too much vitamin c?

[thomasmuffinsRgood]

Hello, so i was out of green pepper today, so i put vitamin c in the syringe. go up to benny, and boom, i push the syringe too hard. he gets 2 ml, instead of 1 ml. is that something i should worry about? is that too much?

 

[Piggies&buns]

Excess will come out in his urine so don’t worry.
Do also bear in mind that you do not need to routinely supplement vitamin c. It’s all in all their veggies and pellets so if they had other veggies even if you didn’t have bell pepper,, then they would still have got enough.

Long term and routine supplementation of vitamin c can do more harm than good and can cause scurvy symptoms as their bodies become too used to abnormally high amounts

 

[thomasmuffinsRgood]

Excess will come out in his urine so don’t worry.
Do also bear in mind that you do not need to routinely supplement vitamin c. It’s all in all their veggies and pellets so if they had other veggies even if you didn’t have bell pepper,, then they would still have got enough.

Long term and routine supplementation of vitamin c can do more harm than good and can cause scurvy symptoms as their bodies become too used to abnormally high amounts

good to know! never knew that.

 

[Wiebke]

Hello, so i was out of green pepper today, so i put vitamin c in the syringe. go up to benny, and boom, i push the syringe too hard. he gets 2 ml, instead of 1 ml. is that something i should worry about? is that too much?

Hi!

Please don't panic. The body will just work out the excess of vitamin C through the kidneys.

Please be aware that vitamin C is not just in peppers; it is their veg mix, in their pellets; fresh growing grass is high in it (which is the reason why piggies never had the need to make their own in the first place since grass and hay is their main food source). Even hay still contains a little. Recovery formula also contains vitamin C.
All you needed was to give two instead of just one tablespoon of pellets for the day but to be honest, your piggy won't fall ill if they do not get much in the way of vitamin C for a short space of time. Real scurvy is generally the result of longer term malnutrition (no hay/grass and rabbit instead of guinea pig pellets).

Please do not supplement regularly with extra vitamin C on top of a good diet. By overdoing it, your piggy's body will simply accustom to the high levels and react ironically with scurvy levels whenever the high level drops, even though it is still well above normal levels. If you are supplementing daily, then you need to lower the dose very gradually in order to not trigger scurvy. A one-off high dose won't hurt. In the case of a real illness it is much more effective to a 2-3 weeks booster course because the body will react to that much more.

Most of the scurvy cases we see on here are actually from those long term overdosing cases. None of us long term owners supplements with vitamin C but none of us has ever had an issue with their piggies suffering from scurvy because they are getting enough vitamin C from a range of different food sources.

 

[thomasmuffinsRgood]

Hi!

Please don't panic. The body will just work out the excess of vitamin C through the kidneys.

Please be aware that vitamin C is not just in peppers; it is their veg mix, in their pellets; fresh growing grass is high in it (which is the reason why piggies never had the need to make their own in the first place since grass and hay is their main food source). Even hay still contains a little. Recovery formula also contains vitamin C.
All you needed was to give two instead of just one tablespoon of pellets for the day but to be honest, your piggy won't fall ill if they do not get much in the way of vitamin C for a short space of time. Real scurvy is generally the result of longer term malnutrition (no hay/grass and rabbit instead of guinea pig pellets).

Please do not supplement regularly with extra vitamin C on top of a good diet. By overdoing it, your piggy's body will simply accustom to the high levels and react ironically with scurvy levels whenever the high level drops, even though it is still well above normal levels. If you are supplementing daily, then you need to lower the dose very gradually in order to not trigger scurvy. A one-off high dose won't hurt. In the case of a real illness it is much more effective to a 2-3 weeks booster course because the body will react to that much more.

Most of the scurvy cases we see on here are actually from those long term overdosing cases. None of us long term owners supplements with vitamin C but none of us has ever had an issue with their piggies suffering from scurvy because they are getting enough vitamin C from a range of different food sources.

i dont do give them vitamin c very often just on occasion

 

[Free Ranger]

That's good to know
The other thing to be careful with is syringing any liquid really - sometimes we do it but we have to be careful in case piggie inhales some and it makes them cough. It's different when people syringe feed to help poorly pigs maintain weight because the thick slurry is easier for them to manage in their mouth but plain liquids can be breathed in more easily. But I'm sure you're a pro!

 

[weepweeps]

Yes please take care with syringing watery liquids.