Slow weight loss

[corvidae]

Hello,

I have a 5.5-year-old female guinea pig named Lola who has been slowly losing weight over the past year. Last December she weighed 1136 g, and has been slowly dropping about 20 g a month on average. She weighed in at 936 g this week, so I'm starting to get a bit alarmed. Is this type of weight loss normal as guinea pigs get old, or should I be worried? At what point should I intervene?

Her diet is unlimited timothy hay, unlimited oxbow adult guinea pig pellets (of which she only eats about a tablespoon per week), a vitamin C tablet, and a daily mix of veggies. She is extremely picky, changing her preferences constantly, so I struggle to get her to eat healthy veggies. She cycles between bell pepper, leaf lettuce, cilantro, parsley, cucumber, carrot, and celery. She constantly asks for food, but then seems disappointed when I give veggies. She might just sniff them, take a nibble, and then walk away. The only thing she a guaranteed to like is the white parts of bell pepper or the middle of cucumber. Some days she even refuses to eat lettuce! Today she wouldn't even finish a strawberry I gave her as a treat. She also barely drinks water. I used to be able to get her to eat veggies by feeding them to my other guinea pig after Lola refused to eat them - once Lola saw my other guinea pig eating it she would suddenly want the veggie. Sadly, I lost my other guinea pig to cancer this week, so now I am worried about Lola. She had a clean bill of health at her last vet check in June, and the vet said her teeth looked perfect, so I don't think there is anything physically stopping her from eating. I have had 7 guinea pigs, and I've never experienced one so difficult to feed as Lola.

I am thinking of giving her some more high calorie foods like a few flakes of plain rolled outs or a slice of apple/banana every few days to stop the weight loss, would that be a good idea, or should I keep her on a normal healthy guinea pig diet and not worry about such gradual weight loss?

I attached a screen shot of her weight trajectory from Dec 2021 to today. The orange line is Lola and the blue line is my other guinea pig who passed of cancer this week. The graph shows a pretty constant downwards trajectory for Lola.

So to summarize:
Is this normal for an aging guinea pig?
At what point should I intervene, and how should I intervene?
Is it a good idea to start giving her some rolled oats, apple, and/or banana to add calories to stabilize her weight?

Thank you!

 

[Piggies&buns]

She is at the point that you need to intervene by offering a recovery feed. You can either offer it to her just in a bowl if she will eat it herself or directly syringe it to her.
Older piggies can start to lose muscle tone and lose a bit of weight but it always needs to be checked out as a potential health issue rather than put down to old age.
Do have her checked by the vet again - June is too long ago to be helpful now.

You should switch to weighing her daily, at the same time each day, so you can more closely monitor what she is eating in terms of hay quantity.

Hay is the most important part of the diet and it is that which she needs to be eating plenty of to keep weight on.
Using fruit etc to cause her to put weight on isn’t the healthy way to do it as it is too high in sugar and risks causing health problems and an upset tummy.

Veg is one cup a day and pellets should not be given in unlimited amounts, so it’s good she isn’t eating many - pellets are just one tablespoon per day only.

Weight - Monitoring and Management
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

 

[corvidae]

Thank you for the message, I started giving her critical care and took her to the vet on Nov 10 (the earliest appointment I could get after my previous post). She had dropped to 895 g and I was giving critical care by syringe, but she was back in the mid 900s by the time her appointment came.

The vet said she seemed very healthy, although actually slightly overweight. She also found that her ovaries are enlarged, but said that there was nothing to do about it except for surgical removal of the ovaries, which she didn't recommend due to the risks of surgery. The vet seemed very knowledgable and said to continue monitoring to see if she maintained weight without critical care, and come back if she kept dropping.

Since then she seems relatively healthy, but I've noticed a few more things that make me concerned - I'm not sure if I'm just being hypochondriac about her. Her weight seems stable, bouncing up and down between 930 and 980 g (I weigh her every day, some of the variance is from time of day). She is still active - she has a 5 x 4 grid C&C cage plus 2x2 loft, and it is open so she can "free roam" in our tiny apartment when she wants to. She spends most of the day in her favourite spot in the cage but occasionally walks a lap around the room or runs up and down her ramp.

