Max only eating hay-any suggestions?

[Ryo_the_Rat]

I dont know how many of you have read my other two threads, but my Louis passed away on saturdayI'm still heartbroken and somewhat shocked but now I'm worried about Max. In one of my other threads ( http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=56611 ) i mentioned that neither of the piggies had really touched their dry food(cavy cuisine) all last week. They were diving on their hay and at first also diving on the veg. Since we lost Louis i have been able to obviously keep better track of what Max is eating and he doesnt seem to be touching his dry food at all-i actually weighed it out last night and weighed it again this morning and he literally hasnt touched a bit-but hes definately still eating all his hay. we have also given him cabbage and cucumber the last couple of days which are usually firm favourites, but apart from a little nibble on a cabbage leaf hes not touching that either.

We lost Louis to sudden respiratory problems and while at the vets with him on saturday the vet had a quick check of Max and didnt find anything wrong. however i did start him on baytril on sunday because i had heard him wheeze just once last tuesday while cleaning his abcess-nothing since but after what happened with Louis there is no way i am taking any risks. i have had him on 0.4ml baytril twice a day, and 0.2ml sudafed twice a day. he is still acting completely fine-his normal scrappy self and certainly isnt pleased when i give him his meds! however i have been weighing him pretty much daily since friday now and he has lost 46g:{ obviously this isnt too shocking if all he is eating is hay, but i just dont understand why he is only eating hay? he honestly isnt showing any signs of ill health other then this and if it wasnt for the fact that this started a week ago i would have put it down to being on baytril or missing Louisdoes anyone have any idea what could be going on?

I have an order arriving in the next hour that has some critical care and some avipro in-should i start syringe feeding him that? or even make it up and put a dish of it in his cage to try and tempt him to eat something more then hay? i will keep trying with different veggies too but i just cant figure out why hes not eating anything but the hay. has anyone else ever seen this happen?

Oh and obviously he wont be getting any vit C while he is just eating hay-does anyone know if the avipro will have enough in that or should i find a seperate vit c supplement to give too? I also ordered some denes garlic tablets for him after them being suggested in the Peter Gurney Piggie Potions book-should i start giving these too perhaps? not sure how i go about administering a tablet to a piggie, figure its easier to crush it down and mix with water or something and syringe it. any ideas or tips or suggestions are really welcome, the worry just doesnt seem to be ending latelyI also have a very old very poorly rattie that I'm nursing at the moment, I so wish the fur babies could live forever

 

[Wiebke]

Piggies in mourning can lose their appetite; and it is a harrowing time for you to stand by and bear it - especially with all the fears from your recent loss playing heavily on your mind!

Please weigh Max daily; if he loses more than 2 oz of weight (ca. 60g) in one week, then you should start thinking about doing something about it. Most piggies come thankfully out of it after a few days and get on with life again.
http://www.guinealynx.info/weigh.html

The best thing you can do is finding Max a rescue within your reach where he can go for some "boar dating"; you will be amazed at the change in him!
You could try this Coventry rescue of the M6; they usually have quite a few boars looking for a home: http://www.freewebs.com/rags-rabbits/guineapigsforrehoming.htm
Hopper Haven in Redditch are sadly scaling down their operations.
You can contact x-vic-x for what they have in Walsall RSPCA; she fosters for them. there are no free boars on their website.
Petcrazy in Telford may have somepig for you?

Best of luck!

 

[Ryo_the_Rat]

Piggies in mourning can lose their appetite; and it is a harrowing time for you to stand by and bear it - especially with all the fears from your recent loss playing heavily on your mind!

Please weigh Max daily; if he loses more than 2 oz of weight (ca. 60g) in one week, then you should start thinking about doing something about it. Most piggies come thankfully out of it after a few days and get on with life again.
http://www.guinealynx.info/weigh.html

The best thing you can do is finding Max a rescue within your reach where he can go for some "boar dating"; you will be amazed at the change in him!
http://www.guineapigrehome.org.uk/gp/centres.asp

Best of luck!

