caramelmocha
New Born Pup
Hello everyone!
I'm not sure exactly where to post this thread so I apologize if it's not in the right place. I'm looking for some advice on how to make sure my 7.5 yo guinea pig Caramel is comfortable. I made a few posts a couple months ago mentioning Caramel in a post for advice on Cosmo, our guinea pig who had cancer who has unfortunately passed away since then. Thank you to everyone who responded with kind words, losing an animal is extremely difficult but we appreciate all of the support we received <3. The last few months have been difficult for all of us as we grieve, but we've also noticed the toll on Caramel. He seemed a bit confused and slightly reserved when he didn't hear Cosmo's usual wheeking and excitement. Since then, he is definitely doing better but we still have a few concerns. For at least 2-3 months we've noticed that Caramel has had some difficulty moving around his cage and has been sleeping more, developing some slight bumblefoot/urine scalding on his back legs and a mucky bum. We took him to the vet 1 month ago and they determined that he did have arthritis and that it would continue to get worse as he got older. They prescribed us 0.2ml of Meloxicam(concentration: 1.5mg/ml) every 24 hrs, which we administered for around 2 weeks as a trial medication to see if his pain would alleviate a bit. We did notice that he was more active, but he still would stumble around his cage at times. We decided not to continue with the medications, but if he is struggling more we will book another appointment and talk to the vets about any other steps we can take to make him more comfortable. There were 2 incidents where he fell over due to him not either being able to turn around easily in his cage or he moved too fast and stumbled. The first time he fell (that we noticed) he struggled to get up and we quickly picked him up and checked if he was in pain or major discomfort. He seemed unfazed but it rattled us. The second time he fell over but was able to quickly get up before we needed to intervene (within a second or so) and again, did not seem to be too bothered. Since then, we've removed many things in his cage that could be obstacles for him and tried to make it as simple as possible for him to move around. We've tried multiple cage set-ups, but this is the one we currently have. I've linked a few images with this post to show all aspects of his cage (let me know if there was a problem and the images didn't show up). We've tried this set-up for 2 weeks and he seems to enjoy it, but if there are any suggestions anyone has on how to make it more comfortable, we'll definitely take it into consideration
. In his cage he currently has a GuineaDad "sofa" that supports pigs with arthritis. He occasionally uses it but is quite picky with his beds so it depends on his mood haha. We also recently bought a SnuggleSafe pad for him that, again, he doesn't really like using but we leave it warmed up in his cage on especially cold nights and he likes to sit next to it (I have checked to see if it's too hot but it's very comfortably warm). He also has two water bottles and a hay box where he can comfortably sit and eat hay. We also added some bedding along with his original fleece to keep his cage more dry – mainly in the areas he tends to sit in for long periods of time. At this moment he's quite active and likes to move around his cage, however, we have noticed he has gone back to napping more. This is obviously expected since he is a senior guinea pig but, again, overall seems happy. In other aspects he's doing mostly fine -- he doesn't have any digestion issues that we can tell as of now. His poop is normal, but we reduce his vegetables a bit if we notice it's wetter and he does fine (the vet actually commented during his checkup that he's a "poop factory" 
). Since his bum/paws has been dirty I've been wiping them every 2 weeks using baby wipes and small amounts of baby petroleum jelly and coconut oil. This seems to be helping and he's not had any allergic reaction to it. His weight is also okay -- he has lost quite a bit of muscle mass, and his hips are more defined than when he was younger, but I've also heard that is normal and the vets were not concerned about his weight either. The main reason I'm writing this post is because I've noticed, maybe a week or so ago, that he seems more 'confused' lately. To give context, around 2 years ago we taught the guinea pigs (Caramel + Mocha) that when we whistle, they get their dinner (vegetables). It was just a fun little thing we did and both pigs loved it and were initially hesitant but caught on quickly and this has been our tradition ever since. Recently, Caramel has been purring when we do it -- we call it "durring" but he isn't purring/"durring" in a happy way -- he makes this specific sound when he's spooked. It's as if he forgets why we're whistling and gets scared. After a few moments though, he pokes his head out and looks for the food/isn't scared. I'm not sure if this means anything but I feel like it's worth noting. Similarly, we've also noticed he looks "confused" and tends to just stand in his cage without really doing anything. The reason I put ‘confused’ in quotation marks is because I'm not sure if he's truly confused about where he is or if I'm just being paranoid. He's also been teeth-chattering a lot and seems quite disgruntled. This is normal for him since he likes to express his moods a lot (he can get very grumpy haha), but I was also not sure if the teeth-chattering indicated his discomfort with his arthritis.
