• 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

Guinea pig with symptoms

D

Deleted member 154973

Hi, I have a Guinea pig named chip. I had him since December 2020. He lives alone but had 4 cage mates but he fought with each cage mate so now he lives alone. He does really good alone ever since. He has been a very happy eating guinea pig during last December 2023, but then in January I noticed he was drinking a lot more water. I was worried for that time and he went to the vet. The vet did a pee test and found crystals. He got medication for it and had ended on it a few days. The vet also found out he has a small cyst on his gums where he broke his tooth. He broke his tooth from flinging his bowl so he got a much better bowl that’s not heavy and porcelain. Next week he started acting different, what I mean is he is not eating barely at all and is still drinking a lot. He had also loss weight. This worries me so much. I can’t take him to the vet at the moment because it cost way too much for a blood test and I am not an adult. I am a teen and I save up my money for every animal I own. even if I do have enough my parents won’t allow me. They said to wait and it may be the medication that he was on causing this. This still worries me so badly how he won’t eat. He never done anything like this and I care so much about him. I looked up what it could be and I just hope it’s not kidney disease. Could it be his tooth? I am very worried for him. He is 3 years old and I had him ever since he was a baby. He does not act lethargic and acts normal. He is losing weight. He still eats his pepper and dark greens. I don’t want to loose him. Does anyone know what I can do? To make him eat? Thank you.
 
Please urgently step in and syringe feed him a fibre rich recovery feed such as oxbow critical care or as an emergency measure using his normal pellets and mushing them with water to make a slurry. He is losing weight because he is not eating enough hay and your syringe feeding is what is needed to replace his hay intake, stop weight loss and keep his gut functioning properly. Still eating veg is not enough as it is purely a supplementary role whereas hay is their main food intake.

You need to switch from the routine weekly weight checks and instead weigh him daily so you can ensure he is getting enough syringe feed each day to stop the weight loss.

He needs to see a vet to find out the cause of his issues. Him not eating is because of those issues so without addressing them he won’t eat.

Not Eating, Weight Loss And The Importance Of Syringe Feeding Fibre
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
Probiotics Live Gut Microbiome Transfer ('Poo Soup'); Recovery Formula Foods And Vitamin C: Overview With Product Links and Transfer Recipe
Weight - Monitoring and Management

Crystals in the urine is due to a calcium imbalance - likely too much calcium in his diet.
Pellets need to be kept limited to one tablespoon per pig per day. They contain kore calcium than the highest or calcium veggies (kale).
Veg such as kale, spinach or parsley or any other high calcium veg need to be kept limited to one very small amount and no more than one a week.
Filtering drinking water is also recommended.

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

In terms of him living alone. That’s fine provided he is alongside the others in a separate cage so they can still interact between the bars.
Attempting to keep four boars together usually doesn’t work as they find it very hard to form a functioning hierarchy: boars do much better when kept in pairs.

Adding More Guinea Pigs Or Merging Pairs – What Works And What Not?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top