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Diesel Has Lost More Than 100g In Less Than 2weeks

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jenny57

jenny57

Teenage Guinea Pig
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Hi folks, I am taking Diesel to the vet this afternoon. He is very lethargic and quite, is reluctant to eat and has lost more than 100g since the 6th Nov. What questions should I ask? Should I ask for metacalm? There is nothing physical I can see, no rattly breathing no blocked nose. I am at a loss, also should I take Buddy along? My appointment is at 4.10 thank you in advance.
 
I would suggest getting a urine sample to take if you can (I put mine in Tupperware until they pee, after loading them up with cucumber or lettuce or something else watery to prompt them to go. I realize that may be hard if he isn't eating well.) One of my pigs has that kind of nondescript lethargy and lack of appetite when she has a UTI (she often has occult blood in her urine during those times, even if I can't see it with the naked eye and she doesn't squeak when peeing or show any other signs of UTI.) It might be worth screening the urine for blood just in case. As to whether you take your other pig along too, it's really up to you. Some pigs find it comforting to have a friend along. I tend to take them one at a time because they don't particularly enjoy sharing the carrier that I use for the vet (it's fairly small) and I find that since they both dislike the vet, instead of comfort I seem to end up with a contagious panic on my hands. I've only taken them together once (when someone had bloody urine and I couldn't tell which one) and it was not the best vet experience, so I prefer individually, but it all depends on your pigs.
 
Good luck, I am thinking of you. How old is Diesil? You are right to take him to the vets - it is worrying when they loose weight quickly. I have taken pigs to the vets together before but mine were very well bonded and distressed when parted from each other.
 
jenny57 said:
Thanks Freela, I will try getting a sample but I don't hold out much hope.
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They may be able to get a sample at the vets'... some pigs will pee if they palpate their bladder when they are checking out the abdomen. I would suggest to the vet that when they feel the abdomen for lumps/masses, that they do it over a container of some sort, just in case, because it's such an easy test to do.
 
Hi Guys, Diesel is booked in to get his teeth done tomorrow. The vet was really lovley. He looked in Diesels mouth and said he has spurs on his molars and trapped food that shouldn't be there( yucky stuff!). He is getting a GA, should I ask for metacalm and will his mouth be sore. Will I need to syringe feed him afterwards. Really sorry about all the questions but this is my first time at the vet with one of my gorgeous boys.

I think a glass of wine ( or 2) is in order.
 
his mouth will feel sore afterwards so definitely come back with some metacam. eddie was on it for 5days originally after the dental. allow him to try eating himself but supplement with feeds if he isn't having enough. good luck for tomorrow. x
 
biscandmatt said:
his mouth will feel sore afterwards so definitely come back with some metacam. eddie was on it for 5days originally after the dental. allow him to try eating himself but supplement with feeds if he isn't having enough. good luck for tomorrow. x
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Thank you so much for the info, I Will definitely ask for pain relief if it is not offered.
 
Oh, poor little guy! Definitely ask for metacam, as he may be sore afterwards. Also make sure you have the stuff on hand to syringe feed if needed. Some pigs will go back to eating after having spurs filed down (Sundae did), but others are still sore and need some time to recover and need syringe feeds during that time. Some are also groggy from the GA for the first day or so and may need syringe feeding during that time. Good luck and hope it all goes well!
 
Thanks guys, he ate a bit of finely chopped lettuce and tomato an hour ago and then decided it was time for bed. Will let you all know how things went tomorrow. Please keep fingers and paws crossed for him.
 
Thanks guys, It is not a good prognosis for my boy. The vet said his back teeth are misaligned so he cannot chew properly. The were able to file down the rough edges of his teeth but there was some piece of equipment that was needed that they did not have as they are not specialist exotic vets.

I asked about pain relief and was told that the injection that he was given would be all that he needed as the mouth heals really quickly! I phoned half an hour ago and spoke to the vet and said I thought Diesel was in pain he agreed to give him metacalm but told me he thinks that the problem is " mechanical".

