laiyah
Burrowing Degu
Posts: 181
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Post by laiyah on Dec 1, 2023 8:06:21 GMT
Hi guys, so I'm back from the vet. P had to be kept for further checks.
It is confirmed her mouth was weird because it's swollen and the inside of her mouth is bloody and filled with um. Like bubbles ? I'm not sure of the medical term.
So she will undergo anesthesia so the vet can treat the inside of her mouth and check if it was a tooth or a virus.
Either way, both degus are at the vet and M is confirmed in good health so far but will keep company to P.
P was still eating this morning, albeit slowly. So I'm assuming she thought food was good enough to live with the pain and that I caught the case early. Hopefully everything goes fine.
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Post by moletteuk on Dec 1, 2023 10:22:48 GMT
Well done for taking her. It sounds a bit unusual, do you mean blisters? I hope the vet can find the cause and she makes a speedy recovery.
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laiyah
Burrowing Degu
Posts: 181
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Post by laiyah on Dec 1, 2023 12:50:40 GMT
Apparently it was 'ulcers' ? Either way, after the anesthesia, I got called. It's an infection and not a tooth issue. (I'm assuming it's better since it's temporary ?)
I'll have to go see the vet next week for a checkup on her evolution with the treatment and to keep an eye on the sister to be sure she doesnt get it too.
I'm just not sure what to feed my weaker goo, but I guess I'll discuss it with the vet when I go to pick her up. I'd love any suggestion on that from you guys too, since her mouth might be very painful after treatment.
I feel a little bad considering the hateful look she threw my way after she was handled by the vet lol.
Either way, I feel better for insisting on needing an appointment soon because P was eating slower today so maybe she would have stopped eating abruptly if it kept swelling.
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Post by savvy on Dec 1, 2023 12:57:30 GMT
How weird! I'm assuming they'll be putting her on antibiotics?
Food wise, I'd give her anything she wants. Peanut butter is always good, and CC obviously. A mix of the two can go down well.
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Post by moletteuk on Dec 1, 2023 14:07:03 GMT
This does seem weird. Have you opened any new treats or forage lateley that P has eaten but not S? Seems unlikely since you have been away. I think just once in 10yrs+ I have come across a case of contaminated food, I just thought I would mention it. Or is there a chance she chewed something she shouldn't, was the sitter giving them free range time?
Hopefully you can find out a bit more when you pick them up.
I would definitely get some Oxbow Critical Care or Supreme Recovery Plus, and feel free to mix them with other things to tempt her. Vegetable only baby food or home mashed veg is fine too, and as Savvy says, you can add nut butter to anything. Hopefully the vet will give you some painkillers and that will help her eat normally.
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laiyah
Burrowing Degu
Posts: 181
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Post by laiyah on Dec 1, 2023 15:32:25 GMT
So, the vet compared her sickness with labial herpes ? Apparently, it's viral but we're putting her on antibiotics to avoid her mouth getting more infected. It's rare, but not worrying from what I understood.
Overall, the vet was like "just let her eat what she wants. Important is she keeps eating."
Soooo... for now, P seems to want to cut ties with me LOL and she basically tried to bury anything I offered. I'll try again in an hour or two to feed her.
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Post by savvy on Dec 1, 2023 15:42:23 GMT
Her mouth will be feeling a bit sore after the vets examination so I'd try her with something tasty but soft. Is she on painkillers at all?
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laiyah
Burrowing Degu
Posts: 181
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Post by laiyah on Dec 1, 2023 15:49:02 GMT
I have absolutely no clue on the composition of the medicine. One is meloxym and one is the 'adjusol tmp sulfa sol".
Would dried cabbage count as soft ? Or should I just try the expired CC :')
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Post by savvy on Dec 1, 2023 16:02:46 GMT
Meloxym could be the painkiller. Try the cabbage and see, how expired is the CC?
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laiyah
Burrowing Degu
Posts: 181
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Post by laiyah on Dec 1, 2023 16:18:37 GMT
OK, I think we can forget CC for now. I offered dried flowers to P who went nom nom and now, she found a pellet her sister hid. I filled a bowl with a small assortment of things that could be considered "soft" (dried leave, dried flowers and a dried berry) and some pellet and blocked the level so I can monitor what she ate.
I will try to offer her some fresh calendula tomorrow since I think that's considered soft. I think I have carrots I can purée if it's really needed. I can also hydrate some oatmeal for her. I also have croc, but I'm waiting to see if I can give her medicine before I resort to it.
I just checked the CC, it's expired from autumn 2021. I was given it with the degus and I think it expired around then. The rescue told me to put it in the freezer (which I did) ^^;
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Post by moletteuk on Dec 1, 2023 19:06:23 GMT
You can moisten pellets too to make them soft.
I would order a new packet of CC so you have some if you need it, it might be useful for getting medicines into her, but Crocks are a good call for that too.
The Meloxym will be meloxicam painkiller/ antiinflammatory, which we often call metacam in UK/USA, and I would think the 'sulfa' will be sulfamethoxazole, broad spectrum antibiotic.
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laiyah
Burrowing Degu
Posts: 181
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Post by laiyah on Dec 1, 2023 21:11:21 GMT
I moistened a few pellets and P ate like... one and a half ? I left four moistened ones and I'll call it a night since she still ate like, a gigantic piece of dried cabbage, a dried semi slice of zuccini and some apple leaves and dried flowers and two dried pellets. (I swear the zuccini is small, but that cabbage piece was pretty big LOL) She has been doing wheel so I'm assuming she is feeling better. I have a checkup for her on wednesday morning, so I think she should be fine until then even if she eats a little less. (But considering her appetite so far, I think she is feeling much better. I'll keep trying to put food toward her lol)
Also, I mentally give kudos to the clinic because they didn't sell me a dog sized container but small tubs of like 5 ml of medication.
