how to reduce the pain of my guinea pig with Arthritis

[nicolefluffy]

Hello all,

My guinea pig fluffy was just diagnosed with Arthritis two days ago He is about 5.5 years old. He has it in his spine and knees and it’s painful enough that he’s not walking. The vet prescribed Meloxicam for pain relief but he’s still crying when I pick him up to clean his poop. I have to clean it twice a day because he’s not moving and I can’t let him sit in his poop I would greatly appreciate advice from anyone knowledgeable on guinea pig arthritis on how I can make his life less painful and more comfortable/enjoyable.

1) What is the best way to pick him up so that it minimizes pain? I gently scoop him up from the middle and butt but even that seems to cause him pain and it breaks my heart. I then shift him to one hand with my hand firmly under his butt and his belly on my arm holding him against my chest so that I could scoop out the poop. I am afraid to put him down because then I would have to pick him back up and I am afraid to cause him more pain and stress with unnecessary movement.

2)When I was holding him while changing his poop out tonight he started to have little muscle spasms. I was wondering what was that? Are they caused by him feeling pain? I thought maybe the position was painful so I slightly readjusted my hand that was holding his butt until he didn’t have the muscle spasms anymore.

3) Is it too soon for the medicine to work? I thought it might be working because this morning and the night before he didn’t cry when I picked him up to change his poop but then tonight he cried again tonight was the 5th dose of the medicine, he has been taking it twice a day for two and half days.

Everything that he loves is within his reach (hay, pellets,water, toys) and his cage has been restricted as per the instructions from the vet so that he can rest for the next 6 to 8 weeks. I wish with all my heart that the medicine would start working because I hate that he’s in pain Is there anything else at home that I can do other than the medicine to reduce his pain?

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m sorry to hear this.

Metacam works pretty quickly, so if he has been given a sufficient dose (and it’s good he’s having it twice a day) then he will be feeling the benefit of it pretty quickly.
Is it dog metacam (1.5mg/ml) or cat metacam (0.5mg/ml)? Dog is stronger and can be the version of choice for such a condition.
If the dose is too low for his weight (vets who aren’t particularly knowledgeable often give too low of a dose for piggies who can take higher doses), then being ineffective pain relief can be an issue

You could also discuss with your vet about joint supplements .

This guide may help also Looking After Guinea Pigs With Limited or No Mobility

I have a 9 year old rabbit who has spinal arthritis and has been on dog metacam twice a day for a few months now. After a couple of doses he looked much brighter, and started looking to move more freely.

 

[nicolefluffy]

lolI’m sorry to hear this.

Metacam works pretty quickly, so if he has been given a sufficient dose (and it’s good he’s having it twice a day) then he will be feeling the benefit of it pretty quickly.
Is it dog metacam (1.5mg/ml) or cat metacam (0.5mg/ml)? Dog is stronger and can be the version of choice for such a condition.
If the dose is too low for his weight (vets who aren’t particularly knowledgeable often give too low of a dose for piggies who can take higher doses), then being ineffective pain relief can be an issue

You could also discuss with your vet about joint supplements .

This guide may help also Looking After Guinea Pigs With Limited or No Mobility

I have a 9 year old rabbit who has spinal arthritis and has been on dog metacam twice a day for a few months now. After a couple of doses he looked much brighter, and started looking to move more freely.

Hi thank your for the response!

His medicine is the dog metacam (1.5mg/ml) and his dose is .2 mL twice a day. He is an over weight piggy (1400g) and we are working on reducing his weight. Is that dosage too low for his weight?

I felt like he was doing better because he started whistling again and has been moving more (but still doesn’t walk, I would say it’s more like a shimmy to get under his hay.) Until tonight when he cried when I picked him up to clean his poop. Is it possible for him to sometimes feel more pain and sometimes feel less pain?

I got him a joint supplement but he doesn’t like the taste of it and refuses to eat it. It is not as yummy as his vitamin c drop it seems.

 

[Siikibam]

I’m sorry your boy is suffering. Hopefully the metacam will start helping more soon. I’m not sure about dosage so will not make any recommendations there.

