TangentKid
New Born Pup
Hi All,
I have posted before about our little 4 1/2 year old Amy who is still sick. The full old thread is here: http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=18029.msg355228#msg355228
We've been syringe feeding her for about 10 weeks now due to ongoing teeth problems. The chewing problem is being managed by regular trimming by Vedra at the CCT but this problem has now become secondary to her weight decline. At best she weighed 1100g. When she started to have difficulty eating she was down to 950g. She has been loosing weight gradually ever since then. Today she is 605g She looks like a tiny baby next to her hutch pal who is 1265g.
While trying to figure out what her underlying problem is over the last few weeks we have given her Baytril, Doxycycline, Metacam, Rimadyl and Nurofen (for children). She's also been on other less severe remedies such as Daktarin oral gel, crushed Dida tablets, Fibreplex and various probiotics. She's also has X-Rays and an endoscopic examination, both of which showed nothing.
Currently she's off all meds except Avipro-plus probiotic which also contains Vit A, B & C. We feed her ground up 'complete' Guinea Pig food mixed with water four times a day. We've tried: Gerty Guinea Pig, Waggs, Oxbow, Excel and Russel Rabbit. The only one that she likes however is Gerty. She takes this willingly from the syringe or spoon but all the others are a struggle to get in. We're currently giving her 60ml per day (i.e. 15 x 1ml syringes four times per day. In addition to this we give her water by syringe and extra pureed treats e.g. carrot, celery, cucumber, mixed salad leaves etc.
The problem seems to be that she just poos so much! Most poos are a reasonable consistency, just a bit softer than normal but these are interspersed with extremely mushy poo. My suspicion is that the mushy ones are just barely digested pureed veg. Everything just seems to pass through her too quickly. We've even tried chopping up hay into tiny pieces with scissors but this is very difficult to get into a syringe, even when mixed in with the other foods. Does anyone have any ideas how we can slow her 'transit time' down in order to give her more of a chance to digest and absorb her food?
Another recent development is that she's lost her 'wheek'. She still tries but now it comes out as a hoarse noise, just like a person who has lost their voice. She's also made some rasping noises while breathing over the last few days although this seems to have cleared up now.
Any thoughts or suggestions that anyone may have would be great.
I have posted before about our little 4 1/2 year old Amy who is still sick. The full old thread is here: http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=18029.msg355228#msg355228
We've been syringe feeding her for about 10 weeks now due to ongoing teeth problems. The chewing problem is being managed by regular trimming by Vedra at the CCT but this problem has now become secondary to her weight decline. At best she weighed 1100g. When she started to have difficulty eating she was down to 950g. She has been loosing weight gradually ever since then. Today she is 605g She looks like a tiny baby next to her hutch pal who is 1265g.
While trying to figure out what her underlying problem is over the last few weeks we have given her Baytril, Doxycycline, Metacam, Rimadyl and Nurofen (for children). She's also been on other less severe remedies such as Daktarin oral gel, crushed Dida tablets, Fibreplex and various probiotics. She's also has X-Rays and an endoscopic examination, both of which showed nothing.
Currently she's off all meds except Avipro-plus probiotic which also contains Vit A, B & C. We feed her ground up 'complete' Guinea Pig food mixed with water four times a day. We've tried: Gerty Guinea Pig, Waggs, Oxbow, Excel and Russel Rabbit. The only one that she likes however is Gerty. She takes this willingly from the syringe or spoon but all the others are a struggle to get in. We're currently giving her 60ml per day (i.e. 15 x 1ml syringes four times per day. In addition to this we give her water by syringe and extra pureed treats e.g. carrot, celery, cucumber, mixed salad leaves etc.
The problem seems to be that she just poos so much! Most poos are a reasonable consistency, just a bit softer than normal but these are interspersed with extremely mushy poo. My suspicion is that the mushy ones are just barely digested pureed veg. Everything just seems to pass through her too quickly. We've even tried chopping up hay into tiny pieces with scissors but this is very difficult to get into a syringe, even when mixed in with the other foods. Does anyone have any ideas how we can slow her 'transit time' down in order to give her more of a chance to digest and absorb her food?
Another recent development is that she's lost her 'wheek'. She still tries but now it comes out as a hoarse noise, just like a person who has lost their voice. She's also made some rasping noises while breathing over the last few days although this seems to have cleared up now.
Any thoughts or suggestions that anyone may have would be great.