Guinea pig URI

Question
Hi, not real happy with the vet. a month ago took in a 3+ month old Guinea pig in and she had a URI. They gave Bytril & another med & a powder for like bene-bac. After a few days took her back in as she stopped pooping almost noting at all. So they gave a new med trimethoprim-sulfa and a med to help the lower GI work. Again took he in a few more days as she still did not go poop, so they gave an addition to help the upper GI. At this point I also got Bene-bac in a gel and gave her that. Ans she started pooping, and the sneezing did get better. But it has been 3 weeks after stating the Trimeth, on the 2nd 2 week dosage and she is still sneezing some, seems to have hit a point where it is not getting better. She seems fine, eating drinking and all. I am wondering should I get her back on the bytril and use the GI & bene-bac if needed. Or is there something else I can add the the Trimeth that will help. She is pooping with the Trimeth, not a much as she should but its not bad.

Answer
Your vet prescribed the appropriate antibiotics, but sometimes longterm meds cause as many problems as they fix. Three weeks is a long time to be on any antibiotic. Too much too long causes more GI issues, and even though you're giving her the probiotics (Bene-bac) it may be just time to back off of all of them and allow her to recover on her own.

Sneezing in itself is not an indicator of a URI. Her system may be just overloaded with medication already. The standard course of treatment for just about anything is 10 days to 2 weeks.

Antibiotics only work on bacterial infections. They do nothing for viruses, but most humans feel like they should be pro-active and take an antibiotic everytime they sneeze, cough or don't move their bowels two days in a row. That's one of the reasons we have so many resisitant infections. Sometimes our vets do the same thing just so the customer feels they got their money's worth.

I think that your little girl may just need to recuperate now on her own. Keep the Benebac going for a few more days to help her gut get back to normal, but I wouldn't continue the Baytril. The fear is the medication compromising her immunity system and doing the opposite of what we intended it to do.