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piggy lost weight

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choloe

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another friend has problems with her piggy and is hoping someone can help her;

He has lost half his body weight, the vet said he couldnt feel any lumps and trimmed his long teeth. He is 2 years old. Vet thinks it was just his teeth stopping him from eating but i think it is more. I took him to the vets on Monday.
(was my piggys 2nd bday on the 28th of feb)
thanking you all in advance
 
There is not much we can advise I am afraid as it probably is his teeth. I assume he has been off his food? It sounds like the vet trimmed his incisors when the problem may more likely be his molars and he will need these looked at by a competant piggy vet and have them trimmed, probably a few times and without GA. Can she not try to find a better vet ot failing that can her vet email Anne in Epsom to get advice on how to trim toothies? :-\

The other possibility is, if he is actually eating, is worms. Pancur from the vet will solve this quite quickly. They eat and eat but lose weight.
 
update on the piggy losing weight;
My piggy has a brother that was born at the same time, they are best friends. They usually weigh the same, the brother is 1.345kg and sick piggy is 630g. They were born 28th Feb 2006.

His weight has been like this :

650g - Sat 1/3/08
635g - Sun 2/3/08
685g - Mon 3/3/08
660g - Tues 4/3/08
685g - Wed 5/3/08
630g - Thurs 6/3/08


I took him to the vet on Monday and got his teeth done. I wonder how quickly they are meant to put weight back on ? He seems to be staying the same weight, he does eat but not as much as his brother i think.

I have been putting lots of veggies in the juicer and syringe feeding him a bit each day to keep his vitamins up and he also likes to eat the pulp from the juicer and he likes bread. He has guinea pig mix and lots of food to choose from.

The vet did say something about the other teeth, i think if it is the other teeth that are the problem he will need to be put under anethetic to have an operation to remove them. The vet couldn't really tell me what the problem was.

We only have two vet surgeries here and i went to the better one of the two.

How long do you think i should wait to see if he puts on weight ?


Thanks for the help =)

I had him seperated in another cage for a few days but his brother looked too depressed so i put him back in their cage.


I have 4 piggies.. the other two girls i got in December 2005 and one of them we didnt know was pregnant from the pet shop.. so in Feb 2006 out popped the two babies !

i have emailed her and told her bread wasn't good for them, and aussie mix has molasses in it which also not good for them. advised her to ring or make an appointment with her vet and just discuss her concerns and worries and see if they can make out a plan of attack to help piggy. if not happy with vet perhaps contact animal shelter or rspca for vet care. also told her about probiotics if her piggy has surgery for his teeth. now i guess it is up to her. if i hear from her will keep you posted. thank you for your help and replies. :smitten: :smitten: :smitten:
 
I think they can be alot like humans sometimes.

I mean we tend to weight more at night, or when we haven't excreated and when we've eaten and not eaten.

I'd say so long as he's eating the right amount of veggies he will be ok, but keep and eye on his weight, if he goes below say 600g go to the vets. Better safe than sorry.

OR even better, go to the vets so they can give him a check up, and tell them what the problem is.

Also if he's not eating much either syringe feed him or put him in a safe card board box (top open of course and big enough so he can't jump out) and give him his veggies separate at feeding time.
 
the owner of the piggy will keep a close eye on him over this long weekend and if he hasn't put on weight or has lost weight or isn't eating etc. she will take him back to the vet and get him checked over. will keep you posted. :smitten: :smitten: :smitten:
 
One of mine lost weight recently and died of a respiratory infection. She gradually stopped eating. She'd had her teeth done back and front and still didn;t improve. Her chest problem didn't show up when i took her to one vet but another spotted it immmediately. unfortunately she didn't respond to the antibiotics. i think she'd probably had the problem grumbling on for several months.
 
okay update on piggy;


I was thinking about worming my piggy but it says not to do it on sick guinea pigs. Hmm hard to know what to do next, i don't know if the surgery on his back teeth would help because he does seem to eat ok already.

It's hard with small animals, you are left with the pressure to work things out for yourself because the vets don't really know that much about them.

I will be going back to the vet on Monday i think.. that will be two weeks to the day from the last visit and should give the vet some indication of his progress. I have weighed him everyday except for Sunday so i will take that in to show vet and see what he says.

I was thinking about calling another vet that is further away to see if they would say something different.
My piggy has lost weight since last Monday, 20grams.. the weight goes up and down.. Up to 660g .. down to 625-630g. Piggy appears to be eating and lively so i don't know why he's losing weight. I have to think carefully about what to do next, i wish the vet would give me some kind of medicine to try incase its not his teeth.

she is in NSW and can't get C&C either. her piggy is eating not dribbling, yet is losing weight. any suggestions. thanks for reading this. :smitten: :smitten: :smitten: has been checked by vet and has ruled out URI.
 
Love tell her to call my vet here in Victoria 03 9879 0900 hours 8.30-6pm and later on thursdays and fridays...
It really sounds like back toofies, they'll still eat but it is harder for them to do so and they will only eat just enough to keep them going :-\ Loosing that much weight means there's def something wrong.......... Brendan is well known here in Victoria and also now in Australia, he's now doing small animal talks etc.. at the Melbourne University for other vets O0 LOL he's had enough practice doing Duke's back molars so i'm sure he can advise the other girls vet on how to do it O0 O0
Good luck and send the piggie lots of healing wheeks from us :smitten: :smitten: :smitten: :smitten:
 
it sounds like the back teeth, i aggree O0 maybe they should see Glynis's vet? :-\ Or yours Mary?
It's probably hurting him when he eats, at least he's getting some. Tell her to mush up some pellets with warm water and syringe him that aswell, just veg. puree doesn't have enough fibre in O0
 
Sounds like overgrown molars are a spur.My vet Anne would be willing to email the vet with details of how to do dentals without aneasthetic.,but Glyinis`S vet might be able to do that anyway.
 