Edit : so, it's like one or two hours later. I handed the moistened pellets at her again and she ate them all. Not interested for more tho. I'm assuming that because they have swollen from the water, she feels fuller. I'm just hoping it won't cause gaz or diarrhea. I left two more pellets with some moisture in case she was hungry later.
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Post by teemu on Dec 2, 2023 9:01:38 GMT
It sounds like she's feeling better with the painkiller and all. As long as she is eating, things are looking up. She'll likely compensate for the fluid in the pellets by drinking less water since degus are quite adapted to dry environments and get a lot of their fluids through food in the wild. How much water do you need to use for the moistening? As long as she isn't getting just absolutely huge amounts of water through the food constantly, she should be fine with some supplementary pellets. I've given my old boy a bit of CC or Recovery every day, and that stuff needs a decent amount of water in it.
What she's suffering from sounds quite nasty; good that you got her to the vet quickly. I tend to find that degus are often a bit hesitant to eat after the vet anyway, so if she's eaten various things already, the painkillers are probably helping her. Did the vet have any input on where she might have gotten it from, in the first place?
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laiyah
Burrowing Degu
Posts: 181
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Post by laiyah on Dec 2, 2023 16:17:02 GMT
To be honest, I have absolutely no clue. I just put it on a plastic sheet, run some water on it (the plastic sheet is flat, so it doesn't keep too much on it). I let it be a few seconds before I let the extra water drop off the sheet. I leave the pellets alone so the water can swell inside the pellet. It's not wet enough to become almost purée like, but it's enough for her to chew with a lot less noise than her sister. I think if I overwater it, she could refuse it because of the water drop.
The vet wasn't very sure on what could have given it to her. She mentioned possible random plants ? But I didn't give her anything out of ordinary. The babysitter did give them fresh hazelnut branches, but only one of the two got sick. ^^;
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Post by bouncy on Dec 3, 2023 18:20:54 GMT
CC should be ok for about six months after the best before date as long as it hasn't been mixed, I'm not sure about frozen. bouncy may know more then me. If you're not well yourself, you are more likely to get stressed, so I think a good night's sleep would help you both. Cc should be fine. Mine have never rejected any, even past its date.
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laiyah
Burrowing Degu
Posts: 181
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Post by laiyah on Dec 4, 2023 22:39:37 GMT
It's the lazy route, but the dominant degu eats the moistened pellets too so... I just moisten a bunch of them and just suppose it'll work out lol if I do more than a 'daily dose' of pellets. P seems to hate the smell of antibiotics, because if I put the medication she eats twice a day on a pellet, she eats it. Not the once a day tho, that one is on the croc or she doesn't touch it. M is definitely jealous of what P gets, but I don't want to give her unhealthy croc when she is healthy. (still crossing my fingers and hoping her sister doesn't infect her.) P has been good enough to bite the cage bars and eating the dried pellets sometimes. I still moisten pellets because her mouth looks swollen to me. I don't stop her from eating dried food. I mean, she eats dandelion roots with her swollen mouth anyway. Lol. I don't count how much she eats, but she eats so I think she good. The checkup is on Wednesday so I think the vet will clear them both and maybe lengthen the treatment if she thinks P isn't deswelling fast enough. I think we can soon close the thread. Still waiting for last vet clear and we good.
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Post by moletteuk on Dec 5, 2023 19:38:45 GMT
Good to hear P seems to be eating well enough. The easiest way to be sure is to weigh a couple of times a week while she has this problem. I wouldn't worry about the other goo eating softened pellets. The antibiotic tastes really bad, even compared to the painkiller, you are doing well if she takes the full dose on a croc. You could give M a small piece of Croc or engage her with toilet paper, twigs, whatever she likes to occupy her while P gets her meds and extras. I hope the checkup goes well tomorrow.
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laiyah
Burrowing Degu
Posts: 181
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Post by laiyah on Dec 6, 2023 11:52:58 GMT
Checkup done. The vet did say 'no clue what she got' but it's an infection.
M is still healthy like a horse. P is getting better, so no need to change the treatment. She is done with antibiotics now and has two more days of painkillers.
Her mouth is mostly good now, still is a little swollen but the vet was like 'it's only around the mouth, not inside'. And no infection over it, so it should go away with time.
We weighted P and she didn't lose any weight. So she is eating well and I'll keep the pellets moistened for the rest of the week. I don't want her to hurt the inside of her mouth if possible.
I won't stop her either if she wants to take hay, I just want to be sure she won't stop eating due to the dryness of pellets.
The vet's opinion on CC is if it's in the freezer, it's fine to keep it for emergency. If you need it for a long period of time due to sickness, you should replace the package.
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laiyah
Burrowing Degu
Posts: 181
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Post by laiyah on Dec 12, 2023 14:28:53 GMT
Bad news, she is drooling again. I called the vet, but she isn't on duty so I'll get a call back tomorrow.
P seemed to struggle a bit with dried pellets so I moistened them again. She ate them with gusto as soon as I moistened them and I saw her eat some hay.
Since she isn't starving and choosing to not eat, I'm not too worried to wait for tomorrow for an opinion on medication or an appointment. I am just wondering what she got...
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Post by moletteuk on Dec 12, 2023 19:10:45 GMT
Infections like this can quite often be tricky to completely clear up. She only seemed to have a very short course of antibiotics before, was it 5 days? I would now expect an extended course of antibiotics, it's probably worth using the same antibiotic for now as it did seem to be effective. I would also be ready to check her regularly after the course so you can be ready to catch it really quick if it comes back again.
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