[Charybdis]

My vet says that he will prescribe the Lotensin. But he wants an exact dosage rate and I can't find one despite searches.

I found Sean's dose:

1/4 of a Lotensin 5 mg tablet (1.25 mg per day)

But I don't know how big his pig is.

Pinta's dose:

2mg/ml concentration. Apatche, king of the heart failure pigs gets 0.75mls twice a day. The other pigs are on a 0.5ml dose twice a day.

But I don't know how big those pigs are either. It looks like you might be dosing at 1mg/kg?

Rain is 800 grams.

[Charybdis]

Passed my edit time. I also found this in Bandit's thread (Pinta, again):

At least 1mg/kg daily(0.5ml) - up to 3mg/kg(1.5ml) daily split into two doses.

So she should get .8 mg of Lotensin BID? Because it looks like the above dosage is once daily.

I found a pharmacy that carries 5 mg tablets. Trying to find out how long it is stable in water.

[Charybdis]

I called a compounding pharmacist and he said it is stable in water for months. So I asked my vet to call in a scrip for the 5mg tablets. Maybe I'll have it compounded later. But I already mix Enacard in water for Billy Bob and Nixie so that's no big deal.

Not sure when it will get to the pharmacy today. Does anyone think I should give her some Lasix while waiting for the Fortekor to be effective? Her lungs don't sound "gurgly and wet," but she is clicking and hooting -- when she gets excited, a bit of a "sawing" sound.

[pinta]

You can order suspension syrup as well. We ask our vet for it for mixing up doxy capsules.

Apatche is 2 lb. the other pigs range from 1 lb 15 oz to 2 1/2 pounds.

If she's is no danger of dehydrating, the Lasix might help.

You don't see results from the Fortekor as quickly as from Lasix. You'll know in a few days(maybe just a day). Some pigs become more active on Fortekor, others you don't really see a visible difference since it's a blood pressure med.

[Charybdis]

Will someone please help me compound this stuff? I make mistakes with math all the time.

I have the 5 mg tablets and need to get a dose of .8 mg

Every time I try to figure out how much water to put in I get all confused.

[Josephine]

Why don't you make it 1 mg/ml? That would be the easiest. In most areas, that would be 5 mls of liquid to one pill. Then you can give 0.8 mls.

Or, if you're like me, I prefer smaller dosings. I'd mix 10 mls of liquid per pill making it 0.5 mg/ml. Then you would give 0.4 ml.

[Charybdis]

Thank you so much. I had it all wrong with my calculations.

[Charybdis]

Now that the drugs are taken care of...

Poor Rain is sitting by herself in a 2 x 2. And Hailey is sitting by herself in a 2 x 4, since her babies were just adopted. I hate for guinea pigs to be alone.

But we're concerned that Rain might have Bordetella/some other nasty communicable bug. I could keep her on the Lotensin and see if the clicking/hooting goes away. Or put them together right now on the assumption that Rain probably doesn't have a contagious disease.

Thoughts?

[ChunkyPiggies]

Better be safe than sorry. You'll be very devastated is something preventable happened to Hailey.

[sus4rabbitsnpigs]

You know more than me. Good luck and I wish the piggies well.

[Charybdis]

You're right, CP. I would never forgive myself. Now what am I going to do with Hailey?

[ChunkyPiggies]

Well, theres always that texel... >=)

[Charybdis]

Wicked girl.

[Charybdis]

She had some kind of seizure. I don't know what it was. She had been running up and down the couch (or rather, running up and down me on the couch), then she decided to settle down and crawled up to my shoulder. A few minutes later she started popping up and down and jerking around. I picked her up and held her to my chest and she stopped. It wasn't popcorning. It was like flopping around.

Then she crept onto my stomach, stretched out and fell asleep like she usually does. She's back in the x pen now, eating hay and behaving normally.

I don't know what's wrong with her.

[pinta]

Insane thought: mites?

Beachez as she got older developed an extremely low tolerance to mites. She's a heart pig and would go into seizures. However the seizures always began with scratching. This was despite all the pigs being treated orally with Ivermectin. Injections of Ivermectin took care of it. Abigail developed the same sensitivity(another heart pig). Her seizures often ended up with her on her back, twisting.

It's probably been a year since the last seizure for Beachez. She did go into heart failure after developing the hiccups after an injection(unrelated to Ivermectin) at the vets a few months ago. Her eyes had greyed over and she lost all muscle tone. Lasix, Dex and a couple of hours of oxygen brought her back. She does not get injections any more.

Ciaytee's pig, before he was finally diagnosed with mites also had seizures - I can't remember if they were jerking seizures though.

[Charybdis]

Not too insane. She got her three doses when she came in (couple months back), but yesterday I noticed that she was scratching. I gave her topical Ivermectin.

You've seen seizures even without the presence of significant dandruff, hair loss, or sores?

[pinta]

Yup, seizures with no signs of mites whatsoever. No dandruff, hair loss or sores. No change in fur at all. I think both Beachez and Abigail would do this with lice as well. The other pigs would show no signs of any problems whatsoever.

[Charybdis]

The soft poops are back.

She has been on Lotensin for 4 days. Who thinks this could be a factor?

She isn't on any other medications.

Her diet is the same.

Her weight is stable and her behavior is the same.

Do we need to go back on the Flagyl?

[Josephine]

It could potentially be the problem, but it is hard to tell.

I don't know that you need to go back on the Flagyl. Did you d/c the Flagyl when you started the Lotensin?

[Charybdis]

Yes I did.

My "possible" theories --

1) That she has a parasitic infection, potentially Giardia which is cyclic, and needs a full course of Flagyl.

2) That she has a sensitive stomach and isn't going to tolerate any med well.

3) That she has a problem with the lower G.I. which would explain the squeaking while pooping and the diarrhea (colon?).

4) That she is prone to stress-induced diarrhea which flares up with pain. (We still have not been able to determine the state of her bladder after 2 x rays, 2 U/A and ultrasound. So she could have cystitis or sludge causing her pain. ) But then again she had diarrhea while on Metacam for pain.

She does not seem like an ill pig. Last night she spent thirty minutes gleefully popcorning around my bed and running under the covers. She acts like a little kid. But something is wrong, I just don't know what.