• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Change in eating habits

G

Gingerspider

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Apr 27, 2021
Messages
148
Reaction score
98
Points
245
Location
Lancaster
We went away for a few days last week and our lovely pig sitter came twice a day to check on and feed our two boars. This is something we do a good few times a year and never had any issues before.
When we came home we noticed Len had left all his food (veg and nuggets) from the night before, which is totally unheard of (the guy is an absolute pig and always eats all food you give him immediately and he's porky for it!)
We got them both out for floor time and gave the cages a good clean and he went back to normal scoffing
Since we've been back they have been bickering/borderline fighting a fair bit but nothing unusual and they've both just had their quarterly checks and nail trims with the vet nurse.
Tonight Len hasn't touched his veggies again but has been gorging on hay and has come up to the side for nuggets treats.
It might not sound like much but he usually packs his veggies away so quickly, it feels very out the ordinary for him.
We haven't changed veggies and he's not lost any weight and I'm worried that maybe it's mood related? Maybe because we were away and he's not been getting on with Ron (they're in separate cages) and we are away for a couple of days this weekend again.
It feels very odd to have such a dramatic change of interest in food, I wondered if anyone else has seen this before?
 
Gingerspider said:
We went away for a few days last week and our lovely pig sitter came twice a day to check on and feed our two boars. This is something we do a good few times a year and never had any issues before.
When we came home we noticed Len had left all his food (veg and nuggets) from the night before, which is totally unheard of (the guy is an absolute pig and always eats all food you give him immediately and he's porky for it!)
We got them both out for floor time and gave the cages a good clean and he went back to normal scoffing
Since we've been back they have been bickering/borderline fighting a fair bit but nothing unusual and they've both just had their quarterly checks and nail trims with the vet nurse.
Tonight Len hasn't touched his veggies again but has been gorging on hay and has come up to the side for nuggets treats.
It might not sound like much but he usually packs his veggies away so quickly, it feels very out the ordinary for him.
We haven't changed veggies and he's not lost any weight and I'm worried that maybe it's mood related? Maybe because we were away and he's not been getting on with Ron (they're in separate cages) and we are away for a couple of days this weekend again.
It feels very odd to have such a dramatic change of interest in food, I wondered if anyone else has seen this before?
Click to expand...

Hi

It is always difficult to work out what is going on since we cannot ask our piggies directly.

All you can do in those cases is to monitor the weight and check the body for any subtle signs of illness in case it becomes more common and the cause is becoming more obvious. Because of the lack of feedback we can only ever conclude that it is more likely a mood based issue once everything else has conclusively been ruled out and not the other way round. There is more often ultimately a physical cause than not, even if it is not necessarily initially obvious or can be easily diagnosed by a vet.

You could try some probiotics in case it is a minor gut issue.
 
He didn't eat his brekkie this morning so I gave him his favourite salad leaves. Looked initially like he was struggling to chew them but then I tried some coriander (which he doesn't usually like) and he wolfed that down no problem. He's crunching nuggets and hay no problem too. With all our other sick piggies it's been the hay and nuggets they won't eat and the veggies the last to give up so it's weird it's the other way round.
 
Gingerspider said:
He didn't eat his brekkie this morning so I gave him his favourite salad leaves. Looked initially like he was struggling to chew them but then I tried some coriander (which he doesn't usually like) and he wolfed that down no problem. He's crunching nuggets and hay no problem too. With all our other sick piggies it's been the hay and nuggets they won't eat and the veggies the last to give up so it's weird it's the other way round.
Click to expand...

Most health issues (especially pain related or dental ones start with harder foods) but sometimes a problem can start with veg.

Could it be something stuck in the mouth? Unfortunately, we can only guess based on the filter of your own perception. I would recommend to book a vet appointment before the bank holiday for a check, including his mouth.
 
He's just had a check last week and they said that he had one tooth ever so slightly longer than the other and recommended we give him some chews, which we have. The other piggies has not eaten his breakfast either this morning and I'm starting to think they might have been spoiled when we were away as I noticed some quite large chunks of carrot in the cage. We wouldn't normally only give them a small slice at a time.
 
