GP not eating after critical care

[Katie searfass]

Coco my 3 year old guinea pig had a UTI and had stopped eating. The vet gave her some antibiotics & something for gas - Meloxicam & Enrofloxacin. She had been on these for a week now and today is the last day of meds. I have been giving her critical care - the last few days I have ground up her normal pellets to give to her. She is eating again a little veggies and some hay but does not seem to be eating her pellets. There are some veggie pieces in the pellets that she had eaten but does not seem like she is eating the regular pellets. Should I just reduce the critical care feedings to see if she starts to eat them again? Or now that the meds are done - will she gets her appetite back?

 

[Deleted member 139433]

Sorry to hear your piggy has been poorly. Antiobiotics can really have an impact on the gut and appetite.

I wouldn't worry about the pellets, it's most important that she is eating plenty of hay. Pellets aren't an essential part of the diet.

Are you still feeding the critical care? Are you weighing her daily?

 

[Hope4gem]

In addition to the helpful info from Bradshaw Piggies, here's some guides that can help.
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
Weight Monitoring and Management

 

[Wiebke]

Coco my 3 year old guinea pig had a UTI and had stopped eating. The vet gave her some antibiotics & something for gas - Meloxicam & Enrofloxacin. She had been on these for a week now and today is the last day of meds. I have been giving her critical care - the last few days I have ground up her normal pellets to give to her. She is eating again a little veggies and some hay but does not seem to be eating her pellets. There are some veggie pieces in the pellets that she had eaten but does not seem like she is eating the regular pellets. Should I just reduce the critical care feedings to see if she starts to eat them again? Or now that the meds are done - will she gets her appetite back?

Hi!

There is always a transition period in a revocery where a piggy is starting to eat but not yet fully. You need to continue to weigh daily at the same time (before breakfast is a good time as that is when the daily weight is at its lowest) so you can then tailor your top up feeding support accordingly and increase or reduce it at need. The loss of appetite from the baytril/enrofloxacin will continue for some days yet as antibiotics build up over several days until they reach optimal efficiency and they will gradually peter off again over several days. Meloxicam/metacam is an analgesic (painkiller+anti-inflammatory) but not a gut medication.

Please keep in mind that hay is the main food source making around 80% of what a piggy eats in a day; that is what your support feed is mainly replacing. A small bowl/ca. 50g of preferably green veg and 1 tablesppon of pellets per piggy per day are filling the supplementary role that wild forage used to have for those trace elements that are not contained in the very nutricious grass/hay fibre (fresh growing grass is high in vitamin C, by the way; hence why piggies have never had the need to make their own).

If symptoms recur after the antibiotic has worn off, please see your vet. Your piggy may need a longer course for UTI, may need checking for stones or sludge or may be suffering from a sterile (i.e. non-bacterial) interstitial (i.e. recurring) cystitis that cannot be healed with an antibiotic and can only be managed. The latter condition is mot much known outside vet circles that see a lot of guinea pigs but it has become increasingly more common over the last decade and is usually mainly diagnosed by default (low or no bacterial count) after all the other possible problems in the urinary tract have been excluded. Sterile IC can only be managed but not healed.

Right now, please concentrate on the transition and adjusting your supporting role according to how your piggy is eating on their own. Only the kitchen scales will tell you the up to date truth as you cannot control the crucial hay intake by eye alone.

 

[Katie searfass]

Sorry to hear your piggy has been poorly. Antiobiotics can really have an impact on the gut and appetite.

I wouldn't worry about the pellets, it's most important that she is eating plenty of hay. Pellets aren't an essential part of the diet.

Are you still feeding the critical care? Are you weighing her daily?

yes I am still doing the critical care - not as much as when she was not eating. Maybe now she is done with the antibiotics she will do better. I also have been giving her Benabac

 

[Katie searfass]

Hi!

There is always a transition period in a revocery where a piggy is starting to eat but not yet fully. You need to continue to weigh daily at the same time (before breakfast is a good time as that is when the daily weight is at its lowest) so you can then tailor your top up feeding support accordingly and increase or reduce it at need. The loss of appetite from the baytril/enrofloxacin will continue for some days yet as antibiotics build up over several days until they reach optimal efficiency and they will gradually peter off again over several days. Meloxicam/metacam is an analgesic (painkiller+anti-inflammatory) but not a gut medication.

Please keep in mind that hay is the main food source making around 80% of what a piggy eats in a day; that is what your support feed is mainly replacing. A small bowl/ca. 50g of preferably green veg and 1 tablesppon of pellets per piggy per day are filling the supplementary role that wild forage used to have for those trace elements that are not contained in the very nutricious grass/hay fibre (fresh growing grass is high in vitamin C, by the way; hence why piggies have never had the need to make their own).

