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Post by iimalt on Apr 18, 2015 10:46:30 GMT
Hiya, One of my female degus, about 4 yrs old, has begun sneezing and breathing hard the last couple of days. They've done this before and gotten over it after a few days but this little degu seems to be struggling. She is still as active as ever, eating, drinking etc. but she is always wiping her nose, sneezing and looks to be struggling to breath. She also appears to have lost a lot of weight over a couple of days. None of the vets near me are open until Monday which is a bit of a pain as I am starting to get quite worried for her health. Does any one have any ideas of what the problem may be? or how I can help her in the mean time? Thank you
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Post by saddlers on Apr 18, 2015 11:15:10 GMT
There could be a few potential causes, wetness around the mouth can indicate dental issues which could also explain the weight loss. Degus can be prone to spurs on their teeth (which can push on their tongues, cut into the side of the mouth etc) and teeth not growing correctly which can cause issues such as you are describing.
Is she still drinking and eating at all? If you have concerns about her breathing I would recommend getting her a vet ASAP to have her teeth checked out, but I appreciate that is not always easy at the weekends.
It could also be a respiratory infection/allergy. Have you changed anything in terms of bedding/hay recently?
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Post by moletteuk on Apr 18, 2015 18:27:38 GMT
Sorry don't have much time right now, but vet as soon as can, could resp infection, dental or dust/allergy related. If she seems to be really struggling you can try doing a steam inhalation, but it depends how tame she is, it's not that easy to do safely.
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Post by iimalt on Apr 19, 2015 9:56:47 GMT
Hello, thanks for your help. I'm having to wait to take her to the vets tomorrow as I can't afford the massive extra cost of taking her on a Sunday. She seems quite content mooching about with the others. Her nose was wet looking yesterday but that seems to have cleared. You can see she is still breathing much harder then the other two degus. She is still eating, I haven't seen her drink but I assume she is. I've been handing her bits of food to make sure she is eating it herself, she doesn't look her best but hopefully I can get her sorted at the vets tomorrow.
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Post by iimalt on Apr 19, 2015 10:02:10 GMT
I changed brands of their dust bath stuff a while ago as I couldn't get hold of the one I normally buy, so I don't know if that may have affected her? They're already off sawdust as one was had an allergy to that and their hay is the same as normal. I will try and get their old sand again today, I hadn't thought about that until you mentioned changes. Thank you.
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Post by moletteuk on Apr 19, 2015 11:04:28 GMT
If you have a regular vet there is some benefit to waiting to see them if you can anyway, at least in my area if you see the emergency vet you might get a cow expert who has never seen a degu!
Definitely worth trying changing back the sand and anything else that might be different. I have a degu with long term breathing issues, and I have wracked my brains eliminating all possibilities for dust/ allergy causes without much success. I do know that dust is an issue for her though, so do be aware of dust in bedding and shredded cardboard and so on. Other things are herb mixes that can be quite dusty, cleaning products, household things like detergents, sprays, washing powder.
The vet will help you to test the possibilites of infection and you should get her teeth thoroughly checked, which may need sedation to get a proper look at the back teeth and maybe get an xray.
Also make sure she is plenty warm enough while she isn't feeling good, it will help keep her comfortable.
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Post by saggy on Apr 19, 2015 14:46:03 GMT
My kitchen antibacterial surface cleaner set two of mine of on a sneezing spree the other day so will have to find more appropriate alternatives
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Post by iimalt on Apr 20, 2015 21:06:13 GMT
Took her to the vet today. Been given some antibiotics to give her until Thursday. Vet said her teeth seem fine but she didn't look too intently at them as my degu wasn't wanting to cooperate and we didn't want to stress her out too much as it made her struggle more with breathing. The vet said she's definitely lost a lot of weight, which I could see anyway, and so gave me a sachet of recovery food. She said if she doesn't improve by Thursday I might have to think about letting her go to sleep so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I've packed out their cage with hay and bedding where they sleep to make sure she stays extra warm. She's still running around as usual with the others and is still eating, though slightly slower I think that might be down to her breathing though. Anyway, thank you for all your help and fingers crossed these antibiotics do their job!
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Post by moletteuk on Apr 21, 2015 10:00:00 GMT
I think your vet is being a bit pessimistic to suggest putting her to sleep. Do you know if the vet has much degu experience?
Weight loss combined with sniffles very strongly suggests dental issues. The cheek teeth should be properly examined, which may require sedation and there may be some value in doing an xray to identify if the roots are overgrowing (into the nasal area which can cause sniffles). She may have some spurs on her back teeth that could be easily removed, this is very common.
You can offer offer oil seeds and nuts and some tasty forage to try to encourage eating and weight recovery. The recovery foods can be quite helpful too.
