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Lost weight

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Bubble64

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hi I have a guinea pig called Jamie. He is a 5 year old boar and lives with his friend Sparky. I have been ill recently so couldn't weight them last week ans have onky been down to give them hay in the mornings. Don't worry though my husband has been doing all of the daily chores and I have been feeding them but the point is I coukdnt weight him last week and haven't noticed any signs throughout the last 2 weeks. I'm better now and weighed him. He has lost 203 grams in 2 weeks. He was considerable my lighter when I picked him up amd visibly looks much skinnier. My regular vet is closed and I phoned an emergency vets to see if it was am emergency. He is still eating (ever so slightly less than usual) so they said that I am okay to phone his normal vets tomorrow morning. I'm suoer worried about him. Does anybody know what this could be or how it would be treated or if this is extremely urgent? I have no clue what this could be so any advice from anyone would please be helpful
 
Bubble64 said:
Hi I have a guinea pig called Jamie. He is a 5 year old boar and lives with his friend Sparky. I have been ill recently so couldn't weight them last week ans have onky been down to give them hay in the mornings. Don't worry though my husband has been doing all of the daily chores and I have been feeding them but the point is I coukdnt weight him last week and haven't noticed any signs throughout the last 2 weeks. I'm better now and weighed him. He has lost 203 grams in 2 weeks. He was considerable my lighter when I picked him up amd visibly looks much skinnier. My regular vet is closed and I phoned an emergency vets to see if it was am emergency. He is still eating (ever so slightly less than usual) so they said that I am okay to phone his normal vets tomorrow morning. I'm suoer worried about him. Does anybody know what this could be or how it would be treated or if this is extremely urgent? I have no clue what this could be so any advice from anyone would please be helpful
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Hi

I am very sorry. Please step in with top up feeding support now.

Phone in first thing in the morning to see whether you can bag one of the emergency slots but if not, please follow the advice in these links here:
- Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support (helps you to work out how significant the weight loss for your piggy is (If you have a 1400g it is very different from an 800g piggy)
- How to Improvise Feeding Support in an Emergency
Emergency and Crisis Care as well as Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment

Mystery weight loss is my personally least favourite symptom because it could be so many different things. Usually it comes down to either an issue with the eating or processing of food or a pain issue of some sort - which can be anywhere in the body. :(
 
I hope you can get Jamie in tomorrow at the vets. Good luck.
 
Thinking of you today. I hope that you have been able to get an appointment.
 
Thank you so much everybody. We have just been to the vets. His front teeth are too long and on a diagonal. We have the option to sedate him, sort his front teeth out, look at the back molars and do an X ray because there could be an underlying cause. I just know that sedation is super risky especially due to the fact that he is 5. He has been given pain relief for now but obviously that doesn't actually solve the problem. Is sedation the right option here?
 
I'm afraid I have no experience with dental issues, just bumping your post for the attention of someone who has.
 
Bubble64 said:
Thank you so much everybody. We have just been to the vets. His front teeth are too long and on a diagonal. We have the option to sedate him, sort his front teeth out, look at the back molars and do an X ray because there could be an underlying cause. I just know that sedation is super risky especially due to the fact that he is 5. He has been given pain relief for now but obviously that doesn't actually solve the problem. Is sedation the right option here?
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Hi

Unfortunately, any dental exploration has to be done under sedation now. :(

The slant is pointing towards a one-sided pain issue meaning that the painful side is not as much used to chewing, whether that is the incisor root or one of the molars/pre-molars. Most commonly it could be a brewing root abscess in one of the teeth (which may not yet show its hand) but there are some other issues that should also be ruled out.

It is very much between a rock and a hard place choice. If you don't do anything, his teeth will continue to overgrow and he will eventually be unable to eat and swallow. :(

That said, I have about 10 ops in piggies of 5 years plus, including 2 ops for Hywel's recurring root abscess when he was 6 years old. He lived to days within his 7th birthday but would not have had that extra year of life without the operations.

I wish I had better news. Fingers firmly crossed.
 
Bubble64 said:
Thank you so much everybody. We have just been to the vets. His front teeth are too long and on a diagonal. We have the option to sedate him, sort his front teeth out, look at the back molars and do an X ray because there could be an underlying cause. I just know that sedation is super risky especially due to the fact that he is 5. He has been given pain relief for now but obviously that doesn't actually solve the problem. Is sedation the right option here?
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I’m afraid you only really have one option and that is to sedate him and the vet to have a good look to see what is going on in his mouth. Dental issues won’t get better without treatment. The only other option is unfortunately PTS.

