Rapid weight loss

[Heather B]

I’m wondering if there’s such a thing as delayed weight loss in piggies? My poor girl has been through the mill she seemed to take a bad reaction to an antibiotic as she was fine at night, then noticeably unwell by morning. Not eating, not moving, barely pooing. That was all addressed at the vet and currently you wouldn’t know there was anything wrong with her, except she keeps losing weight the only thing I can think of is that she was put on a high dose of gut stimulant which I’ve still had her on and now she’s pooing like mad. Could that be related do you think? I’m so worried

 

[Merab]

Sorry I can’t answer your question but just want to offer support

 

[Piggies&buns]

Could you give us a bit more background please?

What was the issue she was on the antibiotic for?
Has that issue been resolved?
If so, how long since she stopped taking the antibiotic?
Are you syringe feeding her recovery feed, at least 60ml per day?

 

[Heather B]

It’s a weird one. She’d come up with abcesses under her chin. We decided to treat conservatively with draining, flushing and antibiotics- baytril. This cleared and left what feels like 2 tiny balls of scar tissue. She then got lumps under her left armpit- these are loose in the skin. The vet then found a couple of small lumps on her belly near her genitals. A culture was done which came back with no infection present. However I was still really worried so we opted to try azithromycin. That was the one she had only one dose of and became ill. Not eating, moving or pooing. Vet put her on a gut stimulant but it didn’t seem to help. She then got diarrhoea and got 2 rounds of fluids and electrolytes injected. Since then she got her appetite back and has been playing etc. Getting more lively . Her poo has slowly been returning to normal and is now completely normal besides the huge amounts. Vet has said to reduce the gut stimulant to once a day. She is still a healthy weight at 1.15 but has lost 100g which is obviously hugely concerning. If she wasn’t losing weight you wouldn’t think anything was wrong as her behaviour is totally normal. I’ve been syringe feeding throughout but can’t get huge amounts into her as it starts to really stress her out. I can only get about 8mls into her at a time.