Pigging Out

Well, looks like we figured something out. He was squeeking whenever he tries to step forward. So it seems like it's his front foot/feet. He wanted to get up the ramp and he couldn't do it. So we think he's feeling pain whenever he puts weight on the foot/feet. His feet looks normal and doesn't look red/swollen. So for tonight, we blocked off the ramp and put the food bowls in the loft where they prefer to sleep. He's due for Loxicom at 10pm so hopefully that will ease whatever pain he is feeling.
 
So Bryce was 1338g this morning when hubby weighed him when he woke up. He was eating then during the night. I cleaned the bottom floor of their cage last night while they were locked up in the loft. When hubby put him on the floor after feeding him some critical care, which he is bored of now 🙄, he was going thru every food bowl and eating.

So the Loxicom must have made him feel better. He seems okay whenever he washes himself too and standing on 3 legs when doing it. We don't know if whatever he was feeling was pain in the foot pads, the leg muscles, signs of arthritis, or he sprained himself during the night or yesterday morning. He was completely fine Wednesday night.

We allowed him to go out of the cage today to see how he is when walking or running. He seems fine albeit a bit hesitant and/or wobbly before he made a dash. We haven't heard him squeek when walking, apart from when Whitney tried to push him to start walking. He also looks comfortable enough coz he still sleeps lying flat on the floor and not hunched.
 
We haven't fed Bryce critical care today, apart from a few mls hubby fed him when he woke up this morning. We did get a bag of grass from somewhere and he and Whitney are eating loads of them today. I weighed him before I gave them their tea and he was 1331g, so maintaining his weight today. He is squeeking a bit when walking tonight but he'll be due to take his Loxicom in an hour.
 
Update:

Bryce is still maintaining his weight. 1327g this morning. He rarely squeeks when walking and also depending on certain position that he is on. He still has a few days having Loxicom so we'll not know yet if this issue will be ongoing or not.

We also changed their ramp access. We removed the house underneath the ramp and changed it. Hubby bought the extension ramp and will arrive probably next week. But for now we improvised. The monsters love going up their loft, especially when we go out for the day and at night. So to stop Bryce jumping up and down the wooden house, we put a wooden plank underneath to prevent that. He was first to go up there last night and first to go down this morning.

Before:

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After:

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anyar.dris said:
They occupy our living room! They are free range the whole day unless it's sleeping time (10pm to 8am) or when hubby and I are out for the day. They also have a smaller area at the other side of the living room.

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Can I just ask don't they pee and poop everywhere? I would love mine to have more free roaming time but not sure the carpets would appreciate it 😂
 
CTWC said:
Can I just ask don't they pee and poop everywhere? I would love mine to have more free roaming time but not sure the carpets would appreciate it 😂
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We put fleece where they frequently stay, like under the coffee table and their rattan chair. There are occasion that they miss the fleece and would have poo on the mat or some pee, but most of the time they pee and poo where the fleece bedding are (like in the photo below). Oh and sometimes they only drag their poo and some hay when running.

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anyar.dris said:
We put fleece where they frequently stay, like under the coffee table and their rattan chair. There are occasion that they miss the fleece and would have poo on the mat or some pee, but most of the time they pee and poo where the fleece bedding are (like in the photo below). Oh and sometimes they only drag their poo and some hay when running.

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Thank you 👌
 
Yesterday, we halved the dosage of Loxicom, from 0.5ml to 0.25 ml 2x a day. Bryce is still doing fine with it. He is still maintaining his weight and been eating as normal now. We haven't heard him squeeking when walking or running. Hopefully he would stay okay from now on.

Although the other day, while I was rubbing his chin, I noticed there's a tiny lump in there. It's like a small pellet size and in the skin, not attached to anything. He seemed not bothered with it when hubby was touching and squeezing it. I will have to monitor it for the time being.

