sick degu, Help!

4960 Views 8 Replies 2 Participants Last post by Sasami, Feb 1, 2011

Jason1981

Discussion Starter · Jan 17, 2011

[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']Hi, we have 4 degus that are all normally very active, unfortunately our most Friendly and active Degu has start to get ill. She will not eat or drink and just finds a quite place and constantly lays on her belly resting her head on the floor and appear very weak when she moves. [/FONT]
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']We took her to an emergency vet late last night, the vet took her temperature, looked in her mouth, listened to her heart and lungs and checked her body for any signs of abscess or infections. After about 30 minutes of examination she told us that everything seems fine, and gave us a syringe and some liquid food to feed her. We have tried to feed her with the syringe and it is a real struggle, we have only managed to get her to take 2-3ml since yesterday when she should be getting 2ml every 2-4 hours. [/FONT]
[FONT='Verdana','sans-serif']All of today she been laying down barely moving and has had nothing at all to eat or drink apart from the 1ml we managed to force her to eat. We think we will take her back to a different vet tomorrow but if anyone has any advice it would be greatly appreciated.[/FONT]

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Sasami

· #2 · Jan 17, 2011

The only other advice I can think of is to use Critical Care if you can get it in your area (it's by Oxbow). Keep trying to force feed and if you can't do it, get the vet to feed her some food so you know she's getting enough. It's a good thing that she's struggling, that means she hasn't given up yet.

Good luck.

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Jason1981

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jan 17, 2011

Thanks for the advice, will keep trying to feed her, i am from Newark in United Kingdom, not sure what critical care is, probably called something else in england. Just noticed that her wee as clear as water, dont know whether that is bad or not?

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Jason1981

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jan 18, 2011

Just got some critical care from the vet, gonna try her on that in half an hour, hopefully she likes that more than the supreme science nutrition i have been struggling to feed her. The vet thinks possible she has pneumonia and put her on antibiotics, hopefully that will help.

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Sasami

· #5 · Jan 18, 2011

Good luck, I hope she pulls through. I had a degu with similar symptoms once and she recovered. It's hard to say what caused her recovery but I feel that the Critical Care played a role.

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Jason1981

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jan 19, 2011

Can i ask how much and how often you fed your degus critical care. At the minute i am trying to feed her 6 times a day, and about 2-3 ml each time. Only problem is im having to dilute the mix with more water than recommended as it is just too thick to get into a syringe or pipette.

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Sasami

· #7 · Jan 19, 2011

To be honest, I'm not sure. It was at least four years ago. I'm pretty sure that the vet's directions were the same as the ones on the package so I'd follow those (or call your vet to clarify).

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Jason1981

Discussion Starter · #8 · Feb 1, 2011

Good news, our degu has made a full recovery and is now full of life once again. Think that critical care definitely saved her, thanks for all your advice.

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Sasami

· #9 · Feb 1, 2011

Jason1981 said:
Good news, our degu has made a full recovery and is now full of life once again. Think that critical care definitely saved her, thanks for all your advice.

That's great to hear

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