Strange Symptoms ? What is going on with her?

[Seahag]

I currently have two guinea pigs. One suddenly stopped being what I would refer to as "normal" last Tuesday. She stopped drinking as much water as usual (about half the amount), sat in the corner all "bristled", and doesn't want to eat her pebble food. Normally she is big into the pellet food. I can give her a quarter cup and she chomps it all down in a day. For water she normally would drink about 1/4 to 1/3rd of her water bottle per day. When I picked her up I noticed she had lost weight which really set off some alarm bells, I put her on the scale and she was down .5 ounces. I looked in her eyes, and nose, there was no discharge. I felt her body but there wasn't any noticeable lumps or anything odd. I thought I may have heard some minor congestion, but wasn't 100% sure (this was on Thursday/Friday).

I took her to the vet immediately since it seemed strange. They gave her an antibiotic shot, then a vitamin shot, and sent me home with more antibiotics. Its been about 4 or 5 days but she is the same, she was a little chunkier since they IV gave her some fluid but that is gone now. She is doing the same thing- avoiding the pellet food and only eating hay and lettuce that I give her. She's also avoiding water compared to how she used to be. Her poop has shrunk in size (was twice as large). What gives? Her behavior is also odd. Normally she enjoys biting and nibbling ANYTHING- clothes, flooring, whatever. She totally stopped and she's also now a mute. I can go over with hay and she doesn't squeak at all. She was a big squeaker. She won't even make noise if you pet her in a way she doesn't approve of. I haven't had this happen to any of my other pigs. (I've had pigs with a URI before, weird tumor, cyst--- but they never acted this way)! I'm taking miss mute back to the vet today.....

But do you guys have any thoughts?

 

[Wiebke]

I currently have two guinea pigs. One suddenly stopped being what I would refer to as "normal" last Tuesday. She stopped drinking as much water as usual (about half the amount), sat in the corner all "bristled", and doesn't want to eat her pebble food. Normally she is big into the pellet food. I can give her a quarter cup and she chomps it all down in a day. For water she normally would drink about 1/4 to 1/3rd of her water bottle per day. When I picked her up I noticed she had lost weight which really set off some alarm bells, I put her on the scale and she was down .5 ounces. I looked in her eyes, and nose, there was no discharge. I felt her body but there wasn't any noticeable lumps or anything odd. I thought I may have heard some minor congestion, but wasn't 100% sure (this was on Thursday/Friday).

I took her to the vet immediately since it seemed strange. They gave her an antibiotic shot, then a vitamin shot, and sent me home with more antibiotics. Its been about 4 or 5 days but she is the same, she was a little chunkier since they IV gave her some fluid but that is gone now. She is doing the same thing- avoiding the pellet food and only eating hay and lettuce that I give her. She's also avoiding water compared to how she used to be. Her poop has shrunk in size (was twice as large). What gives? Her behavior is also odd. Normally she enjoys biting and nibbling ANYTHING- clothes, flooring, whatever. She totally stopped and she's also now a mute. I can go over with hay and she doesn't squeak at all. She was a big squeaker. She won't even make noise if you pet her in a way she doesn't approve of. I haven't had this happen to any of my other pigs. (I've had pigs with a URI before, weird tumor, cyst--- but they never acted this way)! I'm taking miss mute back to the vet today.....

But do you guys have any thoughts?

Hi!

Good that you have booked your girl back in at your vet's already.

Please switch from weighing once weekly to weighing daily at the same time in order to monitor the food intake. Around 80% of what a piggy eats in a day is hay or fresh dog pee free grass (that is about breakfast, lunch and dinner) whereas 1 small bowl of preferably green veg and fresh herbs is in the area of an afternoon snack and replaces the forage with which the grass/hay based diet is supplemented.
Normal kitchen scales are perfectly OK for the job. The poo output reflects the lack of food intake from 1-2 days before, depending on whether the gut has slowed down or not, so if you judge only by the poo output, you are always running behind.
How To Pick Up And Weigh Your Guinea Pig Safely
Weight - Monitoring and Management

Here are our practical emergency and crisis care tips, including how you can improvise with feeding support in a crisis.
Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
Not Eating, Weight Loss And The Importance Of Syringe Feeding Fibre

Unfortunately your girl is very seriously ill and may - if you are unlucky - have already started to close down if she is as lethargic as you are reporting. Unfortunately, loss of appetite can have many different causes, from issues with overgrown teeth to most commonly a pain issue somewhere in the body or organ failure once you have been able to exlcude external causes. Vitamin C and an antibiotic mean that your vet has likely no idea what they are dealing with. Mystery weight loss is my least favourite symptom, simply because so many different things can be behind it.
Guinea Lynx :: Anorexia (not eating)

I am keeping my fingers very firmly crossed.

 

[Freela]

Sitting all 'bristled' is a sign of discomfort and indicates that she isn't feeling well. So is not wheeking and not nibbling things and not behaving normally. She essentially feels lousy and isn't interested in doing anything. Unfortunately guinea pigs can go off their food for a variety of reasons, anything from infection to dental issues to pain somewhere. When pigs aren't eating for themselves, it's important to get food into them anyhow... Wiebke above posted good resources for syringe feeding in an emergency. Best wishes for your vet visit and hope they turn up something treatable for you! All the best.

 

[Seahag]

Happy to report after a couple week of antibiotics Nibbles is doing quite well now

 

[Bill & Ted]

Aw, glad she is on the mend x