Thankyou for the reply. As i said i would be putting it down to losing Louis if he had been eating normally upto that point, but both piggies seemed to go off everything but their hay and a little bit of veg last week:{

As much as i havnt been wanting to think about it I do of course know Max needs a new friend and i hate seeing him alone I'm not sure how to go about getting him one though as he is a 3 year old un neutered male and I'm not sure how to explain this without me sounding like i dont want my animals anymore which is completely not the case, but my fiance and I have been together for 10 years and we have spent 8 of those years caring for animals and greatly restricting our lives-we have only been away once together and that was recently for 2 days to celebrate our 10 year anniversary-despite the fact that one of the things we bonded over was our eagerness to travel the world! Basically we decided 2 years ago that we had to stop taking in animals for a while because we needed a break from the constant worry and stress that was really starting to put a strain on us-this is why we are having such a bad time of it lately because all our ratties and our remaining mouse are elderly. we also have 3 5 year old bunnies, 3 young cats and then Max-we had said all along that when it is just the bunnies, piggies and kitties life would be much easier because its the ratties that mainly have the health problems, but we still wernt planning to take anymore animals on. I guess we were just hoping as most would, that all the animals would grow old together. Obviously this hasnt happened with Max and Louis and Max is still quite young at only 3 years old, and once i know he doesnt have a lingering resp problem that he could pass onto a new piggie i will definately be getting on some waiting lists-but i think we are going to be very lucky piggie owners to find a rescue that has a spayed 3 year old Sow to live with Max rather then a baby boar! Sorry I'm quite long winded:redbut i wanted to explain that in a way that stresses that i adore my animals and they literally have been our lives for 8 years now and will continue to be for years to come, but we are trying to make decisions using our heads now instead of our hearts so that we arent taking as much on if you know what i mean.

 

[Ryo_the_Rat]

Sorry, you edited while i was writing my long winded reply:red Thankyou very much for those links, i was planning to contact a few rescues in the next week to see if by any chance there were some older spayed girlies looking for homes so thats helpful. The first link you gave for Rags rescue-i havnt heard very good things about them, but i wont say too much as i dont know if they are members here and i have never seen the rescue for myself and someone new might have taken over the place so dont want to go slandering anyone! But as soon as i know Max doesnt have any health problems that can be passed along i shall begin my search!

 

[Wiebke]

Thankyou for the reply. As i said i would be putting it down to losing Louis if he had been eating normally upto that point, but both piggies seemed to go off everything but their hay and a little bit of veg last week:{

As much as i havnt been wanting to think about it I do of course know Max needs a new friend and i hate seeing him alone I'm not sure how to go about getting him one though as he is a 3 year old un neutered male and I'm not sure how to explain this without me sounding like i dont want my animals anymore which is completely not the case, but my fiance and I have been together for 10 years and we have spent 8 of those years caring for animals and greatly restricting our lives-we have only been away once together and that was recently for 2 days to celebrate our 10 year anniversary-despite the fact that one of the things we bonded over was our eagerness to travel the world! Basically we decided 2 years ago that we had to stop taking in animals for a while because we needed a break from the constant worry and stress that was really starting to put a strain on us-this is why we are having such a bad time of it lately because all our ratties and our remaining mouse are elderly. we also have 3 5 year old bunnies, 3 young cats and then Max-we had said all along that when it is just the bunnies, piggies and kitties life would be much easier because its the ratties that mainly have the health problems, but we still wernt planning to take anymore animals on. I guess we were just hoping as most would, that all the animals would grow old together. Obviously this hasnt happened with Max and Louis and Max is still quite young at only 3 years old, and once i know he doesnt have a lingering resp problem that he could pass onto a new piggie i will definately be getting on some waiting lists-but i think we are going to be very lucky piggie owners to find a rescue that has a spayed 3 year old Sow to live with Max rather then a baby boar! Sorry I'm quite long winded:redbut i wanted to explain that in a way that stresses that i adore my animals and they literally have been our lives for 8 years now and will continue to be for years to come, but we are trying to make decisions using our heads now instead of our hearts so that we arent taking as much on if you know what i mean.

I can understand your problems - this question always comes up when one of a middle aged or elderly pair of piggies dies. A three years old, your man is not too old and may profit from dating some laid back single adult boars not just babies; you CAN bond adult boars, you know, provided you have a rescue that will offer bonding services with a suitable boar.

This rescue in Rugby neuters all piggies of any gender, but not during the winter months and the waiting list for spayed sows is very long as it depends entirely of sows coming into rescue and recovering well from the operation...
http://www.rngp.org/index-photo.shtml

As to not eating so much: have you thought about trying have Max wormed (you need to have this prescibed by your vet as panacur is a prescription only medication (POM)? Parasites can slowly build up in the guts. The other thing to have checked is his back teeth. I would also try another dry food or two and see wehther he likes that better!

 

[Ryo_the_Rat]

You know its very silly of me to think that you couldnt bond adult boars because alot of people think the same applies to bucks(rabbits) but i successful bonded two unrelated male bunnies(though neutered), and then when my dear Gabriel passed on and Stumpy needed a friend he got a girlfriend in the form of Molly. I also have two bonded brothers, Timmy and Errol, and not long before Stumpy passed on we bonded all four together so i proved twice that it can be done! So thankyou for reminding me of that, i feel much more optomistic about finding a suitable friend for Max now

Max's front teeth are all fine and i assumed that if he is eating hay the likely hood of this being a tooth related problem is slim. However if things get worse or just dont improve with my help within the next few days i shall certainly get him back to the vets to try and get to the bottom of it. I guess i just wondered if anyone else had ever had a piggie suddenly go off everything but hay before. If he wasnt eating at all it would make more sense, but obviously I'm glad this isnt the case as that would be much more serious and id rather be confused!

 

[Sappho]

One of my girlies Sappho passed away in August, leaving behind her daughter Ginny. Ginny was very quiet for about a week, wouldn't touch her dry food or her fresh food, and would only eat hay.

I ended up cutting up her veg into small pieces, cuddling her in a blanket, and getting her to eat it that way. It used to take about half an hour or so before she would start eating it out of my hands, but it was worth it - she wouldn't touch it if left in her cage.

I spent a great deal of time with her over the first two weeks, I think she was greatly affected by the loss of her mum. The third week we started looking for a friend for her - she was a bit tough to bond, but just being around other girl pigs again really perked her up. On her first bonding session, she ate about a ton of veg!

She is now living with an older girl called Evie, and she is happy and eating more than ever. I think we can underestimate how much a death can affect our piggies, and some piggies really hate to be alone.

Hope this reassures you a bit, but I agree with both you and Wiebke, if he loses too much weight, it would be worth going to get his teeth checked out. They can be a proper pain!

 

[Ryo_the_Rat]

Just a quick update to say that Max is still losing weight and still not eating his cavy cuisine. however, i gave him a couple of pieces of the bunnys food last night to see if he would take anything like that and he did! he has also dove onto a pile of curly kale today and we also made up a dish of critical care and rather then syringe feed put it in his cage and he went for that too! so i am waiting on a sample pack of Burgess Excel and keeping my fingers crossed that its just a case of going off his dry food. if things get worse i will obviously be bringing him for a check up to make sure all is ok, but still no other signs of anything being wrong with his health.

As soon as i know he is fit and healthy though il be searching for a friend for him, he definately needs one, Louis was always the more outgoing of the two of them and Max would sort of follow his lead at veggie time and things so its very sad seeing him all alone now

 

[3babyangels]

Hope Max gets better! Have you tried giving him any fruit? Sometimes it's a nice treat to give them a bit of banana or strawberry.
Really hope he gets his appetite back, it's horrible when they aren't themselves x

 

[Pebble]

I am thinking it is more and more likely he has a problem with his molars on top of the possible loss of apeitite becuase of the baytril and the loss of his cage mate.It sounds like the pellets/dried food is just too painful for him to eat....hence why hs is eating the critical care. You could try softening the dired pelletes with warm water and see if he will eat those? Can you get him to a rodentologist or even CCT for a dental inspection without GA?

