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Weight loss

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Alvinsfam

New Born Pup
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Hello,

My GP, Georgie, has been losing quite a bit of weight recently.

Some history about him is that he is just over a year old and has frequent respiratory illness. He is under veterinary care for this at all times.

Currently, he has some mild congestion and a bit of debris in his right ear. We have him on baytril nebulizer and ear drops.

His respiratory illness is not super severe at the moment and he is still acting pretty normal (sassy, strutting, popcorning, etc.)

He is also eating everything normally and drinking normally, including we are supplementing with critical care daily to help with weight.

He is 1009 g today. He was just seen Monday at the vet and teeth looked good.

He has an appointment tomorrow afternoon at the vet to address his weight, which was 1030 (approx) on Monday.

Georgie used to be a bit overweight (1120) and the vet wanted him to lose a bit (especially because he has respiratory challenges). He was at a god weight and we were encouraging more exercise followed by saline nebulizer to help with breathing after playtime.

I’m just wondering what this weight loss could be from because his behavior seems normal. He is out eating hay right now. But is still losing. We have also heard some tummy rumbles.
 
Generally, and without specifics of the amount you are currently syringe feeding, the weight loss means he is not eating enough hay independently and is not being supplemented enough.
How much syringe feed are you getting into him each day?

There are some metabolic issues which can mean piggy loses weight despite eating a lot and being supplemented more than enough. Of course that is something for a vet to consider.
 
He has had 6 full syringes today and I’m about to feed him again (3 more syringes). I’ll also feed him again tonight.

Previously, we were only supplementing 1-4 syringes per night based on what he would be interested in eating on his own from the syringe.

Now, we are having more frequent feedings after a phone call to the vet last night. I’m hoping I will see his weight improve with that. He’s been out eating several times today, although only ate a bit of lettuce a minute ago.

However he did go to his hay/food and start eating that.
 
Alvinsfam said:
He has had 6 full syringes today and I’m about to feed him again (3 more syringes). I’ll also feed him again tonight.

Previously, we were only supplementing 1-4 syringes per night based on what he would be interested in eating on his own from the syringe.

Now, we are having more frequent feedings after a phone call to the vet last night. I’m hoping I will see his weight improve with that. He’s been out eating several times today, although only ate a bit of lettuce a minute ago.

However he did go to his hay/food and start eating that.
Click to expand...

It really depends how big your syringes are!

We recommend using a 1ml syringe when feeding but I’m assuming you are using a bigger one given 9 x 1ml syringes isn’t very much at all.
We would recommend a minimum of 40-60ml per day but it can be as much as 100ml depending on how much hay is being independently eaten - it can be a bit of a trial when they do still have an appetite for a bit of independent hay eating. (The less hay being eaten, the more weight will be lost and the more syringe feeding you need to do).
 
I think the hard part to tell is exactly how much he’s eating independently. I wfh, so I’m able to check on him quite a bit throughout the day. I see him out playing and eating quite a bit.

He actually seems to be feeling better from his sniffles, but I’m just very focused on his weight.

They are 1ml (thin) syringes, not the bigger tubes. So he has had a total of 9 today.

Are you thinking this is too little? His weight was up to 1011 from 1007 last night. I know that’s not much, but I’m happy to see it going up and not down.
 
Alvinsfam said:
I think the hard part to tell is exactly how much he’s eating independently. I wfh, so I’m able to check on him quite a bit throughout the day. I see him out playing and eating quite a bit.

He actually seems to be feeling better from his sniffles, but I’m just very focused on his weight.

They are 1ml (thin) syringes, not the bigger tubes. So he has had a total of 9 today.

Are you thinking this is too little? His weight was up to 1011 from 1007 last night. I know that’s not much, but I’m happy to see it going up and not down.
Click to expand...

That’s right - you can’t tell how much he is eating independently and that is why the daily weight checks are so important. We would consider his weight from 1007 to 1011 as stable (and that is all you can expect when syringe feeding).
As his weight is stable, Then it suggests he has eaten a good amount of hay independently. 9ml of syringe feed is nothing much at all really. As I say, depending on the situation you’d be looking at an absolute minimum of 40ml per day if a piggy is unwell and not eating for themself.
 
