Guinea pig not eating

[Daniross95]

Hey - first time doing a post as I am desperate!

I was wondering if anyone had any advice for a piggie that isn’t eating?

We took him to the vets as he wasn’t eating and the vet examined him, said that there isn’t anything *obvious* wrong with him; checked his teeth, breathing, stomach for bloating and tightness, eyes, teeth etc and nothing. They gave him 3 injections for gut movement and pain relief and gave us some fibre paste to give to him for appetite. Today he has been a bit better; saw him munching on some celery but also some straw from his bed, not sure why? so we made the decision to water down his science selective biscuits and syringe them in his mouth, which he was taking, but still not eating so called the vets again.

They gave us some critical care to syringe in but he doesn’t like it very much. He is still having the fibre paste. They’ve also given us some anti inflammatory to give him if the critical care doesn’t help. Has anyone ever experienced this or can help in anyway? I am so worried and trying everything I possibly can :-(

 

[Lady Kelly]

When you say they checked his teeth, were they able to see the back teeth or did they just check the front ones? Unfortunately you might need a more cavy savvy vet, lack of appetite can be down to so many things including a general response to pain somewhere in the body.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Not Eating, Weight Loss And The Importance Of Syringe Feeding Fibre

The guide above should help you with regard syringe feeding.
It is essential to keep fibre moving through your piggy’s system. Syringe feed him his normal pellets but mush them up with cooled boiled water if you can’t get him to take critical care.
Keep offering hay (not straw as you mention above) as it is important that if he wants to eat hay that he does so.

 

[Daniross95]

I’m not sure to be honest - due to the current COVID situation, we weren’t allowed to go in with him. The vet called me from inside and said that he “looked really good for a guinea pig” and his teeth seemed normal? But I have seen others say that they can’t do an in-depth analysis of the teeth without X-ray’s. I will definitely try and find a more exotic vet if he doesn’t improve!

 

[Daniross95]

Not Eating, Weight Loss And The Importance Of Syringe Feeding Fibre

The guide above should help you with regard syringe feeding.
It is essential to keep fibre moving through your piggy’s system. Syringe feed him his normal pellets but mush them up with cooled boiled water if you can’t get him to take critical care.
Keep offering hay (not straw as you mention above) as it is important that if he wants to eat hay that he does so.

Thank you! I will look at this. They always have fresh hay down but we use straw for their bed (which he was in, no idea why he was eating the straw)! But we cleaned them out earlier and put hay in their bed instead to encourage him to eat some. When we mushed up the pellets he was taking them quite well - I’ll definitely read that guide and see how it goes! Thank you

 

[Wiebke]

Loss of appetite can have many causes; not all obvious and down to dental issues; it is just one often overlooked possibility.
Loss of appetite is most often down to a pain issue somewhere in the body. Mystery weight loss and loss of appetite are my least favourite symptoms because it is such a wide field!

Please also bookmark this link here; it bundles all our emergency care advice to help you keep your piggy alive as much as possible until any treatment can kick in: Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment

 

[Daniross95]

Update: saw to the pigs as usual this morning. Put down their veggies and food and fresh hay etc. Came back to them after walking the dog, with the intention of syringing the sick one some more CC. Came back to find him at the veggies and hay nibbling on some - the first time he’s come out voluntarily in days! I picked them some grass and dandelion leaves on the dog walk which he is now eating! He does seem quite weak though, which Is understandable considering he’s not had much to eat. I am going to hold off on the syringing for a few hours and see how he goes - he is very shy and sensitive so don’t want to stress him out even more if he’s now deciding to eat.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Syringe feeding is support for their system and is still important to be done for a piggy who isn’t eating enough, even if they are still eating something for themselves. Fibre needs to make up the majority of their food intake, so nibbling on some veggies isn’t enough to support the digestive system and maintain weight. Please weigh piggy daily as it is the only way to ensure enough food is being taken in.

 

[Daniross95]

Syringe feeding is support for their system and is still important to be done for a piggy who isn’t eating enough, even if they are still eating something for themselves. Fibre needs to make up the majority of their food intake, so nibbling on some veggies isn’t enough to support the digestive system and maintain weight. Please weigh piggy daily as it is the only way to ensure enough food is being taken in.

thank you! I will definitely syringe him either some CC or his mushed up pellets in an hour or so, I just don’t want to spook him while he’s making some good progress, but I will definitely not neglect the syringing, as I know how important this is for his gut! He’s been munching on some grass as well as the veggies, and is still doing so, which is very good progress since yesterday. Thank you for your advice, it is much appreciated! :-)

 

[Little Ones]

It possibly could be dental. Guinea pigs can trick you so easily into thinking they’re eating hay when really they aren’t. This is because it’s instinctual to go to the hay, shove their faces in it, but in actuality they aren’t eating it at all - or they’re being very selective about which strands to eat. A lot of vets don’t actually know what they’re looking for when they check a guinea pigs back teeth as dental care isn’t something exotic vets are specifically trained in.

Dental pigs can eat grass perfectly fine and it helps to wear their teeth down so it’s good to give, they usually can eat pellets and veg to some degree too as if the dental issue comes out of nowhere, then it could be that only the teeth on one side are overgrown (if they can’t pick up/bite down on things like veg then that’s a problem with the front teeth, if they can eat pellets but struggle massively as well as being unable to eat hay then that seems to be tongue pinning which is where both back teeth are overgrown and restrict movement in the tongue needed to eat properly). So, eating grass and veg doesn’t mean that there are no dental problems, it just means his incisors (front teeth) have no issue. If he cannot eat hay, or isn’t eating the quantity of a normal pig at all, then dental problems could be likely. What do his front teeth look like right now? Is there any tooth slightly longer than the others? You can sometimes see that there is a problem with the back teeth by look at the front teeth.

You mentioned that an X-ray is needed in order to properly analyse the teeth - this isn’t true. If you have a pig who has never been able to eat hay then an X-ray could be beneficial to see if the teeth have grown in the correct place but an X-ray doesn’t really show much more than that. If you have a pig who stops eating out of nowhere, it’s likely that the teeth have just overgrown and a proper guinea pig dentist will be able to see the problem very easily and sort your piggy out in a matter of 20 minutes.

Simon and Kim from the Cat and Rabbit Clinic in Northampton are the ONLY proper guinea pig dentists in all of the UK, if your pig has dental problems they’re the people you need to go to as a bad dental procedure can even cause death. Simon and Kim do dentals conscious which means it is significantly cheaper than a regular dental with an exotic vet as it requires no anaesthesia. They charge around £30-40 for a dental. It also means your Guinea pig can begin eating hay right away which is important so that the teeth don’t begin to overgrown again. There’s also been many cases (with myself included, twice) where people have gone to their nearest exotic vet for a dental only for the problem to have not been corrected and then they end up having to travel to see Simon anyway, who would’ve properly sorted out the issue to start with. I travel 3 hours each way to see Simon, there are forum members who travel around 8 hours too. It’s because the dental care offered by Simon is absolutely second to none, he has saved many pigs lives by his dental expertise.

One of my boys recently stopped eating entirely. He would not eat anything at all, since I know signs of a dental problem I thought it had to be that. And it was. I know that your problem may not be dental but i thought I’d include all the information for you as it very well could be. If you have the time and can realistically do it, travelling to Northampton to see Simon just to rule out that teeth aren’t a problem would be a good thing to do. Right now, I’m in great need of seeing Simon but since I have no car we’re just trying to support our pig the best we can. If you do decide that seeing the dentist is the best thing to do, he’s not back until the 20th I believe.

 

[Daniross95]

Update: syringe fed him some water and around 5ml of CC (he really doesn’t like it!) and will try some more in an hour or so. Also syringe fed him some fibreplex paste. He’s gone into his bed for now. Might try syringe feed the mushed up pellets later, as he seems to take to them better!

 

[Daniross95]

It possibly could be dental. Guinea pigs can trick you so easily into thinking they’re eating hay when really they aren’t. This is because it’s instinctual to go to the hay, shove their faces in it, but in actuality they aren’t eating it at all - or they’re being very selective about which strands to eat. A lot of vets don’t actually know what they’re looking for when they check a guinea pigs back teeth as dental care isn’t something exotic vets are specifically trained in.

Dental pigs can eat grass perfectly fine and it helps to wear their teeth down so it’s good to give, they usually can eat pellets and veg to some degree too as if the dental issue comes out of nowhere, then it could be that only the teeth on one side are overgrown (if they can’t pick up/bite down on things like veg then that’s a problem with the front teeth, if they can eat pellets but struggle massively as well as being unable to eat hay then that seems to be tongue pinning which is where both back teeth are overgrown and restrict movement in the tongue needed to eat properly). So, eating grass and veg doesn’t mean that there are no dental problems, it just means his incisors (front teeth) have no issue. If he cannot eat hay, or isn’t eating the quantity of a normal pig at all, then dental problems could be likely. What do his front teeth look like right now? Is there any tooth slightly longer than the others? You can sometimes see that there is a problem with the back teeth by look at the front teeth.

You mentioned that an X-ray is needed in order to properly analyse the teeth - this isn’t true. If you have a pig who has never been able to eat hay then an X-ray could be beneficial to see if the teeth have grown in the correct place but an X-ray doesn’t really show much more than that. If you have a pig who stops eating out of nowhere, it’s likely that the teeth have just overgrown and a proper guinea pig dentist will be able to see the problem very easily and sort your piggy out in a matter of 20 minutes.

Simon and Kim from the Cat and Rabbit Clinic in Northampton are the ONLY proper guinea pig dentists in all of the UK, if your pig has dental problems they’re the people you need to go to as a bad dental procedure can even cause death. Simon and Kim do dentals conscious which means it is significantly cheaper than a regular dental with an exotic vet as it requires no anaesthesia. They charge around £30-40 for a dental. It also means your Guinea pig can begin eating hay right away which is important so that the teeth don’t begin to overgrown again. There’s also been many cases (with myself included, twice) where people have gone to their nearest exotic vet for a dental only for the problem to have not been corrected and then they end up having to travel to see Simon anyway, who would’ve properly sorted out the issue to start with. I travel 3 hours each way to see Simon, there are forum members who travel around 8 hours too. It’s because the dental care offered by Simon is absolutely second to none, he has saved many pigs lives by his dental expertise.

One of my boys recently stopped eating entirely. He would not eat anything at all, since I know signs of a dental problem I thought it had to be that. And it was. I know that your problem may not be dental but i thought I’d include all the information for you as it very well could be. If you have the time and can realistically do it, travelling to Northampton to see Simon just to rule out that teeth aren’t a problem would be a good thing to do. Right now, I’m in great need of seeing Simon but since I have no car we’re just trying to support our pig the best we can. If you do decide that seeing the dentist is the best thing to do, he’s not back until the 20th I believe.

that is so so handy to know, thank you! When he is due for his next syringe of food, I will check the teeth. I believe the vet checked the front teeth. He seems to eat hay fine, where I’ve been working from home my office set up is near their cage/pen, and I’ve not noticed that he is particularly picky with the hay strands or eating it, he tends to normally eat it quite constantly! I will look at the teeth and see where I can go from there. Thank you xo much :-)

 

[Wiebke]

Update: syringe fed him some water and around 5ml of CC (he really doesn’t like it!) and will try some more in an hour or so. Also syringe fed him some fibreplex paste. He’s gone into his bed for now. Might try syringe feed the mushed up pellets later, as he seems to take to them better!

Please use weighing daily as the most accurate way of monitoring his food intake and tailoring the level of your support adroitly.
This guide here tells you how you do that and what you need to be aware of if you weigh more often than the normal life long once weekly weigh-in. Keep in mind that around 80% of the daily food intake is hay, which you cannot judge by eye.
Weight - Monitoring and Management

If your is eating on his own but hates formula, see whether he likes mushed up pellets or a mushed pellet/formula mix and see whether he will eat that from a spoon or bowl.

 

[Little Ones]

that is so so handy to know, thank you! When he is due for his next syringe of food, I will check the teeth. I believe the vet checked the front teeth. He seems to eat hay fine, where I’ve been working from home my office set up is near their cage/pen, and I’ve not noticed that he is particularly picky with the hay strands or eating it, he tends to normally eat it quite constantly! I will look at the teeth and see where I can go from there. Thank you xo much :-)

Not eating can really come out of nowhere, they can eat everything perfectly fine one day and then they slowly withdraw the amount they eat until it ends up being nothing. If he’s still eating hay now and properly to a good amount, then that’s a good sign (and then you wouldn’t be needing to syringe feed him). However if he is no longer eating it at all, or being selective, which seems to have been the case since he hasn’t been eating properly for himself, then it could mean a dental problem has come out of nowhere. The reason I say this is because not eating, specifically hay, is what points to a dental problem and this is something that can happen overnight. Whether he could eat hay before no longer applies, it’s whether he is doing it at present. One of my boys came to us at around age 3/4 and couldn’t eat hay at all to start with, it turned out he’d most likely never eaten hay in his life so his teeth naturally grew too long to eat properly at all. My other boy ate perfectly fine for five years, then about a month ago developed dental problems out of the blue.

 

[Daniross95]

Please use weighing daily as the most accurate way of monitoring his food intake and tailoring the level of your support adroitly.
This guide here tells you how you do that and what you need to be aware of if you weigh more often than the normal life long once weekly weigh-in. Keep in mind that around 80% of the daily food intake is hay, which you cannot judge by eye.
Weight - Monitoring and Management

If your is eating on his own but hates formula, see whether he likes mushed up pellets or a mushed pellet/formula mix and see whether he will eat that from a spoon or bowl.

Thank you - I will take a look at this! Using a spoon or bowl is a good idea, I will have a go at seeing if he takes it from the spoon first :-) thank you!

 

[Daniross95]

Not eating can really come out of nowhere, they can eat everything perfectly fine one day and then they slowly withdraw the amount they eat until it ends up being nothing. If he’s still eating hay now and properly to a good amount, then that’s a good sign (and then you wouldn’t be needing to syringe feed him). However if he is no longer eating it at all, or being selective, which seems to have been the case since he hasn’t been eating properly for himself, then it could mean a dental problem has come out of nowhere. The reason I say this is because not eating, specifically hay, is what points to a dental problem and this is something that can happen overnight. Whether he could eat hay before no longer applies, it’s whether he is doing it at present. One of my boys came to us at around age 3/4 and couldn’t eat hay at all to start with, it turned out he’d most likely never eaten hay in his life so his teeth naturally grew too long to eat properly at all. My other boy ate perfectly fine for five years, then about a month ago developed dental problems out of the blue.

that’s really interesting, thank you for pointing this out! It’s funny how it can come out of nowhere - he has a really good diet and ratio of things he needs, so I always assumed his teeth would be fine, but after seeing your post and others saying similar things, I will need to check the teeth in more depth, as sounds like it could be this. Thank you for sharing this with me :-)

 

[Bill & Ted]

The back premolars and molars are impossible to check without the correct equipment. A lot of vets don’t have dental gags and cheek dilators for guinea pigs. They often have a quick look at the incisors, (or shine a small torch into the mouth in the hope of seeing something) if the incisor look even then they consider the back teeth will be ok too. This is not always the case. My Ted has prefect incisors, but suffers from dental Spurs which grow into this cheek and cause lacerations and ulcers.
I don’t know where you live but Simon Maddock at the Cat and Rabbit Clinic in Northampton would be able to check all his teeth and do any work necessary, consciously which is far better for the pig as no problems with general anaesthetic. He and his wife Kim are both back at work next week, it’s very difficult to travel atm but if you live near there then it’s definitely worth the trip.
Hope you can find out what your piggies problem is, good luck x

 

[Daniross95]

Update: syringed him some water and syringed him some mushed up science selective pellets, which he took well. Gave him some more of the fibreplex. He’s back in the cage and moving around a bit more, he is interested in food that’s down, he has walked up to the hay a few times but I don’t think he’s eaten much of it. Does this sound like it definitely could be teeth? I checked his front teeth and both sets are equal in size (there’s not one that’s longer than the other), the correct length and look in good condition.

 

[Little Ones]

Update: syringed him some water and syringed him some mushed up science selective pellets, which he took well. Gave him some more of the fibreplex. He’s back in the cage and moving around a bit more, he is interested in food that’s down, he has walked up to the hay a few times but I don’t think he’s eaten much of it. Does this sound like it definitely could be teeth? I checked his front teeth and both sets are equal in size (there’s not one that’s longer than the other), the correct length and look in good condition.

