Getting old

[Wetherill]

I’m at a loss and very, very upset.

The absolute light of my life, my Lionel, is around 5 and a half. Not crazy old, but he isn’t doing well. A few months back, he received a hyperthyroidism diagnosis and has been being medicated ever since. Despite his medication and extra/support feeding, he has dropped to 700 grams. He is happy, eats and drinks— but lately he has been having digestive issues, soft, undersized stools that smell particularly bad. On top of this, he’s been chewing random objects, which he tends to do when he is stressed.

He went to the emergency vet on sunday for these reasons and received sulfatrim and SubQ fluids, and he improved for a few days. Today, though, he is back to how he started before the emergency vet. He saw his regular vet on Wednesday as well, who upped his hyperthyroid medication dosage.

He just won’t get better. I feel like I’ve done all I can, but I figured I’d ask for advice just in case. Does anyone know where I can go from here?

 

[Wiebke]

I’m at a loss and very, very upset.

The absolute light of my life, my Lionel, is around 5 and a half. Not crazy old, but he isn’t doing well. A few months back, he received a hyperthyroidism diagnosis and has been being medicated ever since. Despite his medication and extra/support feeding, he has dropped to 700 grams. He is happy, eats and drinks— but lately he has been having digestive issues, soft, undersized stools that smell particularly bad. On top of this, he’s been chewing random objects, which he tends to do when he is stressed.

He went to the emergency vet on sunday for these reasons and received sulfatrim and SubQ fluids, and he improved for a few days. Today, though, he is back to how he started before the emergency vet. He saw his regular vet on Wednesday as well, who upped his hyperthyroid medication dosage.

He just won’t get better. I feel like I’ve done all I can, but I figured I’d ask for advice just in case. Does anyone know where I can go from here?

Hi

HUGS

Hyperthyroid is not quite unusual in older piggies but old age - as the truism goes - sadly rarely comes on its own and you can never choose the when and the what. This is the time when their much faster metabolism turns against guinea pigs and everything happens in fast forward. It is always a bitter-sweet time.

It helps me to turn the life clock back to zero whenever one of my oldies develops a chronic progressive health issue or just is generally getting frailer and to try and see very day longer with them as the special gift it is. Try not to get too fixated on the end but instead concentrate on every new day and try to fill it with enrichment, love and comfort so you do not waste any precious shared time and make the most of it, whether that is days, weeks or months.
The loss of a beloved one, when you have never experienced one before, can be very frightening.

Be aware that your grieving process starts the moment you realise that time is running out and only in the wake of a loss, which is the real heartache and the gamut of strong emotions you are experiencing right now. It is the second worst time apart from the loss itself that you will have to go through with a loved one that is not going to recover. Your immediate instinctive reaction is often denial and the desperate search for ways to stave off the inevitable. Please try not to go down this route if you can; it is ultimately a lot more painful for yourself that way and you lose out on so many wonderful moments when you let your fears take over.

Medically, there is sadly not much you can do. We do now have hyperthyroid meds, which is a great advance compared to just a few years ago or even a decade ago when hyperthyroid wasn't really on the map and definitely not treatable in guinea pigs.

What you can do is constantly adapting the care and extra voluntary feeding support for him; little tweaks like an extra bowl of mush or two in a day (formula or pellets or a mix - whatever he likes best), adjusting the cage layout to his changing needs, providing suitable enrichment and things he can do/destroy/vent his edginess on etc. can make a real difference for both of you.
Please try to take pride in having got your boy as far as a normal life span. I can promise you that letting go never gets any easier because no matter how long or short your pets or beloved humans live, the end - even when you expect it - will always come too soon.

I would like to encourage you to read our old age and end of life care information link below; it contains lots of very practical tips and helpful advice to make your frail oldie as comfy as you can and to also help yourself with your ongoing grieving process during this time.

If you do it more consciously now by making every day count, you will have a much easier ride later on. By concentrating on living in the now with your beloved one - we really can learn from our piggies in that respect), you are going to make the kind of memories that stay with you forever and that will warm your heart long after. It will also give you a much better framework to hold onto when you lose people you deeply care for because our society does not prepare you for that. Grieving is not just all sad, it also has plent of giggles and laughter, lots of love and moments of beauty if you are open for it.

Caring for Older Piggies and Facing the End - A practical and supportive information collection

All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
Enrichment Ideas for Guinea Pigs

 

[Wetherill]

Hi

HUGS

Hyperthyroid is not quite unusual in older piggies but old age - as the truism goes - sadly rarely comes on its own and you can never choose the when and the what. This is the time when their much faster metabolism turns against guinea pigs and everything happens in fast forward. It is always a bitter-sweet time.

It helps me to turn the life clock back to zero whenever one of my oldies develops a chronic progressive health issue or just is generally getting frailer and to try and see very day longer with them as the special gift it is. Try not to get too fixated on the end but instead concentrate on every new day and try to fill it with enrichment, love and comfort so you do not waste any precious shared time and make the most of it, whether that is days, weeks or months.
The loss of a beloved one, when you have never experienced one before, can be very frightening.

Be aware that your grieving process starts the moment you realise that time is running out and only in the wake of a loss, which is the real heartache and the gamut of strong emotions you are experiencing right now. It is the second worst time apart from the loss itself that you will have to go through with a loved one that is not going to recover. Your immediate instinctive reaction is often denial and the desperate search for ways to stave off the inevitable. Please try not to go down this route if you can; it is ultimately a lot more painful for yourself that way and you lose out on so many wonderful moments when you let your fears take over.

