Peanut gave us a real scare...
Last Tuesday morning, when Jeanie went to say "good morning" to Peanut, she noticed that he wasn't moving his back legs. Upon further examination, we realized that he couldn't move his back legs, and was simply dragging them behind him.
Jeanie bundled him up and took him to the vet. The vet told us that his paralysis could be the result of a number of different causes. Possibilities included a virus, a neurological disorder, a spinal injury, a tumor, or a vitamin deficiency. The vet felt the most likely cause was a vitamin deficiency. Guinea pigs are very sensitive to vitamin C deficiencies. Even though vitamin C is added to packaged guinea pig food, it quickly dissipates. The vet gave Peanut a vitamin C injection, and told us to give him 50mg of vitamin C and 10mg of vitamin E daily. To provide 10mg of vitamin E, we have to use a hypodermic needle to extract the vitamin E from a capsule, and then drip one drop on a piece of fresh food that we hand feed to Peanut. For the Vitamin C, we have to dissolve a vitamin C tablet in a small amount of water, and then drop a few drops of the solution on a piece of fresh food.
The vet told us that if Peanut didn't improve in a few days, that she could run more tests and take x-rays.
Fortunately, Peanut has been steadily improving, and appears to be almost back to normal.
So, while we will never be sure what the cause was, we're glad he's feeling better, and we'll make sure he gets his vitamins every day.
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Posted by David at April 10, 2003 07:45 PM | Categorized under: A day in the life