Gingerspider said:
He's just had a check last week and they said that he had one tooth ever so slightly longer than the other and recommended we give him some chews, which we have. The other piggies has not eaten his breakfast either this morning and I'm starting to think they might have been spoiled when we were away as I noticed some quite large chunks of carrot in the cage. We wouldn't normally only give them a small slice at a time.
Click to expand...

Which tooth is longer?
If the incisors are slanted then it can suggest that there may be a problem with the molars which would need proper dental investigation. Giving a chew won’t help if the issue is the molars - chewing hay or grass is the only thing which keeps the molars in check
 
Not sure which one although I think I might have found a more telling symptom. He's on floor time and has just done a monster round poop that smells awful. It smells like doggy doo. Could he have eaten something off?
 
So we kept him off veggies last night to see if that helped. He's not really been eating hay this morning and will only eat peppers and nuggets now and is definitely not himself. Very lethargic, so we took him to the vet this morning. Vet said he's not worried as he couldn't feel anything and weight is good. Recommended we feed him his normal diet and see if it settles down.
I noticed his bottom front tooth is much smaller and slanted than the other one but the vet said he couldn't see anything with his back teeth?
I'm quite worried because his poops are really small and still smelly and we think he might have impaction (we can see some poop stuck) but the vet also said that he didn't. With him not eating and us due to go away tomorrow I'm really panicking now
 
Gingerspider said:
So we kept him off veggies last night to see if that helped. He's not really been eating hay this morning and will only eat peppers and nuggets now and is definitely not himself. Very lethargic, so we took him to the vet this morning. Vet said he's not worried as he couldn't feel anything and weight is good. Recommended we feed him his normal diet and see if it settles down.
I noticed his bottom front tooth is much smaller and slanted than the other one but the vet said he couldn't see anything with his back teeth?
I'm quite worried because his poops are really small and still smelly and we think he might have impaction (we can see some poop stuck) but the vet also said that he didn't. With him not eating and us due to go away tomorrow I'm really panicking now
Click to expand...

I would be very concerned about lethargy, lack of hay intake and the small poops. All this signifies that there is in fact something wrong and his hay intake is declining

His weight may be good today but you need to monitor it daily so hay intake can be monitored - if he isn’t eating hay then he is likely to lose weight. Given veg and nuggets are only 20% of the daily food intake, you can see that it isn’t enough.
Please step in and syringe feed him a recovery feed or mushed pellets.

Was he sedated for the molars to be properly checked?
Slanting can suggest there is in fact a problem with the back of the mouth and your piggy is not chewing hay evenly at the back.

Is he going to somebody knowledgeable while you are on holiday?

Wiebke

Thread 'Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support'

1 Weight and Weight Loss
- Why regular weight monitoring matters
- How weight changes over a lifetime
- How to weigh on your kitchen scales (with video)
- The weight loss rules
- How critical is the weight loss for my piggy?
- Possible causes for weight loss
2 Body Mass Index (BMI) or 'Heft'
- Why is understanding your piggy's weight so important?
- 'Average' weight vs. individual weight - the big trip up
- How to check for the BMI
3 The...
  • Like
 
Thank you. We went back to our vet nurse as well and asked for some probiotics, she also gave us fibreplex to give to him but said don't stress him unless needed, so going to see if he will willingly take from the syringe. He's eating nuggets happily but definitely not much hay now and I can see he's having problems with his chew. He wasn't sedated because the vet didn't want to and told us it was risky. Our pig sitter comes to the house twice a day. She's very good and has always had piggies bit obviously we don't want to leave him if he's not eating but I can't can't cancel, so thinking we may also pop back intermittently. It seems to have happened very quickly. Is it possible he's got something stuck and we can try and dislodge?
 
Gingerspider said:
Thank you. We went back to our vet nurse as well and asked for some probiotics, she also gave us fibreplex to give to him but said don't stress him unless needed, so going to see if he will willingly take from the syringe. He's eating nuggets happily but definitely not much hay now and I can see he's having problems with his chew. He wasn't sedated because the vet didn't want to and told us it was risky. Our pig sitter comes to the house twice a day. She's very good and has always had piggies bit obviously we don't want to leave him if he's not eating but I can't can't cancel, so thinking we may also pop back intermittently. It seems to have happened very quickly. Is it possible he's got something stuck and we can try and dislodge?
Click to expand...

