Resistant bordetella

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wheeksandwheeks

Post   » Sat May 06, 2017 1:45 am


I just wanted to share something I was told yesterday. My vet does vet care for Petsmart in our area, and said that they had received a letter from their corporate office that there was an outbreak of bordetella. They said it was resistant, and my vet said he assumes that means it had to be treated with antibiotic, because it was normally self-eliminating. I don't know if that is true in guinea pigs-I am sure his experience is with dogs and cats.

But, I just wanted to throw that out of there so you are all aware that is lurking. I also assume Petsmart doesn't vaccinate their guinea pigs against bordetella, though I would hope they would now. Though I think we are all anti-pet store, some pigs we may rescue can indirectly come from them.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sat May 06, 2017 11:20 am


Unsure what this means without more info.

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wheeksandwheeks

Post   » Sat May 06, 2017 5:59 pm


Apparently, Petsmart has been getting a lot of reports from their stores that their guinea pigs have been contracting bordetella(kennel cough). Now, I always thought only dogs and cats got that, but apparently it has been popping up in guinea pigs at pet stores as well. I was told normally when it presents in dogs or cats, it is not something that requires antibiotics, and the dog or cat gets over it on their own. Sometimes they don't get over it, however, and they have to be put on Bactrim to eliminate it, or it can go into pneumonia. Or it goes into pneumonia, and then requires treatment.

This appears to be the case with the bordetella in guinea pigs that the Petsmart stores has been reporting. This all came up when I took my new baby guinea pig, Sprite, in for what I suspect is a URI. I rescued him from a lady who was not taking good care of him at all, and had gotten him from Petsmart.

At the end of it all, I guess it doesn't matter if he has a URI or resistant bordetella as Bactrim will take care of either.

So, if you don't think it's anything anyone needs to worry about, you can go ahead and delete the post. Sometimes my vet tells me things, because he finds it interesting, but not necessarily because it is useful information.

Now that I think of it, one probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between bordetella and a URI in a guinea pig, so the antibiotic would take care of it either way. So, not really useful to anyone. Maybe veternarian water cooler talk.

Tracis
Let Sleeping Pigs Lie

Post   » Sat May 06, 2017 6:11 pm


There was some discussion about bordetella and guinea pigs on this link:

LINKS - Bordetella

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wheeksandwheeks

Post   » Sun May 07, 2017 1:06 am


Thank you, Tracis. That answered a lot of questions. I guess I just wanted people to know it is going around, and for sure to stay the heck away from pet store guinea pigs.

ClemmyOddieIndy

Post   » Sun May 07, 2017 12:32 pm


I worked at PetSmart several years ago for 3 years. I've run out of some supplies, and while I try to avoid shopping there it's going to be the most convenient today. I'll ask in pet care is they're familiar with this. They don't vaccinate any of their animals. It would be too expensive for them to do that. Although, the bills they pay in vet care for sick animals I'm sure is ridiculous.

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wheeksandwheeks

Post   » Tue May 09, 2017 11:30 pm


ClemmyOddieIndy Yeah, I imagine it would be expensive, but it's so sad that so many guinea pigs probably die because it's the cheapest way. My vet said that the local Petsmart got a letter from the head office in Arizona about it. I'm in Western Wisconsin. I am sure they don't want the public knowing about it.

ClemmyOddieIndy

Post   » Tue May 16, 2017 1:41 pm


I forgot to let you know what I found out, and that was that no one around here has heard anything about it. I'm not too far away from you, so I'd think they'd have heard about it here. I'd be cautious of a veterinarian that shares information such as that, because by sharing that information they violated their clients confidentiality and could be reported to AVMA for a potential ethical violation.

Baba

Post   » Fri May 19, 2017 12:36 am


Many years ago (and many more) I found out the hard way, that Mimi (my first piggie) was the carrier of bordetella. Before I found out was originally was happening, I lost 3 piggies suddenly. In all cases they showed symptoms of pneumonia and dies within days. Sometimes there is the saying it will be caught only by younger ones, but one 3year old sow died too.

Finally we found out, that our Mimi was the carrier and she was the cause that the other piggies died. We started to vaccinate each and very piggie for the time Mimi was member of our family and since that time we never had other death related to bordetella. When Mimi departed 7 years old, I decided with my vet friend, not to continue with the vaccinations and nothing happened anymore.

Sometimes it was quite a bit stressful, while each and any piggie at that time joined our family at different times, so I had to have a vaccination plan. At times the piggies had more appointments as I had :-).

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Fri May 19, 2017 9:26 am


How did you identify the bordetella? Is there a test that can be given to an ill guinea pig?

Baba

Post   » Fri May 19, 2017 7:08 pm


@Lynx - this happened many years ago. All I can remember was, that when the last piggie was gravely ill, the vet took a sample of nose discharge. I contacted then my vet fried in Europe and asked for his opinion, that's when we started to vaccinate and since then we never had a problem. When Mimi departed, we stopped vaccinating and we never had a death bordetella related. Yes, Mimi my first piggie, was a pet store piggie.

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