Advice on heart piggy

Post Reply
Ali_x86

Post   » Mon Dec 30, 2019 2:22 pm


Hi everyone,
I’ve got a 4 year old boar named Teddy, he was diagnosed with an enlarged heart at the age of 6 months! This was diagnosed by CT scan, which I pushed for and clinical signs. Since then he has maintained on Furoesmide (I think known as Lasix) he’s been on 0.3ml BD up until now as he’s maintenance and he’s on Foretekor tablets, I think may be equivalent to Losartan, it’s an ACE inhibitor, he’s on 1.25mg OD. So he’s been maintaining well on this, including a steady weight throughout. However this weekend, I heard him hooting quite loud, I also noticed he wasn’t gobbling his hard food as fast as normal, however he is still squeaking for his fresh food and he’s still eating plenty of hay. I took him to see my senior exoctics vet, who noted a weight loss from his last check up 2 weeks ago, also a visible fluid build up. He’s not hooting or laboured in his breathing and is still quite boisterous as ever! He’s not eating much hard food still though. So the vet has increased his Latex to 0.5ml BD now, he’s keeping Lotensan as is, as he’s cautious about lowering blood pressure, the plan is to take teddy back next week and he is possibly adding in a different medication rather than increase the Lotensan. In the mean time, I’m weighing him daily, I’ve started the increase dose of Lasix today. He’s going back in a week, I’m also syringe feeding some criti care when I can. Any other suggestions guys and can you offer me any reassurance, if any of you have experience with this, given his age and symptoms? Thanks!!

User avatar
Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Mon Dec 30, 2019 5:18 pm


I have not had a great deal of experience with heart issues in guinea pigs, but hopefully someone who has dealt with it will chime in soon. In the meantime, you might find something helpful here:

https://www.guinealynx.info/heart.html

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Mon Dec 30, 2019 9:02 pm


You might send Talishan something through the mailer and ask her to weigh in. There's someone else with experience in heart issues, but I can't remember who.

User avatar
Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Tue Dec 31, 2019 2:36 pm


Most likely Pinta. I sent her an email, but don't know how often she checks messages. Hopefully she'll see it and weigh-in.

In the meantime, Ali_x85, you can also do a search on the Medical Board for "heart" with the user name "Pinta" and it should produce quite a few results.

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Tue Dec 31, 2019 3:19 pm


Pinta, yes, but still someone else that I can't remember.

User avatar
Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Tue Dec 31, 2019 3:25 pm


Mum also had a very long history of heart pigs. Hers might be another user name to search for.

pinta

Post   » Tue Dec 31, 2019 3:58 pm


I would up the Fortekor -it has a really wide swing and we have a very senior pig on .75ccs twice a day(2mg/ml). My vet, 2 years ago, said she was on the edge of heart failure and with nothing to lose - upped her dose past the rec max. Also add in Vetmedin. That helps with the fortekor.

Just doubled the fortekor on a fairly new pig after a big chase to give her her meds(freerange). Suddenly she was easy to pick up and not bothering to kick up a fuss. Hung out in the condo the rest of the day. I had put her on Fortekor within 24 hours of her arrival(with vet's blessing). The other two pigs she came with were all over the place and she just sat in one spot. This morning she was running into the living room like usual.

You can up the lasix to max 24hr dose (10mg/kg) to clear out the fluids but need to back off to a maintaining dose once fluids are cleared.

I also subcue 15-20ccs of fluids a couple of hours after a big Lasix dose to ensure the rest of the pig isn't getting dehydrated from the lasix.

Run this past your vet before altering the doses.

Ali_x86

Post   » Tue Dec 31, 2019 5:28 pm


Hi

Thank you for this, I did enquire about upping the Fortekor, the vet said that he was reluctant to do this because of upping the furoesmide, he didn’t want to drop his blood pressure. I have increased the Fortekar previously, as he is actually only on 0.625g, he only is prescribed 1/4 of a 2.5mg tablet daily, so I knew from research here that there was room to increase. He’s day 2 of his increase to 0.5ml of the Lasix, there’s been no hooting or obvious laboured breathing. There is still fluid around his lungs though that I can see, he’s squeaking for fresh food and gobbling that still, as well as the hay, but not going for the pellets, and this is what I find strange. I’m substituting with Criti care for now in between, so he doesn’t lose any more weight and also to replace the fluids. He’s gone from 1.3 kg to 1.19kg in 2 weeks.

pinta

Post   » Tue Dec 31, 2019 7:52 pm


Malocclusion goes hand in hand with heart issues. Heart pigs often have to choose between eating and breathing. Often pellets are the first to go if they don't have enough jaw strength to grind. If they don't constantly eat, their teeth overgrow. Try holding his jaw shut while hand feeding to force the molars to properly grind. This will also help to build jaw muscle strength.

Post Reply