This is helpful to know! I am always afraid to overfeed (especially when they don’t particularly want the critical care in that moment and so it makes it harder to judge)

I’m very happy that it seems he’s at least stable right now. I will be taking him in tomorrow to be checked on again because I’m not able to figure out what is leading to this
 
Good luck at the vets. Hope they can find the reason for the weight loss 🤞🏻
 
I just wanted to update on this thread.

Georgie had an xray today and there was a large amount of gas in his tummy/ beginning of GI statis. The vet said the syringe feedings we were doing and the little he was eating on his own basically prevented things from becoming too critical, but we have a plan to increase feedings to 75 ml per day until he can pass the gas/begin eating normally.

He is also on continued baytril nebulizer treatments to address his respiratory issues (however, that looked great today- lungs were clear and sinuses were good)

The vet chose to give him gas sedation to complete the xray, as well as a buprenorphine injection to help with pain. He is also sent home with metacam for pain

Georgie was not dehydrated today, but was given some extra fluids at the vet as well

My concern is that he’s not really himself and honestly seems kind of worse since coming home. I understand this is likely due to all of the medication/sedation he had today, but I’m noticing increased effort and a nose whistle. You definitely hear him breathing, where that had actually significantly improved prior to his appointment today.

Our vet is very mindful and I trust her, I’m just so confused and worried he will take a turn for the worst. I plan to call the vet in the AM unless things are much better, but I’m not sure why his breathing seems WORSE right now when that had improved so much and earlier today was told everything looks great with the respiratory stuff.
 
I’m glad he has been checked.

Was he given any gut medications to help with the gas?
Definitely increase the syringe feeding - as I said the absolute minimum is 40ml for survival, we recommend a minimum of 60ml but as much as 100ml per day could be needed.

Keep an eye on his breathing. It could be because of the sedation but it’s never worth taking chances with breathing.

Our digestive disorders guide is below.
hope he is ok

Digestive Disorders: Not Eating - Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement)
 
Piggies&buns said:
I’m glad he has been checked.

Was he given any gut medications to help with the gas?
Definitely increase the syringe feeding - as I said the absolute minimum is 40ml for survival, we recommend a minimum of 60ml but as much as 100ml per day could be needed.

Keep an eye on his breathing. It could be because of the sedation but it’s never worth taking chances with breathing.

Our digestive disorders guide is below.
hope he is ok

Digestive Disorders: Not Eating - Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement)
Click to expand...


Thank you! Your feedback is pretty similar to what we heard at the vet today. We are increasing significantly to 75 ml per day syringe feeding.

The medication he was given today was mostly related to pain. Our vet seems to think the critical care will help get things moving; however, we are supposed to call back Monday to reassess. They are also going to check in over the weekend via phone call.


My main concern is the breathing. I’m just letting him rest right now and I’m pretty sure I saw him do a fairly decent looking poop, as well as his breathing was quieter (he’s back to making some noise right now).

He is able to support himself and toss his bed around/crawl to a different person when holding him, but otherwise looks pretty zoned out with some effort to his breaths.

This is not abnormal for him. He has been overweight in the past and has had respiratory issues on and off for a good part of his life. We work diligently to address this as it comes up and he has thankfully not dealt with pneumonia for many many months. We were very happy to see clear lungs and sinuses today during his check (the vet checked pretty much everything). So it is really upsetting to see him struggling right now.

He doesn’t seem to be declining in this moment or over the last several hours, which is a positive. I’m hoping to see some sign of improvement by morning.
 
Fingers crossed for him.

As you may know, buprenorprhine is an opioid painkiller so being zoned out is part and parcel.

Keep us posted
 
I’m just updating.

We had to put him down this morning:(

His breathing got worse and he was gasping for a breath. He also would not eat his syringe food and lost about 18 more grams.

I really feel like something happened at the vet at this point because prior to there were no issues with breathing. His respiratory situation had improved significantly and he was still grazing independently. He would also go crazy for syringe feedings.

After the appointment yesterday is when everything went downhill significantly overnight. I’m wondering if they over treated him. I’m just so upset and mad because I worked so hard to care for him his whole life everytime he was sick and taking him to the vet actually made things worse.
 
I’m so sorry. You did everything you could. Maybe there was more going on. They hide their illnesses so well. Sending you a massive hug. 🤗
 
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