Before trying to reduce his weight, please feel his heft. The heft is the better indicator of whether they are underweight, overweight or right. There is no one size fits all or correct range. It’s down to each individual piggy - as with humans. Have a read of the guide below.

How much are you giving him in terms of pellets and veg? Pellets should only be a tablespoon a day. They’re the chocolate of the piggy world. Veg is 50g/a cup a day. They should be eating hay, hay and more hay.

I hope he starts feeling better soon and can get back to moving around again.
Weight - Monitoring and Management

PS are you weighing him weekly?

 

[weepweeps]

My two boys are that weight and they are not fat. Like @Siikibam says check his heft. Hope he feels better soon and the medication helps.

 

[Free Ranger]

Hi and welcome. I'm sorry for your boy and his situation. I have some experience here...
This is my pig George. He is also 5 1/2 now. He is neutered, and just under 1.4 kilo but that is his natural weight so don't worry too much about that weight. George has arthritis and also gets impacted but he is now living a good life so I will tell you our story. The key has been metacam and glucosamine supplements.

When he was 4 1/2 he got a urine infection for the first time. He didn't squeak when he peed but his tummy was wet all the time from urine dripping. I thought at first he was just laying in his own pee (which he actually was anyway) but I had also noticed large clumps of poops occasionally in the cage - one was like a big cork! The vet showed me how to unblock him - some old boys get baggy around the back end and the waste poops accumulate... but the soft squishy poop that they eat (which we don't usually see) was acting like a mortar to bind all the poops together! When she was examining him she said his back 'knees' were stiff and swollen because he had arthritis. He didn't move about much but I just thought he was a shy boy - he loves to hide. The other giveaway was that he had hair in his teeth and was going a bit bald on the inside of his back legs from nibbling at them. If you pull the bottom lip down you will see the lower incisors at the front. They don't look very long but they are actually growing out of a gummy 'pocket' which you can also pull down a little until you see the full length of the tooth (scary!) and the gum where the tooth grow from. George was getting tufts of his black hair stuck in that gummy pocket. The vet said they nibble at a sore joint just like we would rub at a sore wrist or something. He got metacam and antibiotics for the UTI, which cleared up quickly so his tummy was now dry again. But he was still lying around a lot and favouring soft surfaces like a snuggle tunnel or cushion.

For his arthritis George was prescribed a total of 8 'units' of dog metacam per day (1.5mg/ml). We give this now as two lots of 4 'units' - morning and evening. What is a unit? Well not quite sure because the metacam comes with a special syringe that has a picture of a dog on, but it's nearly 0.3 ml each time. The vet that sees George has been prescribing dog metacam for pigs for some years and she thinks this is quite a low dose. Certainly when I've had pigs with other problems like bladder stones they've had more. But George has to be on it for ever so it's a compromise to keep his kidneys healthy! He seemed more comfortable but he still got hair in his teeth. He is checked over every night: (1) remove tuft of hair from lower gum pocket, (2) give evening meds, (3) flip him and feel his bottom... does it bulge like he's about to lay an egg? It's poop - splosh on warm water and apply a little pressure to empty him out. Then he shuffles off complaining, but he's better for it!

This went on for a couple of months and he was OK, but then my friend (who had lost her elderly rabbit in Feb this year) gave me a half-used pack of Oxbow Joint Support lozenges (perhaps you would call them cookies in the states) so I thought 'nothing to lose...' and used them as a daily 'treat' not really expecting to see any difference - but how wrong I was. George was a bit wary at first but soon realised he liked them. He had one a day. After a couple of weeks I thought, "hey, George is coming out more..." as he would following my 2 girls out in the morning to get his cucumber rather than waiting for me to bring his piece over. But after a month it was very obvious he was moving much more freely and even trying a little trot. The real clincher - the thing that convinced me it wasn't just my imagination - was that he no longer had hair in his teeth! His weight was now 1.35kg instead of 1.4 which made me anxious at first but it was actually just because he was moving about more. Even his impaction improved a bit and some nights he is clear. He has maintained that lower weight. He still likes a soft surface to lie on and I guess he could still have little flare ups of the arthritis but this system is currently working for us.

