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Extremely malnourished piggy with potential scurvy

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grimaceandspoink

New Born Pup
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Hello,
I have gotten my hands on an extremely malnourished pig. I can see all his bones and he was very weak up until last night when he was given fresh veggies and vitamin C. He is in good care now and is is higher spirits however I am extremely concerned about his weight. he has access to fresh veggies, hay, and kibble.
SO my question.
I have ordered a bag of “CRITICAL CARE” Herbivore powder (Oxbow brand) on amazon but it will not arrive until tomorrow. Has anyone ever used this and did it truly help but weight on the pig fast? How long should it take for him to be at a healthy weight?
He is energetic, pooping, and peeing as normal. Just extremely thin.
Please help or give any advice. My best guess is he had an extreme case of scurvy and didn’t have the energy to eat until provided with vitamin c and fresh veg.
 
I WILL ATTACH A PICTURE OF HIM HERE BUT PLEASE DO NOT LOOK IF THE SIGHT OF AN EXTREMELY MALNOURISHED PIGGIE WILL UPSET YOU.
 

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It is fine to offer critical care when it arrives, but try not to panic.
He sounds very underweight, but getting him back to good health will be a marathon and not a sprint.
He just needs a good quality, balanced diet and the weight will come back.
It may be tempting to feed huge amounts of everything, but the basic diet with a few extra nuggets, unlimited amounts of hay and a daily portion of fresh veg will get him there.
If he is active, etc. then you are clearly doing something right.
 
Aw, poor little piggie, you could give him a small bowl of plain dry porridge oats (about 1 tablespoon a day) It’s great for bulding up piggies and healthy too. Hay is the main thing and most important for gut and dental health. You can certainly give him some Critical Care once it comes, if he is eating fine then just put some in a bowl for him to eat
 
Best thing you can do for him is get probiotics, starvation will destroy the good bacteria necessary for digestion and it can take a while to build back up naturally, without them they can't absorb nutrients as well as they otherwise could, it also leaves them susceptible to bloating if food is sitting in the guts not being digested.
Try not to rush, weight gain should not be rushed, or you risk refeeding syndrome. You also want to aim for muscle rebuilding, not fat, so stick to a high quality normal diet, supplemented with the critical care and probiotics. You may also wish to book a vet appointment to discuss pain medication, having bee emaciated myself, it's painful. Your joints and bones have no support and it hurts.

Hydration is also vital, food is suspended in fluid as it passes through the GI tract, its really important that is kept going as well as possible, during stasis where the contents of the guts dry out it becomes painful and harder to pass which creates a cycle, pain=reduced appetite=stasis=pain.

These are what I've found helpful with my own emaciated rescues and they've all done extremely well.

Fingers crossed he will be back to good health soon :) be prepared for it to take some weeks/months though
 
grimaceandspoink said:
Hello,
I have gotten my hands on an extremely malnourished pig. I can see all his bones and he was very weak up until last night when he was given fresh veggies and vitamin C. He is in good care now and is is higher spirits however I am extremely concerned about his weight. he has access to fresh veggies, hay, and kibble.
SO my question.
I have ordered a bag of “CRITICAL CARE” Herbivore powder (Oxbow brand) on amazon but it will not arrive until tomorrow. Has anyone ever used this and did it truly help but weight on the pig fast? How long should it take for him to be at a healthy weight?
He is energetic, pooping, and peeing as normal. Just extremely thin.
Please help or give any advice. My best guess is he had an extreme case of scurvy and didn’t have the energy to eat until provided with vitamin c and fresh veg.
Click to expand...
Hi!

