Guinea Pig falling over

Question
Hi Kat,
I'm looking for advice about my daughter's Guinea Pig, Pipsi. He is only about 4 months old, and was fine until two days ago, and is the only CAvey I have ever looked after.
Yesterday morning he appeared to be slightly unsteady, and after watching him far a while, he seemed to be having problems, if anything, with co-ordination. HE can certainly use all four limbs.  My other daughter admitted that two days before, he had fallen about 18inches from her hands to the carpet, but we know that he was perfectly OK 24hours after this.
Searching the net suggeted possibly an ear infection, though he is not holding his head twisted, and the vet last night didn't think so. In fact, he seemed rather better then, but was given a sterid injection.
Today he is clearly worse, and actually falling over even inside his cage. Again, I suspect a balance or co-ordination problem, as he seems to find it hard to reach for nibbles held out to him.

Otherwise, he is eating OK, and does not seem in distress when held - he squeaks and purrs as usual. He is mostly fed on Nuggets, but gets plenty of brocoli etc and goes in a run on the grass a couple of times a week. He has woodshavings from the petshop and hay in his cage, and we have no other pets.

He will be going back to the vet later today, but from hunting the net I couldn't find anything like this, and even if this cannot be treated, I would like to know if you have come across anything like this before.

Many thanks for any advice you can offer.

Answer
Hello JonG,

An inner ear infection is possible, and most likely. Sometimes a defiency (such as scurvy) can make them weak and wobbly. This may sound strange, but is it possible he could have gotten in to a poison of some sort? The symptoms (lack of coordination and balance, sort of like a drunkeness) sounds almost like a dog or cat who has gotten into antifreeze. I'm sure your piggy didn't get antifreeze but I would assume other poisons may have the same affect. At any rate, he certainly needs to see the vet again. If it's not an inner ear problem (infection or fluid build up in the ear canal), have them check for defiencies unless you think it's possible it is poisoning, then have them check for the poison you think it could be first. Poisoning is the most unlikely of the three unless you know of something he could have gotten into but it is a possible cause. Good luck. I hope you can get to the bottom of this unusal problem.

-kkat
www.geocities.com/abyssinianguineapigs