New Guinea Pig oozing pus!

Question
Hi Kat,

Today she has dried blood(2 spots) and runny stool(1 spot) on the bottom of the box. Her under area still seems to be getting coated with smelly stuff.  She still eats and goes for water and now she is chewing up the box. Are vet visits for guinea pigs expensive?
-------------------------

Followup To

Question -
Hi Kat,

I bought a new guinea pig yesterday. I believe it is an albino Abbysinian. I was buying to replace a cagemeate that died in May. It is all white with clear pink eyes--We named her Abby-Rose Pink.
The pet store says she about 2 months or so. She was housed with one other much larger pig of a different variety. She seemed fine at the time of the sale. She had no odor, she was clean, and she acted normally and I checked with the clerk as to the sex and did not with my own eyes see any thing abnormal.
Brought her home  and put her in thhe cage with the other pig( in hind sight I do realise that I should have maintained a quarantine period, but Jordan had been alone for so long:(.)  After about an hour i noticed that Abby's eyes were kind of droopy and she seemed to be shivering.  Even though drafts are not recommended for guineas, our older pig was used to a certain enviroment and there was a slight breeze blowing so I closed the window and turned the heat up thinking of the the environment at the store. We would be be able to cope while she adjusted.

Well, today my son comes home and wants to hold her and they sit next to me. Wow, this really powerful odor hit me. I checked the pig over
and noticed she had a thick, dark, gray-green, pus
was oozing from her vaginal opening and her eyes were definitely droopy today--home diagnosis some kind of infection-New to guinea pig care (the oldest is about three years old,. we received her as gift) I am not familiar with what kinds of infectionas and disease in general plague pigs.
I home school so home care is the preferred solution but will take her to vet if strongly advised to do so. I am a student of life so I would also be needing places to go a get more detailed information on our pets. Most places cater only to dogs and cats, so I don't get real good detailed info on this animal. Thank You for your time--Deborah

Answer -
Hello Deborah,

Congratulations on your new piggy. Guinea Pigs can't actually be albino because they don't have the gene for it, she is most likely a pink eyed white. She may have pea or fatty eye, which typically doesn't require treatment, however, her infection will. It does sound like she has an infection in her uterus. If that is the case, she's going to need an antibiotic, which means she will definantly need a vet visit. If left untreated, infections can be deadly. The sooner treatment is sought the easier the problem will be to solve. I'm going to send you a link with a list of antibiotics that are toxic to Guinea Pigs. It may be useful to print it out to take with you to ake sure those are not one that she is given. In my experience Enrofloxacin (also called Baytril) is the most common antibiotic given to Guinea Pigs and is safe. I will also send you some links to piggy vet finders. Hopefully they will help you find one in your area.  Good luck with your girl. I hope she will be ok.

Dangerous Meds
http://www.guinealynx.info/dangerous_medications.html

Vet Finders
http://www.aracnet.com/cgi-usr/seagull/vetfinder.cgi

http://www.guinealynx.info/vetlist.html

If you are in the UK
http://www.vetlist.co.uk/index.htm

-kkat
www.geocities.com/abyssinianguineapigs

Answer
Hello Deborah,

She definantly needs a vet. It depends on the vet. Most vets have a set office fee that is the same for all animals and you pay it just for showing up. In my experience, treatments for Guinea Pigs are not anymore expensive and are often cheaper than for dogs or cats because they require less medicines (or even anesthesia for surgery). It does depend on the vet though. My current vet actually only typically charges the office visit fee if all he does is an exam and give antibiotics because Guinea Pigs take such a small amount of medicine. You can ask about the office fee when you go and most vets will tell you how much it's going to cost before they do anything. If they don't tell you, ask before they do anything or let them know you are on a budget when you first go in so they need to keep you advised before treaments. Most vets will work out a payment plan if neccessary and some will even work with you on prices so you can afford the treatments better. Good luck. Don't hesitate to talk to your vet about cost and ask about all available treatment options if you need to.

-kkat
www.geocities.com/abyssinianguineapigs