Drinking: In the last week she has started to drink way more than usual. For years she used to barely drink anything at all - maybe a few mL per week(!) - and seemed to get all her water from veggies. This week it was like she suddenly discovered water and is drinking ~30 mL per day, even though it is the same water bottle that has always been available to her. From reading others' posts, this is still less than normal(?), but I'm worried it is a sign of kidney problems or diabetes, since it is more than her baseline. The fur around her butt is now stained and often wet, which I've heard is also a red flag. Should I be worried, or is this still not enough water to worry about (30 mL/day)? Would it be a good idea to get a urine test strip to check for glucose or protein in her urine?

Hair loss: she has been losing fur along her flanks - my understanding is that this is expected for ovarian cysts

Personality change: Her personality is also getting more aggressive - for the first time she started threatening to bite me when I put my hand too close to her body. She has never liked being touched, but she has never shown aggression about it - she would just run away, flinch, or make distressed sounds to say "stop it". But the other day when I was picking up her poops, she lunged when I got too close and sort of "slapped" me with her teeth (not a bite, as she didn't close her jaws, just hit me like a warning). She seems generally grumpier and sometimes spends long periods laying in the same spot. My understanding is that personality changes are expected with ovary problems, I just hope she doesn't feel uncomfortable.

Poops: her poops are more variable in shape, sometimes bigger than normal and sometimes tiny. Today she had 4 tiny poops string together like a string of pearls. She used to have very little variance in size/shape, so the increased variance is new.

Bloat? On Nov 21, and again on Nov 28, I noticed she was not pooping and her abdomen felt a bit bigger. I started on critical care (~40 ml per day in 3 feedings) and she went back to normal pooping within 24 hours. On the nov 28 bout I also gave cisapride that the vet had prescribed since she hadn't pooped for a few hours; the next afternoon she pooped 108 times in ~9 hours!

Questions:
Are the personality changes "normal" for an old guinea pig with swollen ovaries? Are guinea pigs in this situation normally put on painkillers like metacam? The vet made it sound like there was just nothing to do but monitor since surgery is too risky.

Should I be worried about kidney disease with her drinking? She was just at the vet a couple weeks ago so I don't want to take her back unnecessarily. Could a urine test strip help determine whether she needs to go to the vet?

Does anyone have guidelines about when to step in with cisapride when on the edge of bloat? She seems prone to bloating, and her abdomen seems to flare up every few weeks and then settle down on its own. I give critical care when she starts pooping less. I already cut out any cruciferous vegetables years ago and just give very mild veggies (green leaf lettuce, cucumber and bell pepper, with occasional parsley, cilantro, celery, or carrot for interest) (and of course most of her diet is timothy hay). What should I look for to know when I should start critical care (so far I do it when she stops pooping), when I should add cisapride (so far my threshold is if she hasn't pooped for several hours), and when I need to rush to the vet (I am thinking if her symptoms don't resolve within a day)?

Thank you!

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m going to link in some guides.

Spaying sows is a big operation but in some cases where cysts are causing issues, surgery may be necessary.
I don’t have experience of spaying sows due to cysts (I only keep boars although have plenty of experiencing in having my female rabbits spayed, just not piggies!) but I do know there are many on here who have needed the surgery.

Sows: Behaviour and female health problems (including ovarian cysts)

These guides will help with information on bloat

Digestive Disorders: Not Eating - Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement)

 

[Lisanjake]

Thank you for the message, I started giving her critical care and took her to the vet on Nov 10 (the earliest appointment I could get after my previous post). She had dropped to 895 g and I was giving critical care by syringe, but she was back in the mid 900s by the time her appointment came.

The vet said she seemed very healthy, although actually slightly overweight. She also found that her ovaries are enlarged, but said that there was nothing to do about it except for surgical removal of the ovaries, which she didn't recommend due to the risks of surgery. The vet seemed very knowledgable and said to continue monitoring to see if she maintained weight without critical care, and come back if she kept dropping.

