Weight gain after illness

[Qpigs]

Muffin appears to be doing well after the removal of her bladder stone. She looks happier, is eating all her veg and we can see and hear her munching hay - which is a beautiful sound we had missed.

She lost over 100g with being poorly. She had anaesthetic on Tuesday and Thursday, and she's on Gabapentin 0.07ml, Co-trim 0.55ml, Loxicom 0.4ml and Frusol 0.1ml. Back to the vets for a check up on Thursday.

I'm weighing her each morning and I wondered what I am looking for. She has not put any weight on in the last 24 hours but it's not a loss. What should I expect in terms of weight gain and when should I be worried if she's not gaining?

Thanks for all the support over the last few weeks. It has been a truly terrifying experience.

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m glad she is looking happier.

It’s great she isn’t losing - that is your aim at this point.
Weight gain takes much longer and will only start to happen once she is eating more hay and feeling much better - weight gain will progress over the coming weeks.
It also depends on age, sometimes older piggies simply don’t regain lost weight and maintain at a new but lower normal

 

[Wiebke]

Muffin appears to be doing well after the removal of her bladder stone. She looks happier, is eating all her veg and we can see and hear her munching hay - which is a beautiful sound we had missed.

She lost over 100g with being poorly. She had anaesthetic on Tuesday and Thursday, and she's on Gabapentin 0.07ml, Co-trim 0.55ml, Loxicom 0.4ml and Frusol 0.1ml. Back to the vets for a check up on Thursday.

I'm weighing her each morning and I wondered what I am looking for. She has not put any weight on in the last 24 hours but it's not a loss. What should I expect in terms of weight gain and when should I be worried if she's not gaining?

Thanks for all the support over the last few weeks. It has been a truly terrifying experience.

Hi

Your first priority during any health crisis or post-op recovery is to firstly slow down any weight loss and secondly to stabilise the weight with your piggy being able support themselves without needed feeding support.

Weight gain will happen whenever the body is ready. It can take a few days, weeks or even months and may never fully come back in overweight piggies or in the elderlies. The problem is that any empty calories you feed now will come off just as quickly as they come on. Rebuilding from scratch isn't quick and takes patience but its effect is longer lasting and life-prolonging.

The timing and speed is very individual. It depends on the severity of the illness that prompted the operation and/or weight loss, how much reserves your piggy needs to put into the healing process before any extra can go towards weight gain as well as the metabolism, which is slowing down all the time from birth etc.

Piggies are not toys you can easily repair and fix to make them look like new, just because you have strong feelings of failure and feel stressed because they are not well and are not getting back to being well easily. Those feelings are an expression of how deeply you care and how much it upsets you seeing someone you love unwell and struggling. It is never easy when you feel helpless and not in control of the process. Please try not to put unnecessary pressure on yourself.

Trust in your good care. You are doing all you can, and if it the body is strong enough to reset itself, it is also strong enough to claw its way back to normal with you focusing on quality of food and care and not on just a mere numbers reset.

Keep in mind that the actual healing process won't set in full until about day 2-3 and that initially the body needs to work out the whole operation drug cocktail, which is causing soreness and a bit of a hangover before recovery can get underway properly. It also depends on how well your piggy is coping with the GA.

It takes about two weeks for any wounds to knit, less in the young and longer in the older; it also depends on how extensive these cuts into the body are, how deep into the body the operation needed to go and - in the case of bladder stones - how significant any damage from the stone or crystals to the bladder walls is. Hence the major painkillers.

100-150g (depending on body size and overweight it can be even more) is an acceptable weight loss for a major operation for a piggy that is in the big wodge of average sized piggies in the middle.

Just be patient and allow nature to do its own work.