It’s hay which syringe feeding critical care is replacing. Can you try to get some oxbow critical care or emeraid as a syringe feed?
Mushed pellets is the emergency alternative.
Fibreplex is just a probiotic to help settle his tummy, it is not a food.

He needs to be weighed each morning and syringe fed accordingly to stop weight loss the next day - that can mean needing to be fed every 2-4 hours throughout the day depending on how much is taken at each syringe feed.

There could be anything going on back there but you cannot find it yourself nor can you try to dislodge anything - you can’t see inside his mouth and you certainly can’t put anything in his mouth without risking hurting him.
If there is some dental issue then he needs specialist treatment.
If you can see he is having problems with chewing then I can only suggest that he is seen by a vet who is knowledgeable on these issues

Wiebke

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

Introduction
1 Choosing the right place to medicate/feed your piggy
2 Guinea pig whispering and asserting your authority
3 Recovery products and emergency improvisation
4 Syringe recommendations
5 Weight monitoring: your biggest ally
6 Weight loss guidelines and when to step in with feeding
7 Syringe feeding amounts/frequency advice
8 Practical medication and syringing tips
9 Medicating and feeding cooperative guinea pigs (videos)
10 Medicating and feeding uncooperative guinea pigs (hold pictures and tips)
11 The line between life and...
  • Like
  • Love
 
We're going to try the vets again. Weirdly he will eat his nuggets but I'll try mush as well.
He perked up after the fibreplex but still struggling to chew so going to see what the vets say so doubt we'll get in before the bank holiday
 
Gingerspider said:
We're going to try the vets again. Weirdly he will eat his nuggets but I'll try mush as well.
He perked up after the fibreplex but still struggling to chew so going to see what the vets say so doubt we'll get in before the bank holiday
Click to expand...

Nuggets tend to go soft in the mouth and be quite easy to eat, hence why they can often still eat them when there is a mouth issue. The fact he isn’t eating hay is why you need to replace hay intake with a high fibre recovery feed. Mushed pellets don’t contain as much fibre as proper recovery feed does , but it is instead the emergency alternative.
You need to get as much mush into him as is necessary so he doesn’t lose weight - amount 60ml or so each day.
As I say, fibreplex helps to settle the gut bacteria, it’s not going to fix any issue in the mouth.
 
He's clearly hungry and popped at the salad bag rustling this morning (for Ron) he ate some small bits of apple last night and perked up, ran around and ate a load of hay. This morning the cage is full of poops, still mushy and his hay has done down. He tried to eat a little bit of apple and really struggled like he was choking but then went and hoovered a load of coriander stalks. He's started eating a bit of hay again but won't touch the nuggets or mush that I made. He also isn't drinking either from the the bottle or bowl
He's been washing since last night so looking a bit perkier.
It seems to me that his mouth/chewing is the issue and guessing the poops are a side effect of not eating enough.
We are going to try find some critical care and try him on that this morning.
 
It’s good he has appetite.

Please weigh him this morning and compare it to yesterday’s weight - that is the only way to gauge his hay intake. Poop output is not a reliable method of checking food intake due to the delay between intake and output.
 
Typically the scales have broken! We popped back periodically and he seems to have been getting gradually better. He's more spritely and has started eating more normally (wolfing veg down) but he still has the occasionally chew problem and his poops are still odd (see attached) and sometimes clumped.
It's hard to know whether he has something wrong with his bowels that are causing a tooth problem or the other way round and the vets still don't want to put him under to check his teeth.
I think we might try to get him seen at a specialist
 

Attachments

  • PXL_20240827_171659677.webp
    PXL_20240827_171659677.webp
    43.7 KB · Views: 2
Oh the other thing is he's relentlessly barbering so thinking the hair might also be causing issues so we've put a spot on him to see if that helps until we can get to the vet
 
Barbering indicates a discomfort issue in that area. Not necessarily parasite related though.
We don’t recommend the use of low dosed spot on treatments. I appreciate it’s tricky while you are away though.
 
