Hercules

[daj]

I recently adopted two male pigs who were found abandoned in a garage. One is large and furry, and Hercules is a petite skinny pig. Hercules was shaking is head a lot. I didn't notice it he came this way or whether he started very soon after I picked him up. They were with a foster for 3 months prior to me getting them, in a smallish cage with pine bedding.

I had Hercules to the vet who prescribed Neomycin/Polymyxin BSulfates/Dexamethasone ophthalmic drops into the ear twice a day. They may be helping. This is only the 3rd day. The weird thing is that I've had them for a week now. They came with good appetites. Both still eat all the carrot, lettuce, apple, cucumber they can get, but both have suddenly lost interest in pellets.

I had been feeding pellets made into a soft mush to rehydrate them because my other pig drinks not water as far as I can tell. I never see him touch the bottle, so I have been giving him his pellets soaked into a mush, and I add vitamin C to it. At first the two new pigs took to this just fine. Now, suddenly, they have both stopped eating mushed pellets or dry pellets. I can't see any cause for this abrupt change. I wonder if anyone has ever seen this?

[Lynx]

Wetting pellets starts a decay process (in my opinion). Depending on temperature, they can start to seem unpalatable pretty quickly. Storing pellets in a cool dry location should help.

And then some guinea pigs just seem to take it into their heads that they don't like a particular food or pellet.

I am sure you will continue monitoring weight.

[Renonvsparky]

I have 10 guinea pigs and I have noticed that each one has their own preference with food. I've also noticed that they are all different in how much water they drink. On the one extreme, Skipper and Gilligan go through the bottle every day. On the other extreme, Muffin still has over half of her water left after 3 days when I dump the old water out and give her fresh. The rest are all in the middle with only Grady having any left on the 3rd day. I usually end up dumping about a quarter of the bottle for fresh on the 3rd day. I wouldn't worry too much as long as they're eating plenty of hay and veggies and keeping their weight up.

[daj]

I only make enough wet pellets for a day and store it in a jar in the fridge. Typically, I give a lump of it and they eat it immediately. It's just weird that they both stopped at the very same time. I had a pig who drank a bottle a day. Just recently I learned from someone they had the same and a vet it Pennsylvania told him his pig had a defective large intestine, and he couldn't absorb the water he drank, so they are continually trying to hydrate themselves, to no avail. This guy's pig died of dehydration. Mine died of what the vet here said was a ruptured intestine. Another pig I had who didn't drink water got bladder stones twice.

Meanwhile, the eye drops in the ear don't seem to be working, now that we are into the 4th day of them.

[ItsaZoo]

If the ear issue is deeper than just the outer ear, drops won’t reach the problem. Infections in the middle or inner ear need oral antibiotics and if serious enough, the ear needs to be flushed under sedation.

Inner ear infections usually cause dizziness. The guinea pig will lose their balance and roll, or they may sit in one spot looking up like the world is spinning. You want to address ear problems before it gets that bad.

[daj]

Yes, I've lost one to misdiagnosed ear infection. By the time they lose their balance, it may be too late from what I saw. The vet is supposed to contact me tomorrow. From past experience I also seem to recall that getting the right AB requires a culture, otherwise it's just a shot in the dark.

[ItsaZoo]

You are well informed about ear infections. I lost Gidget to recurring infections and found out too late that she had improperly formed ear canals. The exotic vet we were seeing ran a lot of tests, cultures, and imaging but missed that completely.

[daj]

So how was it discovered? I also wonder about getting the right antibiotic. The last time I did a culture with this vet, we went with the AB we were already using anyway, because he was concerned that the most effective AB might present issues with tolerance and could lead to worse problems.

I recall the pig I lost to an ear infection did a 3 week course of Baytril for bumblefoot. But maybe that wiped him out and actually made him susceptible to the ear infection. He was a hairless too. I am taking Herc in again tomorrow. This poor little baby is too young to be dealling with these issues. I also noticed a swelling on one of his toes last night.

[daj]

Also, is it possible that head shaking could have some other cause than ear infection? Mites don't appear to be a possibility.

[ItsaZoo]

In Gidget’s case, the exotic vet we were seeing wasn’t available. We went to a different vet who tried two antibiotics with no luck. Then Gidget developed a URI, which was related to the ear infection. It was complicated, so this clinic recommended another clinic a couple of hours away. That vet sees lots of guinea pigs. She did a visual exam with a scope and couldn’t see the back of the ear canal, it was just open. She could see the bacterial matter in her ears and removed what she could.

She said small size guinea pigs are more likely to have malformed ear canals, making them susceptible to ear infections and URIs. Her recommendation was to sedate Gidget, flush the infection out, then prescribe a strong antibiotic. I can’t remember the name of it, but you have to wear gloves when handling it and it’s toxic to dogs.

We planned to return for the procedure the following week but Gidget took a turn for the worse and I couldn’t let her suffer through the weekend so ended up putting her down.

[Lynx]

Likely the antibiotic was chloramphenicol (this has warnings for handling).

[ItsaZoo]

That sounds right. I knew it started with ch… The older I get, the more my vocabulary becomes like a word search game!