Hasumi

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Wed Jan 25, 2023 11:58 am


Other signs of pain you might look for (other than only judging pain by sensitivity of the lump):
https://www.guinealynx.info/pain.html

victoria15

Post   » Sat Jan 28, 2023 2:00 pm


Just an update: I switched the clinic because I did not like the idea of keeping zithromax regardless of few obvious side effects that I saw.
Overall: Hasumi is on baytril instead of zithromax, and she is reacting better to it. Not sure about the efficacy yet.

I could not go in person to new clinic due to my job but my mother kindly brought Hasumi to the clinic on my behalf and the vet let me join the appointment via phone call. I sent the clinic of a long list of questions and she went through all of them. New vet's opinion: Baytril is more common and less harsh than Zithromax. If Hasumi cannot tolerate zithromax, then we should switch the antibiotics. It is not worth the side effects that wrote out because it is important for guinea pigs to eat continuously. Hasumi should be as stress-free as possible, so the vet does not suggest force feeding and probiotics at this point as Hasumi has not lost tons of weight. Once pigs start loosing the weight, they can loose very fast and live for 2-3 days. Hasumi should be on metacam as the lump would be painful.

The vet also said that she would not do surgery as well because the swelling is big and, as the previous vet explained, there are so many important parts (vein etc) along where the lump is. If I understood correctly, it seems like the swelling around the lump is big and not the lump itself. According to my mother, the vet said that the lump is smaller than what she heard (or read). She suggested giving baytril for a long term.

Hasumi is on Day 2.5 of baytril treatment and she is doing better than zithromax. The feces changed and she lost about 20-30g, but her mood is much better than zithromax. I have not heard her voice for days, but I heard her happy noise a bit when her cage was cleaned yesterday. I have not started the metacam treatment. I did not want to second guess which med gives the negative effects when she does not react well to them. If she seems to tolerate baytril relatively well for 3 days, I will introduce metacam. Choco, the one that passed away, had diaharrea after 3 days of baytril treatment.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sat Jan 28, 2023 7:10 pm


...it is important for guinea pigs to eat continuously... So important!

Any antibiotic can have side effects so you will continue to monitor for issues, I am sure.

Has there been any change in the size of the lump while she's gotten antibiotics?

victoria15

Post   » Tue Jan 31, 2023 3:58 am


I have not noticed the change in size of her lump. She has become picky on foods after she has taken Zithromax, but I would say the recovery from that antibiotics has been going pretty well. The baytril is not impacting her too negatively. She runs away from me when I try to pick her up and she approaches me for the treats. Her weight remains around 950g.

I forgot to write in the last post that I requested for cytology and the vet called me today onthe result: They only found fatty tissue. This could be an error that happens 5% of the time at their clinic or it could be that Hasumi has no bacterial infection but a fatty tissue on her neck area.

Given the fact that Hasumi has been tolerating Baytril, the vet suggested to keep her on Baytril for another 1.5 weeks instead of re-doing cytology or doing new testing (like biopsy).

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Tue Jan 31, 2023 8:24 am


I strongly hope the Baytril makes a positive difference.

victoria15

Post   » Thu Feb 09, 2023 1:57 am


It has been almost 2 weeks since Hasumi started antibiotics and we had a vet check-up today. Overall, the vet believes an abscess is due to teeth-related problems.

Hasumi has lost few more grams and she is at 930g now. The cytology test (discussed above) did not help at all but the vet thinks it is an abscess and not a fatty tissue because she is losing the weight. The vet did not feel the change in the lump and she suggested the following:
Plan A. Referral to the vet clinic that is more specialized in dentistry
Plan B. Treat with Metacam
Plan C. Surgical removal, although abscess may come back and would not solve until we find the cause.

Both 1 and 3 requires general anesthesia. I asked for the referral for now. The vet said it is unnecessary to continue baytril treatment but I feel like I should continue; I read somewhere that piggies took weeks of antibiotics to clear up abscess. If baytril is too harsh, I might want to switch to Bactrim for the long term use. Personally, I feel like the size reduced from 4cm to 3cm, but I am not sure. I agree that there was not a significant change, but the sort of changed. Would it be a bad idea to continue baytril although there has not been a big change in two weeks? If I take at the situation very opportunistically, it did not grow larger.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Thu Feb 09, 2023 8:46 am


Plan B. Treat with Metacam - metacam is pain medication. Pain can interfere with eating so very helpful with possible teeth related issues.
https://www.guinealynx.info/pain.html

If you are not seeing negative issues with the baytril, I also would be tempted to continue it. The primary problems would be inappetence and diarrhea.
https://www.guinealynx.info/antibiotic_advice.html

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Sat Feb 11, 2023 7:15 am


Ditto Lynx on both counts. I would definitely give Metacam a try and see how she reacts to it. Small prey animals don't evidence pain like dogs, cats and humans do; it may very well help her. Also ditto on the Baytril as long as she's not having problems with/on it.

I think you're making the right decisions. A really good, tight dental x-ray may give good information if the referral dental practice can do it.

Continued best to her, and please let us know how she's doing.

victoria15

Post   » Thu Feb 23, 2023 5:22 pm


So far, she is only on Metacam. She weighs 980g in average and the heaviest she weighed this month was at 1015g (she weighted 1075g in June 2022, 1035g in fall 2022) and the lowest was 910g... When we saw her weight has gone down to 910g (almost hello to 800g...), we moved her from downstairs to upstairs, next to kitchen, so we can motivate her to eat more often with variety of vegetables. I switched the hay too - I usually buy the biggest box of Oxbow Timothy hay but the quality of the last box was not great.

I did not see the dental specialist because I was afraid of general anaesthesia. I think I could still see them if I want to, but I am hesitant to go for more aggressive procedure right now especially when she is gaining weight.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Thu Feb 23, 2023 9:27 pm


I am happy to hear your four year old female is gaining some weight. Is her behavior good? Is she acting normally?

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