He's had a problem with excessive itching since we rescued him 3 years ago. Multiple visits and multiple different treatments and never found a reason for it. Both the pigs were itching so felt it was worth a try just in case.
He's eating pretty well today but I can hear an audible sort of squeaky grating noise when he chews now. It surely has to be something grating against something, though my research on dental issues isn't very positive. Looks like outcomes are pretty poor. So that's now got me feeling awful, especially seeing as our vet didn't recommend treating the teeth as he said it recurs quickly. I really wish there was a good specialist near us. Feel pretty helpless
 
It rather depends on what is going on in his mouth - an issue can need several treatments to resolve with increasingly larger gaps between each treatment or it could be an issue that one treatment.
Dental issues certainly don’t all have a poor outcome. Is there any way you can get to cat & rabbit clinic at Northampton?
 
That's a 5 hour drive for us and with work, I won't be able to get time off. It's a shame there's nowhere near us.
He has improved since last week (both with the level of food intake and mood/energy and his poops are looking more normal) but I'm aware that tooth problems need sorting as soon as, so would like to get him booked in with somebody who knows what they're doing.
The chicken and egg thing is, has a tummy problem caused the tooth problem or has a tooth problem caused the tummy problem and if it's a tummy problem and he's starting to get better, do I want to put him through the stress of lots of vet visits. It did happen rather quickly.
 
If the Cat and Rabbit is too far there is Molly Varga at Rutland House in St Helens or Birch Heath near Tarporley in Cheshire.
Both are excellent exotic specialist vets
 
Thanks! We were recommended Molly today!
We managed to get him in with the most experienced guinea vet at our surgery today and she was brilliant. She said he will need his teeth sorting but recommended giving him a few weeks for his tummy to settle first. She checked his weight which is thankfully only slightly less than last week. She also spotted he had some impaction (which I wondered) and removed that and recommended as long as his poops continued to improve and eating normal, weight normal, to wait a few weeks before checking into a specialist for his teeth. She recommended a few, including the guy who helps treat the animals in Blackpool Zoo, so will have a look at those. He definitely seems perkier and is eating very well again today and scratching less. Maybe with the impaction cleared he's feeling better? Although I'm aware this might be something we have to do regularly 🤢
 
Just an update: Len continued getting better. The poops turned normal again and his teeth seem to have returned to their normal shape and he's eating completely normally now for the last few weeks....
Until tonight 🫣
Started noticing the squishy poops again and he's not eaten all his tea.
No change to diet or environment.
Could it be the impaction? Is this something that's cyclic? Would impaction put him off his food?
 
I’m sorry Len’s a bit worse tonight. I’ve had a boar with impaction. It never caused him any issues at all as long as I cleaned it out twice a day. It would be the size of a marble and it’s the worst smell EVER 🤢. It didn’t stop him eating.

I hope it’s just a hiccup in his recovery and he’s soon well again. 🤞🏻

Also if he’s got squishy poops I’d take him off veg for a few days.
 
I’m sorry to hear that.

It would be a case of going back to daily weight checks so you can monitor hay intake, support feeding if his weight goes down, removing veg now his poops are soft. And preparing to go back to the vet.
 
Thanks everyone. He's got his appetite back today after leaving a monster squashed poop (the size of a large walnut) in the cage from last night. We bought some new scales and have been weighing him regularly and he lost some weight to begin with (he probably needed to. He was 1.6kg at one point last year!) but has stayed at 1.3kg for the last month. Hes 4 years old so I'm hoping it's just his bum muscles going, as we can help with the impaction. It will be a few weeks until we can get him into the specialist.
 
Oh and he did have smelly poops last time but his poops are very firm and not smelly now. Going to try give it a squeeze later when there's two of us (he is a diva!)
 
Just an FYI for anyone reading...it really does smell the worst 😂
We gave it a bit of a clean out earlier and now he's doing his usual chocolate Bananas again.
So weird. I'm guessing this is now a regular thing?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top