Dilly's Piggies
Teenage Guinea Pig
Hi, I have a nearly 6 year old sow who has been diagnosed with ovarian cysts/or ovarian tumours.
I want to spay her, but she is thin (910g) and me and the vet are worried this will hinder her survival chances, as well as her age.
The vet let me have this past week to syringe feed her and try to gain some weight on her, however this effort has kind of backfired.
Melody's condition has worsened, previously she was maintaining her 910g without any extra food from me, she had almost a normal appetite and her poops were normal. But since I started syringe feeding her she isn't eating normal food as much, she has become extremely picky and her poops are small, soft and sometimes strung together.
The intention wasn't to syringe feed her this much, the plan was to just give her around 15-30ml per day as a booster, but each day she was losing weight so I had to up the syringe feeds. Now we're kind of stuck here, if i back off feeding her, she loses weight.
The only things she eats are fresh grass, parsley, coriander, corn and watermelon, and she is being syringe fed 30ml critical care every 6 hours. Her poops tell me she isn't eating enough hay which really concerns me, I don't know how to get her to eat it. I've spent quite a bit of money on buying her different hays to eat, such as readigrass, oat hay, meadow hay, botanical, a small amount of alfalfa and different brands of timothy, as well as hay toppers like dandelion, mint etc. She will eat a small amount but get bored quickly.
Despite being syringe fed all week she dropped from 910g down to 870g overnight, I'm having to try extremely hard just to maintain her, its impossible for her to gain weight atm. But offer her parsley and she eats it without issue so fast you wouldn't think there was anything wrong! The vet checked her teeth and they're perfect so there's no issue there, but I'm wondering if the syringe feed is causing digestive issues. Due to this I've been giving her probiotics, fibreplex and bio lapis to help her gut.
I'm at a point where I don't know what to do, do I keep trying to gain weight on her or do I just bite the bullet and go for surgery? I am worried she is going downhill and then will have no chance of surviving surgery later on. I also don't want to syringe feed her longer than necessary as it isn't great for her gut, teeth and won't maintain her. But a risk with surgery is if she can't maintain weight before it, it'll be even harder afterwards until she starts to feel better after the problem is removed.
I also want to say that she isn't really sick, she isn't suffering, she still acts normal and has loads of energy, the only issue is the picky eating and deciding when the best time for surgery is. I think once the cysts are removed and the discomfort has gone she will be OK again.
What would you do in this situation? I don't know what's best. Thanks in advance!
I want to spay her, but she is thin (910g) and me and the vet are worried this will hinder her survival chances, as well as her age.
The vet let me have this past week to syringe feed her and try to gain some weight on her, however this effort has kind of backfired.
Melody's condition has worsened, previously she was maintaining her 910g without any extra food from me, she had almost a normal appetite and her poops were normal. But since I started syringe feeding her she isn't eating normal food as much, she has become extremely picky and her poops are small, soft and sometimes strung together.
The intention wasn't to syringe feed her this much, the plan was to just give her around 15-30ml per day as a booster, but each day she was losing weight so I had to up the syringe feeds. Now we're kind of stuck here, if i back off feeding her, she loses weight.
The only things she eats are fresh grass, parsley, coriander, corn and watermelon, and she is being syringe fed 30ml critical care every 6 hours. Her poops tell me she isn't eating enough hay which really concerns me, I don't know how to get her to eat it. I've spent quite a bit of money on buying her different hays to eat, such as readigrass, oat hay, meadow hay, botanical, a small amount of alfalfa and different brands of timothy, as well as hay toppers like dandelion, mint etc. She will eat a small amount but get bored quickly.
Despite being syringe fed all week she dropped from 910g down to 870g overnight, I'm having to try extremely hard just to maintain her, its impossible for her to gain weight atm. But offer her parsley and she eats it without issue so fast you wouldn't think there was anything wrong! The vet checked her teeth and they're perfect so there's no issue there, but I'm wondering if the syringe feed is causing digestive issues. Due to this I've been giving her probiotics, fibreplex and bio lapis to help her gut.
I'm at a point where I don't know what to do, do I keep trying to gain weight on her or do I just bite the bullet and go for surgery? I am worried she is going downhill and then will have no chance of surviving surgery later on. I also don't want to syringe feed her longer than necessary as it isn't great for her gut, teeth and won't maintain her. But a risk with surgery is if she can't maintain weight before it, it'll be even harder afterwards until she starts to feel better after the problem is removed.
I also want to say that she isn't really sick, she isn't suffering, she still acts normal and has loads of energy, the only issue is the picky eating and deciding when the best time for surgery is. I think once the cysts are removed and the discomfort has gone she will be OK again.
What would you do in this situation? I don't know what's best. Thanks in advance!
How's it going now?