Guinea pig eating but losing weight

[Amy1788]

Hi,

My almost 5 year old guinea pig has lost around 200 grams in the last few weeks and I’m really concerned. We noticed she felt a bit thinner last week so have been weighting every day and she seems to be consistently dropping. She’s still lively and wheeking for food/running over when we take veggies in but she seems a bit slower with eating so we’re feeding her separately from our other piggie to make sure she gets enough. We’ve seen her eating hay and nuggets but she almost seems a bit confused at times as she’ll pick up a nugget, drop it and then wander off.

We took her to the vets yesterday who couldn’t find anything obviously wrong but thinks she may have a urine infection as she’s been drinking a bit more and her bladder felt slightly thickened. She’s prescribed Baytril, Metacalm and Emeprid and advised to go back if no improvement/deterioration.

We’re so worried about her, is there anything else we should be doing?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi,

My almost 5 year old guinea pig has lost around 200 grams in the last few weeks and I’m really concerned. We noticed she felt a bit thinner last week so have been weighting every day and she seems to be consistently dropping. She’s still lively and wheeking for food/running over when we take veggies in but she seems a bit slower with eating so we’re feeding her separately from our other piggie to make sure she gets enough. We’ve seen her eating hay and nuggets but she almost seems a bit confused at times as she’ll pick up a nugget, drop it and then wander off.

We took her to the vets yesterday who couldn’t find anything obviously wrong but thinks she may have a urine infection as she’s been drinking a bit more and her bladder felt slightly thickened. She’s prescribed Baytril, Metacalm and Emeprid and advised to go back if no improvement/deterioration.

We’re so worried about her, is there anything else we should be doing?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Hi!

Please be aware that over 80% of the daily food intake is hay, which is impossible to control by eye. 200g is quite a large weight loss, which means that your piggy is not eating fully. Please offer top up syringe feed; in an emergency you can mush up pellets as long as you cut off the syringe tip as show in our illustrated how-to syringe feeding guide. Continue to weigh daily at the same time.
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
Administering Medications And Syringe Feed

Bladder problem diet tips in this link here (see chapter on special diets): Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

I have also had these symptoms (mystery weight loss) resulting from a bloated stomach (but not gut), an internal tumour etc.
Please contact them again if your piggy is continuing to lose weight and is not picking up or see whether you can make an appointment with an exotics vet. An x-ray or scan would be the next step.
Recommended Guinea Pig Vets

 

[Amy1788]

Thank you for your advise. We have syringe fed her some mushed up pellets this afternoon and she has taken them fine so that’s good. We’ll keep topping her up like this until she hopefully starts to gain weight again but will be back at the vets if not.

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you for your advise. We have syringe fed her some mushed up pellets this afternoon and she has taken them fine so that’s good. We’ll keep topping her up like this until she hopefully starts to gain weight again but will be back at the vets if not.

Please read the guide - many people grossly underestimate the amount a guinea pig needs to eat just to stay alive!

Fingers firmly crossed!