So I would persevere with the glucosamine. The oxbow has 90mg per lozenge... I actually break one in half for one of my other pigs who has had trouble with gritty pee as it is also used for bladder support. My third pig doesn't like them and refuses to touch them so I'm hoping she never needs them! But there are other sources of glucosamine - one member has seen good results with a dog version called 4joints. Here is a link to another recent thread about stiff piggy joints Has anyone used Oxbox joint support biscuits?

And here is a picture of George for good measure now he can plough through the grass again! Good luck Fluffy x

 

[Swissgreys]

You have already had lots of great advice, but what I would say is that does of metacam is quite low for his size.
Where are you based and how experienced is your vet with guinea pigs?
Sometimes vets who don't deal with guinea pigs a lot don't realise that the latest research shows guinea pigs can tolerate a higher does of metacam than was previously though.

I hope your boy starts to feel better soon.

 

[YvonneBlue]

I have a 6 year old guinea pig, Peggy, with arthritis in her spine. She has been to an exotics vet recommended here on the forum. She weighs a little over 1kg and has been prescribed Metacam (for dogs) at 0.7ml twice daily and also Gabapentin. These medications have made a huge difference to her quality of life. She was dragging her back legs and losing weight, now she moves around happily and is gaining weight.

I would suggest asking your vet for a higher dose of Metacam and possibly Gabapentin too. Although our vet did say that the Gabapentin doesn't work in every case.

We are also giving Peggy 0.4ml of 4Joints daily as recommended by Debbie who runs TEAS (a rescue for guinea pigs with long term medical issues).

Hope you can get your piggy feeling more comfortable.

 

[Spaniel]

The dose does seem low.

I have a 5.5 year old who weighs 1.1kg approx. She started on metacam as and when needed at 0.8ml dog metacam twice daily. When she needed to move onto full time metacam she started higher then tapered down to 0.5ml twice daily and the vet said this is her long term dose. She’s doing really well on it. She’s still waddles a bit but she’s comfortable

 

[nicolefluffy]

I’m sorry your boy is suffering. Hopefully the metacam will start helping more soon. I’m not sure about dosage so will not make any recommendations there.

Before trying to reduce his weight, please feel his heft. The heft is the better indicator of whether they are underweight, overweight or right. There is no one size fits all or correct range. It’s down to each individual piggy - as with humans. Have a read of the guide below.

How much are you giving him in terms of pellets and veg? Pellets should only be a tablespoon a day. They’re the chocolate of the piggy world. Veg is 50g/a cup a day. They should be eating hay, hay and more hay.

I hope he starts feeling better soon and can get back to moving around again.
Weight - Monitoring and Management

PS are you weighing him weekly?

What is his heft? The vet said he was over weight so that was what I was going off when I said he was over weight. I used to keep his pellets in his cage all the time and let him eat when he’s hungry, I didn’t know it was like chocolate to them! Now I have reduced it to 1/8th a cup a day. And the veggies have been reduced to 70g a day.

 

[nicolefluffy]

I have a 6 year old guinea pig, Peggy, with arthritis in her spine. She has been to an exotics vet recommended here on the forum. She weighs a little over 1kg and has been prescribed Metacam (for dogs) at 0.7ml twice daily and also Gabapentin. These medications have made a huge difference to her quality of life. She was dragging her back legs and losing weight, now she moves around happily and is gaining weight.

I would suggest asking your vet for a higher dose of Metacam and possibly Gabapentin too. Although our vet did say that the Gabapentin doesn't work in every case.

We are also giving Peggy 0.4ml of 4Joints daily as recommended by Debbie who runs TEAS (a rescue for guinea pigs with long term medical issues).

Hope you can get your piggy feeling more comfortable.