What's with Bryce and all this lump we see from him every freaking year?! 🙄😑 When we adopted him, he had abscess in the neck. The following year, he had another abscess in the same area in the neck. Last year there was sebaceous cyst on his back. And now a lump in his neck. 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️
 
So Bryce is back to his normal. He weighs 1320g when hubby weighs him in the morning (8am) and 1350g when I weigh him at night (10:30pm). I usually weigh him at night to see whether he is eating enough or not. He is only taking 0.1ml of Loxicom 2x a day now and he isn't squeeking of pain. He does wheek though everytime hubby or I go outside by the garden thinking he'll get grass! 😂😂

With regards to the lump I found in his neck, it's still tiny and same size and he isn't bothered whenever I touch or squeeze it a bit. So just continuous monitoring of it for now.


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fluffysal said:
Love the Star wars bed!
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That bed was supposed to be glow in the dark when I bought it. But it isn't really glowing in the dark. But my piggies love that bed so much, not sure why. 😂

Anyway so I'm thinking that Bryce probably just sprained his leg that Thursday morning last week, probably when he went down the wooden house under the ramp. Coz hubby said he was fine going down and ran to the chair. Then he never mived much that morning until I woke up and noticed he wasn't eating and picked him up. Fingers crossed it never happens again. 🤞🤞
 
Well we woke up this morning and Bryce only weighed 1313g. And hubby saw him walk slowly and every step he take he was cautious. He went to one of the boxes and he didn't move at all. So he seems to have arthritis unfortunately. 😭 We booked him an appointment at the vets this afternoon to be properly seen and we also running out of Loxicom.
 
So the vet has seen Bryce and she doesn't think he has arthritis because he is just young (he'll be 3yrs old around June). She did check his front legs and shoulders (and also the back legs). She said that Bryce is indeed in pain whenever she stretched his front legs forward, but not the back legs. So she's saying it might just be sprained legs/muscles and he might just need more time taking Loxicom for the time being.

We will probably take Bryce to see Ellie Whitehead in case he is still having these issues by next month (I believe she is on holiday at the moment anyway, same as Simon & Kim). We are going to the Philippines to see my family by the end of the month and will be back after 14 days, so by that time, we'll have more time and hopefully ideas on how to proceed with his condition. For the meantime, we will just continue with giving him the Loxicom. He is back to walking and running again, so the Loxicom is definitely helping. He is eating again.

We changed their main cage. We removed the loft and just have the 6x2 main floor. Bryce was quite confused. 😂

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Sorry I haven't updated lately.

Anyway, Bryce has been better after my last post. He was walking, running and eating fine. He was maintaining his weight and we only had to give him critical care top ups every now and then. But a couple of days ago, we had to up his Loxicom dosage because we noticed that he was starting to get annoyed with Whitney and started chasing her again, which was the previous symptoms before he started feeling some pain again. So for the past couple of days, he was fine after upping the dosage and was eating and roaming around fine.

Tonight though, hubby noticed that he started limping again. He was running fine an hour before that. So we don't know why he was limping and squeeking sometimes when he moves again or in certain positions. It's a good thing hubby decided to phone the vets this morning and booked Bryce with Ellie Whitehead on Thursday.

You see we are supposed to fly to the Philippines to visit my family for 2 weeks on 28th April. So we really need to get something sorted with Bryce before we drop them off to boarding. But now that Bryce is having this limp and pain again, hubby is telling me he'd rather stay here and deal with Bryce himself and only me to fly back home. He checked how much the cost for rebooking both of our tickets and it will cost 2x the amount so he's thinking to just rebook his ticket and transfer it to my name for an October flight and I go and continue my flight this April. He said by doing that he will only pay rebooking for one ticket and by October, he might be able to join me. I mean, I don't want to leave him alone and deal with all the things with the piggies by himself (tending to Bryce, cleaning and washing all their fleece, etc.) coz I'm worried if he can do it all alone, especially having arthritis and all the cleaning that he has to do. I'm in a dilemma here at the moment. But we won't fully know what to do until we see Ellie on Thursday.
 
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Here is Bryce during feeding time just a few minutes ago. He is still perky, just that he doesn't like moving much. So we decided to put him in the carrier for tonight. We put him back in their cage earlier but he was getting annoyed with Whitney and wanted to be away from her. Hopefully he'll feel better tomorrow. I really wish they can talk so they can tell us what is wrong or what their pain is. 😩

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Good luck at the vets Bryce. It’s such a worry when they are poorly and you have to leave them for a holiday. 😞
 
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