I was given a bag with two sachets of recovery food and a syringe. The syringe was 15 ml! and I have now got my husband to get a 1 ml one instead.

The first feed we gave him was okay, I think because he was still doped up. We were told to give him 5 mls every hour until bed time. We tried wrapping him up but he was still very wriggly and distressed.I have only one good hand to hold him with and my husband is not as confident as handling him as I am so I feel shattered and useless. I have read the hand feeding care guide but it is so stressful for Diesel and us I could cry.
 
Try not to panic as your piggy will pick up on your anxiety. Just look on every ml you feed as a bonus. Keep a note of how many mls you get in each time, so you can add it up later. You will find you have managed a lot more than you thought. I syringe feed lots of piggies and they are all different in how they take to being syringe fed, but after a while they all tend to get used to it, especially when they realise they are feeling so much better with a full tummy. xx
 
Thank you all for your support. We managed to get 6 mls of recovery food and a dose of metacalm into him at about 3 pm. Unfortunately my husband had to go out and won't be back until 6 pm, when we will feed him again. I have read other folk's post's about trying to hand feed a poorly guinea and I now know exactly how they feel.

I was not entirely convinced by what the vet told me about Diesel's condition. If his teeth are misaligned would this not have materialised earlier? He took the time to phone me at home last night, I think it was just to underline what the nurse told me when I picked Diesel up, namely that they can do nothing for him. He still seems to have so much fight left in him though, how long do I keep trying?

In a way this feels worse for me than when I had to say goodbye to my 16 year old cat, she was old and Ill and it was her time, but my piggie is just over 3 and as only been with us for a little over 6 months .
 
jenny57 said:
Thank you all for your support. We managed to get 6 mls of recovery food and a dose of metacalm into him at about 3 pm. Unfortunately my husband had to go out and won't be back until 6 pm, when we will feed him again. I have read other folk's post's about trying to hand feed a poorly guinea and I now know exactly how they feel.

I was not entirely convinced by what the vet told me about Diesel's condition. If his teeth are misaligned would this not have materialised earlier? He took the time to phone me at home last night, I think it was just to underline what the nurse told me when I picked Diesel up, namely that they can do nothing for him. He still seems to have so much fight left in him though, how long do I keep trying?

In a way this feels worse for me than when I had to say goodbye to my 16 year old cat, she was old and Ill and it was her time, but my piggie is just over 3 and as only been with us for a little over 6 months .
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Hand feeding an unwilling and unwell piggy is very tough at first because to an extent you have to be cruel to be good; most piggies will be much more cooperative once they are feeling better in themselves, but getting a piggy through the acute crisis is the really hard bit.

It also gets easier with practice, as - like Debbie said - a piggy will be noticeably better behaved when it picks up on your determination to make it better rather than on your anxiety. Instead of thinking about how bad it is, concentrate all your thoughts on how every little bit of hand feeding going into his poor mouth will make his tummy feel so much better and send him lots of praise for every little bit of water and syringe feed he takes on board. Piggies pick up on your emotions much more strongly than you are aware. Don't think about how much still has to go down, think about every bit that has already gone down and is giving him the energy he so much needs. ;)

It depends on the nature and severity of dental problems how early they manifest; most, apart from the really severe ones, come up only in middle to older age. Once a spur can form, then things go downhill pretty quickly.
 
sorry to hear you're both so upset. we're doing as debbie says, and just looking at every bit of food eddie will take as a bonus at the moment. after his dental, he started off slowly with the syringe feeds. as he got used to it, he was able to take alot more. hugs x
 
jenny57 said:
Thank you all for your support. We managed to get 6 mls of recovery food and a dose of metacalm into him at about 3 pm. Unfortunately my husband had to go out and won't be back until 6 pm, when we will feed him again. I have read other folk's post's about trying to hand feed a poorly guinea and I now know exactly how they feel.

