[hedgielover]

Or something like that. We went to the vet on Friday (Dec 11th) because his breathing had sounded a bit wheezy and congested. You can hear it best when he is open and sniffling so at first I thought it was just happy snuffling noises but even my boyfriend noticed that it was too loud and different to be just happy snuffling. He's also been licking his nose more than usual but there was no discharge. The vet listened to him while he was huffing and said it did sound wet. He had also lost a bunch of quills (6 in half an hour) which was probably due to the stress of the vet trip.

The vet sent us home with baytril (.05 cc twice a day for three weeks) a dose of revolution (just in case the quill loss is mites) and what I thought was a reasonable bill. (if anyone is looking for a vet in Toronto PM me because I love mine).

The baytril is banana flavoured and Quigley loves it! His first dose was Friday night. He takes it so easily and when he's being grumpy it's easy to squirt into his mouth. We've had to be vigilant though because unless we distract him right after he takes it he'll anoint with it.

The revolution was harder to give because I'd read all the posts suggesting putting the tip of the tube right against the skin and then squeezing out the dose. This was impossible to do. He would not relax with that little tube anywhere near him. I'm not sure we got the drops right to the skin because every time the tube got anywhere near the quills on his back he popped and stabbed my finger. He hasn't lost anymore quills so I hope that he's alright and either didn't have mites to start with or the revolution worked.

His wheezing hasn't cleared up as far as I can tell but it's only been a few days. I read a bunch of the old threads about baytril and antibiotics in general and found out that baytril often causes nausea but we haven't had any issues like that so far. He eats basically right after he takes it at night but not in the morning. His appetite seems unchanged but I have two concerns.

1) his poop has been softer than normal. At first it was just soft but still formed and now it is even softer and unformed (not liquid enough to call it diarrhea though) could this be a reaction to the baytril or the revolution?

2) he may be a bit less active. It's hard to tell because he doesn't poop on his wheel very often and I can't tell how much time he's spending on his wheel at night. The reason I'm concerned is that three nights in a row (sunday and monday and tuesday) he pooped in his bed and near his food dish which he never does. At first I thought he was stepping in it and dragging it in but last night in his playpen he was sleeping in his blanket and when I picked him up there was poop on the floor where he was laying. So he definitely did it while laying in the blanket.

 

[hedgielover]

Thank you Nancy. I actually measure his food instead of counting it but his bowl has been close to empty every morning so I know that he is not having a appetite issue. I will continue to keep a very close eye on his food dish. I thought the poop was probably the baytril upsetting his tummy but I didn't find anything about messy poop in my search. Hopefully these three weeks will go quickly and he'll be back to normal soon.

 

[hedgielover]

Thankfully there is no green slimy poop or diarrhea yet. I was wondering about the probiotics. Would I just get acidophilus at the drug store? And mid way between the baytril dose is 4pm and 4am I'm not sure I'll be able to get up in the middle of the night to give it and I don't think he'll want to be woken up in the day. Is it really necessary? How do you give it?

 

[hedgielover]

An update and a question.

I haven't added probiotics yet as his poop still seem mostly normal just a bit soft. He's still taking the baytril really well and I started to syringe him some food because his eating dropped off a bit. I'm syringing chicken and veggie babyfood mixed with a bit of sweet potato babyfood. He loves the chicken but is impatient and wiggly so only eats about 1/2 tsp per sitting (we do it once or twice a day). He's still eating his dry food but is down from his usual 1 1/2 tblsp /night to about 1 tblsp /night. Syringing him meds and food twice a day has proven to be a very good bonding experience he is the friendliest he's ever been. Always happy and playful when we take him out.

Although his breathing seems better than before, yesterday he started sneezing. He sneezed about 12 times last night and a handful of times this morning already. I increased the temperature in his room from 75-77 and BF and I checked for drafts (there are none). I'm nervous in case sneezing means he's gotten worse and we have to go back to the vet. We've got two weeks left of baytril. Is it common for them to show different symptoms part way through treatment? Should I finish the baytril and go back to the vet if he's still showing symptoms or should I go back to the vet right now?

I'm so worried about him and don't want him to be sick over the holidays. We have to take him back to my parents house and we're staying at my In-laws for the first time this year too. It's his first Christmas with a family. I don't want to stress him out and make him worse but there is no way for us not to go back, it's Christmas.