Mystery Illness and growing up

Growing up

Looking back over some old photos, I realised how much Guinness has changed since he arrived 18months ago. I’ve included some photos below so you can see how he has changed shape and put on condition.

Guinness 6 weeks after he arrived

Then 15 months later - July 2011

The past few months have not been the best health-wise.

Guinness is having some time off at the moment. Back in April, Guinness had come in from the field behaving very unusually. He had his head low and couldn’t lift it much off the ground. He was also some what wobbly on his feet and seemed very sedate. His temperature was also at the top end of the normal spectrum. It had been a very hot day and I assumed he’d over heated and got dehydrated so I quickly hosed him off all over and stuck the hose in his mouth to get some fluids into him. He perked up quite quickly and I repeated this process for about 30 mins. Then I gave him a small feed with some electrolytes and he seemed much improved with a normal temperature by the time one of the local vets arrived who had nothing to go on but what I told him had happened and he was none the wiser as to any possible cause!

Completely unrelated, Guinness came in form the field on 22^nd June with a large bump on his cheek/jaw. It didn’t seem swollen but was hard and Guinness was not at all bothered with poking and prodding it and he was eating and drinking fine, so I put it down to his molars erupting (I’d had the dentist 10 days prior) and carried on as normal.

Lump on cheek

On the 13^th July, I’d noticed Guinness was balling up some of his food in his cheeks (although still managing to polish off 2 haynets a night!) so I got the dentist back out to see if the molar caps needed a little bit of help on their way out. Guinness also had two baby incisors on the way out, one of which had already come out by itself and the other was hanging out at a peculiar angle. When the dentist arrived, Guinness was very upset when the dentist put the gag on (which he is usually fine which) and he started kicking the walls. We couldn’t get his mouth open more than a centimetre or so and he was clearly in discomfort so we stopped and the dentist rang my vet and explained the situation and arranged for the vet to come the following morning. Before he left though he gently pulled the remaining incisor and out it popped so now I have one of his baby teeth to keep! I went back to work only to get a call from my sister later in the afternoon to say Guinness was showing the same symptoms he did in April. I got Mark Gardner from Park Vets out straight away and he was able to see how little Guinness could lift his head above the ground (using the polo test). The unusual thing is that despite this, as long as you put it on the ground, he still drinks and eats as normal?!?! Mark suspected the cause to be in the neck somewhere and applied pressure in various places to see if he could pinpoint any area that showed particular pain. By now the lump on his jaw had swollen up considerably and this seemed painful to the touch. He was less wobbly, so I walked him (still with head on floor) around a little and then repeated the polo test to the side and straight up. Gradually Guinness could get his head up a little more and after ten minutes or so looked ‘normal’ again. We were both stumped! We decided to X-ray both the jaw and the neck the following day and also test the blood for muscle enzymes as well as anything else out of the ordinary.

Guinness was a superstar having his X-rays. I had to hold his head up, balanced on the end of a broomstick with a block in his mouth. The X-rays showed a possible tooth root infection so he is now on antibiotics however, the neck X-rays looked fine and the blood showed no muscles enzymes and nothing out the ordinary so we are still stumped on the ‘head on the floor’ episode.

A week on and we are continuing the course of antibiotics. He seems fine in himself and can open his mouth normally again now, so it looks like they are working.