That sounds exactly like fluffy, he was dragging his feet before the metacam too. The good thing is that I saw him move today and he didn’t drag his back legs but he also didn’t move far. I’m still worried the dose is too small. Do you think since this is the third day he’s been on it I should wait longer before asking the vet if the dose is too small? I will definitely talk to the vet about Gabapentin. Thank you!

 

[nicolefluffy]

You have already had lots of great advice, but what I would say is that does of metacam is quite low for his size.
Where are you based and how experienced is your vet with guinea pigs?
Sometimes vets who don't deal with guinea pigs a lot don't realise that the latest research shows guinea pigs can tolerate a higher does of metacam than was previously though.

I hope your boy starts to feel better soon.

I am in Massachusetts, USA. I went to the specific vet because they take small animals too. They have a whole page on their website about how g they treat guniea pigs. I am going to give them a call and ask them why the dose was so low.

 

[nicolefluffy]

Hi and welcome. I'm sorry for your boy and his situation. I have some experience here...
This is my pig George. He is also 5 1/2 now. He is neutered, and just under 1.4 kilo but that is his natural weight so don't worry too much about that weight. George has arthritis and also gets impacted but he is now living a good life so I will tell you our story. The key has been metacam and glucosamine supplements.

When he was 4 1/2 he got a urine infection for the first time. He didn't squeak when he peed but his tummy was wet all the time from urine dripping. I thought at first he was just laying in his own pee (which he actually was anyway) but I had also noticed large clumps of poops occasionally in the cage - one was like a big cork! The vet showed me how to unblock him - some old boys get baggy around the back end and the waste poops accumulate... but the soft squishy poop that they eat (which we don't usually see) was acting like a mortar to bind all the poops together! When she was examining him she said his back 'knees' were stiff and swollen because he had arthritis. He didn't move about much but I just thought he was a shy boy - he loves to hide. The other giveaway was that he had hair in his teeth and was going a bit bald on the inside of his back legs from nibbling at them. If you pull the bottom lip down you will see the lower incisors at the front. They don't look very long but they are actually growing out of a gummy 'pocket' which you can also pull down a little until you see the full length of the tooth (scary!) and the gum where the tooth grow from. George was getting tufts of his black hair stuck in that gummy pocket. The vet said they nibble at a sore joint just like we would rub at a sore wrist or something. He got metacam and antibiotics for the UTI, which cleared up quickly so his tummy was now dry again. But he was still lying around a lot and favouring soft surfaces like a snuggle tunnel or cushion.

For his arthritis George was prescribed a total of 8 'units' of dog metacam per day (1.5mg/ml). We give this now as two lots of 4 'units' - morning and evening. What is a unit? Well not quite sure because the metacam comes with a special syringe that has a picture of a dog on, but it's nearly 0.3 ml each time. The vet that sees George has been prescribing dog metacam for pigs for some years and she thinks this is quite a low dose. Certainly when I've had pigs with other problems like bladder stones they've had more. But George has to be on it for ever so it's a compromise to keep his kidneys healthy! He seemed more comfortable but he still got hair in his teeth. He is checked over every night: (1) remove tuft of hair from lower gum pocket, (2) give evening meds, (3) flip him and feel his bottom... does it bulge like he's about to lay an egg? It's poop - splosh on warm water and apply a little pressure to empty him out. Then he shuffles off complaining, but he's better for it!

This went on for a couple of months and he was OK, but then my friend (who had lost her elderly rabbit in Feb this year) gave me a half-used pack of Oxbow Joint Support lozenges (perhaps you would call them cookies in the states) so I thought 'nothing to lose...' and used them as a daily 'treat' not really expecting to see any difference - but how wrong I was. George was a bit wary at first but soon realised he liked them. He had one a day. After a couple of weeks I thought, "hey, George is coming out more..." as he would following my 2 girls out in the morning to get his cucumber rather than waiting for me to bring his piece over. But after a month it was very obvious he was moving much more freely and even trying a little trot. The real clincher - the thing that convinced me it wasn't just my imagination - was that he no longer had hair in his teeth! His weight was now 1.35kg instead of 1.4 which made me anxious at first but it was actually just because he was moving about more. Even his impaction improved a bit and some nights he is clear. He has maintained that lower weight. He still likes a soft surface to lie on and I guess he could still have little flare ups of the arthritis but this system is currently working for us.

