Molly has lost 160g since summer

[gingerpig]

Molly who will be 3 in a few months, weighed 1100g last summer (June).

She now weighs 940g.

A drop of 160g.

All my pigs weight a tad less than in the summer (I guess this is normal, can someone please confirm that?) but Molly has lost more than all the others.

Should I be concerned? She seems very healthy and alert as always.

Any help/advice/comments very much appreciated, thank you

 

[gus and jack]

I would start weighing her weekly and see if she's losing any more weight gradually. If she continues to lose it I'd take her to a vet to see if they can find anything.

 

[maryh]

There should not be any appreciable difference in the summer/winter weight.
I would weigh her every day for a week to see if she is steadily losing.

 

[gingerpig]

Thanks for your replies.

I'm worried about her now.

You're right, I'll weigh her daily and keep a close eye on things. Hope she's OK, I couldn't bear to lose Molly, she's such a sweetheart. :smitten:

 

[MemberX]

Hope Molly is ok. It can't hurt to go the vets if you are worried. Keep us posted.

Louise
x

 

[cavy love]

yeah, weigh daily and see if it is a steady drop. i would see a vet if she is continuously losing O0

 

[gingerpig]

Thank you. It means so much knowing you people care

 

[karenrgpr]

Has she been wormed? There's a herbal wormer you can use now. http://www.planetguinea.co.uk/Worming.pdf

 

[gingerpig]

No she hasn't, I never thought of that, thank you

Five of them live together, will they all need doing?

 

[starla]

I was just going to make a topic about worming...thanks for the link karen and would everyone definately recommend worming every 3 months?

 

[karenrgpr]

I would only do it regularly with a herbal wormer and keep the heavyweights back for problems. Its personal choice

It won't hurt to do all of them.

 

[gingerpig]

Just to update, btw, I took Molly to the vet yesterday after she lost another 20g over a 3 day period. The vet couldn't find anything untoward after an examination, and another vet gave a 2nd opinion, they also checked her teeth, they were fine. Her eyes are bright and she's eating.

The only concern was that she said Molly's kidneys feel a bit small and so I'm to notice if she's drinking a lot, but I haven't noticed this, will keep monitoring her though of course.

I mentioned worming and the vet didn't think it was that. I wonder if I should worm her anyway to make sure, in which case do herbal wormers work as efficiently? I only say that because I tried herbal travel sickness pills and they didn't help at all :-\

Thank you for all your help and kind words

 

[dazie]

awww bless her, hopefully karen or maryh will be on with some advice as I have no idea about piggies kidneys tbh but I do hope she will be ok O0

 

[maryh]

I have not tried the herbal wormers,but Karen has mentioned them so I am sure they are good.


Is Molly eating more than normal?,often with renal problems they tend to drink and eat more than usual and still lose weight.Has she been tested for diabitis?.

Chronic renal failure is fairly common among piggies,( it used to be called wasting disease) the piggy drinks a lot,will eat a lot and gradually loose weight.They can go on like this for up to 5 months.The problem is not painful .and in the end they go into acute renal failure and die very quickly. There is sadly no treatment for this,but diabitis is treatable.

 

[karenrgpr]

Herbal wormers have helped some pigs when chemical ones didn't and vice versa. They don't cover the mange mite. I would worm with the herbal wormer and if there is no change after a month (if things can be left that long of course!) then perhaps try Ivermectin and Valbazen.

Like everything, nothing is black and white, some pigs respond whereas others don't but will respond to something else- others won't respond to anything. Don't mean to be harsh, but thats how it is. I would try worming as a process of elimination.

 

[gingerpig]

Thank you everyone

I will keep you posted