• 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

Are personality changes possible or even plausible? Or could this be entirely medical?

lauryn1289

lauryn1289

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Nov 23, 2021
Messages
476
Reaction score
484
Points
405
Location
Ireland
One of my three boys, Bobby, over the past couple days seems very subdued. For context my boys live happily together as neighbours because as soon as they’re let loose together they can’t stand eachother, so he has a c&c cage all to himself, and since I’ve had him just over a year he’s the friendliest, most social little guy. He’ll run and jump on his house to greet you kind of friendly. I’d estimate he’s about 2 years old. He’s the type of pig that’ll run off with a whole banana when he’s given some to take a bite. He has such a huge personality usually.

The past couple of days he doesn’t seem him himself. He’s less excited to see me or jump around like he always does. I can’t find a single thing physically wrong with him, no lumps or bumps or cuts, he’s eating hay, he wants treats, his poops are completely normal, he’s drinking water and his teeth are fine. Apart from seeming less excitable the only thing I’ve noticed is he’s lying down a bit more and seems to be doing some whining a little bit more than usual, I don’t know how to describe the noise better than whining or some high-ish pitched purring almost (uuhhhh-uhhh-uhhh kind of noise) but in my experience they seem do it when they’re bickering or a bit irritated. I’m just perplexed why he’s suddenly so different because all of the other health related gauges like eating and poops are totally fine, although he even seems less excitable for veggies but he still eats them at the same rate if that makes sense. It’s just his personality seems to have changed, he doesn’t seem “sick” in any traditional way

I know of course medical problems might be there even if they don’t show externally, but I don’t have access to an exotic vet, nearest one is hours away, so I have to use my regular vet. One of them has experience with pigs and is fantastic but he’s not always there, so I usually have an idea of what’s wrong and what to ask them to look for exactly. But because I can’t seem to figure out what’s wrong I have no idea what to ask them to check :( Does anyone have any ideas at all what may be behind this sudden change in him? I don’t want to miss some sort of illness and I don’t want vets to miss an illness for not knowing what to look for either. I’m going to try and get him some Metacam tomorrow if my vets will give it to me and see if that seems to improve him any bit, I worry he may have injured himself in a way that isn’t noticeable to me and may be in pain, but if that doesn’t seem to make a difference I’ll be booking him an appointment
 
As hay is the main food source the only way to m ow they are eating enough is with the weekly weight checks. When you have health concerns such as this then you need to switch to daily weight checks, and prepare to step on with syringe feeding.
Looking at poops doesn’t tell you enough real time information given the poop output is delayed 1-2 days - by the time you see less or smaller poops then they already haven’t been eating enough for a couple of days. So poop watching alone means you may miss a few days of then needing syringe feeding help.
Otherwise given any change in behaviour can be a sign of any illness, getting him checked by a vet is the only thing to do.

I hope he is ok
Emergency and Crisis Care as well as Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
 
Hi

Please have your boy vet checked as soon as possible. When piggies go suddenly quiet it is always cause for concern.

Step in with daily weight monitoring in order to check the daily food intake - at least three quarters are hay and you cannot check that by eye. When they suddenly stop eating, you won't notice until a day or two later in the poo output, by which time your piggy could be already going into organ failure. Your kitchen scales are your strongest ally in monitoring any illness/illness concerns.

My Breila presented with those symptoms over the weekend. She sadly didn't make it to her vet appointment on the Monday despite my feeding support care after I couldn't get her an emergency slot on the Saturday; she passed away in the early hours of Monday. :(

Weight - Monitoring and Management
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
 
Wiebke said:
Hi

Please have your boy vet checked as soon as possible. When piggies go suddenly quiet it is always cause for concern.

Step in with daily weight monitoring in order to check the daily food intake - at least three quarters are hay and you cannot check that by eye. When they suddenly stop eating, you won't notice until a day or two later in the poo output, by which time your piggy could be already going into organ failure. Your kitchen scales are your strongest ally in monitoring any illness/illness concerns.

My Breila presented with those symptoms over the weekend. She sadly didn't make it to her vet appointment on the Monday despite my feeding support care after I couldn't get her an emergency slot on the Saturday; she passed away in the early hours of Monday. :(

Weight - Monitoring and Management
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
Click to expand...
I’m so sorry for your loss :( Poor little Breila :(

I spoke with my vets and they suggested trying the metacam and if there’s no improvement with the painkiller to book an appointment. I gave him some critical care with his metacam and he’s back in bed feasting on his favourite hay so fingers crossed.
 
Piggies&buns said:
As hay is the main food source the only way to m ow they are eating enough is with the weekly weight checks. When you have health concerns such as this then you need to switch to daily weight checks, and prepare to step on with syringe feeding.
Looking at poops doesn’t tell you enough real time information given the poop output is delayed 1-2 days - by the time you see less or smaller poops then they already haven’t been eating enough for a couple of days. So poop watching alone means you may miss a few days of then needing syringe feeding help.
Otherwise given any change in behaviour can be a sign of any illness, getting him checked by a vet is the only thing to do.

