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Guinea pig not eating and lethargic

Maryjames

Maryjames

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hampshire, UK
Hi all. My guinea pig is lethargic today. She has been intermittently whining for about a week now. I wondered if she might have an ovarian cyst as is common with them. She is 4 years old. No obvious signs of a cyst and we brought her to the Vets on Friday. Vet didn't notice anything when she felt her sides and there is no hair loss or dried nipples. So today is the first time she didn't run for her veggies as she normally does. I gave her some critical care through a syringe and also gave her water through a syringe. I have another vet appointment for today at 1:45. I'm at a loss. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance.
 
Good luck at the vets. I hope they can find the cause for her behaviour. Sending healing vibes to her ❤️
 
Maryjames said:
Hi all. My guinea pig is lethargic today. She has been intermittently whining for about a week now. I wondered if she might have an ovarian cyst as is common with them. She is 4 years old. No obvious signs of a cyst and we brought her to the Vets on Friday. Vet didn't notice anything when she felt her sides and there is no hair loss or dried nipples. So today is the first time she didn't run for her veggies as she normally does. I gave her some critical care through a syringe and also gave her water through a syringe. I have another vet appointment for today at 1:45. I'm at a loss. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance.
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Hi

I am so very sorry.

It is always so very tough when your piggy is going downhill without any clear symptoms. I sincerely hope that rthe new vet can find more. Make sure that you get painkillers as she has been whining.
Signs of Pain in Guinea Pigs

Please continue with feeding support and try to get up to 60 ml of it (plus additional water, as much as she is willing to take) into her over the course of 24 hours. You monitor the food intake by weighing first thing in the morning on your kitchen scales when the daily weight swing is at its lowest, both for best day-to-day comparison as well as to plan how often you need to feed throughout the day.
Here is our comprehensive syringe feeding support guide with all the practical tips: All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures

Emergency and Crisis Care as well as Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment

I am keeping my fingers very firmly crossed! These things have a bad habit of happening at the most inconvenient of times. :(
 
Maryjames said:
Hi all. My guinea pig is lethargic today. She has been intermittently whining for about a week now. I wondered if she might have an ovarian cyst as is common with them. She is 4 years old. No obvious signs of a cyst and we brought her to the Vets on Friday. Vet didn't notice anything when she felt her sides and there is no hair loss or dried nipples. So today is the first time she didn't run for her veggies as she normally does. I gave her some critical care through a syringe and also gave her water through a syringe. I have another vet appointment for today at 1:45. I'm at a loss. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
update: Vet couldn't find any lumps or bumps. (this is the second vet I have taken her to in three days. He thought it might be something else metabolically of which there wasn't anything that can be done. He advised to keep giving her the critical care and see how that goes. She is 4 and a half years old. Perhaps she is nearing the end. I hate that I don't know. Does anyone have any other suggestions? I also don't know how often I should be giving her the critical care. I've been giving it to her ever two hours with water in a syringe as well. Thanks
 
This is taken from the link above

Total loss of appetite
5-10 ml in one sitting. Not eating at all and very lethargic.
Feed every two hours during the day and once during the night. Aim for 40-60 ml in 24 hours and try to get as close to 40 ml with the very worst. Adjust the amount of feed to their swallowing strength, trickle water into the mouth. In the extremely weak, you may be getting perhaps just 1-2 ml in with every sitting.
If this lasts for more than a few days you need to make sure that you yourself get enough sleep and rest to stand the distance.

- Partial eating and recovery
10-25 ml in one sitting. Picky/slow eating, dropping foods that can no longer be chewed and ignoring/dropping of whole food groups.
Make sure that you weigh daily because watching a piggy sitting in hay chewing on crud in the mouth or eating three stalks of hay and little veg can be extremely deceptive. Weighing can also help you with the need to increase or decrease feeding sessions.
Aim for 60-90 ml per day in 3-4 sessions during the day - the frequency depends on how much a piggy eats in a session. 15 ml is generally the average.
 
Maryjames said:
update: Vet couldn't find any lumps or bumps. (this is the second vet I have taken her to in three days. He thought it might be something else metabolically of which there wasn't anything that can be done. He advised to keep giving her the critical care and see how that goes. She is 4 and a half years old. Perhaps she is nearing the end. I hate that I don't know. Does anyone have any other suggestions? I also don't know how often I should be giving her the critical care. I've been giving it to her ever two hours with water in a syringe as well. Thanks
Click to expand...
Have they given any pain meds?
Is she eating anything for herself? I’d give her another couple of feeds this afternoon and evening. Then weigh her first thing tomorrow morning before any food. Then syringe feed her every two / three hours tomorrow throughout the day. Weigh her every morning to see if she is still losing weight. If she is then feed her more than the previous day.

I once had a piggy not eating anything for themselves and he had to have 100ml of critical care a day just to keep his weight stable. Good luck I hope she is soon feeling better.

Please read this link as it will tell you everything you need to know about syringe feeding.

All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
 
weepweeps said:
Have they given any pain meds?
Is she eating anything for herself? I’d give her another couple of feeds this afternoon and evening. Then weigh her first thing tomorrow morning before any food. Then syringe feed her every two / three hours tomorrow throughout the day. Weigh her every morning to see if she is still losing weight. If she is then feed her more than the previous day.

I once had a piggy not eating anything for themselves and he had to have 100ml of critical care a day just to keep his weight stable. Good luck I hope she is soon feeling better.

Please read this link as it will tell you everything you need to know about syringe feeding.

All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
Click to expand...
They gave her Rhuemotam for the pain. The strange part is one of the side effects of that medicine is not having an appetite. She just won't eat or drink. She went to have a little drink but that was it. I'm so worried I'm going to lose her. I have a third visit tomorrow with the vets to see if there is anything else going on. I would like to have her scanned to see if she has a blockage somewhere. Other than that I'm at a loss and the vet she saw today was at a loss. So sad. I feel so awful.
 
It’s so upsetting when they are poorly and the vets don’t know what’s wrong. Just keep feeding and watering her and see what the vet says tomorrow. Good luck.
 
Morning all. Well it's afternoon. My Pinky is a fighter that is for sure. We took her to the vets again today. So this is the third Vet. I went in with a plan. I wanted an xray to determine what was going on. I figured at least we will have a plan and I told them if they found anything that wasn't supposed to be there like an ovarian cyst or any tumor that we could operate on, to go straight into surgery. We dropped her off at 9;30 and she hadn't pooped but the Vet told us she pooped in her cage so that was a huge relief. I spent much of the day yesterday giving her critical care every hour with water in a syringe and knew I needed to get this resolved fast because I was running out of time. Vets said her X-ray was clear. No lumps or bumps, no kidney stones but lots of poo that needed to come out so hopefully that will work its way out. We are picking her up today at 6pm. I'm so happy it wasn't something serious. Poor baby Pinky. We love her so much. There isn't anything I wouldn't do for her. Thank you all for caring. I love this community.
 
weepweeps said:
It’s so upsetting when they are poorly and the vets don’t know what’s wrong. Just keep feeding and watering her and see what the vet says tomorrow. Good luck.
Click to expand...
Morning all. Well it's afternoon. My Pinky is a fighter that is for sure. We took her to the vets again today. So this is the third Vet. I went in with a plan. I wanted an xray to determine what was going on. I figured at least we will have a plan and I told them if they found anything that wasn't supposed to be there like an ovarian cyst or any tumor that we could operate on, to go straight into surgery. We dropped her off at 9;30 and she hadn't pooped but the Vet told us she pooped in her cage so that was a huge relief. I spent much of the day yesterday giving her critical care every hour with water in a syringe and knew I needed to get this resolved fast because I was running out of time. Vets said her X-ray was clear. No lumps or bumps, no kidney stones but lots of poo that needed to come out so hopefully that will work its way out. We are picking her up today at 6pm. I'm so happy it wasn't something serious. Poor baby Pinky. We love her so much. There isn't anything I wouldn't do for her. Thank you all for caring. I love this community.
 
