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Guinea Pig Barely Eating

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Gem789 said:
Sorry, I meant tell us if he gets better.
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I can say he is not losing weight anymore. The vet found out his cheeks are wounded inside because I fed him bamboo leaves, so I must wait for them to heal. Till then, no fruit, only syringe feed.
 
Gem789 said:
If he doesn't suggest it then ask him for some because a guinea pig who is in pain won't eat.
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I asked him so I got one, but I realize my pig is missing hay, how I should feed him hay until he starts feeding by himself?
 
Please speak to the vet about some pain relief. Metacam/loxicam/Meloxicam is the most widely used and safe for Guinea Pigs. Pain relief will enable him to feel a bit better and up to eating more. How fare away was the vet, well done for getting him there. I know it is more difficult for you than us in the UK. Keep trying as you are doing for your piggy
 
Gem789 said:
I think the recovery food you can syringe feed has hay in it but I'm not entirely sure. @Wiebke ,is that correct?
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Can mashed pellets replace hay?

sport_billy said:
Please speak to the vet about some pain relief. Metacam/loxicam/Meloxicam is the most widely used and safe for Guinea Pigs. Pain relief will enable him to feel a bit better and up to eating more. How fare away was the vet, well done for getting him there. I know it is more difficult for you than us in the UK. Keep trying as you are doing for your piggy
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Vet suggested me Rimadyl.
 
LightningShock said:
Can mashed pellets replace hay?

Vet suggested me Rimadyl.
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The mashed pellets will feed him but not provide the teeth wearing down nature of hay....

Rimadyl is an anti inflammatory but comes as a tablet in the UK so you'd have to crush it and mix with liquid - if I remember correctly. The vet would need to provide correct dosing on this so please discuss this with your vet
 
sport_billy said:
The mashed pellets will feed him but not provide the teeth wearing down nature of hay....

Rimadyl is an anti inflammatory but comes as a tablet in the UK so you'd have to crush it and mix with liquid - if I remember correctly. The vet would need to provide correct dosing on this so please discuss this with your vet
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Indeed. But I'm curious: what's the dosage of Metacam?
 
LightningShock said:
Can mashed pellets replace hay?

Vet suggested me Rimadyl.
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Please discuss with your vet, as @sport_billy said, rimadyl is a painkiller so that's good you've got that but I think the syringe feed you've got has hay in it but if your guinea pig won't eat hay on its own if you offer it then there's not much you can do I'm afraid.Just keep giving the syringe feed(as much as he will take) and offer him hay and herbs still ( such as parsley and coriander)as a poorly pig will still normally eat herbs.
 
Guys I see he needs painkillers. Yesterday night he started to eat. But today he doesn't and he dropped to 800g. He had two episodes of diarheea before but he got over them, firstly I gave him active coal, secondly I gave him vit C injection as my vet suggested. I can notice symptoms that show off pain, but seeing him eating made me prevent giving him painkillers(vet also was not believing pain is the problem). But now I see he really needs them, however I am kinda affraid to give him Rimadyl. His entire life until now he was healthy. Its been three weeks, do you think his liver will face the med?
 
You need to discuss pain relief with your vet. It is against the law in UK for a non-medical animal professional to treat an animal and no one on the forum can advise you to do this or what doses to give.
Drug doses always need to be prescribed by a veterinary professional, I presume they have prescribed the Rimadyl and the dose you should give it at?
 
sport_billy said:
You need to discuss pain relief with your vet. It is against the law in UK for a non-medical animal professional to treat an animal and no one on the forum can advise you to do this or what doses to give.
Drug doses always need to be prescribed by a veterinary professional, I presume they have prescribed the Rimadyl and the dose you should give it at?
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oh, I forgot to mention, yes he gave the dose. Its 4-5mg/kg
 
He started to eat again, but he eats a little and even along my syringe feeding, he is still losing weight. He seemed to gain weight, but yesterday he had a sudden drop to 790g and took me by surprise and today he dropped to 785g so I am very concerned. His stool is normal, but this morning I found one of his eyes crusty. I am giving him vit C by mouth(initially he had injections but he seemed to be too scared)and there is no other sign that may indicate a URI. I am starting to feed him more now, and I will do all my best to afford a night feed. What should I do to bring him back to normal eating?
 
To get him to eat normally you need to find the cause of him not eating. It sounds like he has teeth problems and unfortunately this won't solve itself.

In the meantime you can offer him sliced pieces of all of the food he likes, along with pellets and hay to try to tempt him to eat more.

You also need to aggressively handfeed him to maintain his weight. A 1000g pig tends to need around 60ml of syringed food to maintain weight, given over 6 or 7 feedings a day.

You mentioned his mouth was cut inside. This might be from overgrown back teeth, scratching the inside of his mouth.

If he's in pain he won't want to eat, so he will need a painkiller prescription from the vet.
 
Guys help! No matter how much I feed him he is losing weight! When I weight him before meal he has almost the same weight before next meal. His stool is normal, but he is not gaining weight!
 
If a pig isn't eating anything at all, then it's recommended to get at least 60 1ml syringes of mixed food into them each day. The food needs to be quite thick so if you're watering it down a lot then it needs to be even more.

How often are you feeding him, and how many syringes of food is he having each time? @LightningShock
 
Unfortunately until he has his back teeth filed down by a vet, he isnt going to get better.

You are right by syringe feeding a pig if it isnt eating but i think you need to think about the situation- your little piggy wont get better until he has his teeth fixed, and u need to think about wether you are able to get him to a vet that can do this treatment or not... If you cant, he will just become thinner and thinner until his little body is no longer strong enough to fight.

The only long term solution here is to have his teeth fixed by a vet I'm afraid.
 
Ditto to @Adelle.

Plus handfeeding a pig constantly to maintain or gain weight is a really hard and time consuming task.

The last time I had to do it I just couldn't maintain it with working full time too, and being upset all the time about my pig. I had to ask one of my guinea pig knowledgeable friends to help and she took over for a few days.

It's not something either you or the pig can maintain for a long period of time. So whilst he's still strong enough then it would be best to get him to the best vet you can find
 
Now he's suddenly gaining, he got to 790 or even 800. I don't know what to believe :/. He is also eating alone but in a small quantity.
@Adelle I've already been to a vet
 
LightningShock said:
Now he's suddenly gaining, he got to 790 or even 800. I don't know what to believe :/. He is also eating alone but in a small quantity.
@Adelle I've already been to a vet
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The fact he still
Isnt eating normally i.e pellets, hay and veg all on his own enough to maintain his weight is a sign that something is still wrong with his teeth.

I know you are limited with vets but unless he has those back teeth filed down by a qualified vet and no
One else, then he wont get back to being able to eat properly on his own.
 
Oh no, my poor piggy got an URI. I talked to the vet so I'm gonna give him antibiotics. But I also have another problem and I don't know what causes it: my guinea pig can't eat from syringe anymore: i used to feed him 15ml 7 times a day(6 times a day and he wouldn't gain weight/ even lose weight) and he has now 825g, he also used to eat a little by himself. Do you think I was over-feeding him? Or maybe his nose is stuffed because of the URI and he can't eat because of that. I really need an answer I don't know what to do :(.
 
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