Fluffbabies
Forum Donator 2023/24
Hi everyone,
Our Oreo had her six and a half year birthday last month. She's a happy lady and enjoying a good quality of life still but as expected, she has lost a lot of weight gradually over the past couple of years. In her prime she was around 1100g. She's now down to 845g and is a bony, skinny girl, which our specialist vet said is completely normal.
It still upsets us a lot every time she is lighter and bonier but we can see the zest for life she has and our Ginger was all bones at the end of her cancer but she was full of zest and energy. So we know they can be happy and comfortable while skinny. It's just hard to see.
We understand from our vet that it's next to impossible to help the oldies gain any weight back as it's normal muscle wastage. We feed her critical care each day on advice of our vet. She likes it a lot. Though it's got to be from the syringe, not the bowl because how dare we suggest she dirty her whiskers! She takes 0.5-1 scoop a day and we don't force her to have more than she wants. When we do the morning feed interspersed with salad, she can put on about 80g in a full belly. We feed her salad away from the younger herd to ensure she has time to eat what she wants. (The others are four rowdy two year olds and can be quite boisterous now Oreo's so light.)
We just wondered what people's experiences were with elderly piggies... if there's any food that we could add that would help her to maintain her weight? I've heard maybe oat flakes? Do we let her eat as much salad/veg as she wants at her age?
Our Oreo had her six and a half year birthday last month. She's a happy lady and enjoying a good quality of life still but as expected, she has lost a lot of weight gradually over the past couple of years. In her prime she was around 1100g. She's now down to 845g and is a bony, skinny girl, which our specialist vet said is completely normal.
It still upsets us a lot every time she is lighter and bonier but we can see the zest for life she has and our Ginger was all bones at the end of her cancer but she was full of zest and energy. So we know they can be happy and comfortable while skinny. It's just hard to see.
We understand from our vet that it's next to impossible to help the oldies gain any weight back as it's normal muscle wastage. We feed her critical care each day on advice of our vet. She likes it a lot. Though it's got to be from the syringe, not the bowl because how dare we suggest she dirty her whiskers! She takes 0.5-1 scoop a day and we don't force her to have more than she wants. When we do the morning feed interspersed with salad, she can put on about 80g in a full belly. We feed her salad away from the younger herd to ensure she has time to eat what she wants. (The others are four rowdy two year olds and can be quite boisterous now Oreo's so light.)
We just wondered what people's experiences were with elderly piggies... if there's any food that we could add that would help her to maintain her weight? I've heard maybe oat flakes? Do we let her eat as much salad/veg as she wants at her age?