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Eating normally but losing weight

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karenchurchill

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hi Everyone, our guinea pig (female 2 years old, and lives with her 2 sisters) is eating, urinating and pooping as normal (after having a few days of wet poos), however she is losing weight. We have taken her to the vet who checked her over and said nothing obvious was wrong but put her on supreme science recovery, protexin and fibreplex, but taken her back again today and she’s slightly less heavy than last week. Vet suggested to either continue with the syringe feeding of the above for a while longer, which we have opt to do, but otherwise would mean anaesthetic and xrays at around £220. Has anyone gone down this route before and if anything has been found are there treatments, and if so at what sort of cost? We’re just not sure whether to spend that sort of money for them to either not find anything or not be able to treat her anyway.
 
Sorry to hear this, welcome to the forum.

What is her weight and what was it please?
 
Hi I'm not an expert so please listen to those! but I have had a Guinea pig x rayed for a tender tummy and soft poop. The x Ray was conscious so half the price... I personally wouldn't have wanted to use an anesthetic if its something that could be done conscious considering the risks. They found gas, ultimately the cause of nuggets issues were stress due to a broken bond with the sow she lived with but it took us a while to figure that out. Nugget wasn't loosing weight though, I think if it continued and she's eating normally I'd want to know what's going on. Good luck with your piggy!
Pro c is a probiotic you can add to her water, it's cheap and helps nugget when she has a flare up! Also nugget has to be careful with veg and can't go on grass or she has a flare.
 
I would also ask how expereinced your vet is with guinea pigs?
Sometimes a less experienced vet can suggest multiple tests to try and find the cause of a problem, whereas a more experienced vet will have more specific ideas from the outset.

I use 2 vets for my guinea pigs for this very reason, and all 'unusual' cases go straight to the specialist, whereas more routine stuff (hay pokes, mites) got to the ore general vet in our village.
 
If a piggy looks to be eating but is losing weight my first suspicion is usually a teeth problem. Did the vets use a scope to look at all the teeth?
 
Swissgreys said:
I would also ask how expereinced your vet is with guinea pigs?
Sometimes a less experienced vet can suggest multiple tests to try and find the cause of a problem, whereas a more experienced vet will have more specific ideas from the outset.

I use 2 vets for my guinea pigs for this very reason, and all 'unusual' cases go straight to the specialist, whereas more routine stuff (hay pokes, mites) got to the ore general vet in our village.
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Thank you, we used vets for pets but I would be grateful if anyone could recommend a vet in the Hertfordshire area for a second opinion
 
So there has been no other weight change than that? I would not be concerned by a 15g weight loss unless they keep losing weight each week, 15g can be the difference between a full and empty bladder
 
Has she always been 750g that is small for a two year old? Is she losing weight each week or day? How often are you weighing her?
 
Betsy said:
What was her weight before?
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In all honesty we’ve never had them weighed before as they all seemed perfectly healthy just noticed her having lost weight and that’s when we started weighing them. Her sisters are around 900g and I would say she was a similar size to them before
 
karenchurchill said:
In all honesty we’ve never had them weighed before as they all seemed perfectly healthy just noticed her having lost weight and that’s when we started weighing them. Her sisters are around 900g and I would say she was a similar size to them before
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I would imagine teeth possibly for dramatic weight loss. When she eats is she over chewing etc....? Feed a sprig of coriander does she struggle with it?
 
Betsy said:
What was her weight before?
Click to expand...
In all honesty we’ve never had them weighed before as they all seemed perfectly healthy just noticed her having lost weight and that’s when we started weighing them. Her sisters are around 900g and I would say she was similar
 
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