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Boar not eating - gut stasis?

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Chris P

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Hi,

Our 6 year old boar, Jerry, lost a lot of weight over 2 days (Down from 850 to 710). I took him to the vet who conducted an examination and couldn't find anything obviously wrong. (Though she said that his mouth was full of crud and so she can't be certain about teeth.) She gave metacam and syringe food, and said if the problem persists then maybe he should have gut medicine. His appetite has picked up a small amount, but not much - so his weight is about 735 now. I have syringe fed him, but he was very resistant. I guess I got about 5-6ml into him yesterday afternoon, and about 10 this morning. He has eaten some hay, and chard, and does drink. He seems to have difficulty swallowing, and chews food for a long time as far as I can tell.

He is active at times, and doesn't appear to want to avoid his two young sow companions, but does the 'puffed up sitting' quite a lot. The others sometimes nuzzle him in what seems a companionable way.

I contacted the vet today. The woman we saw yesterday wasn't there, and the vet I spoke with said that 'appetite stimulants don't really work on guinea pigs', and said we should come in this evening on their emergency service to have him looked at again and the mouth examined properly.

I read your syringe feeding guide - very useful thanks a lot. He actively will resist the feeding, but if I persist I can get some in him. Should I do this? Earlier, I did, and he sort of 'gave up' resisting. Having read your guide, I wonder if it was because he was exhausted and I should have stopped. Should I?

On the visit tonight - should I push for the gut stimulants you advise elsewhere? He is producing some of the small pellets which he eats, but I haven't seen any proper pellets.

The (first) vet said if it persists, then we should consider leaving him with them to be regularly syringe fed. What is your view? My concern is that maybe it is better for him to stay with his companions and we do our best, even if this reduces his chance of coming through. I would rather him be with them as long as possible, than alone.

Thanks for your advice.

Chris
 
Hi Chris. I’m sorry you are going through this with your piggy. If he is losing weight then you will need to syringe feed him even if he doesn’t want it. Sometimes after about 5ml they get used to the idea and feed a bit better. Once you have fed with the syringe it sometimes kick starts their appetite and they will happily eat some hay and nice things on your lap after. I’ve not had a piggy with gut problems but if there is a stimulant that is recommended on here I’d definitely try it. What pain relief was he given? Try and get dog strength not cat and get them prescribe it twice a day. Good luck at the vets I hope they can find the problem.
 
Thanks very much. He has Metacam (cat) 0.3ml once a day at the moment.
 
Obviously I’m not a vet but that is very low. It is based on weight and your piggy is quite small.

I had a piggy on dog Loxicom whose weight was about 1.1kg on 0.4ml twice a day for a tooth root abscess. He had an operation to open the wound and stitch it open for cleaning. Hope this helps.
 
Chris P said:
Hi,

Our 6 year old boar, Jerry, lost a lot of weight over 2 days (Down from 850 to 710). I took him to the vet who conducted an examination and couldn't find anything obviously wrong. (Though she said that his mouth was full of crud and so she can't be certain about teeth.) She gave metacam and syringe food, and said if the problem persists then maybe he should have gut medicine. His appetite has picked up a small amount, but not much - so his weight is about 735 now. I have syringe fed him, but he was very resistant. I guess I got about 5-6ml into him yesterday afternoon, and about 10 this morning. He has eaten some hay, and chard, and does drink. He seems to have difficulty swallowing, and chews food for a long time as far as I can tell.

He is active at times, and doesn't appear to want to avoid his two young sow companions, but does the 'puffed up sitting' quite a lot. The others sometimes nuzzle him in what seems a companionable way.

I contacted the vet today. The woman we saw yesterday wasn't there, and the vet I spoke with said that 'appetite stimulants don't really work on guinea pigs', and said we should come in this evening on their emergency service to have him looked at again and the mouth examined properly.

I read your syringe feeding guide - very useful thanks a lot. He actively will resist the feeding, but if I persist I can get some in him. Should I do this? Earlier, I did, and he sort of 'gave up' resisting. Having read your guide, I wonder if it was because he was exhausted and I should have stopped. Should I?

On the visit tonight - should I push for the gut stimulants you advise elsewhere? He is producing some of the small pellets which he eats, but I haven't seen any proper pellets.

The (first) vet said if it persists, then we should consider leaving him with them to be regularly syringe fed. What is your view? My concern is that maybe it is better for him to stay with his companions and we do our best, even if this reduces his chance of coming through. I would rather him be with them as long as possible, than alone.

Thanks for your advice.

Chris
Click to expand...

Hi
As long as he is taking on food, please try to keep feeding him. A piggy that is not eating or eating very little is dying piggy - they cannot fast for long. :(

If there are still poos at the other end, then you are not (or no longer) dealing with acute GI stasis - that is when the internal conveyor belts stops altogether. But what comes out at the other end reflects the input 1-2 days earlier; so if you see very little poos then that means that he hasn't eaten much at all (but still a very little) during that time span before. The poo output reflects the food intake with a digestive time delay; that is the reason why I like to compare it to a conveyor belt. That is why weighing daily at the same time is so important; it gives you an up to date feedback without the delay from the poo output.

If he is still eating his poos, then that is encouraging. A very ill/dying piggy won't do that, so please persist.
Please be aware that loss of appetite can have many different reasons, often related to a major pain issue/illness somewhere in the body or to a mechanical problem in the digestive tract between the mouth (teeth) to the anus. Sometimes, antibiotics can also wipe out the gut completely.
The metacam dosage is very low and bordering on the cosmetic. Please give it twice a day to have bit more of an effect but it will be still on the low side.
 
Thanks very much. Just been to the vet, who said it isn't GI stasis (for the reasons you gave) so no need for the medicine. He said that the lower incisor is too long and needs burring - which hopefully we can sort out on Monday. Otherwise, apart from the weight drop, he seems ok. Never had burring done before (though we have had 8 piggies now) but from a brief look at the forums it seems it is a fairly standard thing and won't need anaesthetic. Strange the other vets who looked at him said his incisors looked ok...

He also said the metacam dosage could be halved! But he also said it could be increased to 0.65, which is in line with your double dose daily, so I will go with that.
 
Good luck with the tooth burring. Keep us posted
 
Thanks. Can I ask, is burring straightforward or is there anything I should watch out for / check for with the vet?
 
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