My sick Guinea Pig

Hey all! Thanks again for all the well wishes for my piggy. Good new and update. She has started to get better i believe. She's eating more and jumping around. Her poop is not completely normal but she seems to be doing better. And her tooth is growing back. Thank you for all the warm wishes. It's helping!

This is so good to hear Jedi. :hug: I will not be on this weekend very much because I am attending a convention in San Francisco but I will be thinking of you and Teek. I miss our pirate games. We are driving back and forth to the convention so i will be logging on maybe for a few minutes when we get home Saturday and Sunday night just to say hello. thanks for keeping us all posted on Teek's recovery.
 
I noticed you said that her poop is not completely normal. This right there is cause for concern for me. It's possible that it's nothing and just related to the stress of the situation, but many times abnormal stool is a sign of something more serious. For example, diarrhea is a BIG sign of a more severe case of upper respiratory infection (URI), and untreated it is fatal (and even treated it can still be fatal). Guinea pigs really aren't that sturdy once they get sick. They are prey animals, so instincts teach them to hide their symptoms until they absolutely cannot any longer...and usually that means something serious is going on. NEVER put off going to a vet if you notice anything unusual with a guinea pig's behavior. Any time you see something unusual going on...get to a vet right away. Even a few hours can lead to death depending on how long they "hid" their symptoms.

You said in your first post that you still had to take her into the vet, but that she was on antibiotics. Was this from a previous vet trip? The reason why I ask is that because you want to make sure that she is only taking what she needs to be taking. Some antibiotics are fatal (although in her case, it's obviously not harming her), but you also don't want to be giving her something that may potentially kill off good bacteria if she's taking a medication that she doesn't actually need.

You mentioned that you use shavings for her bedding. What kind of shavings are they? Try to avoid things like pine or cedar...they have been known to mess with the respiratory system of rodents...which can lead to URI. And I know this has nothing to do with your post at all...but because it angers me how many companies market alfalfa based foods for guinea pigs...do NOT feed your girl anything alfafa based. It causes bladder stones. Get timothy hay based food (Oxbow Hay Company is a really great one for this, but there are other companies that do timothy hay based diets. We use Oxbow's Cavy Cuisine).

It does seem like the lack of eating was more closely related to her broken tooth. However the abnormal stool is still a concern. I would still bring her in to see a vet ASAP just to be on the safe side.
 
I noticed you said that her poop is not completely normal. This right there is cause for concern for me. It's possible that it's nothing and just related to the stress of the situation, but many times abnormal stool is a sign of something more serious. For example, diarrhea is a BIG sign of a more severe case of upper respiratory infection (URI), and untreated it is fatal (and even treated it can still be fatal). Guinea pigs really aren't that sturdy once they get sick. They are prey animals, so instincts teach them to hide their symptoms until they absolutely cannot any longer...and usually that means something serious is going on. NEVER put off going to a vet if you notice anything unusual with a guinea pig's behavior. Any time you see something unusual going on...get to a vet right away. Even a few hours can lead to death depending on how long they "hid" their symptoms.

You said in your first post that you still had to take her into the vet, but that she was on antibiotics. Was this from a previous vet trip? The reason why I ask is that because you want to make sure that she is only taking what she needs to be taking. Some antibiotics are fatal (although in her case, it's obviously not harming her), but you also don't want to be giving her something that may potentially kill off good bacteria if she's taking a medication that she doesn't actually need.

You mentioned that you use shavings for her bedding. What kind of shavings are they? Try to avoid things like pine or cedar...they have been known to mess with the respiratory system of rodents...which can lead to URI. And I know this has nothing to do with your post at all...but because it angers me how many companies market alfalfa based foods for guinea pigs...do NOT feed your girl anything alfafa based. It causes bladder stones. Get timothy hay based food (Oxbow Hay Company is a really great one for this, but there are other companies that do timothy hay based diets. We use Oxbow's Cavy Cuisine).

It does seem like the lack of eating was more closely related to her broken tooth. However the abnormal stool is still a concern. I would still bring her in to see a vet ASAP just to be on the safe side.



My guinea pig, Horace, (who I named after the character in 101 Dalmatians ;) ), recently passed away. About a year or two before he passed, he had some blood in his stool. He was okay for a while, but he later developed a tumor in his kidney. He was unable to eat, and the best thing to do for him was to put him to sleep. :sad1:

Anyways, even though your guinea pig may seem to be getting better, I would carefully monitor him for any signs of illness for a while. I don't want what happened to Horace happen to Teek! He's such a cute piggie! :cutie:
 
And I know this has nothing to do with your post at all...but because it angers me how many companies market alfalfa based foods for guinea pigs...do NOT feed your girl anything alfafa based. It causes bladder stones. Get timothy hay based food (Oxbow Hay Company is a really great one for this, but there are other companies that do timothy hay based diets. We use Oxbow's Cavy Cuisine).

OMG I am so glad you mentioned this as I never knew! When I bought my most recent guinea pig I went to a couple stores looking for the timothy hay I had bought in the past and they were out. Finally at one they told me that the alfafa hay would work just fine. Of course after reading your post I did a search to check to see if this was correct and I did read that for baby guinea pigs that it was ok and mine was quite young when I got her so I am hoping that things will be ok but I will be going out first chance I get now to buy timothy hay instead.
 

OMG I am so glad you mentioned this as I never knew! When I bought my most recent guinea pig I went to a couple stores looking for the timothy hay I had bought in the past and they were out. Finally at one they told me that the alfafa hay would work just fine. Of course after reading your post I did a search to check to see if this was correct and I did read that for baby guinea pigs that it was ok and mine was quite young when I got her so I am hoping that things will be ok but I will be going out first chance I get now to buy timothy hay instead.
Yes, for baby cavies, alfalfa is ok, but I would limit how long you define "baby". Our general "rule of thumb" is that we buy only 1 bag of alfalfa based food for a baby depending on his age (hay itself should always be timothy...and you can mix it with orchard grass too) and once that bag runs out, we switch to a timothy hay based diet (meaning not only hay itself...but there are food pellets made out of timothy hay). We had to learn this the hard way. One of our guinea pigs wound up getting bladder stones at only 5 months old due to the alfafa. That's when we learned about this. It can be difficult in some places/stores to find timothy hay based pellets that have no alfafa...and treats without traces of alfafa...so we order directly from Oxbow (which is what several vets have recommended to us). The food is more expensive, but our babies are worth it. :)
 














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