If symptoms recur after the antibiotic has worn off, please see your vet. Your piggy may need a longer course for UTI, may need checking for stones or sludge or may be suffering from a sterile (i.e. non-bacterial) interstitial (i.e. recurring) cystitis that cannot be healed with an antibiotic and can only be managed. The latter condition is mot much known outside vet circles that see a lot of guinea pigs but it has become increasingly more common over the last decade and is usually mainly diagnosed by default (low or no bacterial count) after all the other possible problems in the urinary tract have been excluded. Sterile IC can only be managed but not healed.

Right now, please concentrate on the transition and adjusting your supporting role according to how your piggy is eating on their own. Only the kitchen scales will tell you the up to date truth as you cannot control the crucial hay intake by eye alone.

thank you so much!

 

[Betsy]

If your piggy is full up on CC she is not going to want to eat anything else. When my piggies started to get better from 3 hourly feeds around the clock, I stopped the one in the middle of the night first then weighed the piggy in the morning, if they weighed the same (give or take around 20g for a full/empty bladder) I carried on without the middle of the night feed. Then I dropped the 11pm ish feed and weighed again in the morning. Then I gradually reduced the syringe feeding until I was just topping up morning (breakfast time) and evening (veg time) then they just got the top up at night but only if the scales showed me that their weight was OK. Then I stopped the night syringe feed altogether. Hope this helps.

 

[Katie searfass]

If your piggy is full up on CC she is not going to want to eat anything else. When my piggies started to get better from 3 hourly feeds around the clock, I stopped the one in the middle of the night first then weighed the piggy in the morning, if they weighed the same (give or take around 20g for a full/empty bladder) I carried on without the middle of the night feed. Then I dropped the 11pm ish feed and weighed again in the morning. Then I gradually reduced the syringe feeding until I was just topping up morning (breakfast time) and evening (veg time) then they just got the top up at night but only if the scales showed me that their weight was OK. Then I stopped the night syringe feed altogether. Hope this helps.

thanks. I have cut back on the CC and yesterday was the last of her antibiotic so i will see if it helps

 

[Wiebke]

thanks. I have cut back on the CC and yesterday was the last of her antibiotic so i will see if it helps

Keep on weighing daily. Only start reducing your CC if the weight is starting to going up, which means that your piggy is eating more than you are providing. This usually goes hand in hand with your piggy eating 15-25 ml of CC in one go, so you can also reduce the feeding frequency.

NEVER reduce the feed on spec before your piggy is ready for it! Please re-read my previous post and what I have said about how antibiotics work, @Katie searfass . This is not yet the time for playing games; you have to be patient for a few days more.

Can I please remind my co-posters that guinea pigs are NOT a species that will eat more just because you reduce the support feed. Please do not encourage removal/reduction of of support feed until the kitchen scales clearly say so or the syringe feeding pattern clearly indicates that the appetite is fully returning/has fully returned. I would also recommend them to read my previous post about how antibiotics work.

 

[cookiecake]

Keep on weighing daily. Only start reducing your CC if the weight is starting to going up, which means that your piggy is eating more than you are providing. This usually goes hand in hand with your piggy eating 15-25 ml of CC in one go, so you can also reduce the feeding frequency.

NEVER reduce the feed on spec before your piggy is ready for it! Please re-read my previous post and what I have said about how antibiotics work, @Katie searfass . This is not yet the time for playing games; you have to be patient for a few days more.

Can I please remind my co-posters that guinea pigs are NOT a species that will eat more just because you reduce the support feed. Please do not encourage removal/reduction of of support feed until the kitchen scales clearly say so or the syringe feeding pattern clearly indicates that the appetite is fully returning/has fully returned. I would also recommend them to read my previous post about how antibiotics work.

So if my guinea pig gets off antibiotics on Tuesday, how long will the meds last in his system? And how long until his appetite comes back, if it does?

 

[Wiebke]

So if my guinea pig gets off antibiotics on Tuesday, how long will the meds last in his system? And how long until his appetite comes back, if it does?

The antibiotic will wear off gradually over the coming roughly 5 days. The appetite should gradually come back during that time but it can take longer in severe cases. Continue with plenty of probiotics to help rebuild the gut microbiome that does the amazing digestion work in the gut.

 

[cookiecake]

The antibiotic will wear off gradually over the coming roughly 5 days. The appetite should gradually come back during that time but it can take longer in severe cases. Continue with plenty of probiotics to help rebuild the gut microbiome that does the amazing digestion work in the gut.

Thank you so so much!

 

[Wiebke]

All the best!