hand feeding if necessary?

I am sorry he is ill.
www.guinealynx.info/handfeeding.html
www.guinealynx.info/weigh.html

It sounds like things are up and down. I am hoping you can find something that helps him recover.

It is also possible to nebulize drugs if there is a bacterial infection that you can identify that would respond to antibiotics that can't be given orally. Gentomycin is one drug that is often nebulized. I don't know what may have caused the seizure.