Yes it sounds like teeth to me, my two dental boys both did the same thing when they were unable to eat hay. They go over to the hay but don’t really eat any of it, there’s an instinctual need to eat it but lack of ability to do so.
With the front teeth, the reason I mentioned it is because if they’re quite uneven and your pig isn’t eating then it almost definitely is dental related and easy to spot as a regular owner. The front teeth can also look perfect whilst there is still a dental problem with the back teeth, but this way you have to rely solely on how your pig is behaving to figure out if something is going on, if that makes sense.
I’m quite convinced it’s a dental problem. If it’s possible for you to see Simon, I would recommend it.

 

[Daniross95]

Yes it sounds like teeth to me, my two dental boys both did the same thing when they were unable to eat hay. They go over to the hay but don’t really eat any of it, there’s an instinctual need to eat it but lack of ability to do so.
With the front teeth, the reason I mentioned it is because if they’re quite uneven and your pig isn’t eating then it almost definitely is dental related and easy to spot as a regular owner. The front teeth can also look perfect whilst there is still a dental problem with the back teeth, but this way you have to rely solely on how your pig is behaving to figure out if something is going on, if that makes sense.
I’m quite convinced it’s a dental problem. If it’s possible for you to see Simon, I would recommend it.

thank you, that’s very helpful! Yeah, sounds like I’m going to have to reach out to him... Just looked at the distance though, will take me around 2 hours to get there. And apparently he isn’t back until the 20th. A definite possibility.

 

[Little Ones]

thank you, that’s very helpful! Yeah, sounds like I’m going to have to reach out to him... Just looked at the distance though, will take me around 2 hours to get there. And apparently he isn’t back until the 20th. A definite possibility.

If your boy hasn’t improved at all by then, then going to see Simon would definitely be worth it even just to rule out a dental problem. If you tell the receptionist everything that’s been going on, she’ll be able to note it down so that if Simon doesn’t find anything dental, he may still be able to figure out what could be going on. He’s an excellent guinea pig vet overall.
If you still weren’t sure about making an appointment, you could ring up and ask for Simon to ring you back when he’s available so that you can relay what’s going on to him and whether he thinks it would be worth the travel. I’ve done this twice, once with each of my pigs, just to get advice from him as it is quite a trip to make and he’s knows what to do for the best. We are so lucky to have Simon in the UK.

 

[Daniross95]

If your boy hasn’t improved at all by then, then going to see Simon would definitely be worth it even just to rule out a dental problem. If you tell the receptionist everything that’s been going on, she’ll be able to note it down so that if Simon doesn’t find anything dental, he may still be able to figure out what could be going on. He’s an excellent guinea pig vet overall.
If you still weren’t sure about making an appointment, you could ring up and ask for Simon to ring you back when he’s available so that you can relay what’s going on to him and whether he thinks it would be worth the travel. I’ve done this twice, once with each of my pigs, just to get advice from him as it is quite a trip to make and he’s knows what to do for the best. We are so lucky to have Simon in the UK.

this is awesome advice! I’m going to definitely do this! I am very concerned about the travel and wouldn’t want to have a wasted trip, especially during this time. I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing until the 20th as he’s making small improvements and if he isn’t better by then I’ll give him a call. Or if he takes a turn for the worse I’ll call sooner; thank you!

 

[Daniross95]

Final update!: yesterday when I saw to them like i usually do, he came out and was eating veg and some grass that I picked and also his pellets (for the first time) so we made the decision to hold off on syringe feeding as we felt this may have been making him more stressed. He kept coming out to nibble on everything (but the hay!), but seemed so much brighter and more active. Today we did the same thing, and he’s been acting back to normal AND eating the hay now (and not being fussy about what strands he has)! He’s still not out of the woods yet and I’m keeping a very very close eye on him... but thank you for all the advice, it’s been so so helpful! :-) :-)

 

[Bill & Ted]

Final update!: yesterday when I saw to them like i usually do, he came out and was eating veg and some grass that I picked and also his pellets (for the first time) so we made the decision to hold off on syringe feeding as we felt this may have been making him more stressed. He kept coming out to nibble on everything (but the hay!), but seemed so much brighter and more active. Today we did the same thing, and he’s been acting back to normal AND eating the hay now (and not being fussy about what strands he has)! He’s still not out of the woods yet and I’m keeping a very very close eye on him... but thank you for all the advice, it’s been so so helpful! :-) :-)

Weigh him everyday to make sure he is eating enough too. I’m so pleased he’s doing better now x