I was not entirely convinced by what the vet told me about Diesel's condition. If his teeth are misaligned would this not have materialised earlier? He took the time to phone me at home last night, I think it was just to underline what the nurse told me when I picked Diesel up, namely that they can do nothing for him. He still seems to have so much fight left in him though, how long do I keep trying?

In a way this feels worse for me than when I had to say goodbye to my 16 year old cat, she was old and Ill and it was her time, but my piggie is just over 3 and as only been with us for a little over 6 months .
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keep trying aslong as you feel he has that fight. we're at over two weeks now since eddie's dental and it's such slow progress with ups and downs. he's still trying though so has that fight.

would getting to another vet be a possibility? an exotics one would know more and you could make a more informed decision then. or at least maybe ask your vet to consult with them. x
 
Oh, poor little guy! Keep on trying to feed him, especially if he still has some pep to him and will take the food. My experience is that when there's no point any longer to syringe feeding, you'll know, as they won't swallow the food any longer. It's the best you can do to support him while you sort things out. I'm a bit concerned that the vet may not have enough guinea pig experience to really help him much. Is there an exotics vet in your area who has specific experience with teeth? No disrespect to the vet, but doing a partial dental because you don't have the tools to do it properly and then essentially writing him off doesn't sound, to me, like someone who has a lot of experience with this particular problem.

There are a lot of reasons why dental issues can suddenly materialize. I've had dental issues with two of my pigs. The first developed a large abscess right at the beginning of her dental issues, so the abscess was plainly the underlying problem. Unfortunately, she didn't do well and passed away about 10 days following surgery to lance and drain the abscess... I didn't know as much about hand-feeding and abscess care as I do now and the vet didn't know as much as he should have known, and I don't think that helped her out any. Sundae presented differently, more like your little guy. She just went off her food, was losing weight, and was having difficulty chewing (she would pull her lips back as if food was getting stuck and would paw at her mouth.) I had since switched to an exotics vet, who was able to ascertain that she had overgrown molars on one side and a molar spur that was cutting her her tongue and was painful for her. That did the trick for about eight weeks, and then we were back with the same problem again. About eight weeks after that, she developed a lump on her jawline and was treated for an abscess. The vet and I are both pretty sure that the abscess was brewing down in the deep tissue for months and was causing her dental issues (it hurt, causing her not to chew on that side, causing her teeth to overgrow on that side) but we had no real way of assessing that until it became visible. We did have to syringe feed her for awhile, and we had to squeeze out that infected abscess pus for a long while for it to heal, but it's now been over a year and she is fine, no more dental issues since the abscess lancing. I'm not saying this is the specific reason for Diesel's issues, just that tooth issues can spring up and there can be underlying reasons that aren't readily apparent. Really the best you can do now is to keep on syringe-feeding him to keep his guy moving, keep offering food, and maybe see if you can find a vet with more experience with guinea pig teeth.
 
@biscandmatt
@Freela

Thank you both for telling me your experiences with piggie dental problems. We live in the very north east of Scotland and the nearest exotic vet on the locator is in Aberdeen a 4 hour plus journey by car and we don't drive. The vet said when he was doing Diesel's teeth that there was a file he needed to do it properly but that the practice did not have it.

Tonight he has had two lots of 8 mls of food a bit of lettuce and just now a really tough strand or two of hay. That is more than last night. I wonder if the Loixicom is kicking in, I hope so.

@biscandmatt, I really hope Eddie continues to fight and overcome his problems.
@Freela I am delighted that Sundae overcame her horrendous illnesses and is still happy and healthy.
 
I totally get how difficult it can be to find a vet that does guinea pigs, particularly one with a lot of experience with them! I think they aren't 'money-makers' to the extent that cats and dogs are as far as numbers go, so a lot of vets don't know a lot about them or aren't totally up to date with their info. I'm glad he's eating something and is taking lots of syringe food... you're doing a great job getting food into him!
 
I hope he continues to eat and picks up. That's a very long way to travel to an exoctics vet - I understand why that would be a real problem :(
 
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