Skinny piggy

[wendym]

Hi

One of my four pigs has lost a lot of weight over the last couple of weeks, he is approx 18 months. Ive checked his teeth, they are fine, he is eating, but compared to the others he is really quite skinny.
He lives in the shed and goes out to grass when not raining, he has an igloo and plenty of bedding for warmth, he eats excel with plenty of fresh veg.....just cant see any reason for it when the others are all quite chunky monkeys.
Does anyway have any ideas?

Thanks

Wendy

 

[Wiebke]

Best have him checked by a vet.

I could be anything from digestive problems, diabetes, worms....

Best have him weighed regularly, so you can monitor his weight loss.

Hopefully, more experienced people can help you further.

 

[wendym]

I did take him into work but our vet gave him a course of baytril, this hasn't really solved anything.

 

[Lucky]

My last piggie unfortunately died due to an initial unexplained weight loss.

Cyclopse (Named by my brother.. haha.. she only had one eye after the other one was badly infected, the rspca coventry removed it before we rescued her) had an internal tumour which caused her to lose weight steadily. In the end she was like a walking skeleton and could hardly walk due to having no strength left in her legs.
We were baffled for ages before this diagnosis though, as she was eating piles of food like any other piggie but was still losing the pounds gradually.

She was diagnosed eventually by the vet who basically said there was nothing that could be done as the tumour was in her stomach. I'm not sure how common this is.

With our very first couple of guinea pigs, it was found that they had worms which caused them to lose weight quite rapidly.. but it was easily treated at home along with vet guidance and advice on how to prevent in future.

 

[teadragon]

Weight loss is an emergency symptom which really does require veterinary assistance. It indicates that something very wrong is going on with your guinea pig which requires treatment.

Baytril is an antibiotic which is used to treat infection. If Baytril "doesn't do any good" it means that something else is causing the weight loss that is not an infection. It will also affect the appetite of the guinea pig and should be accompanied by a non-dairy probiotic.

Since the treatment hasn't had any affect on the pigs illness you should take your pig back to the vet for further investigation. X-rays may be required - particularly of the teeth. I know you said that you checked the teeth but chances are that you only inspected the incisors at the front and not the molars at the back which are difficult to see without assistance. Molars can overgrow in a variety of ways and make it difficult or even painful for a guinea pig to eat.

Pain will also cause your pig to stop eating. While it's fine to give a pig pain killers during this time, you should look into getting to the root of the problem with your vet. You should not give metacam (a pain killer safe for pigs) to a dehydrated pig.

If your pig is losing weight, chances are that s/he is not eating. You will need to begin force/supplementary feeding to combat this, especially if your pig will require surgery or anasthetic as treatment. You want your pigs digestive system to be working top notch for the treatment.

Have a look at this web site as a guide but be sure to take your pig to the vet!
www.guinealynx.info

 

[WhisperingWolf]

I'm sure the other suggestions make more sense than this, but I had a similar problem with my old hamster...
Turned out he had diabetes, but of course treating an animal as small as a hamster is not really an easy or possible task he sadly had to be put to sleep. He was eating plenty and drinking lots but losing weight rather than gaining.

Just putting my two cents in...I really hope it's nothing too serious. But yes, better getting the vet to do a more thorough exam on him,

 

[Lucky]

Our little Cyclopse wasn't diagnosed by x-ray, she was able to feel the lump in her tummy by touch examination.

It was strange because she was eating like a hungry hippo right up until the very last day, but the vet told us it was trying to feed up a dying cancer patient... Not going to happen

Get it checked asap... I hope its nothing too serious.

 

[Laura-CCC4]

Have you "wormed" your guinea pigs with Ivomec and Panacur at all?

After dental problems, this is the next thing I try. Treating with both has, so far, solved all my previous cases of unexplained weight loss (where nothing obvious was wrong). Both are Prescription Only medicines, I have bought mine without but I don't recommend treating yourself as you are not sure quite what's up with your piggie.

However, I would imagine your local rodentologist will have Ivomec and Panacur to hand and can give your guinea a good health check as well as worming them. I believe there are a fair few rodentologists in the West Midlands.

 

[alcesterpigs]

An x-ray of the teeth is not at the top of my list when investigating dental problems, (besides which the vet will probasably want to give the pig a general anaesthetic in order to take the film.) There is no need for a ga if the pig is handled correctly.

 

[Glynis]

Hi i'm sorry to hear about your piggie :{
Have you been regularly weighing him? it's something i only learnt from experience.......it's a good idea to weigh every second week at least so you can see if they are having problems.....remember piggie do not always present a problem until too late, but their weight will often (maybe) show you that something is wrong.
You said your vet gave baytril, does he/she think there's an infection or something?
As for toofies it's so hard to tell we can see their incisors their front toofies but to actually see their back toofies is difficult unless you have the right equipment i hope you have a vet who'll do this without any anaesthetic. Often a little spur or their molars growing over their tongues can not be seen by looking into their mouths, you need to open them up correctly with the right equipment so as not to hurt them.
I wish you all the best, healing wheeeeeeeeks for your little piggie xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

[wendym]

Hi

Thanks for all your messages.
As mentioned, I have taken him into work (I work in the vets) he has had his teeth checked (by our vet) and has also been wormed.
He is eating and drinking well.

It's so difficult as I don't want to put him through to much trauma, typically he's the only one out of my four who get's quite nervous, the others are quite happy being handled and examined.

Thanks again for your help.....we'll keep investigating.

Wendy