My guinea pig may die. : - ((

Question
QUESTION: My guinea pig lilly is about 5-7 months old. She developed an abcess so my husband and I took her to the vet. He gave baytril, but two days later...today actually her front left paw swelled. The doc said that the infection is housing in her joints and that is might be speading. She won't drink her antibiotic water so I made a parsley, timothy hay, plain yogurt, half of a vitamin C tablet, oranges, her sister's poopies (She can't eat them cause of her bummed and swollen leg and her's are little and crummy)
and the water into a spoup. She loves it and gets excited when I gave it to her. My question is what else can I do that might aid in the deswelling of the lumps and her leg?? What else can I do to prevent my baby from dying? Please help me. I am at the end of my rope. I can't lose her. Any advice and help you can offer will be great.
Love Lilly and Amanda

ANSWER: Dear Amanda

the Baytril should work if the vet has prescribed a strong dose via injection.Keep giving her the soup but make it thicker each time otherwise she may become dependant on liquidy food and not take to sloids again.
Has he given you some Baytril to give her orally?
You could try wrapping the leg in a cool flannel to reduce the swelling but if its infected it needs draining surgically.
She is very young and strong for an operation which is a good thing.
I hope it goes well as you obviously love this piggy so much.
xxxxx

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you very much. We are still working to get her better, although I tried putting green tea bags on her abscess and her swollen leg and the abscesses went down quickly and stayed down. The leg went down a little, then we gave her 3cc of green tea and she got up and eat some of her hard food. But this morning she had a a really bad running nose, labored breathing and crusty eyes. The eye it's self is clear and her hair is shiny. The Doc told us not to wash her, but she is so dirty from the forced feedings. What do I do about the runny nose and crusty eyes and the dirtiness.

Answer
Hi Amanda
I agree with not bathing her just yet.
Regarding the crusty eyes, you can just bathe them gently with warm salted water ( just a pinch of salt in a cup of water )to get the crust off.
Put a tiny dab of VICKS on her nose to ease breathing
If you are bedding her on wood shavings,try changing to newspaper with hay on top of it as it could be sinusitis or some allergy.
Clean round her chin and mouth area with a clean damp bit of towel or similar.
Keep up the good work