fluffyzebbie
New Born Pup
My guinea pig Zebbie is 4 years old and he's recently been ill, but we can't tell what with. We've been trying to help him gain weight after this as he has been in much better spirits and seems to be improving. Through the entire duration he has had critical care feed, pellets and plenty of hay and veggies. He was a loud little guy but he has not been oinking as much, or as loudly as he used to be. (He also has two brothers as his cagemates and they get on very well, neither of them have experienced the weightloss or illness like he has at all and as far as i can tell, they seem to be in tip-top condition for rowdy but sweet almost 2 year olds)
Around three weeks ago, he started having an upset stomach with watery poop and rapidly lost a lot of weight (He was already on the smaller size as I believe he was a runt, but he dropped down to 500g almost overnight from 900g). We took him to the vet asap and he was given antibiotics and we were told he could have an underlying health condition however the vet could not tell if or what it was. He began improving considerably and gained quite a lot of weight back in the first week and a half, which bought him up to just over 600g. This is still very small but he had huge improvements in his behaviour, so i assumed he'd continue to put more weight on back to where he was prior to getting ill with the mystery problem. We took him back to the vet and she saw clear improvement and his teeth were still okay. He's stayed around 600g since, but last Friday he seemed to not be feeling well and he had a wet chin which was presumably dribble so we took him to the vet again. She told us he most likely had an infection so he was prescribed antibiotic and painkiller to help him, which we finished the course of earlier last week; that bought him back to being bright and stopped the dribbling. However, he still has not gained weight past 650g and it seems to fluctuate quite a lot, both from day to day and throughout the course of the day. His poop this morning was incredibly watery but he was eating well and weighing around 610g.
Is there anything i can do differently to help him? The vet doesn't seem to be able to tell what could be underlying but still allowing him to feel so bright in himself.
Around three weeks ago, he started having an upset stomach with watery poop and rapidly lost a lot of weight (He was already on the smaller size as I believe he was a runt, but he dropped down to 500g almost overnight from 900g). We took him to the vet asap and he was given antibiotics and we were told he could have an underlying health condition however the vet could not tell if or what it was. He began improving considerably and gained quite a lot of weight back in the first week and a half, which bought him up to just over 600g. This is still very small but he had huge improvements in his behaviour, so i assumed he'd continue to put more weight on back to where he was prior to getting ill with the mystery problem. We took him back to the vet and she saw clear improvement and his teeth were still okay. He's stayed around 600g since, but last Friday he seemed to not be feeling well and he had a wet chin which was presumably dribble so we took him to the vet again. She told us he most likely had an infection so he was prescribed antibiotic and painkiller to help him, which we finished the course of earlier last week; that bought him back to being bright and stopped the dribbling. However, he still has not gained weight past 650g and it seems to fluctuate quite a lot, both from day to day and throughout the course of the day. His poop this morning was incredibly watery but he was eating well and weighing around 610g.
Is there anything i can do differently to help him? The vet doesn't seem to be able to tell what could be underlying but still allowing him to feel so bright in himself.
