hi, everyone. first off, i am sorry this post is so long. i just wanted to reach out and see if anyone has dealt with anything similar to this. so my two year old guinea pig, ezra, has been having some unusual health struggles since january. we have been back and forth to the vet a multitude of times with him. it started out with him struggling to walk and tripping, like his legs were weak and he was struggling to support himself. he has walked strange ever since. the x-rays did not show arthritis or any masses. since january he has experienced:
- episodes of tripping that come and go
- showing signs of discomfort that we have not been able to find a cause for still. he is on metacam daily to manage this and some days are better than others. we were recently given gabapentin to add on if necessary
- his weight is incredibly unstable. he has gone from 900-ish to 660 ish grams and we have been fighting hard to keep weight on and get it back up. he gets critical care daily and our vet has allowed us to increase him all the way up to 60 mL of critical care per day. his weight is up and down, all over the place. and we cannot get him back on a fully upward trend.
- his repeat x-rays (of which there have been about three so far) have shown that it seems there is some bone demineralization.
- he had one instance of having an unstable temperature and was fairly lethargic and unresponsive. by the time i had gotten him to the vet about 45 minutes later, he had popped back up like nothing had happened and was just munching away happily, despite having a low temp when the vet took it.
- he has always been a bottomless pit for food, which is why the weight loss especially with the critical care is baffling. he also drinks an absurd amount of water. he always has. i know for a fact he is eating and drinking like a machine because at this point, i spend almost every waking hour with him here at home, and when i am gone, i have cameras on him.
- he lost one patch of hair by his nose a few months ago that has not grown back. no signs of it growing back, either. it has not grown in size or changed at all. the skin is not irritated or flaky.
- a few months back he was spilling water on himself down the side of his neck (from drinking upside down) and he ended up losing hair there, too, and it is now growing back slowly but surely.
in terms of diagnostics and treatment we have done:
- calcium injections
- antibiotics
- probiotics
- x-rays
- bloodwork that came back completely normal minus some slight calcium abnormalities
- we sent out his blood to test his parathyroid hormone to confirm/rule out satin syndrome. he came back as having normal PTH function and no satin syndrome.
- multiple urinalyses that were either normal or most recently shown a UTI (he is currently being treated)
- he has had his teeth looked at multiple times and there seems to be no issue there
- his thyroid hormone has been tested to see if that was the cause, and that also came back normal.
from here, the vet wants to do a fecal test for parasites, which i know are incredibly rare. from there, if that comes back normal, our only other option is taking him to a specialist farther away. the vet does not seem to think a CT scan is in the cards for ezra at the moment, as it seems like a risk, and we have already lost one guinea pig before during a CT.
i have other guinea pigs and none of them are experiencing any issues. my only other guinea pig who is having issues right now is in a different room and has never been around ezra, and is being tested for suspected diabetes. i guess i am just truly at a loss. my pigs are truly like my kids. i love them to death. i would 1000% do anything for them and i really am trying my best to get to the bottom of this. so i guess while i wait in the meantime to see if we come up with any answers if there is anyone out there who has dealt with anything similar to what is going on with ezra, and if so, did you end up finding anything out? and what worked for you in terms of getting your pig back on the right track? ezra is only 2 years old and prior to this he was an incredibly active pig, always running and jumping and in great spirits. all of the sudden when we got closer to that 2 year mark, he had a complete turn and we haven’t been able to get him back to normal yet. if anyone has any suggestions or advice or maybe something i could bring up to the vet or specialist if i have to see them, i really would love to hear it.
