Oh fluffy

Emx93

Adult Guinea Pig
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Oh fluffy, the reason I joined this lovely forum and the main source of any piggy related posts especially in this section, my little miss tricky! I honestly don't know whether this is a behaviour or illness issue or just fluffy being fluffy and nothing to worry about! she is on long term metacam which is why I'm not ruling out illness but she's had a recent vet check with a full work up including x rays etc and the advice was to continue metacam and 'feed her up'. I'm having some problems stabilising her weight, we seem to be on a downward trend and she's now even smaller than she was before she was spayed for suspected hormone issues (as a late teenager!) She isn't worryingly small or loosing worryingly fast but she's lost her little belly and I feel bony ribs and a definite heft change :(
I am querying behaviour here because she has a long list of unsuccessful dates, fall outs and fear aggression and was bereaved in April. Her new friends have hit the teenage months and are squabbling with each other (as teenage sisters do nothing serious where fights would threaten or anything just the normal teenagers pushing their boundaries and disagreeing on who's second in command). The little ones aren't squabbling with fluffy just each other, fluffy seems to be staying well out of any squabbles. She is eating and this is a gradual loss that started when her previous friend hit the end of life stage in April. It has got worse this week so I thought it was heat at first but we're following the heat management guide and she's ignoring the frozen bottles (and has a rather bad hair cut to boot 🙈) so I'm unsure. I'm hoping it's just a blip and she will start on the up soon. Anyway she's down to 935g 😳 I'm giving porridge oats and sweet potato, hand feeding her when she's out so I know she's getting her share of pellets, veg is scatter fed, there's multiple hideys, water bottles and hay locations and I am honestly out of ideas. Cage is 24sqft. The vets are sick of us they can't find anything wrong other than her adhesions causing pain, her hernia is as intact as it is ever going to be, I can't see any obvious signs of illness or lumps and bumps and she had x rays very recently. 🤔🤔 She was showing pain signs hence the metacam and x rays, the pain looks to be coming frrom the adhesions but its not something expected to get worse over time. She's only 2.
Is it that she suddenly doesn't like her new friends or is spooked by the teenage months, and if so what should I do about that? She interacts with them when they aren't in squabble mode and stays away when they are 😳 She must be the only pig that hates metacam because she starts teeth chattering the second she sees me drawing it up 🤦‍♀️
Total weight loss between April and now 213g but she has had periods of gains too in that time. if she is still going down (she's been on daily weighs this week after an over 60g loss at the last weekly weigh and is loosing gradually daily but nothing outside of what could be considered a fulll/empty bladder.) I will speak to the vets on Monday when I'm there with my cat 🙀 it could just be fluffy being fluffy, she has had a rather rough few months with the bereavement, failed dating and then bonding with the babies but they have been bonded around 2 months now.
 
No she’s not the only pig that hates metacam, Jess does too! :doh:
It might be worth taking her with you to vets to just have a checkover, with all this heat recently and the weight loss if you can?
I wouldn’t have thought the babies having squabbles would impact on her weight as much, maybe if they were squabbling with her? I know she’s up and down a lot and she’s had her issues but it seemed like she was improving with the metacam so I’d probably just want them to give her a good looking over to make sure something isn’t going on that’s more recent.
Sorry, I know you’re sick to death of vets!
 
No she’s not the only pig that hates metacam, Jess does too! :doh:
It might be worth taking her with you to vets to just have a checkover, with all this heat recently and the weight loss if you can?
I wouldn’t have thought the babies having squabbles would impact on her weight as much, maybe if they were squabbling with her? I know she’s up and down a lot and she’s had her issues but it seemed like she was improving with the metacam so I’d probably just want them to give her a good looking over to make sure something isn’t going on that’s more recent.
Sorry, I know you’re sick to death of vets!
Thankyou 💞 these fussy piggies eh? Yes I will ask about another check thankyou, I did catch flower rumbling fluffys face at 3am and think uh oh 🙈🙈
 
Oh Fluffy.
I’d have a vet check her over, health and medical issues always need to be checked first
If she is a sensitive piggy then having the youngsters being hormonal could be stressing her even if they aren’t directly doing at her.
 
Thankyou I will speak with the vets about a check, they stilll aren't back to normal so anything outside the emergency category has a long wait 🤦‍♀️😳 yes the teenagers are being rather annoying, she is a very sensitive piggy bless her 😱 just not nice seeing the weight go down so much, I know it's over a long period of time but 213g seems like a lot 🤦‍♀️
 
Thankyou I will speak with the vets about a check, they stilll aren't back to normal so anything outside the emergency category has a long wait 🤦‍♀️😳 yes the teenagers are being rather annoying, she is a very sensitive piggy bless her 😱 just not nice seeing the weight go down so much, I know it's over a long period of time but 213g seems like a lot 🤦‍♀️
Yeah it is a lot to lose since April, know she’s had a lot to deal with though bless her. Hopefully the vets will class it as fairly urgent to see her, with the weight loss and her previous health issues. Hopefully it’s nothing to worry about xx
 
Possibly a stupid question but I plan on elective spaying anyway when the vet can (good vet, keyhole spay) if this next vet check for fluff comes back OK are the teens old enough for a spay? And would spaying stop any hormonal fueled squabbles? I'm thinking since we're going to preventive spay anyway the sooner the better if it calms the trio?
 
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