Slow weight loss in 14 month old boar

[stef.trg]

Cornelius is currently worrying me a bit. When I weighed him yesterday morning I noticed that he's been slowly losing weight over the last few months. The weight loss has been very slow but it's definitely a continuous downward trend. He used to weigh anywhere between 1069g-1047g. Yesterday morning when I weighed him he was at 1007g and this morning he's down to 997g (∿70g weight loss overall). The downward trend started at the end of June according to my notes.

I'm very much at a loss with him because he appears to be absolutely fine. He's as enthusiastic with his food as always, he spends most of his day chomping on hay, he doesn't show any signs of being in pain when toileting, he isn't bloated, his boy bits are clean, his front teeth are perfectly straight and he doesn't appear to struggle with chewing at all. He's 14 months old. The water he gets is filtered, he only gets max 1 tablespoon of Versele Laga Cavia Complete per day and otherwise he's on a low calcium diet with the very occassional piece of fruit when there is some in the house. The only thing that has changed since the end of June is the fact that he is allowed to freeroam in the living room for most of the evening whereas before they used to come out into a run for floor time. But since his cagemate hasn't lost any weight during that time I'm assuming that isn't the problem.

One thing I have noticed is super tiny poops (about 3-5mm long) in their cage every now and again which I think are from him because they generally appear in his usual sleeping spots. There is no pattern to those tiny poops, however, and they also aren't constant. He'll drop 5 normally sized ones and then a few super small ones in the middle, and then normally sized ones again.

I have him booked in at the vets for 1:50pm today to get him checked over but wondered if anyone had any experiences they could share? Is it time to top him up with syringe feeds? I'll try to get a pee sample for the vets from him so they can check that and maybe also some of the tiny poops I can find some in the cage. Any ideas or suggestions are most welcome, I'm really worried about my little man! Especially because we're going away for 5 days tomorrow evening (great timing, as always!).

 

[Bill & Ted]

Aw poor Cornelius hope you get to the root of the problem and it’s nothing serious x

 

[Claire W]

Bless him There could be a number of reasons why he is slowly losing weight. I hope the vet can help. Please let us know how you get on

 

[Wiebke]

Hi

Have you checked his boar bits in case something is stuck either in the penis shaft (sperm rod or hardened build-up of smegma) or his anal sac?
Boar Care: Bits, Bums & Baths

Otherwise it could be down to a source of some milder off and on pain in the lower body. It may however not be easy to nail that down if it is not obvious. The weight loss is still on the smaller side.

 

[stef.trg]

Thank you all for your replies! The little man had a thorough check-up and I'm happy to report that he got a clean bill of health. His pee is fine, his teeth are perfect, no lumps & bumps, no pain when pressing on kidneys or bladder & his boar bits are looking good too. So it‘s a bit of a mystery. She‘s prescribed us some Panacur in case there are any internal parasites causing his weight loss.

She also mentioned that he‘s quite muscular. Unsurprisingly, the little man runs a marathon in piggy miles a day at least! Not sure if that‘s got anything to do with his weight. I‘ll just keep an eye on his weight and hope it stabilises soon!

 

[mshappy89]

I am glad the vet put your worries aside and all Is okay xx

 

[weepweeps]

Thank you all for your replies! The little man had a thorough check-up and I'm happy to report that he got a clean bill of health. His pee is fine, his teeth are perfect, no lumps & bumps, no pain when pressing on kidneys or bladder & his boar bits are looking good too. So it‘s a bit of a mystery. She‘s prescribed us some Panacur in case there are any internal parasites causing his weight loss.

She also mentioned that he‘s quite muscular. Unsurprisingly, the little man runs a marathon in piggy miles a day at least! Not sure if that‘s got anything to do with his weight. I‘ll just keep an eye on his weight and hope it stabilises soon!

That’s great news. You can relax now and have a lovely break away.

 

[Claire W]

That’s brilliant news Enjoy your break away

 

[Bill & Ted]

Lovely news, have a nice stress free break x

 

[stef.trg]

Thank you all, very much looking forward to a much needed break. Weighed Cornelius this morning, he‘s lost about 6g compared to yesterday. I had a proper look at my weight notes and, turns out, Benito - they‘re brothers if that makes any difference - has also slowly dropped from 1065g to 1017g. Almost feel a bit bad for noticing that earlier! Pewter‘s had a little dip from 1260g to 1201g and back up to 1220g. The only one who‘s weight has been stable is Buttons. It looks like I have a bit of a mystery on my hands here!

I‘ll ring the vets today and ask if I should treat them all with the Panacur and then see where we go from there. I will wait to actually treat them until after my break, don‘t want to risk any side effects while I‘m away. I‘ll keep you all posted about how we go. xx

 

[stef.trg]

We got back from our break on Sunday evening, weighed the pigs every morning since Monday. Cornelius has been between 990g-970g (970g was his lowest this morning), Benito is fluctuating between 998g-1022g (998g was his lowest this morning), and Pewter has been somewhere between 1193g-1202g. Cornelius is down ~90g from his heaviest now and Benito is down ~65g from his usually very stable weight of 1065g.

Overall, not much weight has been lost since I first posted last week but it's still going in the wrong direction. All their weights were up yesterday morning, the boys were down roughly 10-15g this morning. Pewter remained stable. They're on day 3 of their prescribed Panacur treatment. The vet said to give them 0.2ml once a day for 5 consecutive days. Should I be seeing an improvement already? They're all still behaving completely normally, eating, drinking, popcorning, begging for food, zooming - I'm really at a loss about what could be the problem. I would blame the scales but Buttons' weight is super stable so I don't think that's the culprit.

I've got a lot of life stuff going on at the moment & feeling quite anxious in general so I can feel myself getting overly worried about them and worrying that there's something sinister going on. Definitely not helpful at all

Also thought I‘d attach a picture of their weight charts - names are on top of each column: