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Guinea pig subdued, on syringe feed

GusandPeanut

GusandPeanut

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hi all

Our 5 year old boar Peanut hadn't eaten hay and was hiding last night, rather antisocial. We thought it might be impaction but it looked fine back there. It continued to this morning so we weighed him (healthy), but he still wasn't eating, so we went to the vets (trusted, have always done a grat job in the past). They can't find anything wrong with him after a full checkup, and said it could be something underlying or maybe he's just a bit poorly given his age. They prescribed some painkillers, anti-inflammatory, in case he's in pain, some antibiotics in case his stomach is poorly after not eating, and syringe feeding for the next 24 hours.

Since then we have given the painkillers + antibiotics and offered a bit of cucumber, which he nibbled some of. He still isn't keen on hay, so we syringe fed and gave him a drink and got 6ml of mixed feed and 1ml water down. The doctor recommended one sachet per day (20g into 90ml water).

This all took place up to about 2.30pm and it's 3.30pm now. He is still lethargic but I assume that's from the vets and also being poked, prodded, syringe fed etc. The vet has asked us to syringe feed right up to before we head to bed and then come back in tomorrow if Peanut is still poorly

I was just wondering if anyone has experience in a mystery situation like this one, and also if Pigs tend to be a bit reclusive/low energy after syringe feeding? How long might I expect to be syringe feeding him for before he feels a bit more like his grazing self? He has always been an incredibly relaxed pig - just totters about, nibbles hay, occasionally legs it under the sofa and gets told off!

Thanks all.
 
GusandPeanut said:
Hi all

Our 5 year old boar Peanut hadn't eaten hay and was hiding last night, rather antisocial. We thought it might be impaction but it looked fine back there. It continued to this morning so we weighed him (healthy), but he still wasn't eating, so we went to the vets (trusted, have always done a grat job in the past). They can't find anything wrong with him after a full checkup, and said it could be something underlying or maybe he's just a bit poorly given his age. They prescribed some painkillers, anti-inflammatory, in case he's in pain, some antibiotics in case his stomach is poorly after not eating, and syringe feeding for the next 24 hours.

Since then we have given the painkillers + antibiotics and offered a bit of cucumber, which he nibbled some of. He still isn't keen on hay, so we syringe fed and gave him a drink and got 6ml of mixed feed and 1ml water down. The doctor recommended one sachet per day (20g into 90ml water).

This all took place up to about 2.30pm and it's 3.30pm now. He is still lethargic but I assume that's from the vets and also being poked, prodded, syringe fed etc. The vet has asked us to syringe feed right up to before we head to bed and then come back in tomorrow if Peanut is still poorly

I was just wondering if anyone has experience in a mystery situation like this one, and also if Pigs tend to be a bit reclusive/low energy after syringe feeding? How long might I expect to be syringe feeding him for before he feels a bit more like his grazing self?

Thanks all.2
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Hi!

Please keep on syringe feeding him. It is NOT the cause of him being lethargic but what is going wrong in his body and is likely continuing to progress.

Unfortunately, it can sometimes not be very obvious and create clear symptoms; I have been there all too often myself with piggies of mine. If he is not eating, then something is preventing him from having an appetite, either mechanically or through pain - but that leaves a rather wide area open unfortunately.

We are recommending to aim for the equivalent of 60-90 ml of made up syringe feed in 24 hours; you feed the more often the less he can take in one go; at the worst every two hours during the day when you struggle to get 5 ml into him per session, plus once or twice overnight depending on just how poorly he is. if he fights the syringe well in excess to how weak ill he is, then it is most likely that the body has stopped process any food and is closing down.
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide

All the best.
All you can do is hang in there.
 
Thanks very much. Is should clarify he was lethargic before. He ate his breakfast and tea yesterday but only at night did he seem off.

He took the 6ml well enough but was just fed up of being poked I think. Enjoyed his drink syringe.
 
