Vitamin C Advice

[dhill_cb7]

Hello everyone,

I have a question about vitamin C. I’m a little bit concerned about what my vet has told me. She is a licensed avian and exotic animal vet.

However upon joining this forum and reading up on excessive vitamin C intake I am worried that my boys could develop scurvy from giving them too much vitamin C.

My vet told me to only feed Romaine lettuce and never give them any other veggies so I was supposed to syringe feed .5 mL of vitamin C daily.

I saw the vet for the first time november of 2021. After the first few weeks I began lowering the amount of vitamin C I was syringe feeding them from .5 to .4 1/2 and then .4 and then .3 1/2 and now down to .3.

The boys receive romaine or red/green leaf lettuce, bell pepper, and cucumber daily with an extra wildcard veggie (dill, cilantro, celery, parsley, etc.).

My question to the experts is how can I ween the boys off this liquid vitaminc C without causing scurvy symptoms? Being that the vitamin C was only given for the past 2 months would this still be an issue for me to stop syringe feeding cold turkey?

Side note I think I am going to look into another vet as I don’t not feel confident in the advice being given.

Thank you for any help you all can offer and I’m sorry for the long post!

 

[Wiebke]

Hello everyone,

I have a question about vitamin C. I’m a little bit concerned about what my vet has told me. She is a licensed avian and exotic animal vet.

However upon joining this forum and reading up on excessive vitamin C intake I am worried that my boys could develop scurvy from giving them too much vitamin C.

My vet told me to only feed Romaine lettuce and never give them any other veggies so I was supposed to syringe feed .5 mL of vitamin C daily.

I saw the vet for the first time november of 2021. After the first few weeks I began lowering the amount of vitamin C I was syringe feeding them from .5 to .4 1/2 and then .4 and then .3 1/2 and now down to .3.

The boys receive romaine or red/green leaf lettuce, bell pepper, and cucumber daily with an extra wildcard veggie (dill, cilantro, celery, parsley, etc.).

My question to the experts is how can I ween the boys off this liquid vitaminc C without causing scurvy symptoms? Being that the vitamin C was only given for the past 2 months would this still be an issue for me to stop syringe feeding cold turkey?

Side note I think I am going to look into another vet as I don’t not feel confident in the advice being given.

Thank you for any help you all can offer and I’m sorry for the long post!

Hi!

Please don't go cold turkey with vitamin C that has been given for over a month. Just continue to give less with every week for the next 2-3 weeks so the body has time to adapt to the new diet.

If you have access, try to supplement the diet with fresh growing grass and young dandelions in Spring and Fall (making sure that your forage is dog pee free, as that is poisonous to guinea pigs). Fresh grass is high in vitamin C and the reason why guinea pigs have never had the need in the first place to make their own vitamin C. Dry/non-growing winter and summer grass, as well as hay have much less vitamin C.
Freeze-dried ready grass (which you can find online) makes a good treat in small quantities but can be too rich for guinea pigs if fed in greater quantities or as hay replacement.
But you can also always grow grass at home in indoors windowsill boxes or in small trays; they make a good cut and grow again enrichment for guinea pigs at any time of year.

The problem with romain lettuce is that it is not the most nutritious of veg and that it is actually pretty high in vitamin A, which is one of the vitamins that can build up in the liver (it is not water soluble). A mix of green veg and herbs does replace the supplementary role of wild forage in a piggy diet much better. Good quality pellets are all also supplemented with vitamin C but we recommend to not overfeed on them.

Vitamin supplementation is one of these cultural divides between Europe and America; in Europe we are generally less keen on it because the benefit/long term damage risk is still very much disputed. Our vets and human doctors are much less inclined to recommend supplementation, especially in high quantities.

 

[dhill_cb7]

Thank you so much @Wiebke ! I will take your advice!

Might I ask what are the symtoms of scurvy so I may keep an eye out for them if they arise? Googling has mixed reviews and also I viewed a bunch of threads on here without definite proof of what to look for.

Thank you again for taking time to read my post, offer advice and be so kind. I love my boys and would hate to have anything happen to them!

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you so much @Wiebke ! I will take your advice!

Might I ask what are the symtoms of scurvy so I may keep an eye out for them if they arise? Googling has mixed reviews and also I viewed a bunch of threads on here without definite proof of what to look for.

Thank you again for taking time to read my post, offer advice and be so kind. I love my boys and would hate to have anything happen to them!

Symptoms of dietary scurvy will be somewhat vague at first - but limping in combination with being subdued and some weight loss are the first ones you come across. Since we usually recommend to see a vet with any of these symptoms and to step in with (vitamin C reinforced) feeding support in the case of weight loss that usually does the trick.

Symptoms of 'overdosing crash' scurvy do come on a lot more quickly but in general we will enquire or the owner themselves already mention the vitamin C supplementation, so these cases are pretty easy to spot. People overdosing are usually the ones worried about the risk of scurvy so they tend to mention it if they have a hopping piggy and are asking for advice.

However, none of us long term owners on here has ever been picked up by a vet over scurvy in one of our piggies, and some go back to half a century and lots of piggies (and vet trips) over that time.
The only scurvy piggy of mine is a rescue surrender with really bad scurvy due to malnutrition (diet of vitamin C free rabbit mix); her companion survived the initially needed dental treatment for both but then had a massive internal scurvy bleed not very long after her arrival at a specialist sanctuary and sadly passed away. She was just about the weight of a 4 weeks old.
Teggy has made it through even though she was the weight of an 6 weeks old at 1 year of age. She is somewhat elderly and frail now but currently still going 5 years after her arrival in rescue. She's never had a problem with scurvy symptoms since I adopted her - and she's been on the same diet as my other piggies.

PS: this is likely the most trustworthy link for scurvy symptoms: Guinea Lynx :: Scurvy -- Vitamin C Deficiency

 

[dhill_cb7]

Thank you so much! Really appreciate the help and guidance!