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Unexplained weight loss

Chris24

Chris24

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
May 10, 2015
Messages
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Location
Colchester
Hi All,

Our little boar, Archie, has been gradually losing weight over the past 4 months. He started at 1000g and is now 870g.

Historically he's always lost some weight during the summer months which is why we didn't take him to the vets straight away but as it hasn't stabilized we took him to the vets last week.

His teeth were fully checked and no problems were found here or during the rest of the examination. Our vet thinks it might be a digestion problem but is otherwise not sure. Archie seems himself for the most part, maybe a little less active than normal and his coat not quite as shiny but it's hard to tell. He's eating hay, nuggets and drinking water. Poops are of a normal size.

Does anyone have any suggestions what might be causing this so I can present the ideas to our vet? Archie is 4 years old.
 
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Sorry to hear Archie is loosing weight - it can be such a worry.

Did the vet do any x-rays or an ultrasound to rule out internal problems?
Was he prescribed any pain relief or other meds.
If the teeth are fine then it might be pain of some sort putting him off his food.

Also how were the teeth checked? It can be tricky for a vet to get a good look at the back teeth with a conscious guinea pigs unless they are super experienced. Even my specialist usually gives a quick whif of gas to settle a pig before doing a full dental examination.
 
Chris24 said:
Hi All,

Our little boar, Archie, has been gradually losing weight over the past 4 months. He started at 1000g and is now 870g.

Historically he's always lost some weight during the summer months which is why we didn't take him to the vets straight away but as it hasn't stabilized we took him to the vets last week.

His teeth were fully checked and no problems were found here or during the rest of the examination. Our vet thinks it might be a digestion problem but is otherwise not sure. Archie seems himself for the most part, maybe a little less active than normal and his coat not quite as shiny but it's hard to tell. He's eating hay, nuggets and drinking water. Poops are of a normal size.

Does anyone have any suggestions what might be causing this so I can present the ideas to our vet? Archie is 4 years old.
Click to expand...

I fully agree with @Swissgreys .

Has your vet checked the kidneys, liver, thyroid or for diabetes?
Internal growths can also be a cause of my least favourite symptom 'mystery weight loss'. The field is just so wide and narrowing it down can be very tricky for any vet when there are no other obvious pointers. :(
 
I feel for you as I am going through the exact same thing with one of my girls.

She has been checked, checked and checked again and my vet can find nothing wrong.

Thankfully, Ellen’s weight has now stabilised but she’s only 850g now compared to 1160g that she was w couple of years ago

But I agree with the above posts about having him xrayed and ultrasound to rule out any nasties
 
As you've noted that he is not as active as he once was, I would definitely ask for some xrays, 4 is a good age for arthritis to start showing symptoms and the reduced movement may be just enough to cause loss of muscle mass, which isnt always massively obvious to start with, visually, especially in the back legs.
One of my own piggies weight is currently a little up and down depending on how much I can get him to move around and stretch his legs, he doesn't have arthritis but a different issue with his bones. But yeah, as above, xrays and scans would be a good next step :) fingers crossed you can get to the bottom of his weight loss
 
Thanks so much for the responses. Luckily Archie's weight has stabilized at 900g but I spoke to the vet about possible next course of action if he loses anymore. Basically he'll get an x-ray, ultrasound and the vet will attempt to drawn some blood whilst he's under sedation and get this tested. In the meanwhile we will drop off a wee sample so they can check for diabetes.
 
Archie came back from the vets today after an ultrasound, x-ray and bloods. The conclusion at this point is that he has quite an inflamed tummy and digestive tract. There's no excess air pockets and his poos are normal so this doesn't suggest bloat.

We has been giving him extra veggies for a while now and this has stabilized his weight around 900g. He's slightly less active than normal but is generally in good spirits (he was doing zoomies yesterday morning).

The vet said there might be something else untowards going on but due to the swelling it was hard to tell from the images. Short of opening him up it's difficult to determine the root cause and so we're going to keep him well fed and comfortable for a while to see if it clears up on its own.

Of course if anyone else has seen something like this before and has suggestions, we're all ears!

Here are Archie's scan images (with reference pig for comparison), for those of you who are interested.

side-compare.webp
top-compare.webp
 
Sorry you're going through this with Archie.
I wish I some advice to offer but can only assure you of my support.
Holding you in my thoughts
 
I am very sorry. I have had a piggy that was eventually diagnosed with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) and who had a noticeably thickened lower gut but I am not sure whether that applies here.

I am linking @Abi_nurse for you.
 
From afar the X-rays looks pretty normal to me, but can't see the detail in them. What swelling are you talking about, I was trying to read back but can't see where you have mentioned this before. From around the age of four a few things can start to effect piggies but wouldn't want to say anything right now as weight loss is a vague sort of sign which most pigs show.

What were the blood results? Have you had them back?

I would avoid overfeeding veggies as this won't be great for his guts generally if fed in too higher quantities. To help with some weight gain try some oat hay, more calorific than your standard Timothy or meadow hay.

x
 
I don't really know exactly what i'm looking at but going by what the vets says I believe the swelling is the enlarged and rounded abdomen with cloudiness that is obscuring visuals on the internal organs.

The vet only managed to get enough blood for a diabetic check which came back fine, but as the swelling of the digestive tract was diagnosed as the cause of the problem no further action was taken.

We are trying to feed him a good variety of veggies to avoid any tummy upsets but it seems to be the only way we can keep the weight on him at the moment. :(

I will definitely look into oat hay, thank you for the suggestion!
 
The X-rays look like a normal full piggie tummy full of food to me. Not sure on what the vet is worried about. Shame you couldn't run full bloods to check those as it would have been of use.