I hope he is ok
Emergency and Crisis Care as well as Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
Click to expand...
I’m giving him critical care even though I am seeing him eat hay, going to go and buy a nice fancy hay for him as a treat. I spoke to my vets who gave metacam and said if there’s no improvement to bring him in for an appointment so hopefully :(
 
Are you also weighing him daily?
Has his weight remained stable - this is such an important indicator of overall health and something that is impossible to guess at.
 
lauryn1289 said:
I’m so sorry for your loss :( Poor little Breila :(

I spoke with my vets and they suggested trying the metacam and if there’s no improvement with the painkiller to book an appointment. I gave him some critical care with his metacam and he’s back in bed feasting on his favourite hay so fingers crossed.
Click to expand...

Thank you. It has been a bit of a shock since she had been ticking along very nicely indeed for her age. I had put her on painkillers (from my arthritic oldies and with consent of the clinic) and was support feeding her for as long as she was able to swallow.

All the best. Please keep on weighing daily first thing in the morning and keep on support feeding to the level your kitchen scales tell you - just watching a piggy eat can be very deceptive, as I know from my own experiences over the years.
 
Any kind of abrupt change in normal behavior is cause to rule out a medical concern. Sometimes being subdued is the only sign that your pig is ill. Your vet should go over him for the obvious things- listen to lungs and heart, abdominal masses/tenderness, mouth/teeth issues, perhaps urinalysis to check for sludge or bladder infection. Weighing daily is a good thing you can do at home to assess for stability and whether he is eating enough. I hope he all checks out well and feels better soon!
 
Swissgreys said:
Are you also weighing him daily?
Has his weight remained stable - this is such an important indicator of overall health and something that is impossible to guess at.
Click to expand...
Just going to get a new battery for my kitchen scales now to weigh him! Haven’t had a huge amount of luck using a digital scales to weigh my boys before but that’s probably my user error more than the scales fault 😂
 
Freela said:
Any kind of abrupt change in normal behavior is cause to rule out a medical concern. Sometimes being subdued is the only sign that your pig is ill. Your vet should go over him for the obvious things- listen to lungs and heart, abdominal masses/tenderness, mouth/teeth issues, perhaps urinalysis to check for sludge or bladder infection. Weighing daily is a good thing you can do at home to assess for stability and whether he is eating enough. I hope he all checks out well and feels better soon!
Click to expand...
I’m prepared to bring him for an appointment if I don’t see a change by tomorrow, he greeted me when I came home today while he was rummaging around in a big pile of hay which seems to be more than he’s been doing so I’m hoping metacam worked for him and maybe he injured himself in a small way that I hadn’t noticed, but I won’t take any chances just incase
 
Wiebke said:
Thank you. It has been a bit of a shock since she had been ticking along very nicely indeed for her age. I had put her on painkillers (from my arthritic oldies and with consent of the clinic) and was support feeding her for as long as she was able to swallow.

All the best. Please keep on weighing daily first thing in the morning and keep on support feeding to the level your kitchen scales tell you - just watching a piggy eat can be very deceptive, as I know from my own experiences over the years.
Click to expand...

He seems to be a bit more active since he got metacam earlier but if by tomorrow I don’t see a more drastic change I’ll bring him to the vet, luckily my vets can usually see me on the same day just incase! Better safe than sorry
 
Is he doing any tooth grinding or bar biting? Those can be signs of pain.

When you say he's doing a high-pitched burring, is it in brief bursts? To me that's usually an alarm noise, done when there's a sound that irritates or worries them, though sometimes they do it for other annoyances. The other burring noise you'll hear is rumbling, it's more low-pitched and drawn-out, and that is a dominance or territory-defending behaviour. A single pig wouldn't usually do that unless he has very close neighbours with whom he can have conversations about boundaries and who is the big man.

The sudden change in behaviour in and of itself is enough to do a vet check, even if you can only get a vet with limited guinea pig experience. Of course personalities can evolve slowly over a lifetime, but a sudden change like that is a sign of problems in pretty much any animal.
 
Cheekypigs said:
Is he doing any tooth grinding or bar biting? Those can be signs of pain.

When you say he's doing a high-pitched burring, is it in brief bursts? To me that's usually an alarm noise, done when there's a sound that irritates or worries them, though sometimes they do it for other annoyances. The other burring noise you'll hear is rumbling, it's more low-pitched and drawn-out, and that is a dominance or territory-defending behaviour. A single pig wouldn't usually do that unless he has very close neighbours with whom he can have conversations about boundaries and who is the big man.