I had a piggy who lost a lot of weight and had wonky front teeth. The issue was actually a tooth root abscess that wasn’t visible at the beginning. Good luck. I hope your vet can find the problem and it’s easily treatable.
 
Thank you. We are getting a more accurate cost sent to us tomorrow to show what the cost will show and it looks like I will probably go down that root because the pain meds don't seem to be helping as he has just lost more weight and I'm much rather that he would get it fixed. I'm just so so scared that if he goes in then he won't come out. But I know that there are far more successes so that gives me some reassurance!
 
Hello everybody. Jamie had his teeth surgery yesterday. He has recovered well and is now eating as normal. His teeth were filled down to be straight and his mouth and teeth at the back were leaning inwards but they dont believe that was the problem because he has lived for 5 years without a problem so they are hoping that filing his teeth down will have helped. His poop however isn't normal. It is very narrow and small and clumped together. Some of them are also tear shaped. Is this just because he hasn't eaten much hay after the surgery or does this indicate a gut problem that may have been causing the weight loss. I also noticed tear shaped poop before the surgery however this was because he hasn't been eating much hay. Do you think that there is a gut problem that could have been causing his weight loss in addition to his teeth or is it just because of eating less hay. I have a feeling that the weight loss isn't just due to his teeth because he was still eating yet lost 300 grams in 3 weeks and pain meds for his teeth before the surgery didn't help. So please could someone just let me know what this poop could mean. Thank you.
 
It’s not really possible for us to know whether there is something else going on which caused the weight loss and then reduced hay intake caused the dental issues; or whether the dental issues caused the weight loss due to reduced hay intake which has then caused something else.

The poop issues today are likely a result of the gap in intake during surgery.

For now, it is important that you continue with syringe feeding until he is fully recovered and back to maintaining his weight himself.
 
Thank you for your reply. Hopefully he will be able to keep a healthy weight soon as well as gain some more weight.
 
Hi everyone. Jamie has a check up appointment later today however his weight is still fluctuating between 890 and 940 which is kind of a normal range so that's good however his poop is still clumped, small and narrower than usual. He has been eating as normal and eating plenty of hay so I have a terrible feeling that something else might be going on. Does anybody know what narrow small clumped poo could mean bevause he is eating fine. Perhaps a gut problem?
 
Bubble64 said:
Hi everyone. Jamie has a check up appointment later today however his weight is still fluctuating between 890 and 940 which is kind of a normal range so that's good however his poop is still clumped, small and narrower than usual. He has been eating as normal and eating plenty of hay so I have a terrible feeling that something else might be going on. Does anybody know what narrow small clumped poo could mean bevause he is eating fine. Perhaps a gut problem?
Click to expand...

This guide will help you

Wiebke

Thread 'Wiebke's Guide to Poops'

1 How the Digestive System Works
2 Poo Eating (Coprophagy)
3 Health Monitoring: Weighing vs. Poos Watching
- What does weighing do?
- What does the poop output tell you?
4 Minor Poop Issues
- How to deal with a minor tummy upset
- Funny poops: What do they mean?
- Caked on poops
5 Serious Diarrhoea
6 Impaction
7...
  • Informative
  • Like
 
Unfortunately, we cannot tell you from your poos what exactly is going on or what may be causing the problem.

The fact that the poos are still thinner than normal means that especially his hay intake may not be quite stable and may still be down to where it should be. The clumping and softer, darker poos usually also point towards the hay intake not being quite where it should be. The weight should also be more constant.

I would recommend that you supplement once daily with some recovery formula or mushed pellets or a mix of the two in order to make up for the lack. With piggies who need a daily boost due to a longer term health condition I try to shift them over to a bowl outside the cage so I can watch them and there is no interference from a companion and only use the syringe if that is not working. This should however go towards stabilising the weight and the poos.

What it cannot do is address the underlying problem.

Here is my Pili Pala (Welsh for 'Butterfly' who needed topping up for the last year of her life due to being diagnosed with a thickened lower gut (with symptoms similar to irritable bowel syndrome) and later on developed hypertyroid, which didn't help her weight, either but it gives you an idea of what topping up means: Pili Pala At Pellet Time (video) - not sure whether the video is still working, though.

1723538711573.webp

All the best for your vet visit.
 
Thank you all. Jamie's vet isn't concerned at the moment and thankfully he doesn't need to go back. If his condition changes then I should take him back amd asl for the same vet. We will be calling the vets to update them on how he is in about 4 weeks. His weight is now stable and isn't fluctuating. The aim was for it to go up however we will keep trying and it's great news that he is now abke to maintain his own weight. Thank you for all of your support.
 
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