I'm sorry this will probably be long, but thank you to those of you who read it and provide your thoughts. I'm desperate to save my little guy.
Around the beginning of January I started noticing a wet ring around Shiro's (5-year-old white male) right eye. At first I didn't think anything of it and thought it would go away. After a couple of weeks, I realized it was a persistent problem. I took him to my exotic vet who is very well-respected and experienced.
I gave Shiro antibiotic eye drops for five days as prescribed, but that didn't solve the wetness around his eye. A few days after ending that treatment, I noticed a little white discharge from the eye. That's when I talked to my vet again and he prescribed Baytril for 10 days. As you may have guessed, this is when the main disaster started.
I gave him the Baytril for 10 days (possibly 11), and he hated it. Around the middle of that period, he stopped running on the flying saucer wheel and started to just sit in the cage like he was feeling ill. The Baytril was likely the cause. After I finished the Baytril, I told the vet Shiro was acting like he didn't feel well. At this point he still appeared to be pooping ok in the vet's opinion when I took him in. I started him on Bene-bac around this time.
This vet saw the lingering wetness/matting around his eye and said he was "ok with it" at that point. It wasn't very severe, so I guess he thought it wouldn't be a problem. But he referred me to a vet farther away who is even more of an expert and the leading exotic vet in the area. My regular vet at first wanted to refer me there to get a CT scan to check his teeth, but we still have not done that.
I took Shiro to the other vet, and he did the iodine eye test, x-ray, and a bacterial culture for the eye. The teeth on the x-ray looked fine to him, and after mentioning the suggestion of a CT scan, he said he didn't think it was necessary/worth it at this point. The bacterial culture showed staph, strep, and one other bacteria in his eye.
Shiro ended up staying at that vet office for about a week. They started him on eye ointment, ranitidine, and syringe feeding. His poops weren't good by the time he got to this vet. After about a week there, his poops were improving some to the half-size poop, but still not a normal chin amount.
After bringing him home, I continued that eye ointment (they had stopped it for a couple days before finding out he had staph), ranitidine, and feedings. He has been back with me for about a week and a half now, I believe. I talked to the vet again last Friday, and I stopped the eye ointment then and went to the ranitidine once a day. I increased syringe feeding from twice to three times a day because his poops were still not normal.
On Tuesday, I noticed he had fewer but really soft poop, so I talked to the vet again. He said the soft poop could be a good sign for his gut in this case. Tuesday morning was the last dose of ranitidine he's had, and he is still pooping. His poop is currently still somewhat soft, but it's more than yesterday. He has that plumper, half-size poop still, which is the majority of the type of poop he's had since I've had him back.
After stopping the eye ointment last Friday, I noticed some white discharge again from his eye, so the vet told me to do the ointment again for maybe three more days in case it's still the staph. He's not had three doses. From all the ointment he's had, the entire right side of his face is matted and grayish. He hates everything about the ointment, and I wonder if it could be irritating his eye as much as killing the bacteria.
I should mention Shiro lives with another male chin who is 11 years old. They fought a little when he came back, but they seem to be back to being buddies.
I've tried timothy, orchard grass, and botanical hay from Oxbow so far. Shiro seems to like the botanical best. Throughout this whole process, I've seen him continue to munch on it, but being in with the other chin, I'm not sure how much he's eating. Sometimes he seems picky and just nibbles on a few stalks and throws them down. I haven't seen him eat any pellets since I've had him back, but I can't be sure he's not. I tried the Oxbow digestive health tablets on him, and he loved it the first day, but now he's reluctant to eat them.
When he's in his cage, he still sits around more than a normal chin and hasn't been running on his wheel at all. He squints his right eye and acts like he's uncomfortable. However, when I take him out for his syringe feedings, I let him run around the bathroom afterwards. He runs, jumps, skips off my back onto the counter, hops in the tub, and behaves pretty much normally there. I think he gets tired quicker than my healthy chin, but it amazes me the acrobatics he pulls off even with everything he's been going through. It makes me not want to give up on him.
A few strange things that are may or may not be unrelated:
He likes cat food... I have to hide the kibble in the bathroom when he's in there otherwise he runs over and chows down. He seems to be peeing a lot in the last few days. In the bathroom, I've seen him pee up to five times in an hour or so. Also, he's been doing it less in the past few days, but during this ordeal he was constantly sitting on a wooden ledge/shelf in the cage and holding his entire head over the side for the maybe the majority of the day. I wonder if it made him feel better. In the past few days, I haven't seen it as much, and I've even seen him sprawling on his side, which makes me hope he might be more comfortable--enough to spread out.
Do you think his poops could still go back to normal so he can be healthy again? They are just not the long cigar shape of my other chin. Especially with my syringe feeding, he seems to be getting enough food/liquids, but he still doesn't have the proper energy/activity level in the cage.
What are your thoughts? Do you think there is still hope for my baby? Is his GI tract likely damaged? I'm calling the vet again tomorrow to give an update.
I can't lose this little guy. I lost my rabbit in October (after a similar stasis issue--granted she was 13-14), and I've been going through a very hard time in my life. I'm living in a bad situation, and trying to find a new place to rent, but I've put that on hold because Shiro is my priority. I'm so desperate to save him.
:cry3:
