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Henry and his health

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sophieandhoney

sophieandhoney

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Hi,

I have posted before about Henry, the main problems are drinks lots of water, bald back legs and some patches on his front legs and he has lost weight 920g. He is about 4 and a half but is a rescue so that might not be completely accurate.

Have been to the vets 4 times now, had three mite treatments and this time the locum vet said his fur etc was healthy no sign of inflammation(not that it has ever looked anything but fine), no dryness and aside from the bald spots he seemed fine. it appears he is pulling his hair out.

I said I was worried about diabetes - she said stop the muesli (wagg) too much sugar and up the hay (don't see how since they are knee deep in it)

She suggested an allergy, offered a steroid injection. He found the whole examination VERY distressing and was shaking so much I said no, I would try the diet changes and come back in a month.

So that was a week ago, the gang are now on pellets and henry is not happy. I have gerbils and they still have (gerbil) Muesli , the box makes the same noise as it did with the wagg and Henry goes nuts at this noise, biting the bars and squeaking, he doesn't really eat the nuggets. He paces the cage when I feed the gerbils and obviously wants his muesli back. I have started to keep the gerbil food outside but he can still hear it and can see me with the food.

Sophie - the herd leader died on the 1st July and this all started when she got sick. It is heart breaking to see my beautiful boy so distressed and this food thing is NOT helping. Yesterday when I gave them the veggies Henry climbed out of the cage (not normal at all) to find the Gerbil food.

the bald spots are now worse than they were last week.

any suggestions?

xx
 
Poor Henry, am sorry no-one has answered before now, threads move down the board so quickly.

What pellets have you moved onto? I recommend these which in my opinion are the best all round pellet and can help pigs with bladder issues or issues with their gut. A friend has done an awful lot of research into pellets and these came out far above all the others:

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/small_pets/food/vitakraft/262148

Your vet was correct about removing the muesli

http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/vet/news-events/news/rabbit-muesli

I know it's difficult to see him behaving like this but it is more that he is objecting to a change in routine, we do tend to put human emotions onto our pigs.

I would suggest obtaining some urine test sticks (see link below) and go from there. I can help you read the results and this may give you something more to discuss with your vet.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SIEMENS-MULTISTIX-REAGENT-STRIPS-URINALYSIS/dp/B0047W58QS/ref=pd_cp_ce_2
 
Hmm. This is a difficult one.

I would stick with keeping him off the muesli I'm afraid. It is not necessary that he is on a pelleted diet providing he is getting plenty of fresh veg with plenty of vitamin C in. Have you considered getting him a cage mate, it may well be that he is behaving this way since he lost his companion? As with the drinking and baldness i would consider seeing an exotic specialist about this? May be a number of thing causing this, allergies maybe, or another condition, i would suggested possibly some more diagnostics such as mentioned urine test and bloods maybe.

x.
 
Thanks for the bump Sport billy and the replies Helen and Abi

We went back to the vets today, turns I got his weight wrong, he weighed 920 in June, then 840 in July/august and he still weighs 840 now.

She thought he was ok in himself - perky interested and looking to escape! He is still drinking loads and pulling out his hair, she said looking at the history that

1. he had had mite treatment - no change

2. I had been back 3 times with the same symptoms -he isn't any worse.

3. He is eating and behaving normally.

She thinks the most likely cause is stress at the lost of Sophie, (Abi - he lives with 3 other girls so is not alone) a reaction to stress and now a habit.

She did give the number of an exotics vet who once I have been paid I shall go see in half term.

thanks
 
Just a little update,

I couldn't get an appointment at the exotic vet and now have one booked for a couple of weeks time.

Meanwhile, Henry is still the same, bald back legs, drinking loads, skinny - can feel his spine. :( :(

I had also noticed the girls must be pushing him out from the under stools(they all have one each) as he sits in the middle of the cage, fluffed up and not looking right to me. The other day he was laying on his side and scared the crap out of me.

I have extended the cage so he has a sort of separate bit. He had sat in there all evening. I went upstairs just now and the water bottle had leaked so I had to clear it up. This made all the girls squeak so Henry seemed to come to their rescue- hopping over to see what was happening - this was the first time he had met them since about 6?

I don't honestly understand what is happening. He eats like a horse, first out for food and seems to be always eating hay.
 
Poor Henry, is he on any kind of pain relief?

His symptoms seem similar to what Jenny's pig is going through, if you search for her thread under the name Haven, it should come up. Am going to pm you too with another idea I have.
 
i know of some conditions that causes them to drink loads and hair loss, ask ** vet to do blood tests, as kidney disease is common, i unfortunately just lost one of my piggies to kidney failure, he lost most of his hair by the end, vet says it was because his body was run down, i have 2 piggies that have heart problems, and one is on medication, the other is ok enough not to be on meds, they pee loads, the other is diabetes again i had one that had this, do * smell any sweetness coming from the bedding, if so get piggie checked for diabetes, the other is habbit, stress, its so hard to get them out of this habbit. please keep us informed as to how the little one is doing.

oh i forgot to mention does he eat his hair when he pulls it out, as this is a behaviour of a piggie that is lacking in some kind of mineral, nutrient, or vitamin, boredom, loss of cage mate or stress.
 
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Hi,
After seeing a further three vets I got a diagnosis on Friday. He had kidney failure. I had arranged a vets appointment for Monday to have him PTS but he passed away peacefully in his cage with his friends this afternoon.

If you are in a similar position PLEASE insist on Urine tests at the very least, one vet told me it was stress related and it wasn't till the second to last vet that I got a urine test to show his kidneys were not working. My vets were massively unhelpful to be honest but when I FINALLY got to see an exotic vet he said there wasn't any treatment.

I am quite gutted. He was a fantastic guinea pig.
 
So sorry to hear about Henry, it sounds like you did all you could for him x
 
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