HELP! My guinea pig is losing weight, has scabbing? on his feet, and his skin looks kind of pale.

[leroy25]

His water has vitamin C in it, and he is drinking and eating regularly, but his poops are smaller than normal. If you have any ideas on what I should do, please let me know!

 

[Hope4gem]

If he's losing weight then he probably needs to see a vet. Not sure what the scabbing can be but a vet can examine this as well. How much weight has he lost? Do you have any recovery food (such as Oxbow Critical Care) that you can offer him?

 

[Wiebke]

His water has vitamin C in it, and he is drinking and eating regularly, but his poops are smaller than normal. If you have any ideas on what I should do, please let me know!

Hi!

Grass hay is making around 80% of the daily food intake; and you cannot judge that by eye. It is the highly nutritious grass fibre that is keeping the guinea pig gut going in two runs through it until it fully broken down. Veg and fresh herbs (good for vitamin C) should only make about 15% (basically the equivalent of an afternoon snack) and be preferably leafy and green; they replace the supplementing role wild forage would have had for mainly fresh grass/grass hay based diet. 1/8 cup =1 tablespoon of pellets is an added source of vitamin C and is the 'dessert' in a piggy's diet.

Please switch from weighing weekly to weighing daily at the same time so you can monitor the actual food intake aas pellet output tends to run a day behind.
Weight - Monitoring and Management

Step in with syringe feeding fibre to make up for the decrease in eating hay. You can soak pellets in warm water in a pinch to keep your piggy going until they can be vet checked.
More practical emergency care information in these guide links here:
Not Eating, Weight Loss And The Importance Of Syringe Feeding Fibre
Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment

Please book a vet appointment for as soon as possible. If you have had your piggies for less than a month, you can reclaim any vet cost from the pet shop as exposure and infection will have happened there; it is within your customer rights of having been in effect sold damaged ware.
This guide here contains information on your customer rights as well as a list of the most common skin problems.
New guinea pigs: Sexing, vet checks&customer rights, URI, ringworm and parasites

If it is currently very hot again in LA, then please consider whether your piggy could suffer from heat exhaustion or a heat stroke. More information on that in this guide here: Hot Weather Management, Heat Strokes and Fly Strike

All the best!