Chester's Medical Thread

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CavyDad
Supporter in 2018

Post   » Wed May 18, 2022 1:21 pm


Chester is a 4 or 5 year old boar. We got him from the shelter when he was about 2, and he's always had a skinnier body condition than most guinea pigs, but has kept a fairly steady weight range.

A week ago, he was acting a bit off and wouldn't eat or drink anything. He did not feel bloated, you could hear gut noises and he was still urinating fine, and passing poops, but they were small, misshapen and sometimes came out strung together. He hadn't had any unfamiliar foods, wasn't on medication, and I couldn't find any evidence of an insect bite. He's blind and doesn't really enjoy floor time, so he doesn't have the opportunity to nibble on or eat anything he shouldn't. I syringed critical care and water every couple of hours overnight and the next morning he ate his breakfast like normal. He was still pooping, but not normally, and we managed to get him seen by his vet later that day.

His teeth were fine, lungs and heart sounded fine, and nothing felt abnormal during the physical exam. Since he was starting to eat better, we opted not to do anything that would require sedating him (including bloodwork) because our experience has been that they are a little loopy and don't feel like eating right after and we didn't want to be back at square one. Right now he's on meloxicam, metoclopramide and baytril to cover the bases and he's back to acting like his normal self and has even gained back over half of the weight he had lost. Even his poop is back to normal, despite being on an antibiotic.

Any thoughts on what might have caused this? We're wondering if he could have just had a GI upset (is that even common in guinea pigs?) or if there's something more serious going on. We're not really sure what the next step should be.

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Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Wed May 18, 2022 5:52 pm


It's really hard to say. The gut of a guinea pig can get out of whack for any number of reasons. Hopefully the meds will clear it up and there won't be a recurrence, but it might not hurt to have him on probiotics as well---especially since he's on Baytril.

Love the name "Chester," by the way. :)

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Wed May 18, 2022 10:36 pm


Yes, it can certainly be difficult to figure out precisely what is going on. I hope he improves!

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CavyDad
Supporter in 2018

Post   » Wed May 18, 2022 11:48 pm


Thank you both! Chester's continuing to act like himself and eat well, so I'm trying to take that as a good sign. I think we're overly worried because we lost our first pig to GI stasis and bloat and know how quickly that can go downhill.

Yes, he's getting Benebac, and thinks it's super tasty. He'd probably eat the whole tube at once if he could =)

There's a bit of a story behind his name. One night, I mentioned that Chester would be a great name for a guinea pig. The next morning we saw his story posted online and as soon as we saw he was named Chester, we took that as a sign we were meant to adopt him. He was surrendered to the shelter with a buddy and I can't believe someone adopted the buddy but not him. (Their loss because he's an awesome snuggler and full of personality.)

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