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Post by iimalt on Apr 21, 2015 11:25:34 GMT
I thought she was being quite pessimistic too. I wasn't going to let her be put to sleep without having her teeth all checked. It wasn't the vet i normally see as she wasn't in work yesterday, but she said she has seen a lot of degus in her time. I'm going to try and get an appointment with my usual vet on Thursday so that she can check the goo's teeth for me if she hasn't improved by then. Do you know the best place to get oil seeds? I don't think I've ever fed my degus those. I have lots of other foods for them though that I'm trying to continue to entice her with.
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Post by moletteuk on Apr 23, 2015 9:35:02 GMT
Hope things go better today at the vet. You can some oil seeds from the supermarket, health food shop, or asian shop. You can also get them on Amazon and ebay or online spice shops (like Natco). You can get two ready made degu seed mixes from Ratrations.com you can also get them from Hansemanns if you wanted to order a load of forage as well deguworld.proboards.com/thread/19090/hansemanns-german-food-shop
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Post by animalmadchloe on Apr 26, 2015 10:20:21 GMT
Did your vet check her rear molers that they haven't over grown? It seems a bit of a snap decision putting her to sleep so quickly.....
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Post by iimalt on Apr 27, 2015 21:50:54 GMT
Hello, no she didn't check her rear molars, I've not been able to get back to the vets since I first went due to work/money but the antibiotics seem to have helped her a bit. I'm going to try and get to the vets on Wednesday to get her teeth checked with the vet I normally see. I've made sure she's been eating lots of good foods so that her weight is starting to gain. She looks less frail now, still looks a bit off though. Hopefully her teeth check will give me answers. Went to check on them about an hour ago to find a nice bloody patch on a different goo's tail. Not sure if they've had a fight or her tail has been over groomed (it's looking pretty hairless). it's not going well for my little ladies lately! Thank you everyone for all the help/advice x
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Post by moletteuk on Apr 28, 2015 13:46:30 GMT
Good to hear she is improving Hopefully the blood on the other ones tail is nothing serious, see if you can track down the source. Might be worth speaking to the vet in advance and seeing how they want to proceed for checking her molars, they might want to have a go without sedation, or they might want you to leave her with them for the day.
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Post by iimalt on May 25, 2015 17:50:49 GMT
My degu has been up and down with these breathing problems, she has just come to the end of another course of antibiotics which don't seem to have done anything for her. She is sill eating and drinking, though much slower then my other degus. She's running about and playing on her wheel but she's over grooming her arms, her eyes don't look bright and her bottom teeth don't look fantastic either, poor little thing seems to be going down hill. I can't get to a vet until Wednesday. Is there much I can do for her other then ensure she is warm and comfy?
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Post by moletteuk on May 25, 2015 19:50:23 GMT
I don't think there is much you can do, just make sure the vet knows you want a full dental exam doing on Wednesday, preferably with xrays. You could offer smaller pieces of food or even some soft food like veggie baby food or nuggets soaked in water or porridge & seed mush and see if she is interested in that.
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Post by iimalt on May 25, 2015 20:23:29 GMT
I will make sure the vet is aware that I would like a full dental examination. I've just left her eating a bowl of mushy nuggets with a couple of oats and some recovery food powder mixed in too. She seems quite content sat up the top of the cage eating it. The other two turned their noses up at the mixture so she's eating in peace. Thank you for the help.
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rhoma
Warbling Degu
Posts: 34
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Post by rhoma on May 25, 2015 22:26:09 GMT
I will make sure the vet is aware that I would like a full dental examination. I've just left her eating a bowl of mushy nuggets with a couple of oats and some recovery food powder mixed in too. She seems quite content sat up the top of the cage eating it. The other two turned their noses up at the mixture so she's eating in peace. Thank you for the help. Hi. Sorry to hear your having problems. I'm having similar problems with one of my degus, however, he's been diagnosed with an RI, but we'll be looking at teeth if he gets no better. Have you tried sunflower seeds? They're very high in fat, so beware of that, but my degu loves them right now and they're good for keeping weight on.
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Post by iimalt on May 26, 2015 21:23:41 GMT
Hello, my girl has been diagnosed with a RI twice but I'm convinced it's her teeth as she is not improving and her front bottom teeth don't look happy. I really hope they're not growing downwards into her jaw or anything. Finally getting those looked at tomorrow though.
I managed to convince her to eat a couple of sunflower seeds - thank you for letting me know they're good for keeping weight on. Also syringe fed her some water and some recovery food diluted in water. She doesn't want to eat anything today, she's hiding all her favourite nuts and seeds, normally she can't get them quick enough!
She is hidden away in her nest now, the other two have been much quieter these last few days too, I think they're keeping her company.
Fingers crossed something good comes out of our vet appointment tomorrow. Thank you all for the advice.
Hope your degu is starting to feel better Rhoma!
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Post by moletteuk on May 27, 2015 11:12:45 GMT
Good luck today, let us know how it goes.
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