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New Cage Mates Causing Weight Loss?

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Florrieberry

Teenage Guinea Pig
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Hello, I am taking one of our (10 month old) piggies for a check today as she has lost 110g in 7 weeks. She has occasionally gone down 30g or so and then made it up so at first was not worried. She is eating, drinking, pooing normally. Maybe slightly quieter, but over the last 3-4 weeks we have added 3 rescue piggies to the herd. They have a 3 floor cage , and all piggies use all floors, with food , water, hay etc on every floor so plenty of space and access to food. However I think she may be at the bottom of the pecking order and when 2 of the piggies appear she will move elsewhere. So I am wondering, as she is a shy piggy, if this unrest could have caused her to lose weight, disturbing her grazing from time to time. I am wondering whether to block off a floor for her and her original sow friend, to see of this helps. She has always loved ramps though (they all do) so maybe I will block of a section below so she can also run up and down? Thanks
 
Yes thanks, will do, we already have an appt for this morning.
Florrie had a good check over at the vets. He thinks it's the recent changing dynamics from 3 pigs to 6 over the last 6 weeks as he said she presented as a healthy pig with nothing to see. She has been doing even more moving up & down the ramps between floors,. He asked me to monitor her weight and ring the surgery to keep him updated, If her weight doesn't stabilise he will do tests (x-ray, stool sample etc). I will give her a bit of preferential feeding away from the others s she is eating and drinking fine, but a bit extra will help.. She loves the burgess dandelion Timothy hay and may bought some readigrass yesterday as a bit of a treat.
 
Florrie had a good check over at the vets. He thinks it's the recent changing dynamics from 3 pigs to 6 over the last 6 weeks as he said she presented as a healthy pig with nothing to see. She has been doing even more moving up & down the ramps between floors,. He asked me to monitor her weight and ring the surgery to keep him updated, If her weight doesn't stabilise he will do tests (x-ray, stool sample etc). I will give her a bit of preferential feeding away from the others s she is eating and drinking fine, but a bit extra will help.. She loves the burgess dandelion Timothy hay and may bought some readigrass yesterday as a bit of a treat.

Make sure that you feed the whole group in several smaller portions (this also goes for pellets). Have one bowl per pig, plus one extra, so all piggies have a chance to eat and there is no chance to hog access. this goes a good way towards minimising bullying.
However, I had one case where it was necessary to remove a bullied piggy from the group due to her weight loss.
IMG_2414_edited-1.JPG
 
Make sure that you feed the whole group in several smaller portions (this also goes for pellets). Have one bowl per pig, plus one extra, so all piggies have a chance to eat and there is no chance to hog access. this goes a good way towards minimising bullying. However, I had one case where it was necessary to remove a bullied piggy from the group due to her weight loss.
View attachment 28513
Oh love the photie! How many are there? Do they all live together or just playtime together? Boys/girls? amazing!
My six have a set of everything on each of the three floors , nobody seems to be hogging and in fact this morning when I tried to isolate Florrie & Berry (her original cage mate from babyhood) to share one bowl with no intruders, Florrie got half way through them sneaked through to go test out all the other bowls (should have called her Goldilocks). They all constantly interchange between the 3 floors. However now Florrie and another are in season so she is expending more calories chasing everyone, so more preferential feeding tomorrow! Just keeping fingers crossed ☺
 
Oh love the photie! How many are there? Do they all live together or just playtime together? Boys/girls? amazing!
My six have a set of everything on each of the three floors , nobody seems to be hogging and in fact this morning when I tried to isolate Florrie & Berry (her original cage mate from babyhood) to share one bowl with no intruders, Florrie got half way through them sneaked through to go test out all the other bowls (should have called her Goldilocks). They all constantly interchange between the 3 floors. However now Florrie and another are in season so she is expending more calories chasing everyone, so more preferential feeding tomorrow! Just keeping fingers crossed ☺

At some point, there were about 11-14 piggies living in my Tribe as one group, all sows, first led by neutered "husboar" Llewelyn and then after his passing by Hywel. I had to split the Tribe into two groups at the beginning of last year.
 
Updates to weight loss : for info (have transferred this topic to health forum )...... Weight loss followed by small balding area on back (vet gave ivermectin) then I discovered enlarged crusty teats so returned (same day as injection) pushed for a scan, very enlarged cystic ovary followed by transfer to another vet, who said he wouldn't have needed a scan he could feel the ovary through her side (assumed to be faecal loading by first vet) and a small enlargement on left. See my post in health of you want more info. Moral of the story... Def get a very specialised vet.
 
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