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Advice needed, don't know what to do!

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marshie82

marshie82

Teenage Guinea Pig
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Hi everyone,

I haven't been on for a while as I have had a million and one problems going on. Over the last few weeks, George and Alfie have been fighting, and they finally flew at each other and blood was shed:(, so last week, I made the difficult decsion to have them neutered, and pair them off with my girls.

They had their operetions on thursday and all went well. I have housed them sepertely, (but in the same room), and there just seems to be one problem after another.

Yesterday, George was hardly eating and seemed abit depressed, so I took him back to the vet. She couldn't find anything physically wrong with him, but gave him 2 injections, 1 was antibiotics and the other was to get his gut moving again. She has also told me to syringe him baby food 3 times a day, which I am doing.

But this morning, his veg was still there, minus a few nibbles.

Alfie WAS eating ok, but he isn't touching his veg this morning. So I syringed him some baby food too. When giving it to him, I noticed that one of his front teeth is now broken!

I really am at my wits end, so PLEASE, if anyone can help me, any advice at all, I would be so grateful x
 
If the fight was quite a serious one, they could both be a bit shocked and with the operations they had too. I'd probably syringe critical care rather than baby food. There's nothing wrong with baby food but I found critical care helped my sow gain her appetite back when she unwell. I think the broken tooth will grow back in its own time. I don't think you need to take him to the vets unless it's affecting his eating. Hope things settle down for them soon :)
 
I advise giving them some vitamin C, half or quarter of a tablet (depending on strength) should help boost their appetite. Also, syringing a pro biotic such as bio lapis can help the gut get moving.

I had this with Georgie after his neuter, he stopped eating and pooping. I put it down to the shock/stress of the op. I basically syringe fed him critical care and bio lapis throughout the day and within 2 days, he was fine :)
 
Sorry to hear things have been not so good for you love :( HUGE HUGS and loves xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Oh dear these boys, we'll you've tried your best with the neutering.
Maybe it is a delayed reaction to the anaes.... i know this can really upset their little systems, as you've been advised do the critical care, or science recovery syringing and make sure they both have water. I only added a little of the baby pureed apple to CC as i found i needed the nutrients more from CC than the baby food, it's good for flavouring tho.
As for the toofie loss you could chop up the food or grate it to make it easier to eat and also encourage by handfeeding too :) Keep on encouraging eating of hay and pellets, even if you have to slightly moisten some so they can munch them up.
Sending YOU lots of encouraging HUGS and heaps of wheeeeeeeeks for the little ones xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 
I'm sorry you had to resort to neutering your boys. They should be very happy with their new wives in a few weeks though. :)

I too would suspect the stress/shock to have suddenly knocked them back a bit. Do you know if the vet administered any drugs and what anesthetic was used? It may be a delayed reaction.

Have they got/had any pain relief? Pain can sometimes stop piggies from eating, though it is not standard practice for pain meds to be given post-neuter. It's something to consider perhaps.
 
I decided to call the vet and ask for some pain relief and science recovery, and they wanted to see George first.

So I took him down, and they gave him another 2 injections. One was to get him eating and the other was for pain relief. When I asked for the food supplement, I was give one for cats and dogs!!

I asked her if that was ok, and she said it would be fine. On opening the foil tin, it smells like chicken! I'm really not keen on giving it to him.

On the plus side, I've managed to give him some water, and hes eaten a ball of grass and some celery leaves.

The vet said if he isn't any better come Monday, that they should take him in and give him injectiond regularly to ease the pain and encourge eating.
I really don't want it to come to that:(
 
Is there a label or anything on the food? The vet should know that guinea pigs don't eat anything like what cats and dogs eat! The nutritional balance would be way off scale.
 
There no list of ingredients or anything on the tin, all I know is that it smells like chicken! She then assured me it would be fine, but like you said, guinea pigs have different needs to cats and dogsmallethead
 
If there's no info on the tin, I wouldn't feed it, especially if she told you it is for cats and dogs.

Can you make up a mash from the dry feed? There are some great tips in another health thread here ("Anorexia/malocclusion in female g.p...requesting advice on feeding" ).
 
Georgie had an injection of metacam pre neuter. I would have prefered Rimadyl but my vet isnt keen on using it. Metacam can make them drowsy and less inclined to eat but as Laura says, if they are in pain, they won't eat either! Your vet could give you some metacam to administer at home. One drop in the morning and one at night (I put one drop on a basil leaf). Long term use of metacam is not good but it should be fine for 3-4 days until they are not so sore.

Edit to add: I would take that stuff back and say it cannot be used for Guineas!
 
Peter Gurney recommends a good pick me up tonic for poorly piggies 'Metatone'. YOu can get this in any chemist. It was the Peter Gurney health pages that recommended this. It certainly worked for one of my piggies who ws inexplicably down.You give the piggy 0.5 ml for one week and then 0.3ml for the next.This perked my piggy up within a couple of days.
As for the broken tooth, one of my males has broken his front teeth several times and they always grow back. The pig just uses the other teeth until the broken one is back to normal.
Hope your piggies pick up soon..
 
Morning!,

Just to let you all know there has been alittle improvement with the boys today, they have started to eat abit more, not as much as usual, but definately more then yesterdayxx>>>

So, fingers crossed, lots more TLC, and hopefully, they won't be any need for another trip to the vets!

HUGE thanxs to everyone for you advice, but hopefully, they are on their way to a full recovery x
 
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