2 and a half year old guinea pig not eating or drinking

[sophieabigail]

Hi all! I am new to this page and I was just after some help!
I have 2 guinea pigs both 2 and a half years old - Patch and Fudge. They live in the same cage but are separated by a gridded partition due to fighting issues about a year ago.
Last week Fudge fell ill with a chest infection - took him to the vets went on antibiotics Metacam and Baytril for 7 days and now has pretty much recovered.
However, 2 days after this Patch started making 'hooting' noises when rummaging through hay. He then started not eating his dry food and not eating any veggies and not drinking. His poo has also lessened as well. He would still go for hay but he turned his nose up at any veggies I gave him - even Kale which is his favourite! I took him to the vets with thinking that he might have just the same thing as Fudge.
However, Patch was checked over by the vets and all seemed fine. No breathing issues, no tummy issues, no teeth issues all seemed okay. He did have a fair weight difference fro last being weighed in July last year going from 1.2kg to 1.02kg.
I got told to try and feed him critical care and give him some metacam and see how he gets on.
It is now a week on and he is now at 988g and still is not eating by himself or drinking. Still is enjoying hay but won't eat veggies or dry food. He's been given a gut injection on Monday and now is on Emeprid oral to try and target his gut but still nothing. He has had a x-ray and everything seems normal there as well and no dental issues as far as they can see.
I really am at a loss here, I have tried to give him as much critical care as I can but it very hard with working full time and him being sowriggly! I see no improvements being made and just unsure what the next move should be.
Really grateful if anyone has any advice on what this could be as the vets have no idea.
Thank you!

 

[Piggies&buns]

Welcome to the forum and sorry to hear he is unwell.

Ensure you switch from the routine lifelong weekly weight checks and weigh him daily each morning. This is your guide as to whether he is getting enough syringe feed and independent hay eating. The daily weight checks allow you to adjust syringe feeding accordingly to keep the weight stable each day as you cannot judge hay intake by eye - they can appear to be eating it but not actually eating enough so you would then see continued weight loss.
Hay is 80% of their daily food intake. Veg (one cup per day) and pellets (one tablespoon per day) just 20% jointly.

Syringe feeding isn’t always easy. Do you know how much you are getting into him each day? You are aiming for a minimum of 40-60ml per day.

As they don’t share a cage, you can leave a bowl of critical care in his cage for him to (hopefully) eat while you aren’t home to syringe feed him.

Its really difficult when there is no obvious cause of weight loss. All you can really do is go back to the vet and have them check again to ensure there are definitely no symptoms which have since come up.

Is he still making the noise?
Is he still on metacam? Is he getting it twice a day?

All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures

 

[sophieabigail]

Hi!
Thank you so much for your response back.
I have started weighing him daily now to see his daily weight to make sure its not going drastically but it is still going down unfortunately.
We have been managed to get him 30-40ml daily which I know isnt enough and will show in the weight loss but it is so hard when working full time to keep it being consistent without having to take time off the feed him through all hours if that makes sense? That is a very good idea to keep the critical care in a bowl in the cage and I might try that to see if he eats so thank you so much for that suggestion!
He will have a little bit of cucumber but will only really take a bite and then not really be interested. He still squeaks when wanting the food but will just sniff it and then go away from it - it looks like he really wants it but then something is putting him off taking it which is a very odd situation!
I thought we were seeing results s a couple of days ago he managed to eat a lot of leafy greens and then the next day went back to how he was - not eating or drinking.
The last resort they said would be to give him anaesthetic and have a real good look at his teeth and inside but they said it is just very risky...

He isn't making the noise at all anymore and he isn't on metacam anymore, but I was giving it to him every morning and night but the vets have given him the other medication instead.

 

[Bill & Ted]

Hello and welcome to the forum
I think Patch has definitely got something going on there. The gradual weight loss is concerning and the keeness but reluctance to eat rather reminds me of my old guinea pig Ted. What is unusual is he is still eating hay?
Perhaps he has a painful brewing abscess somewhere in his mouth? A tiny molar spur perhaps? Oral thrush? All of these things can stop a Guinea pig eating/slowly cease eating
Have you thought about a second opinion?
Simon and Kim Maddock at the Cat and Rabbit Clinic in Northampton are general vets who are one of the most experienced guinea pig vets in the UK and are the go to vets for anything dental related (they are great vets/surgeons too in other illnesses too) They do conscious dentals, which are safer and very effective. They would have a thorough look in his mouth and certainly rule out anything dental related. People travel from all over the country to see them, they deal with around 30 dental issues a week in guinea Pigs
I see you live in Buckinghamshire, could you travel to them, you won’t be disappointed

CAT AND RABBIT CARE CLINIC | Northlands Vets

 

[furryfriends (TEAS)]

I would definitely recommend taking him to Cat and Rabbit Care Clinic to see either Simon or Kim. Ring them now, to get him registered and then you can call on Monday at 8 am for an emergency appointment xx