GusandPeanut said:
Thanks very much. Is should clarify he was lethargic before. He ate his breakfast and tea yesterday but only at night did he seem off.

He took the 6ml well enough but was just fed up of being poked I think. Enjoyed his drink syringe.
Click to expand...

Just persist. It is no fun being taken to the vet and prodded all over when he is poorly and cannot tell the humans what is wrong with him! :(
 
We shall. Just going to let him relax with his adopted brother, who wants to cuddle him, and give him some more feed in about an hour.
 
Update. He took his second feed well enough and has been nibbling bits of hay and a couple of leaves offered to him. Seems a little more energetic though still sleeping in his bed. Chased his brother under the sofa and back out again with a bit of wittering so we're very cautiously pleased.
 
Further update. He didn't seem well so we took him in. They undertook sedation and took an x-ray. Couldn't find anything wrong but lots of gas. So they gave him an Emeprid injection and have told us to do the same, 1ml every 8 hours. They've told us to start offering him fresh food but to top up with syringe feed when we give him the Emeprid.

Peanut is obviously groggy from the sedation - does anyone know how long and what to expect here in terms of when he should be more active?
 
Hi all,

Reference: Guinea pig subdued, on syringe feed

Sorry to post again but feeling a bit anxious about it all and looking for advice/signs to look for.

My guinea pig Peanut had some issues and so had an xray. Scan came back clear except a lot of gas in his tummy and his tummy was quite full. The vet gave him a painkiller and a shot of Emeprid.

She has asked us to feed him 1ml Emeprid with 5ml critical care syringe feed every 8 hours - so at 10pm, just gone, and at 6am tomorrow. We're to ring up if he hasn't improved his desire for normal veg by tomorrow.

Peanut is less chirpy than he was when he took him to vet. He seems quite out of it and drowsy - just scuttled into his tub and hid there when we got in, a little sniff at hay and veg but not very interested in that or his brother. Does seem normal? He will have been sedated at around 3.30pm. I read the thread on post-operative care but a lot of it refers to operative procedures. He has just been sedated and then xrayed. His weight remains the same within 5g as when we weighed him pre-vet, and this morning around 8am.

Thanks,

Theo
 
Hi!

Please keep on with the emeprid and syringe feeding for as long as necessary. Monitor the food intake by weighing daily at the same time as you cannot control the crucial hay intake (makes around 80% of what a piggy eats in a day) just by eye. If you are not dealing with total loss of appetite, you have to play by ear just how much top up your piggy needs as this is individual and changes depending on how well/ill your piggy is feeling. The scales give you a much better up to date picture than watching the poo output, as this is running 1-2 days behind events.

We talk about weight loss from 50g onward as the weight swing over the course of 14 hours is about 30-40g. I prefer to weigh first thing in the morning. Also keep in mind that gas is not weightless, so depending on how much there actually is, it can mask the food intake to a degree.

Digestive Disorders: Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement) And Not Eating
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
Weight - Monitoring and Management
Syringe Training Before The Need For Medicating
Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment

Unlike social media we are running moritored support threads in this section and ask our members to please keep all questions, concerns and updates to one single ongoing thread per piggy/per case to help us to refer back as necessary and be able to support you in your specific situation as best as possible. otherwise you will get simply standard advice which may be confusing and may not quite hit the spot.

You can pick up a support thread via the Find Thread/your threads button or via the Search button by the top bar on the home page. this allows us to help you best. We jump between lots of different threads in a day or may not be able to come on her every day, seeing that we are all doing this for free in our own free time next to a job, our own piggies and private life.
Since we are dealing with members and enquiries from literally all over the world, it would also help us if you please added your country to location in your account details (click on your username on the top bar for this). Vet access, medical brand names, climate and general background can vary a lot but may need to be taken into consideration when advising. Thank you.
 
Wiebke said:
Hi!

