• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Wet chin

furryfriends (TEAS) said:
It sounds like he’s doing okay! The Maddock’s are back in work tomorrow, if you did feel you wanted to get him seen xx
Click to expand...
Glad you think so!
As he seems to be holding his own I'll wait until his appointment, but if he loses weight again I'll try to go sooner. Difficult this week though as I have a dental appointment myself on Friday. x
 
Pound Shilling & Pig said:
Squeaks sounds to be an amazing old gent! At his age it is very, very hard to get any weight back on them so I think it's fine to let them eat all the nuggets they want. Nutritional uptake becomes harder in old age and appetite is often reduced, so they often simply can't eat enough hay to meet their requirements.
Click to expand...
He is quite an amazing and tough old gent! He was quite sprightly until fairly recently, but age seems to have caught up with him in the last month or two. These days he spends most of his time resting in his fleecy tunnel. He used to hate being picked up, but now it's easy to pick him up and he stays still on my lap - perhaps down to a combination of loss of sight and being weaker generally.

I want to give him more CC and nuggets, but it's time consuming- if I leave them in the cage, Tigery pushes in and scoffs them, so I have to find time to feed him on my lap. Tigery is going to be quite a portly lady by the time she joins your herd @Pound Shilling & Pig , if she carries on as she is :xd:
 
Qualcast&Flymo said:
He is quite an amazing and tough old gent! He was quite sprightly until fairly recently, but age seems to have caught up with him in the last month or two. These days he spends most of his time resting in his fleecy tunnel. He used to hate being picked up, but now it's easy to pick him up and he stays still on my lap - perhaps down to a combination of loss of sight and being weaker generally.

I want to give him more CC and nuggets, but it's time consuming- if I leave them in the cage, Tigery pushes in and scoffs them, so I have to find time to feed him on my lap. Tigery is going to be quite a portly lady by the time she joins your herd @Pound Shilling & Pig , if she carries on as she is :xd:
Click to expand...
Don't worry, there is plenty of room for her to exercise and other greedy piggies to compete with! But she may get a bit of a shock when she realises it is usually only Saturday night that is nugget night here!
Hopefully she will have many more happy months with Sqeaks first tho x
 
Worrying again, because when I gave Squeaks his meds late yesterday evening I noticed that his breathing had changed - it sounded more snorty and when I put my ear near his head I could hear it hissing gently. He was still eating nuggets ok though.

If he's got a URI can it wait 24hours or is it urgent in his circumstances? My husband is using my car today because his needs a tyre replaced - typical bad timing!
 
These things do seem to happen at the worst time. I hope Squeaks gets well soon. If he were mine I'd want him ABs as quickly as possible, but I'd have to wait a day or two here before I could get an appointment.
 
I'm feeling concerned about Squeaks again tonight. I wasn't able to get to the Cat & Rabbit on Thursday as Kim was off sick and Simon was fully booked. Friday I had a dentist appointment myself the far side of Birmingham so no time. Squeaks seemed to be holding his own, still eating lots of nuggets and tucking into grass - until today. This afternoon he hasn’t been very interested in food, even nuggets. I hoped initially he was just full of grass etc from earlier. Just now though (9pm) he still wasn't interested, but I did manage to get some syringes of critical care into him and some Fibreplex.

Also he wasn't in his fleecy tunnel or cosy when I went in just now, he was in the carrot cottage in the corner of the cage....

Maybe his little body has just had enough now. I don't think there's anything new going on (but I'm obviously not 100% sure). I'll see how he is in the morning and can try to get him to the C&R in the morning or late afternoon :(
 
I got mixed signals when I got Squeaks out for some syringe food late in the evening (yesterday as it is now). He had some syringes of CC, declined nuggets but went for some grass he could smell, and then ate a blueberry. I put him back in the cage so I could go out with a torch to find more grass. He had ended up back in the corner, but later it sounded as though he was eating a bit (I can't see because it's dark in the carrot cottage!). I hope he's eaten some, but of course Tigery wanted some of this nice fresh grass...

So I don't know whether he's just feeling under the weather, or if he's had enough. Going to get up in the night if I can to check and feed him, see what the morning brings ...
 
furryfriends (TEAS) said:
How’s he doing this morning? xx
Click to expand...
He's still with us. Still declining nuggets but he took a bit of Oxbow Joint Support biscuit but no more. I need to get him some grass but it's chucking it down outside.
I got up at 4am and he had a little syringe food and again a couple of pieces of grass he found on the cosy, so i got him a piece of cucumber and lettuce leaf which he started to eat.

