Littlepig&co
Junior Guinea Pig
As some of you may know, 2 weeks ago today Daisy was diagnosed with arthritis in her jaw following an x-ray to find the cause of her weight loss.
She has been on 0.5ml of septrin twice a day as there was a chance there could of been an infection in her jaw too. She has also been on 0.1ml of metacam twice daily for the pain and inflammation. Despite this the weight is still dropping off her . I have been supplementing her pellets with some critical care on top to try and build her back up again. She's eating although I don't think she is eating enough.
I have been doing some research and found on the Cottontails Rescue website that an effective way of treating Arthritis of the jaw is with a long acting corticosteroid injection. Does anybody have any experience with this? how long do the injections last before symptoms start appearing again? I just want my little girl back to a healthy weight, I hate seeing her so small and skinny. She is just 790 grams now, she was 1kg just 12 weeks ago. I weigh her every 4 days and she is just gradually going down. I have linked the info I found from the Cottontails
website here.
Another issue we are having, which I think may be contributing to it is Delilah (Daisy's relatively new friend) is barbering her. We adopted her from Cottontails on the 7th December 2014 after Daisy lost her half sister and companion of 3 years; Ruby on the 1st of December. The first month or so she was fine as she was very nervous and shy but as she has settled in this habit has come out. Daisy just lets her get on with it too, she is too gentle to tell her off. They will sit/sleep side by side and Delilah will just chew away at her fur. Daisy looks awful what with being underweight plus scruffy chewed fur. I don't know how to stop Delilah from doing it. Daisy's weight loss was only since getting her new friend too, I know she has this arthritis in her jaw but I am starting to think that the weight loss may be because of this as well?
I have an appointment for Daisy on Saturday at 10:00am , can't go any sooner as my vet is away until then. I have also left a message on the rescue's answer phone for advice. They do have info on their website about barbering, I have tried all of the suggestions apart from the vics vapour rub/olbas oil as I am a bit worried about trying that.
She has been on 0.5ml of septrin twice a day as there was a chance there could of been an infection in her jaw too. She has also been on 0.1ml of metacam twice daily for the pain and inflammation. Despite this the weight is still dropping off her . I have been supplementing her pellets with some critical care on top to try and build her back up again. She's eating although I don't think she is eating enough.
I have been doing some research and found on the Cottontails Rescue website that an effective way of treating Arthritis of the jaw is with a long acting corticosteroid injection. Does anybody have any experience with this? how long do the injections last before symptoms start appearing again? I just want my little girl back to a healthy weight, I hate seeing her so small and skinny. She is just 790 grams now, she was 1kg just 12 weeks ago. I weigh her every 4 days and she is just gradually going down. I have linked the info I found from the Cottontails
website here.
Another issue we are having, which I think may be contributing to it is Delilah (Daisy's relatively new friend) is barbering her. We adopted her from Cottontails on the 7th December 2014 after Daisy lost her half sister and companion of 3 years; Ruby on the 1st of December. The first month or so she was fine as she was very nervous and shy but as she has settled in this habit has come out. Daisy just lets her get on with it too, she is too gentle to tell her off. They will sit/sleep side by side and Delilah will just chew away at her fur. Daisy looks awful what with being underweight plus scruffy chewed fur. I don't know how to stop Delilah from doing it. Daisy's weight loss was only since getting her new friend too, I know she has this arthritis in her jaw but I am starting to think that the weight loss may be because of this as well?
I have an appointment for Daisy on Saturday at 10:00am , can't go any sooner as my vet is away until then. I have also left a message on the rescue's answer phone for advice. They do have info on their website about barbering, I have tried all of the suggestions apart from the vics vapour rub/olbas oil as I am a bit worried about trying that.