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Help, Worried Sick. Sick Guinea Pig

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scottishdean

scottishdean

New Born Pup
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Hi everyone, recently we noticed chester wasn't eating at all and we took him to an emergency vet appointment and he got prescribed a variety of meds, 2 allergy, gut stimulants and a critical care sachet which gets mixed with water and apple baby food, well our problem is he is to be feed every 6 hours and have his meds too. But we cannot get him to sit still, he became tacky cardic soon as we placed the syringes to his mouth, tried the towel trick, tried being patient, gently holding his head up and even lifting him and he would not eat it! He's losing weight, not getting the nutrients he needs and I'm aware it's life threatening, we always put his meds on his veg but we cannot do that as he's not eating, worrying. we've tried most things but any ssuggestions?
 
I tend to restrict the hand with my thumb under the piggies head and insert the syringe in the side. Small amounts at a time. Most of the time I only do 0.5mls. Have you had a look at feeding video's on YouTube?

Where are you in Scotland?
 
We have got a
flintstones said:
I tend to restrict the hand with my thumb under the piggies head and insert the syringe in the side. Small amounts at a time. Most of the time I only do 0.5mls. Have you had a look at feeding video's on YouTube?

Where are you in Scotland?
Click to expand...

@flintstones : we have now got a step-by-step illustrated hand feeding guide in our Caring for ill piggies section, which also includes a picture of how to position the guinea pig for hand feeding and medicating. https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/complete-hand-feeding-guide.115359/

@scottishdean : A severely ill guinea pig will not eat and drink willingly. If your guinea pig is not eating and drinking at all, you will need to feed every 1-2 hour, little but often, and also do so once or twice during the night; each time as much as he will take. Just give one third to half a 1 ml syringe full at a time in order to prevent things from going down the wrong way. A weak piggy can struggle to swallow, so please take your time and wait until the first lot has gone down before you feed more.

Wishing you all the best! It is a very anxious time, and we know that it is difficult when you have never been faced with having to hand feed. Every ml of food and water you can get in will help.
 
@scottishdean I totally understand where you are coming from having been in the situation myself. What I have found helped was placing piggy on breakfast bar so it's a good height for me, face piggy away from you and come over the top of piggy. He will most likely back into you away from the syringe but try and hold his head still and pop the syringe into the side of his mouth.

The guides on this forum are really useful so I recommend you have a look. Try and keep calm and reassure your piggy throughout. Don't rush it as this will stress piggy out even more. I'm not that great at the whole syringe feeding thing either but I think the more you do it the more confident you get.

Where in Scotland are you?
 
Thanks everyone for the reply, unfortunately he's taken a really bad turn for the worst and we admitted him for the weekend where he will be looked after better, he's also contracted a chest infection, poor thing is in an oxygen tank on a nebuliser and antibiotics, vets are also force feeding him, giving him metacam, Piriton and 2 other meds for his other problems, i guess now it's just a game of seeing if he will put through andaling sure everything possible has been tried for him, if the bet says he needs to be let go, I'm not going to let him suffer, just hoping he finds the energy to beat it. I'm from falkirk, Stirlingshire.
 
How worrying and upsetting for you scottishdean. Ive been in this position myself recently and we had to make the decision to let one of our boys go, its heartbreaking but for the best. Whatever happens it sounds like you have done everything you can but fingers crossed your little piggy will pull through!
 
He's been taken off the oxygen, he's breathing better, keeping him in one more night, looks like things are improving, still on antibiotics though and loads of meds. Vet said his appetite was coming back and he's been pooing, by the sounds of things it sounds like he will be ok, finally can get some sleep tonight knowing this. I think we just caught it in time.
 
sorry no helpful advice, just healing vibes for your poorly boy & hopefully you have caught it in time.

Wishing Chester a speedy recovery. from the girls & I. xx
 
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