GuineapigEm
New Born Pup
Hello Lovely peeps,
Some of you may have read my previous thread about Bunsen's recent health scare. He is now off all of his medications and his weight has been stable for 2 weeks with no supportive feeding (yay!) He is still around 130g lower than he was before he got unwell but he hasn't lost any more weight. He is playing more like himself, popcorning and zooming and enjoying floor time again which has been so lovely to see as I can finally see him and Copper's relationship shine (I got Copper about 4 days before Bunsen started being unwell so haven't been able to enjoy their blossoming friendship until very recently.)
I have 2 lingering concerns. One is about his weight, he is only 8 months old so hopefully has a few more months of growing to do and while his weight is stable I would have liked to see a little increase. I know they can take a while to recover from illness but I have tried to feed him porridge, wheat bran, extra nuggets and combinations of those with various vegetables, sweet potato and he just doesn't seem keen in any of them. He is eating a near normal amount of vegetables and nuggets for him though he still doesnt have his usual enthusiasm for his food, I havent heard any wheaks from him since the beginning of October and he used to be the most audible one! The others have noticed his decrease in squeaks and I am not getting my usual alarm clock in the morning as they have both gone a little quiet too . He loves the oat husk hay and readigrass so I am giving him plenty of that mixed into his normal meadow hay though. Any advice on how I can help him start gaining, even if it is only a little? He has some days when he is in the 1000-1015 range and then the next day hes back in the 980 range.
My second concern is his back feet. Last week I noticed he had a little scab on the side and a little of the underside of his back right foot. His foot was also quite red and swollen and he was not putting any weight through it really, though he was not limping. I did a course of Epsom salt baths and coconut oil and the swelling and redness has gone down and the scab looks a lot better. I also changed his fleece daily in case it was bumblefoot and inspected the cage for anything he may have cut it on. The thing that concerns me is that while the back right is healing, another scab has appeared on his back left. No redness or swelling this time though and it doesnt seem to bother him as he is not on metacam and is popcorning and zooming with almost his usual vigour. I was wondering if anyone had any idea what this could be or what I could do for it as based on pictures online and my own experience with bumble foot it doesnt look like that is what I am dealing with? It isnt on the base of his pads, the main scabs are more to the side of the foot?
Thank you so much for reading and any advice you may have!
Some of you may have read my previous thread about Bunsen's recent health scare. He is now off all of his medications and his weight has been stable for 2 weeks with no supportive feeding (yay!) He is still around 130g lower than he was before he got unwell but he hasn't lost any more weight. He is playing more like himself, popcorning and zooming and enjoying floor time again which has been so lovely to see as I can finally see him and Copper's relationship shine (I got Copper about 4 days before Bunsen started being unwell so haven't been able to enjoy their blossoming friendship until very recently.)
I have 2 lingering concerns. One is about his weight, he is only 8 months old so hopefully has a few more months of growing to do and while his weight is stable I would have liked to see a little increase. I know they can take a while to recover from illness but I have tried to feed him porridge, wheat bran, extra nuggets and combinations of those with various vegetables, sweet potato and he just doesn't seem keen in any of them. He is eating a near normal amount of vegetables and nuggets for him though he still doesnt have his usual enthusiasm for his food, I havent heard any wheaks from him since the beginning of October and he used to be the most audible one! The others have noticed his decrease in squeaks and I am not getting my usual alarm clock in the morning as they have both gone a little quiet too . He loves the oat husk hay and readigrass so I am giving him plenty of that mixed into his normal meadow hay though. Any advice on how I can help him start gaining, even if it is only a little? He has some days when he is in the 1000-1015 range and then the next day hes back in the 980 range.
My second concern is his back feet. Last week I noticed he had a little scab on the side and a little of the underside of his back right foot. His foot was also quite red and swollen and he was not putting any weight through it really, though he was not limping. I did a course of Epsom salt baths and coconut oil and the swelling and redness has gone down and the scab looks a lot better. I also changed his fleece daily in case it was bumblefoot and inspected the cage for anything he may have cut it on. The thing that concerns me is that while the back right is healing, another scab has appeared on his back left. No redness or swelling this time though and it doesnt seem to bother him as he is not on metacam and is popcorning and zooming with almost his usual vigour. I was wondering if anyone had any idea what this could be or what I could do for it as based on pictures online and my own experience with bumble foot it doesnt look like that is what I am dealing with? It isnt on the base of his pads, the main scabs are more to the side of the foot?
Thank you so much for reading and any advice you may have!