lauryn1289
Teenage Guinea Pig
One of my boys who’s about 5, Ollie, has been a bit lethargic/less excitable as of yesterday. I noticed he’s not putting full pressure on one of his back feet, I doses him with metacam twice yesterday over the course of the day. I brought him to the vet this morning of course just to be sure and she agreed it seems like his wee leg is bothering him a little, she said the musculature feels a tiny bit swollen. Heart, lungs, everything else good and his coat is perfect. His weight is also the exact same as it always is, 1.1kg, even though he seems to be a bit less interested in food but he is eating enough clearly. The vet’s advice was do metacam for a week and if it doesn’t seem to improve get him back in. He has a little wooden bed he loves that’s about 3 inches off the cage floor, so I think maybe it’s plausible he injured his foot coming down or up off of that. He was very active though still and you wouldn’t tell he was an older man, so seeing him sitting in one spot and eating slowly since yesterday of course has me concerned
This was at my cat’s vets (who are all wonderful, and every vet at that practice has been very good with my piggies over the years) because my closest exotics is an hour and a half away. Just because it’s a general vet, I wanted to post here to see if anyone might have any alternative ideas incase I or they might have missed something if that makes sense? One of my boys Eggs who was only about 2 and a half/3 passed away out of nowhere in May after having some foot inflammation that was healing up great, so I’m paranoid I might be missing something here. Ollie was always an absolute feral, lunatic piggy (we always joke he’s a little dog in a pig’s body) but he’s so so so different since Eggs died, his personality seems to have done a complete 360 so I worry about him in general. I took in another friend for him within a few days after Eggs passed but even then he’s just not the same as he used to be before Eggs died, so since his personality has changed so much I find it much harder to read him all of a sudden now. I adopted him and his cagemate in 2021 after my very first piggy died to keep my elderly boy company, and since then my elderly piggy died in 2023 just 2 weeks after Ollie’s catemate died, and then just a couple years later Eggs passes away. Ollie’s lost 3 piggy friends over the years which is so unfair to him, but he never changed the way he did until after Eggs was gone. Him and Eggs lived in a separate cage too because Ollie picked on him but he must have bonded with Eggs a lot more than I thought he did despite all the bullying and feralness, but the stark change in personality does worry me too. He doesn’t seem miserable or anything, he’s still a popcorner at his big age but truly he went from a little maniac who was constantly fighting and biting bars for hours to such a placid and quiet guy
This was at my cat’s vets (who are all wonderful, and every vet at that practice has been very good with my piggies over the years) because my closest exotics is an hour and a half away. Just because it’s a general vet, I wanted to post here to see if anyone might have any alternative ideas incase I or they might have missed something if that makes sense? One of my boys Eggs who was only about 2 and a half/3 passed away out of nowhere in May after having some foot inflammation that was healing up great, so I’m paranoid I might be missing something here. Ollie was always an absolute feral, lunatic piggy (we always joke he’s a little dog in a pig’s body) but he’s so so so different since Eggs died, his personality seems to have done a complete 360 so I worry about him in general. I took in another friend for him within a few days after Eggs passed but even then he’s just not the same as he used to be before Eggs died, so since his personality has changed so much I find it much harder to read him all of a sudden now. I adopted him and his cagemate in 2021 after my very first piggy died to keep my elderly boy company, and since then my elderly piggy died in 2023 just 2 weeks after Ollie’s catemate died, and then just a couple years later Eggs passes away. Ollie’s lost 3 piggy friends over the years which is so unfair to him, but he never changed the way he did until after Eggs was gone. Him and Eggs lived in a separate cage too because Ollie picked on him but he must have bonded with Eggs a lot more than I thought he did despite all the bullying and feralness, but the stark change in personality does worry me too. He doesn’t seem miserable or anything, he’s still a popcorner at his big age but truly he went from a little maniac who was constantly fighting and biting bars for hours to such a placid and quiet guy
So it must be his little leg that was sore afterall thank god, was super worried it could be something else going on but he’s back to his friendly little self for the most part and begging so definitely better than he has been. I figure he may have a little arthritis at this age now