DaveyCavy
New Born Pup
tldr: How do I get my finicky guinea pig to gain weight, and when is the right time to bring her to the vet?
Hello all! I apologize in advance for the lengthy post to follow. Last July I adopted a 4-year-old pig, whom I call Baahbara (on account of her sheep-like appearance and Bostonian heritage
. This little cutie has lots of hair and even more personality; I've never known a pig to be so talkative, affectionate, and playful. She has quite a few health problems and she's been to the vet numerous times since her adoption; she's been x-rayed, examined for heart issues, and given several courses of antibiotics. She’s always been on the small side, even when she’s healthy, but I haven’t worried too much about her weight because she’s always very active and hungry. She receives unlimited hay, plenty of Oxbow pellets, a daily cup of veggies (romaine, green peppers, cucumber, cilantro, wheatgrass, etc.), a daily Oxbow vitamin C tablet, pea flakes as a treat, and lots of wooden chew toys.
In the last few weeks, I’ve noticed her weight dropping below 750 g. She also developed a habit of chewing on EVERYTHING: plastic, rubber, my hair, the fleece lining of her cage, the puppy pads I use beneath the fleece... She ate a pretty sizeable hole through the coroplast of her enclosure, and when I patched it up with duct tape, she ate through that too. Just a few days ago, her poops became softer and more infrequent than I’d like. I hypothesized that the problem was her hay: a few months ago, I switched to an orchard/bluegrass mix (for allergy reasons). All my other pigs barely seemed to notice the change, but Baahbara can be quite picky, so I figured maybe she didn’t like the new flavor and wasn’t eating enough. I ordered some timothy hay and started feeding that to her yesterday, along with Critical Care and Bene-Bac probiotics. Almost overnight, her poops have become solid and plentiful again (hooray!).
However, she’s still losing weight: as of this morning she was down to 670 g. My plan is to temporarily separate her from her sister so I can monitor her food intake and poops more closely. I'll also keep supplementing her diet with critical care and maybe switch to alfalfa-based pellets. What else can I do, and at what point should I seek out veterinary care? She seems to be back to her normal self now, other than the weight loss, and I'm hoping the timothy hay will steadily bring her back up to a healthy weight. Ordinarily I would take her to the vet anyway, just to be safe, but we were there just a few weeks ago and money is a bit tight. (I live in a city where vet visits can top $400.)
Thank you all so much for reading this lengthy entry. Here are some pictures for your trouble!
Hello all! I apologize in advance for the lengthy post to follow. Last July I adopted a 4-year-old pig, whom I call Baahbara (on account of her sheep-like appearance and Bostonian heritage
. This little cutie has lots of hair and even more personality; I've never known a pig to be so talkative, affectionate, and playful. She has quite a few health problems and she's been to the vet numerous times since her adoption; she's been x-rayed, examined for heart issues, and given several courses of antibiotics. She’s always been on the small side, even when she’s healthy, but I haven’t worried too much about her weight because she’s always very active and hungry. She receives unlimited hay, plenty of Oxbow pellets, a daily cup of veggies (romaine, green peppers, cucumber, cilantro, wheatgrass, etc.), a daily Oxbow vitamin C tablet, pea flakes as a treat, and lots of wooden chew toys.In the last few weeks, I’ve noticed her weight dropping below 750 g. She also developed a habit of chewing on EVERYTHING: plastic, rubber, my hair, the fleece lining of her cage, the puppy pads I use beneath the fleece... She ate a pretty sizeable hole through the coroplast of her enclosure, and when I patched it up with duct tape, she ate through that too. Just a few days ago, her poops became softer and more infrequent than I’d like. I hypothesized that the problem was her hay: a few months ago, I switched to an orchard/bluegrass mix (for allergy reasons). All my other pigs barely seemed to notice the change, but Baahbara can be quite picky, so I figured maybe she didn’t like the new flavor and wasn’t eating enough. I ordered some timothy hay and started feeding that to her yesterday, along with Critical Care and Bene-Bac probiotics. Almost overnight, her poops have become solid and plentiful again (hooray!).
However, she’s still losing weight: as of this morning she was down to 670 g. My plan is to temporarily separate her from her sister so I can monitor her food intake and poops more closely. I'll also keep supplementing her diet with critical care and maybe switch to alfalfa-based pellets. What else can I do, and at what point should I seek out veterinary care? She seems to be back to her normal self now, other than the weight loss, and I'm hoping the timothy hay will steadily bring her back up to a healthy weight. Ordinarily I would take her to the vet anyway, just to be safe, but we were there just a few weeks ago and money is a bit tight. (I live in a city where vet visits can top $400.)
Thank you all so much for reading this lengthy entry. Here are some pictures for your trouble!