Medically, there is sadly not much you can do. We do now have hyperthyroid meds, which is a great advance compared to just a few years ago or even a decade ago when hyperthyroid wasn't really on the map and definitely not treatable in guinea pigs.

What you can do is constantly adapting the care and extra voluntary feeding support for him; little tweaks like an extra bowl of mush or two in a day (formula or pellets or a mix - whatever he likes best), adjusting the cage layout to his changing needs, providing suitable enrichment and things he can do/destroy/vent his edginess on etc. can make a real difference for both of you.
Please try to take pride in having got your boy as far as a normal life span. I can promise you that letting go never gets any easier because no matter how long or short your pets or beloved humans live, the end - even when you expect it - will always come too soon.

I would like to encourage you to read our old age and end of life care information link below; it contains lots of very practical tips and helpful advice to make your frail oldie as comfy as you can and to also help yourself with your ongoing grieving process during this time.

If you do it more consciously now by making every day count, you will have a much easier ride later on. By concentrating on living in the now with your beloved one - we really can learn from our piggies in that respect), you are going to make the kind of memories that stay with you forever and that will warm your heart long after. It will also give you a much better framework to hold onto when you lose people you deeply care for because our society does not prepare you for that. Grieving is not just all sad, it also has plent of giggles and laughter, lots of love and moments of beauty if you are open for it.

Caring for Older Piggies and Facing the End - A practical and supportive information collection

All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
Enrichment Ideas for Guinea Pigs

Thank you so so much. If he were any older, I’d be much more lenient on accepting it being his time, but part of me feels like 5 1/2 isn’t that old. Maybe I’m wrong for thinking that way.

I’ll do what I can for him. I have extra cozy beds and toys in his & his brothers’ cage. It’s hard to spend certain manners of quality time with him because it almost hurts too much to hold him (he feels sooo frail and thin) and when he has floor time all he wants to do is sit and chew. I’ve been spending a lot of time just sitting by his cage and talking to him/giving him scratches and kisses. He was my first pig out of 5, I lost my Wesley at 1 due to multiple virtually untreatable auto immune issues, and Rory at 4 to GI stasis. He now has two other brothers. Wesley and Rory hurt very bad, but I know Lionel will probably hit even worse. Silly as it may sound I’m 19 and loss is still a relatively new thing in my life that I’m still learning to handle, and you definitely helped

I will definitely read the attached links, thank you again for such a thorough response

 

[piggieminder]

I am so sorry, sending you and your piggies hugs. This last journey with a loved one is never easy no matter how many times you go through it. The threads Wiebke has attached really helped me in the past, I hope you can find some comfort.

 

[Merab]

So sorry.
I can only offer support.
Hugs

 

[Bill & Ted]

I’m so sorry to hear Lionel isn’t doing too well, hopefully you will have lots more happy times together, sending hugs to you both x

 

[Free Ranger]

I'm so sorry to hear your news. I'm going through a similar thing myself. This summer George was 5 1/2 and a fine figure of a pig at 1.3 kilo despite carrying some impaction and arthritis issues for a couple of years! One day he seemed to suddenly develop a giant stone in his penis (miraculously squeezed out by the vet) and a couple of months later we realised there was another big one in his bladder. He'll be 6 next month and if he survived surgery would most likely throw another stone soon after. He's struggling to maintain a kilo now and is plagued by a recurring UTI that we're battling but the antibiotic is putting him right off his hay/grass so everything emerging is fudgy - the impaction is thus worse - this aggravates the UTI - he just feels depressed etc. It was so hard in the beginning to remember what a big shiny boy he was and then to feel his poor bones now, just a few months later. I have a lot of good cries. But George is still OK in himself and pretty lively in the mornings when it's veggie time. He likes his metacam. He is exploring the different types of hay we get in for him although he doesn't eat so much... current favorite is something so brown and skinny I'm amazed at his interest but he pushes a ball of it around the cage and really seems to enjoy himself!

George chews a a hay-cube or bits of cardboard - possibly to keep his teeth down but all of them like a chew at the hay-cube because they eat their way in and then sit in it. They feel safe and enclosed. The fibre helps the fudgy poop... as much as it can at least! The caecotroph poop is the stuff they normally eat on the quiet before we see and it does smell - a sort of fruity, cabbagy, poopy stink. If George isn't on antibiotics we extract the plug and then put it in front of him and he will sit and eat the lot. Hubs dry-heaves - he's on George duty at the mo while I'm away. Don't be squeamish! Anyway, perhaps try something like a hay-cube to enrich his older days?

George has bio-lapis sprinkled into his Recovery food (which has to be syringed... he's not that keen anymore) but we also have fibreplex in the hope that we can get him to complete his antibiotic course this time. These probiotics help the imbalanced gut. They don't seem to make him any keener on the mush but we try to give about 8-10 ml a day. Any more and I'd feel it was more for me to "keep him going" but on this he's maintaining his lower weight, he gets his probiotics and glucosamine, and he seems OK. He lets me know when he's had enough - then he gets one more just because, and a bit of reward lettuce.

I don't know what the future will hold but nursing our older pigs is the last love we can offer them. I'm 50 and he's been the oldest I've ever had but it still feels too soon. They don't know any different and they don't think we're letting them down. All they have is their instinct. But I help him live his best life in the day, then tuck him in at night with plenty of hay and a heatpad. I hope you and Lionel can find a way through together