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Help for Gus. Metacam dosage and advice

I'm syringe feeding his own hay and nuggets now at the moment. He definitely cannot eat those at all. He just can't:( he was eating spinach and grated carrot but literally 3 leaves. X
 
He can eat porridge oats in his own though but literally five little bits then he's exhausted
 
You don’t normally put hay in syringe feed. How are you managing to get it pureed?
Using mushed pellets is fine but because of them being coarser, make sure you’ve cut the end off the syringe.
An actual recovery product such as Oxbow Critical Care or Emeraid has a higher fibre content so it might be worth looking into those if he is going to need to be entirely syringe fed long term.

Once he is over the bloat, perhaps you have access to fresh grass for him to try.
 
Piggies&buns said:
You don’t normally put hay in syringe feed. How are you managing to get it pureed?
Using mushed pellets is fine but because of them being coarser, make sure you’ve cut the end off the syringe.
An actual recovery product such as Oxbow Critical Care or Emeraid has a higher fibre content so it might be worth looking into those if he is going to need to be entirely syringe fed long term.

Once he is over the bloat, perhaps you have access to fresh grass for him to try.
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We ran out of emeraid and oxbox hence making our own like vet suggest. Hay has been easy to do. Cutting it incredibly small. It goes up syringe okish.
 
Buggster10 said:
We ran out of emeraid and oxbox hence making our own like vet suggest. Hay has been easy to do. Cutting it incredibly small. It goes up syringe okish.
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Its just unusual to put hay in it, but if it’s working then that’s great!
I would personally get some more critical care or Emeraid because it is designed for poorly animals with higher nutrients than pellets, given he is so poorly and not able to eat anything for himself. Perhaps still feeding the pellet mush for some variety and perhaps even just putting a bowl of it a bowl of it in the cage so he can try to nibble at some himself.

Have you had chance to weigh him yet this morning?
I hope he is ok
 
Buggster10 said:
I'm syringe feeding only.
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Yes, I understand. At first Louise couldn't/wouldn't eat anything at all so she was syringed with support food called Recovery. Then as she started to deflate she took some hay. Her bloat only went over a few days though because it was triggered by diet and she had no underlying conditions.

The Recovery support food we used makes up a slurry like Crit Care or Emeraid does. It's a different brand - the one my vet has in stock. Any vet will stock something like this for small animals and it's not a medication so you don't need a prescription - you just buy it from over the counter. In the past when I had a struggling piggy who was refusing Recovery we had ordered something called Critical Care 'fine grind' (brown on the packet - papaya flavoured and goes down well here - easy to syringe but a bit pricier) and it took 5 days to get here so I was phoning local vets to find a stop-gap and they all had something in. We just had to basically register piggy at the practice with name and address before they could generate an invoice (computers!) and sell me a pack of something. But support food is easy to get hold of - it's just if you're after a particular type.
 
Free Ranger said:
Yes, I understand. At first Louise couldn't/wouldn't eat anything at all so she was syringed with support food called Recovery. Then as she started to deflate she took some hay. Her bloat only went over a few days though because it was triggered by diet and she had no underlying conditions.

The Recovery support food we used makes up a slurry like Crit Care or Emeraid does. It's a different brand - the one my vet has in stock. Any vet will stock something like this for small animals and it's not a medication so you don't need a prescription - you just buy it from over the counter. In the past when I had a struggling piggy who was refusing Recovery we had ordered something called Critical Care 'fine grind' (brown on the packet - papaya flavoured and goes down well here - easy to syringe but a bit pricier) and it took 5 days to get here so I was phoning local vets to find a stop-gap and they all had something in. We just had to basically register piggy at the practice with name and address before they could generate an invoice (computers!) and sell me a pack of something. But support food is easy to get hold of - it's just if you're after a particular type.
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He's doing well so far this morning. Was at the front of the cage waiting for his syringe feed! Tummy seeks to have deflated a bit he's had 5 feeds syringe so far
 
That’s good! I hope his bloat continues to improve and you can get started on finding out what is wrong with his teeth.
Did you weigh him before getting this mornings syringe feeds started?
 
Regaining lost weight can take weeks and often only starts to happen after an illness is resolved and they start eating plenty of hay for themselves.
He will need to be able to take considerably more syringe feed to start to gain while being syringe fed. For context, a healthy piggy would eat roughly the equivalent of 120ml per day so while he is able to take 40ml, maintaining is the best you can hope for
 
Yesterday I fed Pepper 115ml of syringe feed and today he has put on 10g. I was hoping for more but it does take a long time to recover lost weight.
 
I've run out now of cat metacam. Not sure how long he is supposed to be on it?
 
And if he's got an actual URI he'll be needing painkiller and antibiotics. With the best will in the world they can inhale the slurry or choke sometimes and they're more prone to developing infections if they're run down anyway. Well done on those good volumes Gus - I know it's hard for you too when you're not feeling well but it's important to keep your strength up until the humans can figure out what's wrong x
 
Our hearts are breaking. Gus had big stroke early hours of this morning. He was rushed to emergency vets. We have been with him the whole time and so has his brother Ollie. Sleep tight our beautiful Gus. Here he is with his brother Ollie.
 

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Oh I’m so sorry. You did all you could. Popcorn high at the bridge gorgeous Gus. Take care. ❤️
 
I'm so sorry to hear this. You really did do everything you could for him and he tried very hard for you. Take care of yourselves and Ollie,
Rest in peace, old boy, you've earnt it 💕
 
Thank you everyone. Ollie has Gus blanket with him overnight. He's so sad:( our hearts are hurting so much.
 
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