Losing weight, but no other symptoms.

[raijahallam]

Hi everyone,

My 3 & 1/2 year old guinea pig Gretchen is usually around 1-1.1kg (she’s usually a curvy girl), but about 2 months ago she had dropped down to 870g.
So I took her to the vets, who weren’t too worried as she’s still bright, alert, moving, eating, drinking, peeing, pooping, good coat etc. They gave her a course of baytril (antibiotics), but her weight was still low.
Took her back to the vets as she was weighing around 840g, they gave her more baytril and also fibreplex to increase her fibre intake. We also tried changing her pellet food to one she used to eat to see if it was just a change of pellet that was the issue.
She was still weighing around 840g so took her to a different vets who gave her oxbow critical care for herbivores, vet said she couldn’t feel any lumps in her abdomen or see any issues with her teeth so could just be that we are feeding her too much veg (although our other 3 piggies seem to be doing well with the current diet we feed them!) So we’ve cut down her veg intake a lot so she now pretty much just gets the critical care, fibreplex, pellet food and hay.
I’ve just taken a poo sample to test for parasites and couldn’t see any sign of them. Now going to take her back to the vet for the fourth time to potentially get an X-ray/ultrasound and see if they can figure it out!

Anyone else had this with their piggies? Any ideas what could be wrong?

 

[Siikibam]

When a Piggy starts losing weight it’s due to not eating enough hay. Hay makes up the largest part of their diet - at least 80% - so a drop in ‘intake’ is down to less of that.

What did the first vet suspect when they prescribed the antibiotics? And how long was she on the baytril? The other thing with antibiotics is they can kill the appetite. Has her behaviour towards other piggies changed or she’s still the same?

As she’s losing you will need to give her top up feeds. You need to aim for 60ml in a 24 hour period. So 5ml every two hours. You should also start weighing her once daily at the same time - preferably mornings - so you can see if she’s maintaining or losing. Try offering her the top up in a bowl or on a spoon. Sometimes they will take it better that way than through syringing. I’ll link to guides for that below.

Otherwise it’s up to the vet to find out why she’s losing weight. Hopefully the X-ray and stool sample will give you some answers. I’ll also link to recommended vets although you may find the one you use is already on the list.

I hope they can get to the bottom of whatever it is soon.

Not Eating, Weight Loss And The Importance Of Syringe Feeding Fibre
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
Recommended Guinea Pig Vets

 

[raijahallam]

Hi, thanks for your advice! I’ll have a look at those guides and recommended vets list.

She’s been absolutely fine with the other piggies, I did wonder if she was being bullied off the food but I made sure to watch them eat together for a few days to check, but they were fine, no signs of squabbling at all! We separated her off for 2 days as well to properly monitor her food and water intake and she seemed to eat and drink very normally (ate a piece of red pepper/broccoli, small handful of pellet, grazed on hay a lot and about 80ml of water drank each day).

We top up their hay in the morning and evening so they’ve got a constant fresh supply in their hay feeders. We weigh her daily and she’s consistently been weighing somewhere between 800-820g each day recently. We feed her the supplement on a spoon or bowl at least 3 times a day, letting her eat until she’s full then syringe feeding her a bit more about 15-20 mins later, so usually adds up to about 6 feeds a day in total. The fibreplex (3x a day) seems to be the stuff keeping her weight consistently above 800g rather than dipping below as when we ran out for 2 days waiting for the next tube to come in the post she dipped to 785g, then got back above 800g once she was on the fibreplex again.

The baytril course was 7 days each time, and about 2/3 weeks between the 2 courses. I didn’t think the second course was very necessary which is why we went to a different vet after this. I think they were just hoping it was an infection and therefore an easy fix, but unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be the case. Hoping an X-ray might show us what’s wrong.

 

[Siikibam]

At the moment 3 times a day is not enough. I would offer her some every couple of hours. If you run out again, you can use her pellets soaked in warm water.

How much are you feeding her (them) in terms of veg and pellets?

 

[raijahallam]

Okay, thanks I’ll up her feeds! Their pellet bowl is filled up once it’s getting low, not sure how much it is in grams but the pellet and hay is constantly available. We give a small handful of green leafy veg about 4 times per week and 1 piece of watery or starchy veg like red pepper, broccoli, cucumber etc. each about twice a week. They get a handful of grass, or are put onto the grass run for a few hours about 3 times a week too.