Hope he continues to do okay. Bless him.

x
 
So I asked our vet to send off the x-ray to Simon at the Cat and Rabbit clinic. He couldn't see a whole lot wrong with the x-ray either so maybe our vet was clutching at straws a little in light of there being no other obvious cause. We are continuing to maintain his weight at around 900 but he's still often sat looking fluffed up and a bit sorry for himself. It's odd because when he's on the move you wouldn't think there's anything wrong.

Other symptoms i've noticed is that he's clearing his nose quite a bit even though there is no discharge and his eye (he only has the one) is often full of cleaning fluid but I know they can just neglect cleaning piggies are not feeling their best.

Over the phone, Simon did suggest giving him some worm and mite treatments just to eliminate this as cause but otherwise couldn't really offer any specific advice other than to give him more calorific food to maintain the weight and monitor his symptoms and behavior so that's what we'll continue to do for now.
 
It must be so frustrating and worrying for you.
Weight building food I’ve used is sweet potato mixed with oats, grated beetroot, carrot and mashed banana.
When I was having to syringe feed Micah post op I mashed banana into his Critical Care- I practically had to drag the empty syringe out of his mouth - he didn’t want to let go.

A fluffed up piggy can be a sign of pain - maybe something that doesn’t show up on x-rays or other tests.
Pain will affect the appetite.
Hope you find a solution soon.
 
Hope you can find out what’s wrong with little Archie soon and his weight picks up soon x Do you use Pro C biotic? I use it for my two it aids digestion.
 
Thank you we feel so helpless that we can't do more for him :( we won't give up on our little man and will definitely try some pro biotic to see if this helps.
 
Hi all,

It's been a long time since the last update so I thought i'd share Archie's progress with you. We ended up taking him to see Ian Cope at Vets4Pets in Newmarket who took a full blood count, fecal sample and some x-rays. The results showed a high white cell count and poor kidney function. Unfortunately after further tests the end diagnosis was Lymphoma.

The good news is despite losing more weight since my last update, he has stabilized nicely at 650g (touch wood) and is still happy and active. If it wasn't for the weight loss you wouldn't know there was an issue. He is now on Vitofylin and Nutracys tablets long term to improve kidney function.

So you could say we have mixed feelings at the outcome but while he is still active and enjoying life we are happy. :)
 
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Chris24 said:
Hi all,

It's been a long time since the last update so I thought i'd share Archie's progress with you. We ended up taking him to see Ian Cope at Vets4Pets in Newmarket who took a full blood count, fecal sample and some x-rays. The results showed a high white cell count and poor kidney function. Unfortunately after further tests the end diagnosis was Lymphoma.

The good news is despite losing more weight since my last update, he has stabilized nicely at 650g (touch wood) and is still happy and active. If it wasn't for the weight loss you wouldn't know there was an issue. He is now on Vitofylin and Nutracys tablets long term to improve kidney function.

So you could say we have mixed feelings at the outcome but while he is still active and enjoying life we are happy. :)
Click to expand...

I’m sorry for the diagnosis :( I’ve lost two piggies to lymphoma but I am glad he is happy and still enjoying life
 
Aw, so sorry about Archie’s lymphoma diagnosis but he’s obviously a fighter and still enjoying life and fingers crossed that he continues to keep happy and stable x
 
Sorry to hear Archie’s diagnosis.
This is the time to make lots of wonderful memories and give him lots of happy todays.
Holding you in my heart
 
Chris24 said:
Hi all,

It's been a long time since the last update so I thought i'd share Archie's progress with you. We ended up taking him to see Ian Cope at Vets4Pets in Newmarket who took a full blood count, fecal sample and some x-rays. The results showed a high white cell count and poor kidney function. Unfortunately after further tests the end diagnosis was Lymphoma.

The good news is despite losing more weight since my last update, he has stabilized nicely at 650g (touch wood) and is still happy and active. If it wasn't for the weight loss you wouldn't know there was an issue. He is now on Vitofylin and Nutracys tablets long term to improve kidney function.

So you could say we have mixed feelings at the outcome but while he is still active and enjoying life we are happy. :)
Click to expand...


Oh poor Archie! I’m also sorry for this happening to you and him!

One of my piggies Miss Bun-Bun was diagnosed with mild lymphoma about a month ago. We are treating her with steroids as, unfortunately, in Australia we don’t have L-asparaginase chemo, which would be an option in killing cancer.
She’s been stable with weight for a while but now it’s slowly drops each week even though she is eating her veggies, hay, pellets and being very active and happy about treats.

She’s lost bone muscle too, which is probable why she started having problems with balance from Wednesday night, and our vet prescribed critical care as extra food and pumpkin seed protein.

Was curious how you managed to stabilize the weight for Archie ? If it is still stable of course, which I very much hope so. Just searching for options to try with our piggy gaining some weight.

Very much hope Archie is doing well!
 
mariaheiss said:
Oh poor Archie! I’m also sorry for this happening to you and him!

One of my piggies Miss Bun-Bun was diagnosed with mild lymphoma about a month ago. We are treating her with steroids as, unfortunately, in Australia we don’t have L-asparaginase chemo, which would be an option in killing cancer.
She’s been stable with weight for a while but now it’s slowly drops each week even though she is eating her veggies, hay, pellets and being very active and happy about treats.

She’s lost bone muscle too, which is probable why she started having problems with balance from Wednesday night, and our vet prescribed critical care as extra food and pumpkin seed protein.

Was curious how you managed to stabilize the weight for Archie ? If it is still stable of course, which I very much hope so. Just searching for options to try with our piggy gaining some weight.

Very much hope Archie is doing well!
Click to expand...

Hi!

This thead is two years old. Please open your own support thread in this section and accept that we get a lot of one-off traffic with posters not returning after the loss or recovery of their piggy. Reviving old threads can cause confusion. Thank you.
 
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