 

[doglovinpiggylover]

awww hope the little fella better soon.

I too wish ALL furies (but not the eight legged kind) lived forever xxxxxx

 

[Ryo_the_Rat]

I am thinking it is more and more likely he has a problem with his molars on top of the possible loss of apeitite becuase of the baytril and the loss of his cage mate.It sounds like the pellets/dried food is just too painful for him to eat....hence why hs is eating the critical care. You could try softening the dired pelletes with warm water and see if he will eat those? Can you get him to a rodentologist or even CCT for a dental inspection without GA?

Would this be the case even if he has never stopped eating his hay? i assumed if he was eating hay ok then his teeth must be ok but obviously i dont know if thats 100% accurate! He didnt actually eat very much of the critical care in the end:{ he is still wolfing down the hay and finished nearly all of his curly kale. he has also gained weight-20g since wednesday night! but i have booked him in to see the vet this afternoon anyway as when i got him out for his meds and weigh in this morning his stomach felt a little bloated. I'm seeing the good vet so hopefully she will give him a good check over, teeth an all! if not i shall certainly be seeing a rodentologist with Max if this persists.

Oh and i received some Excel food samples this morning-i only requested them from Burgess yesterday! they sent two small packs of the blackcurrent and oregano, was hoping for the original to be honest but they were free samples so not going to complain! and they also very nicely sent some nature snacks too along with a note saying they were sorry about us losing Louis and that they hoped Max likes the food and to change it over gradually etc i thought that was lovely of them and very impressed. Max had a few bits of the food this morning but again not too much.

Guess we will hopefully know more about what is going on with Max by this afternoon, wish us luck!

Now if our hammocky hammocks order would turn up we would be able to give him a little treat to cheer him up too-I'm sure he is going to love the cavy cave we have ordered!

 

[Ryo_the_Rat]

We are back from the vets. she gave him a good checkover and couldnt find anything physically wrong with him until she looked in his mouth-apparently she could see the start of dental problems on his bottom teeth as they are starting to curve over. she couldnt see his top teeth though. basically she wanted us to book him in asap for dental work. i told her about maybe taking him to a rodentologist instead as they can do dental work without aneasthetic and she seemed to frown upon that:{ she said that they can try doing it without aneasthetic if we are really against it but that its easier and better to do with aneasthetic.

I have booked him in provisionally for monday but i told her i wanted to find out more about how a rodentologist does their job before giving a definate answer. she said that was fine and that she wouldnt be offended if we decided to go that way-though she seemed offended to me lol at the end of the day as much as i like my vet its the animal thats important and its doing whats best for them that counts, not upsetting your vet! lol so i wondered if anyone can explain to me how a rodentologist does dental work? I have the number for one as i was going to bring Louis to see them So i may try ringing him tonight, but i need to figure out if i can actually get to him as we dont have a car! so yes if anyone who has been to a rodentologist for piggie dental work can explain how they do it id appreciate it!

 

[Ryo_the_Rat]

Hi all! wanted to give an update on Max. We brought him to see a brilliant rodentologist(Paul-highly recommend, he and his wife are lovely and really know their stuff! and they spoiled Max rotten ) and I'm so glad i did because he found that Max's bottom teeth only had very slight problems and that it seems to have only very recently started to be a problem most likely due to him not eating rather then the other way around ie him not eating because of his teeth. Paul couldnt find anything else wrong with little Max thankfully and as my vet couldnt either it looks like the sooner we find Max a friend the better as he will still only eat his hay despite having the problem tooth clipped:{ Looks like my poor little boy is missing Louis an awful lot. I am going to begin contacting rescues asap so shall keep you all updated on how we get on!