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Helping my girl put on some weight

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scpiggy

scpiggy

Teenage Guinea Pig
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Sookie does seem to like worrying me a lot, just a few weeks ago she developed a second fatty lump and now she has started losing weight. :{ She's always been a bit smaller than the others especially since having some dental problems last year. She's been around 900 - 950 grams but has recently dropped down to 875g. Since weighing her on friday and noticing the loss she has stayed at this weight. She seems very happy in herself and seems to have no problems eating like she did when she had dental problems.
With them being out on the grass so much recently I wonder if she has lost some cos she's been eating more grass and less fatty fruit/veg and pellets or if her weight loss is due to her getting older (she's now 4 1/2 years old) If she loses anymore or shows any signs of illness it will be straight to the vets, but in the mean time i'm wondering if there are any tips on how to keep her weight up.
 
You could try some oats, or barley hoops. Always useful for a bit of weight gain. I have a sow who always struggles to keep the weight on, i think shes just a bit slow in the herd. (its a bit every pig for themselves in the herd), so every night or two she comes out and has some extra veg and sometimes a bit of recovery food if i have some laying about.

Hope she starts gaining a little soon.

x.
 
Thanks for the advice, I tried her with oats when she was recovering from her dental but she could have not been any less interested. :/ I might give it another go, and I'll look for some barely hoops they might go down better. I've never had barely hoops before, where do you buy them from?
I just watched her tell off my youngest, Rio, who was after her bit of apple, so it looks like she's holding her own. I'd just offered Rio some apple, she tried to eat my fingers instead and then went after Sookies apple, typical guinea pig. rolleyes
 
Mine love porridge oats, is that the type of oats we're talking about? I just get supermarket own brand. Only give them it once a week as a treat in the summer but they have it all the time in the winter.
 
Stewybus said:
Mine love porridge oats, is that the type of oats we're talking about? I just get supermarket own brand. Only give them it once a week as a treat in the summer but they have it all the time in the winter.
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Strange that mine are so uninterested when everyone elses guineas seem to love them. I just tried putting some tomatoes in the oats and sookie ate some of the oat covered tomato bits but left the rest of the oats.
 
Abi_nurse said:
I struggled to get my hands on barley hoops for a while. Try horse feed merchants. They may be able to give you a sample bag.

x.
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Thanks, I'll have a look for some horse food shop, i live around a lot of farms so there should be a horse feeders near by.
 
Sweetcorn is a good veg to help get the weight up - very energy dense as one of my vets described it. But be aware that you can only do so much; there may be an underlying reason for the weight loss.
 
Wiebke said:
Sweetcorn is a good veg to help get the weight up - very energy dense as one of my vets described it. But be aware that you can only do so much; there may be an underlying reason for the weight loss.
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Thanks, i'll try and get hold of some sweetcorn. Unfortunately most of the corn I find is cooked :( I know that I can only do so much but I'm trying to make sure I do as much as I possibly can.
 
I weighed her again today and she's lost even more weight, down to 850 grams. :( Taking her to the vets in a few hours, fingers crossed i get some good news.
 
As Wiebke said, sweetcorn is a good carb food. Supermarkets do the baby ones in packs - we're still waiting for our local farm to have the corn on the cob with husks picked.
Maybe her age is a factor, I find my older piggies have lost but stabilised their weights.
Keep us posted and paws crossed here :)
 
Thanks i should have some corn arriving in delivery of groceries tonight. :) and got some barely hoops on their way in the post too.
 
Just got back from the vets, and there are a couple of possibilities as to what could be causing her weight loss. The vet found a lump on her stomach, which unlike her fatty lumps was very internal rather than being just under the skin. The vet also noticed one of her eyes was popping out a bit, she said there were lots of possible causes for this but couldn't feel anything around the eye that could be causing it to pop out.
Sookie has been put on metacam over the weekend and will be going back in on monday to have an x-ray. She still seems happy in herself and took her metacam very well but i'm worried sick about her. :(
 
My baby went back to the vets today, we saw a different vet who thought the best option would be to remove the lump because it is attached to her bowel and will most likely be the cause of her problems even if it is benign. She's been booked in to have surgery tomorrow morning and while she's under they'll give her teeth a check up as well. The vet said there's always a risk with the anesthetic especially with a pig of her age and there's always the chance that they'll open her up to find that the lump is inoperable. I'm worried sick about her, and just hoping she makes it through this. I don't know what I'd do without her. Giving her lots of cuddles and treats and trying to make sure naughty Rio who's in heat AGAIN doesn't bother her too much.
 
I do hope the op is a success. My Minky has had 3 ops to have abscesses removed in last month & a half. Just been back to vet today for check-up after 3rd op on Friday. She was poorly after first op and lost weight but I think this was down to the Metacam doseage. She was prescribed 2 drops a day which is minimal. After the 2nd op I changed her vet because I felt the doseage was incorrect. New vet put her on 2ml twice a day and she had no problems with weight loss as she was eating normally. I think she didn't eat after the first op because she was not getting enough pain relief. If Sookie is on less than 4ml of Metacam a day please double check with your vet. Will you be putting her in separate accommodation while she recovers. It's much safer as guinea pigs often try to help each other out by examining the wound area & pulling stitches out etc.