Please keep on with the emeprid and syringe feeding for as long as necessary. Monitor the food intake by weighing daily at the same time as you cannot control the crucial hay intake (makes around 80% of what a piggy eats in a day) just by eye. If you are not dealing with total loss of appetite, you have to play by ear just how much top up your piggy needs as this is individual and changes depending on how well/ill your piggy is feeling. The scales give you a much better up to date picture than watching the poo output, as this is running 1-2 days behind events.

We talk about weight loss from 50g onward as the weight swing over the course of 14 hours is about 30-40g. I prefer to weigh first thing in the morning. Also keep in mind that gas is not weightless, so depending on how much there actually is, it can mask the food intake to a degree.

Digestive Disorders: Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement) And Not Eating
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
Weight - Monitoring and Management
Syringe Training Before The Need For Medicating
Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment

Unlike social media we are running moritored support threads in this section and ask our members to please keep all questions, concerns and updates to one single ongoing thread per piggy/per case to help us to refer back as necessary and be able to support you in your specific situation as best as possible. otherwise you will get simply standard advice which may be confusing and may not quite hit the spot.

You can pick up a support thread via the Find Thread/your threads button or via the Search button by the top bar on the home page. this allows us to help you best. We jump between lots of different threads in a day or may not be able to come on her every day, seeing that we are all doing this for free in our own free time next to a job, our own piggies and private life.
Since we are dealing with members and enquiries from literally all over the world, it would also help us if you please added your country to location in your account details (click on your username on the top bar for this). Vet access, medical brand names, climate and general background can vary a lot but may need to be taken into consideration when advising. Thank you.
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Sorry about that - let the anxiety get on top of me a bit. I will make sure to keep it in here and going to update my location now.

Peanut had a feed and medication at 6am. We got back up at 9 and did our morning ritual for the boys of clinking their bowls, and we were excited to see that he was wheeking and moving around a bit, clearly excited at the idea of the feed. The vet asked us to try and offer him some vegetable foods and see if he fancied them, and he's had some roundhead lettuce and coriander. He ate a good amount, and has also had a few tentative bits of hay though he doesn't seem keen on them. His weight is within 15g of where it was yesterday, and higher earlier today - going to now make 2pm his weighing time for consistency. She has asked us to top up with feed if he seems to be eating nothing, but to appreciate his appetite might be low and also he is actually relatively 'full' from his xray yesterday. No poos yet.

Thanks again for the help, it's really appreciated.
 
GusandPeanut said:
Sorry about that - let the anxiety get on top of me a bit. I will make sure to keep it in here and going to update my location now.

Peanut had a feed and medication at 6am. We got back up at 9 and did our morning ritual for the boys of clinking their bowls, and we were excited to see that he was wheeking and moving around a bit, clearly excited at the idea of the feed. The vet asked us to try and offer him some vegetable foods and see if he fancied them, and he's had some roundhead lettuce and coriander. He ate a good amount, and has also had a few tentative bits of hay though he doesn't seem keen on them. His weight is within 15g of where it was yesterday, and higher earlier today - going to now make 2pm his weighing time for consistency. She has asked us to top up with feed if he seems to be eating nothing, but to appreciate his appetite might be low and also he is actually relatively 'full' from his xray yesterday. No poos yet.

Thanks again for the help, it's really appreciated.
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Please keep on with getting the crucial fibre into him; it is good that he is more himself but too much veg on its own is a) not good for the microbiome without some dry fibre to balance it out and can b) not replace the 80% hay fibre that he needs on top of the veg. Until the scales are telling you that he is serisouly back into eating hay, you need to continue to feed either recovery formula, mushed up pellets or a mix thereof to keep his weight up and his tummy steady.

Take heart, he will get there sooner than later but you need to keep this up for another couple of days at least until his back to eating fully on his own. He is going in the right direction, so no reason to worry.
 
