Help! Guinea pig barely eating

[sarah4548]

Hi guys, it’s my first post here, but I need your guys opinion. I have 6 guinea pigs. 3 sows and a castrated boar, and in a separate cage 2 castrated boars. I have been treating the castrated boar (who’s with the girls) for ringworm. And then suddenly two days after, the cage had diarrhea all over it. Me Ofcourse thinking that the medicine made him sick, I checked him immediately but he was fine. Then I started to check the sows. And lux a 3 year old sow, had a dirty butt. When i weighed her, the scale said she dropped 100 grams. (733 grams now) so immediately worried I gave her critical care, and to keep an eye on her, separated her. The next day we went to our vet. Her poops were still soft, but much better then yesterday. The vet checked her and could feel that her intestines were empty and under the microscope she saw that she had a surplus amount of Cyniclomyces guttulatus (a yeast which is normal in their intestines) she said that the amount could have been caused by changing diet, or having consumed something gone bad, but she wasn’t 100% sure. But she couldn’t find anything else. She gave antibiotics just in case for 3 days. Now 3 days later, her poops are 1/10 in size of what they used to be and I can only find 20 a day. She has been eating a tiny bit, but mostly sits huddled together in a corner. She has no interested in her used to be favourite critical care, and doesn’t touch her pellets, nor hay. I’m very worried. Does anyone have tips? Or experienced something like this?

 

[Piggies&buns]

I'm sorry to hear this.

Please ensure you are weighing her every morning and syringe feeding as much critical care each day as is necessary to keep her weight stable each day. A minimum of 40ml per day is needed but you are ideally aiming for at least 60ml of syringe feed per day.
Lack of poop signifies a lack is food intake.

We would not recommend separating her from her friends though.
You will need to reunite them on neutral territory.

I’ve added lots of guides below which will be of help to you

I hope she is ok

Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
Digestive Disorders: Not Eating - Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement)

 

[sarah4548]

I'm sorry to hear this.

Please ensure you are weighing her every morning and syringe feeding as much critical care each day as is necessary to keep her weight stable each day. A minimum of 40ml per day is needed but you are ideally aiming for at least 60ml of syringe feed per day.
Lack of poop signifies a lack is food intake.

We would not recommend separating her from her friends though.
You will need to reunite them on neutral territory.

I’ve added lots of guides below which will be of help to you

I hope she is ok

Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
Digestive Disorders: Not Eating - Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement)

Thank you so much. I have been syringe feeding her and weighing her two times a day and during the day she is with her friends. She seems happier and more motivated to eat when she’s with them. But to monitor her, she is separated at night, otherwise I have no indication about the amount of poops she has (she separated by a fence and can still see her friends and give them kisses )

 

[Piggies&buns]

Please only weigh her once a day.
Weighing twice picks up too much fluctuation and makes it inaccurate. Weigh her just once first thing in the morning (before her first critical care feed) compare it to the previous morning’s figure.
If her weight is stable (so within normal fluctuation) each morning then she is getting enough critical care each day.
If she drops weight each morning (outside of normal fluctuation) then you need to increase the amount you syringe feed her.
As I say you need to aim for 60ml per day (needing to be syringe fed every 2-3 hours depending on how much food she takes per sitting) but the actual amount depends on the weight checks (she could need more than that as it all depends on any independent hay intake).

While you do want to see poop, poop output is 1-2 days behind food intake so is out of date information by the time the poops are produced and thus is not helpful to gauge any food intake. If she suddenly started eating properly today, her weight would be absolutely fine tomorrow morning but you wouldn’t see the poops from todays food appear until towards the end of Saturday and into Sunday so it’s too far behind to tell you anything. (The same is true on the flip side - if you don’t see enough poop today, it means a piggy already hasn’t eaten enough for the past up to two days).
Weight checks give real time information so are your guide to food intake and syringe feed quantities.
Therefore separating her to monitor poop serves no useful purpose and is not recommended, but does only serve to cause her (and the rest of the herd) stress (separation in itself is stressful but then repeated separation and reintroduction every day adds even more stress). Stress lowers the immune system which makes recovery harder. This is one of the main reasons we do not recommend any medical separation (that and the fact it has the potential to permanently break bonds).
Please do reunite her with her friends and leave them together - as you have seen that she is happier and eating better when she is with them.

Please do read the guides I linked in.

I hope she is ok

 

[KK327]

Fingers crossed for a good recovery for your piggy xx

 

[weepweeps]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I’m sorry your piggy is poorly. I hope she’s soon feeling better.

 

[Merab]

Welcome to the forum.
So sorry that you’re dealing with a sick piggy.
Holding you in my

 

[Wheekallweek]

Hope she's OK

 

[sarah4548]

Good news! She’s doing much better and even gaining weight. I discussed with her vet and her antibiotics cure is done. She is fully back with her friends now for the last two days and she’s eating by herself, and she’s back to making it very clear she wants a peaflake

 

[Posyrose]

Wonderful news! You obviously looked after her very well.

 

[Merab]

Good news! She’s doing much better and even gaining weight. I discussed with her vet and her antibiotics cure is done. She is fully back with her friends now for the last two days and she’s eating by herself, and she’s back to making it very clear she wants a peaflake

Great news.
Well done for getting her through this

 

[CTWC]

Fantastic