If your boy is eating well, and especially eating his hay well (hay/grass fibre should make around 75-80% of his daily food intake because the digestive system is laid out for it and very crucially, the silica in the hay and fresh grass is what is grinding down the crucial chewing back teeth. Fresh grass is high in vitamin C and reason why ginea pigs as a species never had the need to make their own vitamin C. Keep in mind that it takes months on a good normal hay based diet for him to recover and be healthy. Trying to speed up at process is not always the best idea. Scurvy recovery is a marathon, not a sprint of just a few days.
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

If he is unable to eat much hay or firm veg because of overgrown back teeth caused by malnutrition/lack of hay in his diet, then offer him pellets soaked in warm water as a stop gap because what he needs is fibre and not lots of veg, which can easily cause diarrhea on an unprepared gut microbiome.
Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment (includes practical tips on how you can improvise in a pinch).
Not Eating, Weight Loss And The Importance Of Syringe Feeding Fibre

Please make sure that you have your boy vet checked, including his back teeth. Severe scurvy is quite a complex illness that has some devastating side effects on the whole body.
Guinea Lynx :: Scurvy -- Vitamin C Deficiency

@furryfriends (TEAS) who did look after my Teggy in her sanctuary when she and her friend (who sadly died from a and internal scurvy bleed) were transferred because of overgrown teeth after being only fed vitamin-free rabbits pellets for the first year of their lives and being the size of babies at one year old. Teggy is now 6 years and still going. I adopted her once she had fully recovered.
 
Awww....how much does he weigh? I adopted one of our girls after she had lost a cage mate at her previous home and experienced accute pining. She was under 700g and if it wasn't for her having fur, I'm sure she looked just like your little guy.

We sprinkled critical care on chopped lettuce and tomato bits. Other than that, she ate hay like a champ and slowly gained weight. She's 1000g today 🥰🐷

Oh, she did take liquid vitamin C since she didn't like the oxbow C cookies at first. I think it helped.

Good luck! Sorry if I missed it, what's his name?
 
grimaceandspoink said:
I WILL ATTACH A PICTURE OF HIM HERE BUT PLEASE DO NOT LOOK IF THE SIGHT OF AN EXTREMELY MALNOURISHED PIGGIE WILL UPSET YOU.
Click to expand...

Hi

Could you please write normally. It makes reading your posts a lot easier for us. Keep in mind that we are contacted about all sorts of often life or death emergencies on a daily basis and that 'shouting' at us to catch our attention is not needed.

I am very sorry; he is spine is really sticking out.

With your good care and a good hay based diet he will hopefully make a full recovery and live a normal life span; quite a number of my rescue adoptees coming out of horrendous situations have done so and lived to the upper end of the average life expectancy rather than the lower end.

Just make sure that dental overgrowth is not the cause of him not being able to eat enough.
 
I can't offer any further advice but just wanted to say thank you for rescuing this little one and that i hope he makes a full recovery with your care. ❤️ Do keep us updated with his progress.
 
Scooter Pie said:
Just checking to see if there's any updates on the little guy 💝
Click to expand...
Hello!

Thank you for checking up. Following the advice of everyone who replied he is doing a lot better! He’s gaining the weight back slowly, but I expected that! You can no longer see his ribs or hips! His spine is still visible he has improved so much!
 
grimaceandspoink said:
Hello!

Thank you for checking up. Following the advice of everyone who replied he is doing a lot better! He’s gaining the weight back slowly, but I expected that! You can no longer see his ribs or hips! His spine is still visible he has improved so much!
Click to expand...

Great news!

You cannot undo long term damage in a matter of days or even just a few weeks, but a long term good quality diet will get you there in a matter of months. And - unless there are other factors in play - will buy your boy years of life. ;)

This is struly a marathon but great to hear that he is well out of the starting blocks and has is progressing nicely. Make sure that he has also got exercise and enrichment to help build up the muscle mass around the spine. It will come.

It has taken my Taffy months to catch up from the ravages of the place she spent her life nonstop pregnant (with at least one birth near fatal as she had a badly deformed pelvis) but despite her bad start, she had five very happy years with me and lived to the estimated age of 6 years - a perfectly normal life span. The same is currently coing for my ex-scurvy rescue surrender adoptee Teggy; she is now 6 years old and has lived longer than a number of other Tribe piggies. ;)
 
grimaceandspoink said:
Hello!

Thank you for checking up. Following the advice of everyone who replied he is doing a lot better! He’s gaining the weight back slowly, but I expected that! You can no longer see his ribs or hips! His spine is still visible he has improved so much!
Click to expand...
Fantastic! Can we have a photo update of him? Does he have a name?
 
Glad to hear that he is doing so well. What have you named him?
 
So glad he has put some weight back 9n and is doing well, well done to you, great effort x
 
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