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Gwen Has Me Worried

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Flutterby

Flutterby

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So tomorrow marks one month since we adopted Gwen from the adoption section of pets at home. She'd been brought in as they no longer had the time to look after her. I cannot describe to you how sweet and friendly she is and within minutes I was totally besotted with her.

They informed me she had been treated for bumblefoot and was now clear, so I was aware to keep an eye on her, so she now has gorgeous guineas footcare balm on every night.

The first thing I notice about Gwen when I adopted her was that she was terribly thin, weighing at just over 700g. The first two weeks she piled on weight, nearly 100g in total which I thought was brill, but week 3 she dropped 52g in one week.

As she was still herself, bright, bubbly and eating well etc I stuck her on daily weighing to monitor. So this week she has been weighed every day and shes gone down a few grams one day, up a few the next etc etc. She was always weighed at the same time each day.

There is nothing obviously wrong with her, so I have the suspicion that it could be her teeth. Tomorrow I will call the vet to book her in as there is obviously something wrong. I am just so worried, absolutely sick with it. She is my heart pig well and truly and I don't know what I'd do if I lost her.

I've been scrubbing up on syringe feeding etc and have the supplies if needed, I just hope its something that can be sorted.


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Ahh she's beautiful :wub::luv:

hopefully its just a case of she was hungry & underfed from before you got her,
she probably just couldn't believe her luck,so devoured everything in sight & now she's realised that the food supply isn't going to disappear, she can just eat to normal piggy greediness.
is she a petite piggy generally? one of mine was 1400g at her peak but generally just a big girl & others have been the smaller 900g more compact build shall we say!
a full to empty bladder can add or lose 30g or so at each weigh in, try & establish if she is with full or empty tanks before weigh in to give you less of a scare.

if she's been suffering from bumblefoot it may be that she is feeling more active now & with company she is moving around & losing weight through activity-burning off calories.

was the bumblefoot because of an injury/infection/past husbandry or does she have underlying medical issues that have made her susceptible to the bumblefoot?

how do you mean heart pig?... :love:a)your true love or b) she's got a dicky ticker? if she is a dicky ticker pig then she will probably stay on the lighter side as they don't gain weight as easily as others. if she's a true love pig. then i'm not surprised she is gorgeous, she might just need a week or two to stabilise a bit more.

but if you feel that she's not right then a vet check will be advisable & you can also put your mind at rest if she gets the all clear.

let us know how you get on. xx
 
Thank you got the advise @GPTV. She is skin and bones at the moment so I know that she certainly should be gaining weight with what she is eating. I was told by Pets At Home that her feet were bad due to them not being able to clean her out often, part of why she was given up for adoption. As least I know if she has a full MOT at the vets and has her back teeth checked that I can rest easy if nothing is wrong and she's just slow at gaining weight.
 
Get them to check her heart too as Bumblefoot can be linked to circulatory issues.

Hope she gets on OK.

If you suspect teeth, do her incisors look slanted at all?
 
Bumblefoot can come on when their immune system is low - my Bumble had it twice - both coming on after bladder stone surgery and my vet had one of her sows come down with it after she had a litter.
 
I can see why you fell for Gwen, she is adorable. We've got everything crossed that she is just settling in and that she soon piles on the pounds.
 
All paws crossed here for little Gwen, she is such a sweetheart:luv:x
 
She's booked in for the vets at 5pm tomorrow, she's lost another 20g in the last couple of days which doesn't seem a lot, but she's now weighing less than when she came to me. Fingers crossed we can get to the bottom of it.
 
Hi mate, hope all will be okay at vets, she could just be a little pig. I know it is hard but try not to get hung up on weight fluctuation each day I would expect 30g differences up an down each day depending on full bladder etc.. .the fact it is only a few grams up and day is good news. I doubt teeth as I'd expect weight to drop and drop from experience with Pitch. Please let us know how she gets on x
 
I'll keep everyone up to date, I am probably over worrying, but better to be safe than sorry. She's lost all the weight she put on in the first couple of weeks and that's what worries me the most, not to much the fluctuations. She's a big sow, as in big in body and all I can feel is bones, which to me says that she should be able to put at least some weight on and keep it. An MOT at the vets won't do her any harm anyway.
 
Awww... she's previous. Good on you for giving her a second chance at a good home. It's heartbreaking how many pigs probably live their whole lives neglected and never get that chance. I hope she makes out okay at the vet. Please keep us posted!
 
Thank you, I will do. Hopefully I'm just being a worry wart, but I'd rather her have a full MOT than continue to loose weight if something can be fixed.
 
Good luck tomorrow! Hopefully it's something minor, if they can't find anything outwardly wrong with her you could have her stool checked for parasites or overgrowth of bad bacteria. Internal parasites can cause them to get little to no nutrition from their food, and if it where another issue such as teeth u would expect her weight to keep falling rather than just an inability for her to gain.

Good luck xx
 
I adopted two of my pigs from Pets at Home and it seems best just to take them to the vets for a check up anyway. One of mine was bullied by the others and has half eaten ears bless him and the other was given up just because he had a runny eye, poor thing. I really hope everything goes well she is so lovely!
 
So just got back from the vets with Gwen, where she's had a full MOT (much to her displeasure, she's a Diva pig in hiding I tell you!).

-Eyes/ears/nose All Fine.
-Heart/Lungs/Chest, all fine, no murmurs, crackles, wheezing etc.
-Gut sounds and feels fine, no lumps and bumps palpable inside.
-Teeth- Nothing obvious to bee seen but she was being a wriggle wart and not tolerating the scope and neither of us wanted to stress her but nothing obvious jumped out as wrong.
-Poo samples taken and we have a parasite drop on her (on the off chance).

Vet advised to keep an eyes on her, if she continues to loose weight and/if something else changes then xrays will be taken to see if there is anything nasty inside that doesn't show on normal exam.
 
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