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Baby guinea problems eating after surgery

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shiny

shiny

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Hi,

I have a 10 week old indoor-living baby guinea, Bertie, who had surgery on Monday for a huge abscess that appeared on the back of his neck. The surgery went well, but the abscess was much bigger than our exotics vet initially thought. He had to go through 3 layers of muscle at the back of the head / neck to get the whole capsule out. Bertie now has a 2" line of stitches going from the top of his head down his back! Poor baby :(

Bertie was interested in food & eating on Monday evening so we were really pleased. We were monitoring his weight anyway, he was 350g before the surgery on Monday & 300g on Tuesday. I wasn't surprised to see this weight loss as a result of having the enormous lump removed. However, he then lost more weight on Wednesday & Thursday getting down to 235g by Thursday evening when I started to be very worried & started feeding Critical Care by syringe. We noticed that Bertie seemed to be biting hay, mix & veggies ok but food was then dropping out of his mouth in tiny pieces, he also had a lot of bits of veggies stuck in his mouth. he was also sounding very rattly in his chest but is on Baytril anyway after the surgery so the vet felt this woud be ok.

Bertie went back to the vet on Friday morning to have this all checked out. The vet can't find any reason why Bertie can't eat; his teeth are fine, his tongue is ok & his swallow response was working too. He chest is still rattly but actually sounding much better today :)

I have been syringe feeding Bertie ever since & weight is going up slightly (246g earlier this evening). I also tried him on some Ella's kitchen baby food puree (sweetcorn, pumpkin & pea I think) to see if he could eat anything independently as he won't willingly eat the Critical Care, it has to be syringed in. Bertie can eat purees fine, he loves this Ella's kitchen stuff! I tried the pumpkin one as I read pumpkin is more ok for guineas as it is high in fibre. I tried mixing the puree with the CC but Bertie wasn't fooled & won't eat that by himself. Bertie is also having Bio-Lapis

I have a couple of questions:

1) has anybody ever heard of this sort of problem following surgery?
2) has anybody ever found the Critical Care apple-banana flavour in the UK?
3) what impact will this diet have on Bertie's back teeth growth?
4) how long can I keep up this diet for him without it causing problems?
5) has anybody had better success with mixing CC with a puree? If so, which one?

Thank you so much for your help. Any advice & info gratefully received. Bertie is the lovliest baby guinea with a very kind nature, he has taken it all so well, not trying to bite me or anything despite all the fussing around, weighing & syringe feeding. He is an Abyssinian cross covered in rosettes & has an amazing baby-soft black and tan coat. We only got him 3 weeks ago as a companion for our older boar Willow, we introduced them carefully & they get on brilliantly. Willow was on his own after his brother Cloud died of kidney problems in the summer. Willow has also started with some health problems of his own (which I won't put in this thread) so we really aren't having much guinea luck just now :( Let's hope things will look up soon...
 
I can't help much, but didn't want to read and run.
In my opinion, 350g is very small for a 10 week old piggy. My boy was around 650g at 8 weeks old. I would assume that if the muscles at the back of the neck have been damaged it would be quite painful for him to bite and chew. Is he on any pain relief? It might be an idea to ask your vet for some metacam or similar (someone else will be able to suggest which pain relief would be best). Carry on syringe feeding as it is very important to keeps the guts moving. I'm not sure of the exact quantities to feed without looking it up so I won't post that now in case I get it wrong.

Hopefully someone else can give you better answers than this! I hope he heals quickly. Keep getting that food into him! :)
 
Hi Shellza,

Thanks for your reply. Bertie was 270g when we got him at 6 weeks old & gained weight really nicely getting to 360g at 9 weeks. However, he felt pretty skinny when we got him & he was smaller than his brother from the same litter so could just be the teeny one.

He had started to feel much more chunky & robust when we discovered the awful abscess on the back of his neck, he never looked or acted ill once. I feel awful that we missed noticing the abscess, it was under one of his rosettes & couldn't be seen at all, I just happened to pass my hand over that part of his neck last Friday found it. Needless to say we were at the vets Saturday morning! There was no wound or obvious site of infection so it seems likely that the abscess was from an old wound, maybe from his litter-mates. There has been no fighting at all between Bertie & Willow so I think it's unlikely Willow bit him. I guess having an abscess like that could have made him grow less quickly than he otherwise would.