So I would persevere with the glucosamine. The oxbow has 90mg per lozenge... I actually break one in half for one of my other pigs who has had trouble with gritty pee as it is also used for bladder support. My third pig doesn't like them and refuses to touch them so I'm hoping she never needs them! But there are other sources of glucosamine - one member has seen good results with a dog version called 4joints. Here is a link to another recent thread about stiff piggy joints Has anyone used Oxbox joint support biscuits?

And here is a picture of George for good measure now he can plough through the grass again! Good luck Fluffy x
View attachment 204135

Hi! I just bought the Oxbow Joint Support treats for him but he refuses to even nibble it. But now after hearing your story I think it’s so important that he eats it and I need to find a way to make sure he does!

 

[Piggies&buns]

This guide explains heft. Weight - Monitoring and Management
The number on the scales does not tell you anything about whether a piggy is healthy for themselves as there is such a wide range - heft tells you what is healthy for the individual piggy.

For example, I have a 1200g boar and a 1500g boar - they are both perfectly healthy for themselves when checking their heft - if they swapped weights, then they would not be healthy for their body size.

You put your hands around them and see if you can feel their ribs with a nice covering of fat - the guide explains it all.

 

[nicolefluffy]

Thank you!

 

[PigglePuggle]

Excellent advice already given here, it is well worth persevering with a glucosamine joint support supplement- we have an arthritic old piggy and our vet recommended capsules of glucosamine with chondroitin which are meant for dogs, and I have been opening the capsule to either give the powder mixed with apple&carrot juice in a syringe, or hidden between 2 thin cucumber slices- and a week later this had made an amazing difference, along with twice daily meloxican pain relief. For the glucosamine, our vet recommended "front loading" with a high dose of 250mg for the first few days, then 130mg daily afterwards- if that helps you at all

 

[Free Ranger]

I once read that the average boar 'should' be between 1 and 1.2 kilo but I think that's pretty outdated advice now. Nearly all my pigs have been bigger. My (only just) smallest sow Flora is currently 3 years, 1.3kilo, and a wide load! But she's also feisty, muscular, and incredibly active. She can leap up steps to get to our grass patch. She is the pig that eats the fewest pellets but she does gorge on grass and is first to the hay. I don't restrict to quite the 1tbsp per pig per day that the forum (rightly) recommends for calcium intake but I'm not far over that and the pigs don't usually finish the bowl - possibly because I restrict the pellets they really like and back them up with pellets they're not so bothered about like a proper meanie! With the hay pile and a big wallop of grass every day they're probably too full by dinner time anyway. I'm not sure you can diet pigs in a healthy way but I may be wrong. If Fluffy is able to find relief from his condition he will most likely move a little more all on his own and his weight will naturally settle. I know that sometimes piggies find themselves in awfully cramped conditions (hamster-style cages) without the space to trot about and this can lead to unhappy weight gain, but if a pig has had enough room for 5 years to move around freely and enough hay to eat such that his teeth haven't overgrown he would seem to have managed pretty well so far. You've likely just got a nice big boy who can't move around quite as much as he would like because of a medical condition
Oh, this is black and white Flora with a freshly trimmed ginger and white Louise (but we don't mention her weight because she's sensitive!)

 

[Free Ranger]

I just bought the Oxbow Joint Support treats for him but he refuses to even nibble it.

PS - I wonder if you could try soaking one so they are a bit softer... perhaps that is putting him off. They do CRUNCH quite loudly so it might be too much of a challenge?!

 

[nicolefluffy]

Excellent advice already given here, it is well worth persevering with a glucosamine joint support supplement- we have an arthritic old piggy and our vet recommended capsules of glucosamine with chondroitin which are meant for dogs, and I have been opening the capsule to either give the powder mixed with apple&carrot juice in a syringe, or hidden between 2 thin cucumber slices- and a week later this had made an amazing difference, along with twice daily meloxican pain relief. For the glucosamine, our vet recommended "front loading" with a high dose of 250mg for the first few days, then 130mg daily afterwards- if that helps you at all

that is a good way to hide it, I will try that!

