Hair Loss And Weight Loss

[Victoria Keaney]

Around two years ago now i rescued a male guinea pig so i am unsure of his age.
However recently he has suffered with an impacted bowel and i was having to wake up every 3 hours to give him his medicine.
Afew months down the line he still hasn't put on any weight, hes just losing it, but he hasn't lost his appetite.
He has now beginning to lose a large majority of this fur, i have used a parasite shampoo and give him spot on treatment.
I've added warm water to his food to try and prevent him getting another impacted bowel.
I've ended up bringing him indoors now because i feel uncomfortable about leaving him outside in his condition.
I am unsure of what the issue is and my vet doesn't seem to know what the problem is either, any help?

 

[Wiebke]

Hi and welcome!

Can you please add your country, state or (for the UK) your county or city to your details, so we can always adapt our advice accordingly? We have members from all over the world. Please click on your username on the top bar, go to personal details and scroll down to location.
We have got a piggy savvy vet locator for our UK members on the top bar: https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/pages/guinea-pig-vet-locator/

It is important that you look around for a more piggy savvy vet; the hair loss can be down to mange mites, which need to be treated with a high dosed ivermectin product; just a low dosed parasite shampoo from a shop won't do the trick. However, it is very important that your vet is considering whether he is dealing with a fungal problem instead. Both are opportunistic issues that typically hit when the immune system is lowered. Please don't home treat on spec, but seek a proper diagnosis and good quality products.
http://www.guinealynx.info/hairloss.html
http://www.guinealynx.info/fungus.html
http://www.guinealynx.info/mites.html
http://www.gorgeousguineas.com/photogallery.html
http://www.gorgeousguineas.com/indentification.html

Please make sure that your boy has got plenty of fibre in his diet, at least 80% should be hay for good bowel movement and health. Go lightly on the veg and fruit. Please don't add warm water; rather give him some brown cardboard or toilet roll inners, as nutritionally poor fibre can additionally help to rebalance the guts! Did your boy have an impacted pouch or an impacted bowel? If it is the first, you will need to check and clear him out on a regular basis for the rest of his life, as it is caused by gradually weakening muscles.
As he is still losing weight, I would also consider topping him up with hand feed and also using fibreplex. I would also recommend to up his vitamin C intake to help strenghten his immune system; you can find information for all the mentioned products in the hand feeding guide.
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk...or-a-balanced-general-guinea-pig-diet.116460/
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/complete-hand-feeding-guide.115359/
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/impaction-recovery-how-to-help-your-guinea-pig.120787/

 

[Pebble]

Please have him checked for mange mites with a cavy-savvy vets.....

I am currently treating a couple of piggies whose mange mite infection was originally not diagnosed properly by the vets - my posts in the thread are designed to be helpful to any other piggie owners facing a siimilar situation and if necessary you can print it all out and take it to your vets to ensure proper treatment.

https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/2-more-dying-piggies.122408/

HTH
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