CTWC said:
This is taken from the link above

Total loss of appetite
5-10 ml in one sitting. Not eating at all and very lethargic.
Feed every two hours during the day and once during the night. Aim for 40-60 ml in 24 hours and try to get as close to 40 ml with the very worst. Adjust the amount of feed to their swallowing strength, trickle water into the mouth. In the extremely weak, you may be getting perhaps just 1-2 ml in with every sitting.
If this lasts for more than a few days you need to make sure that you yourself get enough sleep and rest to stand the distance.

- Partial eating and recovery
10-25 ml in one sitting. Picky/slow eating, dropping foods that can no longer be chewed and ignoring/dropping of whole food groups.
Make sure that you weigh daily because watching a piggy sitting in hay chewing on crud in the mouth or eating three stalks of hay and little veg can be extremely deceptive. Weighing can also help you with the need to increase or decrease feeding sessions.
Aim for 60-90 ml per day in 3-4 sessions during the day - the frequency depends on how much a piggy eats in a session. 15 ml is generally the average.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for all of this great information. It has really helped me. This community is the best.
 
yes they think she ate too much but they still have her there. I will know more when I pick her up and will be sure to update you. I had recently giving the two guinea pigs a salad plate with their favorites on it. Lettuce, carrots green peppers and cucumbers. I thought I was doing a good thing but maybe she was eating too much at once? I don't know.
 
CTWC said:
Hi so what a relief for you 💐
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yes it was a relief. The syringe feeding really upset me because she fought me and didn't want to eat it and I knew I had to get something in her or she wouldn't make it. I tried to hold her upright so she wouldn't choke but she really was upset. It broke my heart in a million pieces to see my baby look at me the one she trusts force feeding her. Oh it really made me cry.
 
I’m sorry to hear she is unwell.

Has she been given any gut stimulant medication?

Overdoing veg can make them unwell.
The recommended amount of veg is one cup per pig per day.
The thing I would add is that carrot is not suitable to be fed regularly. They can have one tiny piece as a very occasional treat but it’s too sugary so they should not have it at all often.
 
Piggies&buns said:
I’m sorry to hear she is unwell.

Has she been given any gut stimulant medication?

Overdoing veg can make them unwell.
The recommended amount of veg is one cup per pig per day.
The thing I would add is that carrot is not suitable to be fed regularly. They can have one tiny piece as a very occasional treat but it’s too sugary so they should not have it at all often.
Click to expand...
Oh ok. That is good to know about the carrots. I think I actually gave them less than that but I put it on one plate and it's possible that my Pinky ate most of it?
 
Is she still on pain meds?
Definitely keep going with syringe feeding.


It’s possible. We recommend scattering their veg (and pellets) around the whole cage and not using bowls. This serves two purposes:

It means that both pigs get opportunity to get their share. If one pig eats faster than the other then they can overeat while sat a bowl. If it is spread around then they both have to move around to find it.
It provides mental stimulation and keeps them occupied as they have move about and use natural foraging abilities to find their food.
 
Wow what a great idea. I never thought of that. Thank you. I'm going to do that. :nod: I'm not sure if the doctor is going to keep her on pain meds. I know she had a shot yesterday but not sure what the plan is yet as I have to get her a 6pm.
 
We have her home now. She is still not wanting to eat but the vet said that is ok. I'm going to give her the critical care for today and tonight and then see how we are in the morning. fingers crossed. :)
 
Ugh. We took her to an exotic specialist and she has gut stasis. She is still not eating and they took additional X-rays and her stomach is really bloated. We may have to put her down as she is in extreme pain and has not been eating for three days. I'm so sad but I don't want her to suffer. :(
 
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