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Can Anyone Advise Us How to Help Romesh?

H

HBear

New Born Pup
Joined
Nov 5, 2022
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Location
Buckinghamshire
Good Morning Everyone. We are really concerned about our guinea pig Romesh. At the beginning of February he became quiet and stopped being so interested in eating. We noticed a weight loss so visited the vets who couldn’t find anything obvious and was given a prescription of 0.68ml of Metacam once per day. We then noticed he was holding his rear left paw so went again to the vets the next day and was examined by an exotics vet who thought he may have a soft tissue injury. His Metacam dosage was reduced to 0.33ml twice per day if we thought it was needed. We gave him the two doses for a couple of days then reduced it to one and then took him off it as he seemed to be improving. He was interested in food again and began to gain weight, getting up to 905g from a low of 810g. His normal weight would be around 1060g and he is about 4 years old. Four days after taking him off Metacam we noticed him decline again so went back to the vets. Again nothing obvious was found so he was put back on a Metacam prescription the same as before (0.33ml once or twice daily) and asked to see how he got on for up to two weeks. Again on the double daily dose he really improved, gained weight a little every day and was eating veg, nuggets, muesli every day so we were very pleased. He got up to 933g on Sunday 25th but has now gone quiet again and we are worried again. Once more the double dose Metacam was reduced this time to a single dose and around 4 days later we see a decline.
At the moment we have put him back on the double dose and will try and get as much critical care into him as possible. The two important questions we have are 1) Should we get him back to the vets, and 2) Is the long term use of Metacam in these amounts an issue? The vets advise us that the next likely investigations will be an ultrasound, blood test and x-ray in that order but we are very worried about any procedures being a problem for him in his weakened state.
Sorry to have gone on for so long but I wanted to provide as much info as possible and ultimately do the best we can for Romesh. Any advise or information from anyone would be greatly appreciated.
Many Thanks.
 
Oh poor Romesh I have no advice but I'm sure someone will respond ASAP on here they are wonderful. In the meantime it sounds like you're doing all you can monitor eating, drinking, pooping and his weight daily for any changes. Fingers crossed someone will advise soon 💐
 
Hiya! So for your first question I’d always advise going back to the vet if you can afford it as it’s likely the only way you’ll figure out what’s wrong. I wouldn’t be worried about the procedures as he is still at quite a good weight and the procedures should only require a light anaesthetic.
For your second question the doses sound fine but do you know if you’ve been prescribed metacam for dogs or cats as they’re different strengths
Finally just a quick question about his diet. You mentioned he was eating muesli and nuggets - does he get much hay? The best diet for a piggy is majority hay based and then supplemented by nuggets and fruit. Hope this doesn’t come across as rude just trying to help! Hope your boy is feeling better soon
 
Suki&Indie said:
Hiya! So for your first question I’d always advise going back to the vet if you can afford it as it’s likely the only way you’ll figure out what’s wrong. I wouldn’t be worried about the procedures as he is still at quite a good weight and the procedures should only require a light anaesthetic.
For your second question the doses sound fine but do you know if you’ve been prescribed metacam for dogs or cats as they’re different strengths
Finally just a quick question about his diet. You mentioned he was eating muesli and nuggets - does he get much hay? The best diet for a piggy is majority hay based and then supplemented by nuggets and fruit. Hope this doesn’t come across as rude just trying to help! Hope your boy is feeling better soon
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Hi and thank you so much for your reply. The Metacam he has been prescribed is for cats & guinea pigs. He gets loads of hay, and a good variety. We change the hay twice per day and consists of Timothy hay, bedding hay and all sorts of others such as oaty hay with flowers, and readigrass and five-a day hay. He also gets assorted veggies for breakfast. On the occasions when he is eating well he hardly stops mainly eating hay but also likes the nuggets and muesli.
His weight today is 831g so he has lost around 100g in two days. This afternoon he was eating a little bit of hay after I’d given him a little critical care and watered down nuggets in a syringe which he seemed to like more. Thanks for the support and comment with regards to the procedures and anaesthetic as well as that is a concern we have. I have arranged another appointment with the vets later today to see if they can shed any light on what is happening with him and fingers-crossed they will be able to help him. Thank you once again.
 
100g weight loss in two days most likely sounds like he isn’t being syringe fed enough. He certainly with eating hay independently is he has lost that much weight.

How much are you syringe feeding him each day? He needs a minimum of 60ml but could be as much as 100ml needed.

Please don’t feed muesli. They need a plain nugget and then only need 1 tablespoon per pig per day.

Not Eating, Weight Loss And The Importance Of Syringe Feeding Fibre

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