Don't rush the push to eating on their own or just go cold turkey. If your piggy is not eating and drinking on their own, then you fully support with feeding; once they start eating, then you can judge the appetite by how much they will eat willingly (or not) with each syringe session.
In a piggy in crisis you will have to fight to get 5-10 ml in per session; partial appetite means about 10-15 in one go. 15-25 ml means that the appetite is back and you can switch to topping up with offering extra feed from a syringe or bowl and see how that goes. The transition should be fluid nd gradual, and support should wean off only once the weight gain is sustained and stays sustained without any extra help from you.

Thread 'Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support'

Jun 20, 2024

1 Weight and Weight Loss
- Why regular weight monitoring matters
- How weight changes over a lifetime
- How to weigh on your kitchen scales (with video)
- The weight loss rules
- How critical is the weight loss for my piggy?
- Possible causes for weight loss
2 Body Mass Index (BMI) or 'Heft'
- Why is understanding your piggy's weight so important?
- 'Average' weight vs. individual weight - the big trip up
- How to check for the BMI
3 The...

• Wiebke
• Replies: 5
• Forum: Health & Illness Support Corner

• 

The important point comes when a piggy is stable in their weight; this means that they are out of the immediate crisis. The rest will happen in its own time. We just tend to underestimate recovery after a major operation. You cannot hurry it on.

Trust in yourself and trust in the power of nature. You'll get there.

 

[Qpigs]

Hi

Your first priority during any health crisis or post-op recovery is to firstly slow down any weight loss and secondly to stabilise the weight with your piggy being able support themselves without needed feeding support.

Weight gain will happen whenever the body is ready. It can take a few days, weeks or even months and may never fully come back in overweight piggies or in the elderlies. The problem is that any empty calories you feed now will come off just as quickly as they come on. Rebuilding from scratch isn't quick and takes patience but its effect is longer lasting and life-prolonging.

The timing and speed is very individual. It depends on the severity of the illness that prompted the weight loss, how much reserves your piggy needs to put into the healing process before any extra can go towards weight gain, the metabolism which is slowing down all the time from birth etc.

Piggies are not toys you can easily repair and fix to make them look like new, just because you have strong feelings of failure and feel stressed because they are not well and are not getting back to being well easily. Those feelings are an expression of deeply you care and how much it upsets you seeing someone you love unwell and struggling. It is never easy when you feel helpless and not in control of the process. Please try not put unnecessary pressure on yourself.

Trust in your good care. You are doing all you can, and if it the body is strong enough to reset itself, it is also strong enough to claw its way back to normal with you focusing on quality of food and care and not just a numbers reset. Keep in mind that the actual healing process won't set in full until about day 2-3 and initially the body needs to work out the whole operation drug cocktail, causing soreness and a bit of a hangover.

It takes about two weeks for any wounds to knit, less in the young and longer in the older; it also depends on how extensive these cuts are, how deep into the body the operation needed to go and -in the case of bladder stones whether and how significant any damage from the stone or crystals to bladder walls is. Hence the major painkillers.

100-150g (depending on body size and overweight it can be even more) is an acceptable weight loss for a major operation for a piggy that is in the big wodge of normal sized piggies in the middle.
Just be patient and allow nature to do its own work.

Don't rush the push to eating on their own or just go cold turkey. If your piggy is not eating and drinking on their own, then you fully support with feeding; once they start eating, then you can judge the appetite by how much they will eat willingly (or not) with each syringe session.
In a piggy in crisis you will have to fight to get 5-10 ml in per session; partial appetite means about 10-15 in one go. 15-25 ml means that the appetite is back and you can switch to topping up with offering extra feed from a syringe or bowl and see how that goes.

Thread 'Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support'

Jun 20, 2024

1 Weight and Weight Loss
- Why regular weight monitoring matters
- How weight changes over a lifetime
- How to weigh on your kitchen scales (with video)
- The weight loss rules
- How critical is the weight loss for my piggy?
- Possible causes for weight loss
2 Body Mass Index (BMI) or 'Heft'
- Why is understanding your piggy's weight so important?
- 'Average' weight vs. individual weight - the big trip up
- How to check for the BMI
3 The...