Yes, he is on Metacam daily & showing no signs of being in pain. He is alert, interested, weeking for food & trying his hardest to eat.

I am desperate to help him, as I mentioned in my first post, he has the lovliest, most trusting character & it breaks my heart to see him struggle.
 
Oh, bless him. Sounds like a nasty abscess poor boy, but also a difficult place to spot it, so don't beat yourself up about not finding it sooner. He does sound very tiny, lets hope he picks up soon.
I'm sorry I can't offer any more advice, hopefully someone else can give you a bit more help soon.

I hope he starts to pick up soon. It's so worrying when they go off their food.

Looking back on advice I've been given, if he is not eating at all, you should be aiming to feed about 120ml in 24 hours, feeding 30-40ml every 3-4 hours or so.

Hope this helps
 
Hi Shiny

So sorry to hear you have a piggie "in extremis"

Whereabouts are you? - it's clear you know what to do about syringe feeding and getting 120ml per day in 20ml sittings very 3-4 hours. But it does sound like you need a bit of moral (and perhaps practical when necessary) support.

It will take some time to get him back "up and running". You are clearly committed and determined and i'm sure other piggie people in your area will step up to help if they can.

Abcesses in the neck area can be an infection rather than a bite - it's called cervical lymphadenitis. I have had several pigs present with this at an early age.


Most important thing atm is to make sure he's eating (and pooing) enough and that if baytril doesn;t work as an antibiotic that you look to giving either azithromycin orally or long acting tetracycline by injection.

Next complication is if he hasn;t been eating enough then he could start to develop a toofie problem. Don;t worry about that this week - just concentrate on syringe feeding and weighing daily.

However if his poos change (get smaller or stop) then you need to get some gut motility drugs and really concentrate on the syringe feeding.

Weigh him everyday and syringe feed - if his weight is still dropping or the lumps aren;t going then please come back on for more advice - give it 3 days max.

x
 
Give this a try

This is what I would do in your situation...
Try adding water to his food and crushing it up a little - this way he gets food and water and it won't be dry (stick to his mouth).
If he is on bedding then move him onto fleece and spot clean daily. Just incase of any dust. My. Piggies are on bedding and they love it but for your piggies case stick to fleece.
If he is outside, then you need to bring him in. You can have him in a relativley small cage while he is recovering but I still would recommend c&c. Put his food bowl water dish and bed close together.
Don't use a water bottle as this will strain the stitches use a water bowl, but be sure to change it at least twice a day.
Good luck and please let me know if my advice helped.
Leah
xx>>>
 
Hi everybody,

Thanks for your replies. We are keeping on with the syringe feeding. Bertie has gained weight over the last 24 hours, now up to 260g :) I know it's not much but it's a step in the right direction... He has aso got a lot more lively & started dashing about & trying to stop me from giving him Critical Care - apparently it tastes a bit yuk! It's great to see him a bit more back to normal. He is also trying to eat all the time & seems to be managing to get a bit more food in rather than dropping it back out of his mouth again. We are hoping that he is improving a bit but it is early days so fingers crossed everybody please :)
 
Aww, bless him. It's great that he seems to be perking up! I don't know if you can add some of the puree to his Critical Care to make it taste nicer. I know someone has said that they add mushed banana to it, but I'd be worried too much banana might cause constipation. Might be worth adding some of the baby food to flavour it though :).
Fingers crossed that he keeps improving!
 
Shellza said:
I don't know if you can add some of the puree to his Critical Care to make it taste nicer.
Click to expand...

I tried this but he was MOST suspicious & acted like I had spoiled his favourite thing! He wouldn't eat it with even the teeniest bit of CC added - no fooling Bertie :))

I am going to try mashed up pellets with him again, I offered it after surgery but he wasn't keen. It's just trial & error to find soemthing that works I think. We're very tired in our house this week & a whole lot poorer after 2 guineas going to the vets for stuff but I wouldn't swap them for the world - they are gorgeous boys & worth all the effort :D
 
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