 

[nicolefluffy]

do you t

I have a 6 year old guinea pig, Peggy, with arthritis in her spine. She has been to an exotics vet recommended here on the forum. She weighs a little over 1kg and has been prescribed Metacam (for dogs) at 0.7ml twice daily and also Gabapentin. These medications have made a huge difference to her quality of life. She was dragging her back legs and losing weight, now she moves around happily and is gaining weight.

I would suggest asking your vet for a higher dose of Metacam and possibly Gabapentin too. Although our vet did say that the Gabapentin doesn't work in every case.

We are also giving Peggy 0.4ml of 4Joints daily as recommended by Debbie who runs TEAS (a rescue for guinea pigs with long term medical issues).

Hope you can get your piggy feeling more comfortable.

Do you think I could just give him a higher dose from the bottle and see if that helps his pain? I mean I pull out .2mL for the dose that was recommended by the vet, if I pulled out .4mL from the same bottle would that be the same thing as asking the vet for a higher dose?

 

[Piggies&buns]

do you t

Do you think I could just give him a higher dose from the bottle and see if that helps his pain? I mean I pull out .2mL for the dose that was recommended by the vet, if I pulled out .4mL from the same bottle would that be the same thing as asking the vet for a higher dose?

The vet is the only person who can tell you what dosage to give. Please speak to the vet if you don’t think his pain is being managed

 

[Sue and Smartie]

I had an elderly pig treated with acupuncture by our vet, when he started having trouble moving his back legs. I've had several cats done with this too, to help with arthritis and I have observed positive responses to the acupuncture. One of my old cats had terrible arthritis in her back legs, she used to get a treatment every 3 months so she could jump up on to things again
After having this treatment Panda was able to walk normally with his back legs, rather than bunny hopping. In UK it does have to be a vet who does this, and there aren't many who have trained in this. But I have found it a useful treatment, and of course there is no collateral damage to the other organs, which is always a risk with meds. The other bonus is that every single animal I've ever had acupunctured, has relaxed to the point of falling asleep, during it. It must feel very nice for them

 

[Qualcast&Flymo]

Excellent advice already given here, it is well worth persevering with a glucosamine joint support supplement- we have an arthritic old piggy and our vet recommended capsules of glucosamine with chondroitin which are meant for dogs, and I have been opening the capsule to either give the powder mixed with apple&carrot juice in a syringe, or hidden between 2 thin cucumber slices- and a week later this had made an amazing difference, along with twice daily meloxican pain relief. For the glucosamine, our vet recommended "front loading" with a high dose of 250mg for the first few days, then 130mg daily afterwards- if that helps you at all

Can I ask, how do you mix the glucosamine powder with liquid (apple juice, water etc)? I tried simply tipping the powder in to a teaspoon of water, but it jyst clumped up and didn't mix in. I've also tried putting powder on a cucumber sandwich, unfortunately Winifred took one sniff and walked away

 

[PigglePuggle]

It is quite clumpy, we had some limited success making a glucosamine slurry with 2mls of carrot smoothie and using a wider end syringe like for recovery food, but the cucumber sandwich technique works best for us!

 

[YvonneBlue]

Can I ask, how do you mix the glucosamine powder with liquid (apple juice, water etc)? I tried simply tipping the powder in to a teaspoon of water, but it jyst clumped up and didn't mix in. I've also tried putting powder on a cucumber sandwich, unfortunately Winifred took one sniff and walked away

We add it to the water and leave overnight it does seem to help. We use one of those little jam jars you get in hotels but a small tablet bottle would probably work too. You end up with a gloopy liquid. We are using Cystease capsules. Standard 1ml syringe worked fine.

 

[Qualcast&Flymo]

Sounds like mixing it with pellet mush or recovery food would be easier for us, as Winifred doesn't like the smell of the cystease on veg (fussy little thing!).