 

[Samxox]

When one of my pigs bestie died she became very depressed despite having another 17 guinea pigs with her, I got this appetite restore and its the best buy I've ever made! It helped her so much and now I always have a packet in my medical box. See attachment below

 

[raijahallam]

When one of my pigs bestie died she became very depressed despite having another 17 guinea pigs with her, I got this appetite restore and its the best buy I've ever made! It helped her so much and now I always have a packet in my medical box. See attachment below

Thank you! I’ll definitely give that a go

 

[VickiA]

Has your vet checked for a pain issue? If dental problems have been ruled out and there is no sign of hyperthyroidism then one of the major causes for weight loss is pain - for the very reason that @Piggies&buns has said - that their hay intake decreases due to them being in pain. I’ve had a few piggies who’ve gradually lost weight with no obvious reason (to me), and the vet has found indications of arthritis or pain somewhere. Once the pain is relieved with pain relief the piggies’ weights have increased (slowly) and maintained.

 

[Free Ranger]

Old George is on long term metacam for his arthritis and he finds it tasty so it's no trouble to give. If I put the used syringe on the floor while I'm checking him over his cage mate will sneak out, snatch it and run away to see if there is a drop left! If it isn't a pain issue then this stuff won't do any harm at the prescribed dose for your girl. Perhaps your vet can give you a prescription on spec to see if it makes a difference. We usually have had this twice a day but George has ended up on a larger dose once in the evening. He has about half a ml of the 1.5mg/ml but he's a chunker. They work it out in mgs per kg of pig apparently. Good luck Gretchen x

 

[raijahallam]

Has your vet checked for a pain issue? If dental problems have been ruled out and there is no sign of hyperthyroidism then one of the major causes for weight loss is pain - for the very reason that @Piggies&buns has said - that their hay intake decreases due to them being in pain. I’ve had a few piggies who’ve gradually lost weight with no obvious reason (to me), and the vet has found indications of arthritis or pain somewhere. Once the pain is relieved with pain relief the piggies’ weights have increased (slowly) and maintained.

Thank you, I hadn’t thought of this! I think we are going to try and get an X-ray, so maybe this will show any pain she has such as arthritis. I’ll suggest trying pain relief anyway in case this helps

 

[raijahallam]

Old George is on long term metacam for his arthritis and he finds it tasty so it's no trouble to give. If I put the used syringe on the floor while I'm checking him over his cage mate will sneak out, snatch it and run away to see if there is a drop left! If it isn't a pain issue then this stuff won't do any harm at the prescribed dose for your girl. Perhaps your vet can give you a prescription on spec to see if it makes a difference. We usually have had this twice a day but George has ended up on a larger dose once in the evening. He has about half a ml of the 1.5mg/ml but he's a chunker. They work it out in mgs per kg of pig apparently. Good luck Gretchen x

Thanks for this info, I’ll definitely suggest this to the vet. We weren’t allowed in the practice last time because of covid so I’m not sure if they checked for joint pain, but both vets we have tried had a good feel of her abdomen and found nothing. Maybe an X-ray will show something, but will try giving pain relief in the meantime!

 

[Siikibam]

I’m afraid the pellets you feed are too much. Pellets are the chocolate of the piggy world and so they only need a tablespoon each per day.

Veg can be fed daily. The staples are coriander and bell pepper (good sources of vitamin c), cucumber and a lettuce leaf. Broccoli when fed too much can cause bloating. Have a read of the feeding guide I’ve linked below.

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

 

[raijahallam]

I’m afraid the pellets you feed are too much. Pellets are the chocolate of the piggy world and so they only need a tablespoon each per day.

Veg can be fed daily. The staples are coriander and bell pepper (good sources of vitamin c), cucumber and a lettuce leaf. Broccoli when fed too much can cause bloating. Have a read of the feeding guide I’ve linked below.

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

Thanks for that info. Our vet said to stop feeding veg altogether so we’ve been following that advice. But I guess we can try this way round now as that hasn’t seemed to have helped so far! I’d say between the four of them they eat about 1/3 a bowl of pellet per day, so that’s probably a little over a table spoon each per day so I’ll cut that down a bit. I’ll cut out broccoli for her as well (although she often just gives it a little nibble anyway as it’s not her favourite!) and stick to peppers, cucumber and some leafy stuff.
Thanks for all your help, we’ve got another vet visit booked for tomorrow so hopefully we can get to the bottom of this!

 

[Merab]

Welcome to the forum.
I am just offering support as you have already been given excellent advice.

 

[piggieminder]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I can't offer any advice but I am sending you and your piggy my best wishes.