paulag
Teenage Guinea Pig
Amber and Priscilla came from Walsall RSPCA earlier his year. They are lovely, friendly piggies always expressing their opinion when the fridge door is opened.
A few days ago my husband said he thought Amber was a little quiet. I checked he over but she seemed fine and was eating well. I wish I'd weighed her at the time as a lot of hair can mask weight loss.
This morning she was suddenly quite poorly and she went straight down the vets. She isn't eating, has limited bowel sounds a slightly snotty nose and grubby bottom. She was also quite cold which is never a good sign and has lost 150g in weight.
The most worrying thing is that she didn't even complain when she had two subcut fluid injections with antibiotics and a gut motility agent.
We have her home and are warming her up with an extra heater in the room and some wrapped bottles of warm water by her hiding box.
I have some critical care to syringe feed but she put up no fight at all and when I had put some in her mouth she didn't chew or swallow it just mixed with some foamy saliva and ran out. I don't think it's gastric stasis as when I've dealt with that before they usually put up a fight but chew and swallow the food in their mouth.
Also the fact that she lost weight whilst eating well doesn't point to good things. My gut feeling is that it is something nasty like a tumour which has reached a critical point very suddenly. We don't really know how old she is and both of them do act a little like older piggies who like to munch or sleep.
I will try again with the critical care in an hour or so, but I really don't want to force feed her in her last hours if it all it is doing is stressing her out.
It will be dreadful to lose her, the two of them get on so well. I've never had guinea pigs who will choose to curl up together in the same box before. I do know with older rescues that you can get attached to them and then loose them - it's one of the reasons that I always take them as many people won't.
Wish me luck for a miraculous improvement.
Paula
A few days ago my husband said he thought Amber was a little quiet. I checked he over but she seemed fine and was eating well. I wish I'd weighed her at the time as a lot of hair can mask weight loss.
This morning she was suddenly quite poorly and she went straight down the vets. She isn't eating, has limited bowel sounds a slightly snotty nose and grubby bottom. She was also quite cold which is never a good sign and has lost 150g in weight.
The most worrying thing is that she didn't even complain when she had two subcut fluid injections with antibiotics and a gut motility agent.
We have her home and are warming her up with an extra heater in the room and some wrapped bottles of warm water by her hiding box.
I have some critical care to syringe feed but she put up no fight at all and when I had put some in her mouth she didn't chew or swallow it just mixed with some foamy saliva and ran out. I don't think it's gastric stasis as when I've dealt with that before they usually put up a fight but chew and swallow the food in their mouth.
Also the fact that she lost weight whilst eating well doesn't point to good things. My gut feeling is that it is something nasty like a tumour which has reached a critical point very suddenly. We don't really know how old she is and both of them do act a little like older piggies who like to munch or sleep.
I will try again with the critical care in an hour or so, but I really don't want to force feed her in her last hours if it all it is doing is stressing her out.
It will be dreadful to lose her, the two of them get on so well. I've never had guinea pigs who will choose to curl up together in the same box before. I do know with older rescues that you can get attached to them and then loose them - it's one of the reasons that I always take them as many people won't.
Wish me luck for a miraculous improvement.
Paula