My best wishes go to Sookie for tomorrow's op. Please keep us updated on her progress. I always worry when one of mine has an op & there's nothing better than hearing they've got through it OK.
 
Thanks, it's great to hear a success story making me a little less worried about her and I hope minky recovers well.
Sookie is currently on 0.5 ml of metacam so no worries there. I have two ferplast cages joined together so It's quite easy to separate my girls but still keep them close to each other, very handy in situation like this. They do hate being apart though.
 
Hope all goes ok with your little one. I can understand the worry, but with a good veterinary team then the risks are kept to a minimum. I recently aneathetized my 6 and a half year old boy and he was fine, though a little doped up on the ketamine. Hes now made a full recovery.

Let us know how things go.

Hugs
xx.
 
Wow, great that your 6 1/2 year old made it through and made a full recovery. :) I'm lucky to have a very good vet team, not only do they know what they're talking about but they're so good caring for the animals too, i know she'll be in good hands and they'll do everything possible. Thanks and I'll keep you updated.
 
Fingers very firmly crossed for your girl for tomorrow!
 
Sookie is out of surgery minus a kidney. Her kidney had somehow twisted cutting off the blood supply and causing the tissue to swell and die so she is left with only one kidney which the vet said looked very healthy. The biggest worry was whether she could poo and wee ok and since putting her in her carry cage she has done two wees and i found two fresh poos in the carry cage so i am very happy. She's still a bit wobbly and Sherbert and Rio are chewing on the bars between them, anxious to see her. Sookie has tucked into her hay and veggies as normal but I've got her some critical care I'll try her with later tonight once she's settled a bit.
The vet doesnt seem to think her diet will need to change despite having one kidney but this is something she'd never seen before and I've never heard of a guinea pig with one kidney before so i dont know what to expect. Could this increase the risk of getting UTIs or bladder problems? Should I cut down on her calcium content to prevent this? and has anyone every had a pig with one kidney before?
I'll keep the updates coming but for now I couldn't be happier with how she is at the moment, when I checked her in at the vets I thought it would be the last time I saw her. Thank you all for your advice and healing vibes.
 
Sookie is continuing to improve, she's been a bit more active today munching on hay very happily and she's eaten a bit of veg too. My whole room smells of critical care and about half the things i own are covered in it rolleyes but she's going through around 15 mls in each sitting which is more than i've ever got into a sick animal. Going back to the vets tomorrow for a check up and hopefully she'll be back in with her friends soon.
 
All the best for a good recovery! That must have been quite a shock for you! Good that she is so perky.
 
Thanks Wiebke, i'm still quite shocked by the outcome and just hope she can live happily and healthily with just the one kidney.
 
Well my parents and I had a fun night with Sookie pig last night. I'd just returned from an overnight stay in hospital wanting nothing more than to go to bed to find that Sookie had chewed off all her surgical glue and had started pulling out stitches, I rang the vets who said if she pulled her stitches out she could die so we took her in to after hours surgery. On top of this I also found she'd scratched her eye and caused it to become infected so it's really one thing after another with this pig. Once at the vets they gave her eye drops and baytril which Sookie hates, and cleaned her wound, reapplied the glue and put a full body suit on her that sort of looked like a dishcloth.
Half way home I reached into her carry cage to find her without her dishcloth of shame on, she managed to get out of it in five seconds flat. We tried tightening it, wrapping it just around her middle without going through her legs, bandages and i even killed one of my nicest socks to try and make a protective wrap around Sookies wound but she managed to get out of everything we tried. Not wanting to leave her alone at the risk she opens up her wound again my parents forced me to go to bed and up all night watching Sookie in shifts. Going to try and get some vet wrap today as thats the best thing I've seen for dealing with tricky pets that are determined to nibble their wounds. Hopefully we wont have to have a repeat of last night.
 
I took Sookies vet wrap off today as I noticed that one side of her was very swollen, on the side where she had her kidney removed. She'd been in the vet wrap for a few days and when i took off the vet wrap to check her incision I only checked the incision I didnt even think to look for whatever this is. Now she's out of the vet wrap it is so obvious that something is wrong, she's limping and when I weighed her this morning she'd dropped 40g from last night. She's now at 788g when she's never been below 800g. I just don't know what more could go wrong with her and I'm worried sick about what the vets will say.
Just to top it off I'm going to be away friday and saturday so I have no idea how I'll be able to take care of her.
 
So sorry to read this. Try not to worry too much until she see's the vet - I know this is eaiser said than done... Is she going today? Keeping everything crossed for Sookie.
 
She is going this afternoon, I think I'll be non stop stress until I get there. Thank you.
 
Seeing as how I am here I just want to let anyone who was wondering know the vet couldn't see any cause for concern and Sarah from chucklebunnies has kindly agreed to look after Sookie for the weekend.
 
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