The sudden change in behaviour in and of itself is enough to do a vet check, even if you can only get a vet with limited guinea pig experience. Of course personalities can evolve slowly over a lifetime, but a sudden change like that is a sign of problems in pretty much any animal.
Click to expand...

His neighbours are conjoined onto CC cages beside him so they can all chat to eachother and are right bestie eachother, never any issues as long as they have their own space but they do occasionally annoy eachother through the bars a little bit. He bites on the bars every now and then but it’s usually when he’s bickering as far as I can tell.

I really don’t know how to describe the noise, but it’s similar to the noise they make when rumble strutting but more chirpy and guttural? If that makes sense at all. Definitely not the dominant burring sound. I’m going to try and get him to the vet tomorrow just incase, he has actually popcorned a couple times that I saw today and has been very friendly again at stages but I’m still concerned that there’s any inconsistencies in his behaviour at all
 
Wiebke said:
How is his weight?
Click to expand...

It’s only changed very slightly if I remember his weight before this correctly I’m pretty sure he was 1.4kg beforehand. I did however notice one of his toes seems quite swollen, idk how I missed that before so maybe that’s the reason he’s been acting a bit funny 😞
 
lauryn1289 said:
It’s only changed very slightly if I remember his weight before this correctly I’m pretty sure he was 1.4kg beforehand. I did however notice one of his toes seems quite swollen, idk how I missed that before so maybe that’s the reason he’s been acting a bit funny 😞
Click to expand...
Hopefully, an antibiotic will help but better have him checked through.
 
Hi everyone :) Just thought I’d give a quick update. He was at the vet earlier and turns out I wasn’t seeing things and he does actually have a very swollen toe (and toenail? didn’t even know that was possible!) Seems quite likely that he nicked or caught his toe in something and an infection set in. His heart was fine and he’s 1.2kg so not much weight loss at all :)

He’s on .5mls of enrofloxacin once a day for a few days to clear any infection, hopefully it was just his toe that was bothering him. He seems a bit perkier and more active today so fingers crossed he’s started feeling better, although to say he’s annoyed at me for syringe feeding him critical care, metacam and now antibiotics is an understatement lol. Thanks everyone for your help and well wishes :) Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas if you celebrate it!
 

Attachments

  • 53646C0A-0ED5-4F28-9B03-1109454BCBF7.webp
    53646C0A-0ED5-4F28-9B03-1109454BCBF7.webp
    70.6 KB · Views: 3
Good to hear! Seems very likely that such a sore toe could be the explanation for the change in mood, I hope he feels much better soon.
 
Well done for getting him seen so quickly and hopefully this will nip the problem in the bud. Have a lovely Christmas.
 
Hi everyone! Just back again looking for more advice :(
So as I mentioned Bobby went to the vet and was put on antibiotics and metacam because we suspected his toe was an issue, but I’m concerned he’s not getting better. He went to the vet again 2 days ago, got an anti parasitic, more antibiotics and more metacam. The vet is convinced his toe isn’t bothering him, but perhaps grease gland irritation because it looked like he had a scab. Fairly certain no parasites though because my other two boys don’t have anything

50% of the time he seems back to himself again but then the rest he seems withdrawn and makes really low pitched grunting noises :( If more antibiotics don’t work I really don’t know what else to look for, the vets don’t seem to know either. His temperature was slightly low the other day and his weight is fluctuating by around 50-70 grams, so not drastic. Does anyone have any idea of other common illnesses I could try to rule out if this isn’t helping? Doesn’t seem like gut stasis or anything respiratory either and his tummy and heart were when he was checked too, not gassy or anything :( I’m really at a loss if antibiotics aren’t doing anything
 
Grunting noises (unless they are from the chest with a URI) are usually a sign of pain. Is he getting a decent dose of metacam? what dosage has he been given and is it cat or dog Metacam?
 
VickiA said:
Grunting noises (unless they are from the chest with a URI) are usually a sign of pain. Is he getting a decent dose of metacam? what dosage has he been given and is it cat or dog Metacam?
Click to expand...
Pain is exactly what I think it is too I just can’t figure out why. He’s getting .25ml of cat metacam once a day which isn’t enough as far as I’m concerned, just what my vet told me to give him
 
lauryn1289 said:
Pain is exactly what I think it is too I just can’t figure out why. He’s getting .25ml of cat metacam once a day which isn’t enough as far as I’m concerned, just what my vet told me to give him
Click to expand...
Once a day isn’t enough to keep them pain free, at least twice a day I was giving 0.5ml of cat metacam to my piggy for about 6 months.
 
That was my thinking! With his first bottle of metacam I was giving him .4ml twice a day based on him being just under 1.2kg but my vet said just .25ml :( I’ll start dosing him higher again, just concerned about them giving me more metacam for him
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top