• Wiebke
• Replies: 5
• Forum: Health & Illness Support Corner

• 

The important point comes when a piggy is stable in their weight; this means that they are out of the immediate crisis. The rest will happen in its own time. We just tend to underestimate recovery after a major operation. You cannot hurry it on.

Trust in yourself and trust in the power of nature. You'll get there.

Thank you for this. Seeing how quickly she went downhill, I don't know what to expect or look out for. I'm an anxious person in general, and my husband is off out later with our car and not back until tomorrow afternoon, so I just wanted to ensure we're on the right track. I feel more confident with your response, so I'll keep doing what I'm doing. She is 1.8 years old so hopefully many happy years ahead.

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you for this. Seeing how quickly she went downhill, I don't know what to expect or look out for. I'm an anxious person in general, and my husband is off out later with our car and not back until tomorrow afternoon, so I just wanted to ensure we're on the right track. I feel more confident with your response, so I'll keep doing what I'm doing. She is 1.8 years old so hopefully many happy years ahead.

Hi

Bladder stones can cause a very quick deterioration in some cases but recovery, once it gets fully underway, should also be fairly quick unless the bladder is badly damaged (bladder trauma). The instant relief from the pain of the stone in the bladder will make itself known once the healing process is fully getting underway and there are no issues from the GA. As your girl is young, the healing process will be noticeably faster than in a 4-5 years old piggy.

Please review your diet in case it is just a bit too low or high in calcium; there is a balanced sweet spot. Other factors can play into it, like a genetic disposition, something flipping in the complex calcium absorption process, not being a good natural drinker (nothing you can do about) etc.
Diet is a comparatively crude instrument and it takes weeks to full percolate through the body, so it is not a quick fix. We are sadly still very limited in that respect.

Diet

Stones can unfortunately form again very quickly in some cases bit still takes some weeks so no worries for now.

 

[Qpigs]

Hi

Bladder stones can cause a very quick deterioration in some cases but recovery, once it gets fully underway, should also be fairly quick unless the bladder is badly damaged (bladder trauma). The instant relief from the pain of the stone in the bladder will make itself known once the healing process is fully getting underway and there are no issues from the GA. As your girl is young, the healing process will be noticeably faster than in a 4-5 years old piggy.

Please review your diet in case it is just a bit too low or high in calcium; there is a balanced sweet spot. Other factors can play into it, like a genetic disposition, something flipping in the complex calcium absorption process, not being a good natural drinker (nothing you can do about) etc.
Diet is a comparatively crude instrument and it takes weeks to full percolate through the body, so it is not a quick fix. We are sadly still very limited in that respect.

Diet

Stones can unfortunately form again very quickly in some cases bit still takes some weeks so no worries for now.

I've read through the diet information and tried my best to understand it. Can you confirm if there's anything obvious I need to change?

I feed twice daily; she has pepper, green bean, lettuce, coriander and cucumber (added recently to help with water intake) giving the quantity recommended in the guide. I've read in the guide that you should add spring greens or kale once a week? Anything else I need to do veg wise?

She has a small amount of Piggie Parcels pellets 3-4 times a week and in between, small amounts of dried forage: dandelion, nettle, herb mixture. I also occasionally give fresh grass and dandelion leaf.

She has a large plastic box for meadow hay and then another hide with Timothy. To encourage and entertain her, I bought a hay cube which has been fun.

We're in a hard water area, so she always has filtered water.

Thank you for all the information and advice. I have no idea what I would have done without this forum.

 

[Qpigs]

Bumping this in the hope that someone can help advise on the above post

 

[piggieminder]

I'd make the green bean an occasional treat not daily. My vet recommended a small to medium sized fresh dandelion leaf daily as it's a diuretic and helps with passing urine thereby encouraging drinking. When giving fresh dandelion leave out dried.

 

[Piggies&buns]

I agree with everything piggieminder has said