I can’t help with advice but can offer support.
Caring for a sick piggy is very stressful and this is a good place to talk - we understand the worry.
Holding you in my thoughts
 
Wiebke said:
Please keep on with getting the crucial fibre into him; it is good that he is more himself but too much veg on its own is a) not good for the microbiome without some dry fibre to balance it out and can b) not replace the 80% hay fibre that he needs on top of the veg. Until the scales are telling you that he is serisouly back into eating hay, you need to continue to feed either recovery formula, mushed up pellets or a mix thereof to keep his weight up and his tummy steady.

Take heart, he will get there sooner than later but you need to keep this up for another couple of days at least until his back to eating fully on his own. He is going in the right direction.
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Thanks so much - both for advice and encouragement. He is enjoying his pellets (nibbles), so we will smush them and give him a plate of it.
 
GusandPeanut said:
Thanks so much - both for advice and encouragement. He is enjoying his pellets (nibbles), so we will smush them and give him a plate of it.
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If you can, you a mix of recovery formula and pellets. The formula is higher in fibre. You manage the transition by syringing whenever top up is necessary. It is a fluid process so there are no set rules apart from getting the minimum of 90 ml into him in 24 hours in whichever way - by eating on his own or by topping up. you monitor and adjust the food intake with the help of the scales.
 
Wiebke said:
If you can, you a mix of recovery formula and pellets. The formula is higher in fibre. You manage the transition by syringing whenever top up is necessary. It is a fluid process so there are no set rules apart from getting the minimum of 90 ml into him in 24 hours in whichever way - by eating on his own or by topping up. you monitor and adjust the food intake with the help of the scales.
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We will give him a top then as he doesn't appear to be eating hay, even if he likes his vegetables. We'll see if he wants to eat it off a saucer first given his overall better appetite.

Is there no risk of overfeeding and exacerbating any gassiness/full up in his gut? Or does the medication see to that?
 
GusandPeanut said:
We will give him a top then as he doesn't appear to be eating hay, even if he likes his vegetables. We'll see if he wants to eat it off a saucer first given his overall better appetite.

Is there no risk of overfeeding and exacerbating any gassiness/full up in his gut? Or does the medication see to that?
Click to expand...

Only if you overfeed veg like lettuce, which is known for being able to cause gassing... Stick to herbs and a small slither of cucumber and introduce fresh veg only very gradual so you do not cause another bloating episode. See the information in the bloating chapter: Digestive Disorders: Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement) And Not Eating

And no, he won't overeat; he'll just eat his fill.
 
Wiebke said:
Only if you overfeed veg like lettuce, which is known for being able to cause gassing... Stick to herbs and a small slither of cucumber and introduce fresh veg only very gradual so you do not cause another bloating episode. See the information in the bloating chapter: Digestive Disorders: Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement) And Not Eating

And no, he won't overeat; he'll just eat his fill.
Click to expand...
Okie doke. Thank you so much. We'll give him a top up syringe feed shortly and see how much he'll take before just refusing. He actually quite enjoyed his 6am syringe feed, whereas the one where he got home yesterday he was too lethargic to resist (sedation I guess), and earlier in the day yesterday he had done his absolute utmost to refuse. So we'll try and give him a nice big syringe feed if he doesn't like the saucer.

Can't thank you enough.
 
Good news is that he is happily taking as much syringe feed as we can give him. We've done a smaller session, 6ml, with view of two more feedigns within the next 5 hours. He is still wanting to sort of just sit on his own but when we reveal the world to him he seems more perky.
 
Update today. Peanut has been taking his syringe feeds very well, and we gave him some parsley this morning and he scoffed it. He has also done a few poos, but inconsistently. Weigh in is a couple of hours. He also seems much perkier than he has been for days, and had moved around in his cage - he was just sitting out in the open, which he likes to do when he's healthy. He's eating a bit more hay, and more than he has since this began just now. So hopefully he's on the slow upturn, were going to ring vets with progress after 2.
 
Sorry for spamming, I like to update in case anyone has thoughts.

Did a fresh batch of critical care, though annoyingly we are having to very very gradually use one of those stupid 15ml syringes as our last 1ml broke. Waiting a delivery today. He is accepting the feed happily, aside from having a syringe tucked in his mouth.