Since then she seems relatively healthy, but I've noticed a few more things that make me concerned - I'm not sure if I'm just being hypochondriac about her. Her weight seems stable, bouncing up and down between 930 and 980 g (I weigh her every day, some of the variance is from time of day). She is still active - she has a 5 x 4 grid C&C cage plus 2x2 loft, and it is open so she can "free roam" in our tiny apartment when she wants to. She spends most of the day in her favourite spot in the cage but occasionally walks a lap around the room or runs up and down her ramp.

Drinking: In the last week she has started to drink way more than usual. For years she used to barely drink anything at all - maybe a few mL per week(!) - and seemed to get all her water from veggies. This week it was like she suddenly discovered water and is drinking ~30 mL per day, even though it is the same water bottle that has always been available to her. From reading others' posts, this is still less than normal(?), but I'm worried it is a sign of kidney problems or diabetes, since it is more than her baseline. The fur around her butt is now stained and often wet, which I've heard is also a red flag. Should I be worried, or is this still not enough water to worry about (30 mL/day)? Would it be a good idea to get a urine test strip to check for glucose or protein in her urine?

Hair loss: she has been losing fur along her flanks - my understanding is that this is expected for ovarian cysts

Personality change: Her personality is also getting more aggressive - for the first time she started threatening to bite me when I put my hand too close to her body. She has never liked being touched, but she has never shown aggression about it - she would just run away, flinch, or make distressed sounds to say "stop it". But the other day when I was picking up her poops, she lunged when I got too close and sort of "slapped" me with her teeth (not a bite, as she didn't close her jaws, just hit me like a warning). She seems generally grumpier and sometimes spends long periods laying in the same spot. My understanding is that personality changes are expected with ovary problems, I just hope she doesn't feel uncomfortable.

Poops: her poops are more variable in shape, sometimes bigger than normal and sometimes tiny. Today she had 4 tiny poops string together like a string of pearls. She used to have very little variance in size/shape, so the increased variance is new.

Bloat? On Nov 21, and again on Nov 28, I noticed she was not pooping and her abdomen felt a bit bigger. I started on critical care (~40 ml per day in 3 feedings) and she went back to normal pooping within 24 hours. On the nov 28 bout I also gave cisapride that the vet had prescribed since she hadn't pooped for a few hours; the next afternoon she pooped 108 times in ~9 hours!

Questions:
Are the personality changes "normal" for an old guinea pig with swollen ovaries? Are guinea pigs in this situation normally put on painkillers like metacam? The vet made it sound like there was just nothing to do but monitor since surgery is too risky.

Should I be worried about kidney disease with her drinking? She was just at the vet a couple weeks ago so I don't want to take her back unnecessarily. Could a urine test strip help determine whether she needs to go to the vet?

Does anyone have guidelines about when to step in with cisapride when on the edge of bloat? She seems prone to bloating, and her abdomen seems to flare up every few weeks and then settle down on its own. I give critical care when she starts pooping less. I already cut out any cruciferous vegetables years ago and just give very mild veggies (green leaf lettuce, cucumber and bell pepper, with occasional parsley, cilantro, celery, or carrot for interest) (and of course most of her diet is timothy hay). What should I look for to know when I should start critical care (so far I do it when she stops pooping), when I should add cisapride (so far my threshold is if she hasn't pooped for several hours), and when I need to rush to the vet (I am thinking if her symptoms don't resolve within a day)?

Thank you!

How is your girl getting on? I have a very similar situation with mine.
I’m the fact she’s older, lost a good 150g or so but gradually over a year/2 years and drinks quite a lot at times.

 

[corvidae]

She is doing well! Her weight would still bounce up and down between 980 and 930 (I don't weigh her at a consistent time so that's probably part of it) but the consistent downwards trend seemed to stop. She then gained a bit of weight. She kept drinking a lot so I got test strips for her urine to check for glucose in case the drinking were a sign of diabetes or urinary infection (I might be a bit hypochondriac about her) and she was negative for glucose, blood, and white blood cells, so I guess she was just thirsty from the dry winter air (the vet was not concerned that she was drinking more).