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Lots Of Saliva, Not Eating/drinking Much, Sleepy. Help!

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Ginny&Penny

Ginny&Penny

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For a few days my youngest guinea pig has been salivating on herself and sleeping a lot. she has lost 244g since the 11th of April. She isn't eating very much or drinking, just laying in her blankets. She can walk fine and wheek fine but isn't her exited, mischevious self. She isn't pooping much either. I've contacted a vet but no reply yet and these symptoms have been going on for a few days but she has been under observation. Does anyone know what's up with her? We're very scared for her :(
 
If she is drooling my first thought would be either dental issues and/or oral thrush. Please could you confirm your location?
 
She is making a sort of crackling noise and her tooth looks a bit chipped, could this be the whole reason behind the not eating? This was the first thing that popped into my head
 
We posted at the same time, is the crackling coming from her nose?

If the tooth is chipped she will need that looking at. You say she has lost 240 odd grams, what is her actual weight?

I am wondering if she may have an upper respiratory infection too which can hit when they are already run down.
 
She is now 531g. She has always been a small pig but never this small. the noise is coming from her mouth
 
We have messaged the vet (close family friend) since his surgery is closed. No reply just yet but will call in the morning too
 
That is very small, how old is she?

Is she mouthing at all?
 
Around her nose and eye there is a little bit of crustyness but just a small amount
 
It's really difficult to say, I am leaning towards any URI being secondary to dental issues. Do you know if your vet is experienced with piggy dental issues?
 
Its mostly larger animals but he does get a lot of small animals so has lots of experience
 
Opening their mouth as if something may be stuck in there?
 
Ok. I think the best thing to do is see the vet as soon as you can and go from there. Are you syringe feeding?
 
No, this has never happened before so we dont have a syringe but we do have a medical spoon. what exactly do we feed her?
 
Do you feed pellets or museli?

If you feed pellets, you can mush them up in warm water and leave to cool and then offer them to her on a spoon. Please get a couple of 1ml syringes tomorrow, 1 for syringe feeding and 1 for giving her water. The syringe for feeding you can cut off the tip off the syringe so that the food comes out easier. Make sure that the black plunger cannot go into her mouth though and that the end of the syringe is smooth. She will need to be fed every few hours if she is not eating at all, ideally at a minimum of 5ml each feed. The vet may also give you some proper syringe food. Please don't use a sytinge bigger than 1ml though as it is easy to aspirate them if using a bigger syringe. Put the syringe in the side of the mouth so it goes behind the front teeth.

She is also likely to need gut stimulants from the vets. How long is it since she was eating normally?

http://www.guinealynx.info/handfeeding.html
 
That is good, is she eating them easily or does it seem a struggle?
 
She is very slowly eating, no sign of too much struggle
 
Ok, I think you will know more once you have seen the vet.
 
Just seen your latest post, that doesn't sound good and reinforces my idea of this being dental or oral thrush. She may just spit the mushed pellets out too, is there a vet you can see as an emergency? If she doesn't eat her guts will down.
 
There's non we can see right now but I'm with her now and shes eating again. i think she may have shoved too much in her mouth! Both of them are enjoying banana and grapes and I'm glad shes eating. seeing the vets tomorrow hopefully
 
There was a problem with her back teeth which made it painful to eat or drink. She would eat but it would be stuck. This has only happened in the last few days. We got some special food, pain medicine and her teeth sorted so she was comfortable and pain free. She began to eat and drink, being syringe fed ever hour. Unfortunately Penny passed away in her sleep. We will miss Penny so unbelievably much, Ginny is distraught too. Thank you for your help though.
 
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