He is pooing frequently and they are getting bigger and bigger in size and more cylindrical which is good.

His weight is lower than it was, and down ~39g on two days ago. However, I think I wasn't doing the syringe feeding properly, and only since my reply yesterday have I been following to get 90ml in. His feeds are currently 15ml every 5 hours as that seems to be his capacity right now - far better than the 5ml every 2 hours he was on in terms of capacity. I'm going to ring the vets anyway tomorrow and potentially do a 12 hour weighin just to keep extra track of him (at his 6am medicine and feed).

My main worry is that he still isn't eating much hay. He definitely has a big appetite - when his brother was fed earlier he was extremely excited too, which was sad because we couldn't give him anything but the tiniest bit of Parsley. Heartbreaking as Peanut likes lots of foods but I don't want to reintroduce more than a few veg until he's eating lots of hay on his own.

He's perkier, taking his syringe feeds well, looking far less bloated (and feeling less bloated), and has an appetite just not for hay. So we're cautiously hopeful.

Thanks everyone for your support and likes as per :)
 
Thanks for the updates.
It’s good to hear that Peanut is improving.
You must be feeling relieved.
Hope things continue to go well
 
Thank you for the update.
I hope Peanut continues to improve.
My own Peanut was very poorly a little while ago. I think sometimes we don't appreciate how long it takes for them to get completely back to normal.
I hope he has completely turned the corner now, please keep us updated on how he is doing.
 
Thanks for all your well wishes everyone, it really makes a difference.

Peanut has taken all of his feeds well and we've got through the 90ml in 24 hours. He's also starting to eat a lot more hay - like he's been munching on it continually from 10am this morning to 2pm now with little break, plus he had some herbs too and was very enthusiastic for them. He generally seems chattier, more energetic. He's also doing lots and lots and lots of poos, including some very normal sized ones.

My only qualm is his weight loss. While not severe, and now levelling off, it does go into the alert category listed in the weight management guide. I think this is down to my syringe feeding, or lack thereof, as when I started giving him more the weight loss levelled off.

I'm going to ring the vet today as we need more critical care anyway and after his latest feed we'll need to go again at 5, but going to just check their happy or if they want to see him, too.
 
are you are now getting a good amount of feed into him, and if he is eating more for himself then the weight loss should stop. It will take a lot longer for him to regain the weight he lost to start putting back on again, but as long as weight is no longer (or starts to no longer) being lost then it means he is getting enough food
 
Piggies&buns said:
are you are now getting a good amount of feed into him, and if he is eating more for himself then the weight loss should stop. It will take a lot longer for him to regain the weight he lost to start putting back on again, but as long as weight is no longer (or starts to no longer) being lost then it means he is getting enough food
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Hiya, yeah we're getting the full 90ml in him over 24 hours, and in bigger feeds too, and he seems to be eating hay in between. His weight loss has definitely slowed a lot and is about 15g from the previous day now, obviously it was more when he was very poorly. I am going to keep giving him the full course of Critical Care until he's started to gain a bit, once I've got new stuff off teh vet anyway.
 
Good news as Peanuts weight has stabilised. He was 1470g before all of this and over the course of his ill few days when down to 1385g. He has now stayed at this weight so we're optimistic. Going to keep up syringe feeding but he's increasingly trying to reject that as he eats more and more hay. Vet are calling today to update and advise.
 
Tell me about it! I lost about 10 pounds from all the stress over the few days and the minute I felt better it was a cakewalk (sometimes literally) putting it back on :D

I have to constantly remind myself about how he was 'normally' too - before he was poorly - sometimes both of our pigs do like to just not eat for a good little while, they'll often have a quiet time where they just sit and don't interact for a while before their normal feeding time. I'm so keen for Peanut to feel better that I expect him to be eating every minute of the day, I have to remind myself that he's not going to want to and just keep giving him his feeds.
 
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