Sorry for the long message, but if anyone has senior guinea pigs or generally has any advice, it would be much appreciated
I'm not sure exactly where to post this thread so I apologize if it's not in the right place. I'm looking for some advice on how to make sure my 7.5 yo guinea pig Caramel is comfortable. I made a few posts a couple months ago mentioning Caramel in a post for advice on Cosmo, our guinea pig who had cancer who has unfortunately passed away since then. Thank you to everyone who responded with kind words, losing an animal is extremely difficult but we appreciate all of the support we received <3. The last few months have been difficult for all of us as we grieve, but we've also noticed the toll on Caramel. He seemed a bit confused and slightly reserved when he didn't hear Cosmo's usual wheeking and excitement. Since then, he is definitely doing better but we still have a few concerns. For at least 2-3 months we've noticed that Caramel has had some difficulty moving around his cage and has been sleeping more, developing some slight bumblefoot/urine scalding on his back legs and a mucky bum. We took him to the vet 1 month ago and they determined that he did have arthritis and that it would continue to get worse as he got older. They prescribed us 0.2ml of Meloxicam(concentration: 1.5mg/ml) every 24 hrs, which we administered for around 2 weeks as a trial medication to see if his pain would alleviate a bit. We did notice that he was more active, but he still would stumble around his cage at times. We decided not to continue with the medications, but if he is struggling more we will book another appointment and talk to the vets about any other steps we can take to make him more comfortable. There were 2 incidents where he fell over due to him not either being able to turn around easily in his cage or he moved too fast and stumbled. The first time he fell (that we noticed) he struggled to get up and we quickly picked him up and checked if he was in pain or major discomfort. He seemed unfazed but it rattled us. The second time he fell over but was able to quickly get up before we needed to intervene (within a second or so) and again, did not seem to be too bothered. Since then, we've removed many things in his cage that could be obstacles for him and tried to make it as simple as possible for him to move around. We've tried multiple cage set-ups, but this is the one we currently have. I've linked a few images with this post to show all aspects of his cage (let me know if there was a problem and the images didn't show up). We've tried this set-up for 2 weeks and he seems to enjoy it, but if there are any suggestions anyone has on how to make it more comfortable, we'll definitely take it into consideration
. In his cage he currently has a GuineaDad "sofa" that supports pigs with arthritis. He occasionally uses it but is quite picky with his beds so it depends on his mood haha. We also recently bought a SnuggleSafe pad for him that, again, he doesn't really like using but we leave it warmed up in his cage on especially cold nights and he likes to sit next to it (I have checked to see if it's too hot but it's very comfortably warm). He also has two water bottles and a hay box where he can comfortably sit and eat hay. We also added some bedding along with his original fleece to keep his cage more dry – mainly in the areas he tends to sit in for long periods of time. At this moment he's quite active and likes to move around his cage, however, we have noticed he has gone back to napping more. This is obviously expected since he is a senior guinea pig but, again, overall seems happy. In other aspects he's doing mostly fine -- he doesn't have any digestion issues that we can tell as of now. His poop is normal, but we reduce his vegetables a bit if we notice it's wetter and he does fine (the vet actually commented during his checkup that he's a "poop factory" ). Since his bum/paws has been dirty I've been wiping them every 2 weeks using baby wipes and small amounts of baby petroleum jelly and coconut oil. This seems to be helping and he's not had any allergic reaction to it. His weight is also okay -- he has lost quite a bit of muscle mass, and his hips are more defined than when he was younger, but I've also heard that is normal and the vets were not concerned about his weight either. The main reason I'm writing this post is because I've noticed, maybe a week or so ago, that he seems more 'confused' lately. To give context, around 2 years ago we taught the guinea pigs (Caramel + Mocha) that when we whistle, they get their dinner (vegetables). It was just a fun little thing we did and both pigs loved it and were initially hesitant but caught on quickly and this has been our tradition ever since. Recently, Caramel has been purring when we do it -- we call it "durring" but he isn't purring/"durring" in a happy way -- he makes this specific sound when he's spooked. It's as if he forgets why we're whistling and gets scared. After a few moments though, he pokes his head out and looks for the food/isn't scared. I'm not sure if this means anything but I feel like it's worth noting. Similarly, we've also noticed he looks "confused" and tends to just stand in his cage without really doing anything. The reason I put ‘confused’ in quotation marks is because I'm not sure if he's truly confused about where he is or if I'm just being paranoid. He's also been teeth-chattering a lot and seems quite disgruntled. This is normal for him since he likes to express his moods a lot (he can get very grumpy haha), but I was also not sure if the teeth-chattering indicated his discomfort with his arthritis. Sorry for the long message, but if anyone has senior guinea pigs or generally has any advice, it would be much appreciated
