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Fat Piggie?

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JackyB

JackyB

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Hi :)p,

I weighed both my piggies last night and was shocked at the difference in weight.

Pebbles is 820 Grams and is the dominant pig which surprises me considering Poppy weighs in at a whopping 1100 Grams! the fat little so and so :(|)

Seriously though- is my Poppy overweight?

They are both 6 months old and eat their veggies at the same time so it's not like Pebbles misses out- they do have unlimited dry food but thought this was right for piggies of their age?

Any advice on this would be much appreciated :)
 
Poppy looks like she is going to be a big piggy!

I thought my Telyn was going to be a huge girl when she hit the kilo at six months old, but not too long after she slowed down and stopped growing and hasn't put that much more weight on.

If you are worried about overweight, you might find this thread of Laura's from our very informative reference section helpful:
http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=38805

Dominance has often nothing to do with size. I have a couple of sisters. Nia is my active top sow at just over a kilo and Nerys my lazy fat lump who moves only from food spot to food spot at 1300g!

Any adult weight between 900g and 1400g is absolutely normal and healthy.
 
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Slight caution....piggies with heart porblems can put on weight suddenly.

My piggies have jumped from 1kg and 1.4kg to 1.2 and 1.6kg respectively - this is due to accumulation of fluid in lungs and abdomen owing to heart porblems.

Their tummies are now very squishy (i.e. they are not fat even though on first feel it might seem like that)...and they have little muscle on their bony backbones (latter is dead giveaway)

Many vets wouldn;t even realise a guinea can have heart problems/ascites and immediatey say "overwieght" ....please either go back or take to a new vet and if necessary print out this post to ensure they do the proper check. If fluid looks likely then frusemaide (2mg/kg) for fluid and fortekor 1mg/kg) for heart might be necessary.

And so there is no doubt - many vets say - "no heart murmer = no heart porobs" - malletheadmalletheadmalletheadmalletheadmallethead........it;s not about how the heart is sounding - it/s about what you see on X ray ref heart size and fluid build-up.....

If fluid isn't found then - well, yes! You have piggies on the "porker" side ...:)):)):))

Good luck - happy to talk to our vet if needed

x
 
Pebble, you posted about weight gain and heart problems when I was concerned about Panda. if the pig is a rather large (1400g) but not gaining weight what is the probability of heart problems. (sorry going off thread here) thanks.
 
What does the vet recommend to do for heart problems Pebble out of interest?

Hope your piggie is just fat Jacky ;)
 
about a year ago my two cage mate sows were both about 1.5 pounds/680 grams each, this year when i was weighing them in one had stayed at 1.5pounds/680 grams and the other was a whopping 3 pounds /1360 grams! i weighed them because i was worried about my little one because she had diahorrea and was stunned at the diffrence! the big girls never had any health problems due to her gianormous size but my little one has.. :(
 
OK heart probs are normally identified if the pig, despite eating plenty, loses weight - mine however [*]have gained weight [/*]owing to ascites and pulmonary oedema/pleural effusion. Recurrent respiratory probs with no identifiable cause (and negative micro results even from Pm's) were key for me with my pigs.

My vet didn;t recommend anything - they completely followed my lead in printing off guinnea lynx stuff/researching treatment etc etc - (after they had done X rays and seen fluid around the lungs, poss on some an enlarged heart, and exhausted antibiotics....and to boot, I also have specialist heart exotics vet involved now on their recommendation). NB All my piggies are genetically linked and as all of them were starting to show what were originally determined as URI but not responsive to antibioitics, - luckily my vet was inclined to work with me.

So heart meds as per guinea lynx - fortekor (1mg/kg) and frusemaide (2mg/kg).

Bottom line - I always work WITH my vets - they (were) not particularly guinea pig savvy - but have shown very willing to listen and learn (unlike my previous vets)..and we are now just starting to discuss towel wrapping to avoid GA for X rays...They know I won;t self-medicate a guinea without discussing with them first (even if just over the phone) ............and the "co-operative health care stance" really does make a difference.

x
 
I have one sow with diagnosed heart probs - she went up from 1.2kg to 1.4kg max and is now fixed at that while on heart meds...but any more weight gain and we know it means we need to up her meds (partic frusemaide) for a few days.

Her cousins (all chunky boys) are 1.3-1.5kg. Recently they have all put on 100g more very suddenly - so i now have boars weighing 1.4-1.7kg. Not good - they deffo have ascites (from palaption by vet) and we are now trying to get their weights back down with frusemide ....

x
 
hmmm, so do i just need to keep an eye on her weight for now- see if she gains more weight quite quickly then there could be a problem or if she stays at her current weight and gains any more weight slowly then she's just a bit of a porker?

She's fine in herself and is always running around but I'll keep a close eye on her anyway- are there any other symptoms to look out for too if it could be linked to heart problems?
 
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