Been trying to get through to C&R, but getting no answer after the please hold message ...
 
Last edited:
Thanks, I tried once more before emailing and the phone was answered by the branch at Kettering. No same day appointments left. But Kim has some left for tomorrow so I've booked one of those.

Frustrating that somehow the appointments had all gone when I'd been trying since just after 8 but that's life. I'll just have to keep syringe feeding Squeaks as much as he'll take and hope for the best. I simply can't tell if it's his 'time' or not as he will eat a little ...
 
Qualcast&Flymo said:
Thanks, I tried once more before emailing and the phone was answered by the branch at Kettering. No same day appointments left. But Kim has some left for tomorrow so I've booked one of those.

Frustrating that somehow the appointments had all gone when I'd been trying since just after 8 but that's life. I'll just have to keep syringe feeding Squeaks as much as he'll take and hope for the best. I simply can't tell if it's his 'time' or not as he will eat a little ...
Click to expand...
You need to ring the second 8 am hits. I count down, in my head, as soon as it’s 7.59 I don’t think the calls queue properly too! I’ve left the phone ringing, on one occasion for 20 mins!
 
furryfriends (TEAS) said:
You need to ring the second 8 am hits. I count down, in my head, as soon as it’s 7.59 I don’t think the calls queue properly too! I’ve left the phone ringing, on one occasion for 20 mins!
Click to expand...
The receptionist called it 'Mad Monday ' :D all the appointments go in minutes. In the past I've managed to get a same day when calling at about 8:15.

Still much to my surprise Squeaks has maintained his weight. He isnt interested in nuggets but is eating the grass I picked. 👍
 
Qualcast&Flymo said:
The receptionist called it 'Mad Monday ' :D all the appointments go in minutes. In the past I've managed to get a same day when calling at about 8:15.

Still much to my surprise Squeaks has maintained his weight. He isnt interested in nuggets but is eating the grass I picked. 👍
Click to expand...
Seriously, you need to ring dead on 8. You’ve clearly been very lucky to get anything ringing any later. Even ringing at 8 I’ve often only had the choice of a couple of appointments. It’s crazy!
 
My Winston needed the vet on Friday and they had no appointments so said to call right before 8am on Monday, as this is when they release a new batch of appointments, and even when we called 5 minutes early they only had a couple left for the day!

I hope squeaks starts to feel better soon x
 
Yesterday's appointment with Kim had positives, and negatives. On the positive side, the thrush has cleared up, and the bubbly breathing she says is coming from the throat, not upper airways or lungs/heart, this sometimes can occur. I had hoped that was the case, but wasn't sure because I don't have the knowledge or the skills. So he doesn't need more itrafungol, but she suggested nebulising (or sitting him in a steamy shower room) to loosen the stuff in his throat, and I'll be keeping an eye open in case something causes the thrush to come back.

The negative was that his lower incisors had strated to overgrow - as they do - but she thought he wasn't strong enough to burr them down as burring the lowers is rather less gentle on the piggy than doing the uppers. (She also thought giving him a nail trim was best avoided.) I'm to take him back in a couple of weeks in the afternoon, and to give him his morning and afternoon doses of Gabapentin a couple of hours before to try to ensure he is as pain-free and thus relaxed as possible. Fingers crossed that works, because if it becomes impossible to keep his incisors burred to the right length, that would be the end...

Also positive today though was that his weight was up 30g this morning, over 800g for the first time in at least a fortnight I think, and he wanted nuggets this morning, in addition to grass and forage. I hope this is the start of a positive trend! 🙏🤞
 
An update for anyone following this thread, or looking it up in the future for information on oral thrush ...

I did give Squeaks a session in the steamy shower, I couldn't tell if it helped but about a week after the vet appointment I realised that the bubbly breathing had gone. Presumably that meant the oral thrush and attendant issues had finally cleared up. So I'm glad I was able to get him to the Cat and Rabbit clinic and get the extra gabapentin and itrafungol to relieve his pain - I only wish I'd taken him there earlier.

Sadly, as the thrush resolved, old age and arthritis caught up with Squeaks, and he became less and less able to move, and more and more sleepy. The tough little chap held on to life despite the thrush, he's still hanging on now but i don’t want him to suffer any more. I will be taking him to my local vet tomorrow to help him on his way to Rainbow Bridge. 😪
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top