guinea pig gaining weight - not pregnant

[bsjlmb]

i have a friend whose guinea pig has been putting weight on recently. on 15/4 she was 910g and has steadily gained and she is now 1072g. she is concerned in case this is due to a medical reason as there is no way that she is pregnant. she only has 2 sows. they are 4 yrs old now. are there any illnesses that cause a pig to gain weight? or could it be that she is simply eating too much.

 

[AndreaJane]

If you've ruled everything else out it could be an under active thyroid. Unfortunately in order to diagnose it properly the vet would need a blood sample, Yoshi had one of these which involved him having a G.A so that they could get a sample (from the vena cava I think). Not something that's done lightly so you'd want to be fairly sure it was that first. There isn't much info out there on piggles with under active thyroids ( and no meds, Yoshi had to have cat meds) so a cavy savvy vet who's prepared to do some research would be essential.

 

[AndreaJane]

I'd cut her nuggets out of her diet first and see if she drops any weight. I'd also take her to a cavy savvy vet. x

 

[Suzygpr]

Plus look at oedema - fluid retention; ovarian cysts; a mass of some sort. Definitely worth investigating as any change from the norm can be indicative of a problem even before there are obvious symptoms.

Suzy x