Should vets be able to trim the very back teeth without anesthetic?
 
here is a copy of the reply i got from the piggies owner, then people wonder why i get so :tickedoff: :tickedoff: :tickedoff: with aussie vets!

Thank you for that,

When my bunny was sick i looked all over Australia for help, i found a rabbit clinic in Melbourne but the lady told me she would get in trouble for giving me advice as she was not a registered vet in my state (NSW). I don't know if it is the same in SA... but when i have called people in different states they all have told me that i need to find someone in my own state, that is why i am a bit unsure about calling people from other areas.

I had a piggy a few years back who became ill, my vet didn't have a clue and gave us all this medicine. When we gave the piggy this needle which was prescribed... he started shaking and then died, it was so horrible and i couldn't believe he died like that. That is why i am very scared about treatments. I want my vet on my side and i have noticed if i try to suggest things or want them to talk to another vet - they get offended.

My vet wanted to put my bunny down the first day i took her in. She was not bothered, told me to put her down in a week. My vet was shocked when i chose to spend money and when my bunny lived an extra 6-8 months.

I have also taken a pet mouse to the vet and been laughed at. My mouse had cancer, they didn't care much. Because they are so cheap to buy.. no one understands why you want to try and save them when they are sick. I am in a country area and suffer because of it.

My brother had a puppy who was run over, if we were in the city a specialist could have saved the puppy, instead we had to deal with a local vet.. they kept puppy in their surgery overnight and he died in there by himself. Sometimes i feel like you and i want to give up, it seems all to hard.. but then i look at my pets face and know there is only one thing i can do.

I have a lot of pets, i have a kitty who i had for 11 years and he was beaten which lead to his death around Xmas. I'm sick of things dying and it becomes so draining when you love something so much and you lose it.

A while ago my birds had a baby, it was rainy weather here and the baby was on the ground in the aviary in a puddle of water. I followed everyones advice and took him off the ground and put him in a box to leave the parents look after him, in my heart i wanted to bring him inside but i thought everyone else knew better than me.

I kept checking him all night and finally i went to bed at 5am, when i got up later that day the parents had killed him. I feel so much regret for that. I listened to people on oztion. This is why i tell you to follow your heart, you are the one who cares the most for your pet and you are the one who knows when the timing is right. Vets arent always right, sometimes they want to put a pet down because dealing with it just shows their failures and they get sick of the questions. Trust yourself only. i am so :tickedoff: :tickedoff: :tickedoff: really hoping glynis's vet can help. :smitten: :smitten: :smitten:
 
hi,

Pat, my oldest has something very similar. She has lost loads of weight (currently sitting at 0.55kg) and we took her to vet on Monday. The vet said the weight loss is because her teeth are overgrown and sharp and she also had fur at the back of her throat. They operated on her on Tuesday and she pulled through. We are taking her out of the cage to feed her to make sure she is eating but I still feel its not that much.

:-\
 
welcome to the forums from us in oz :smitten: :smitten: :smitten: hoping your pat gets better and starts eating real soon. :smitten: :smitten: :smitten: most people in the UK use critical care syringe fed and rehydration therapy. or you could boil some water and soak some pellets in it and make like a soup and then get some baby food puree like carrot or apple and mix together and feed her some of that. :smitten: :smitten: :smitten: poor little pat has been through a lot, takes time for her body to get over the shock. just keep an eye on her and if concerned take her back to the vet. hugs and cuddles to you and your furbabies :smitten: :smitten: :smitten: the girls send :-* :-* :-*
 
Thanks guys!

I will try and syringe feed her. She was out today and spent a good half hour running around the lviing room which is good!

x
 
I dont mean to sound alarmist here but this sounds all too familiar to me.
My previously healthy boar, Charcoal, began to lose weight over some months.
I went to my vet and they said he is ok, no problems and he will be ok.
He carried on losing weight and so I went back to the same practice but saw another vet.
Again they said there is nothing wrong, he'll be ok.
After seeing his weight drop by around 100g I took him to a completely different vet practice.
They too said that nothing was wrong and that he will be ok.
After another month or so he was still losing weight but also looking depressed, so I took him back to the original vet practice but saw the head vet.
He looked at his back teeth and said that they were ever so slightly long and sharp and kept him in to 'make him woozy' (not asleep but unaware) and rasped his teeth.
We took him home and fed him critical care, which he lapped up and he began eating again and even seemed to perk up a little bit.
We went in to check him on Thursday morning and he was wobbly on his feet and looked really tired.
I made an appointment with the vet that evening.
I spent the last hour before the appointment with him cuddled into a warm blanket (he was cold feeling) and I could see that he was nearing the end of his life....so we kept cuddling.
He was still alive when the appointment came around and the vet weighed him (as he wobbled away on the scales) and he had lost 100g in the matter of a few days, despite us seeing him eat and also syringe feeding him.
She said that she didnt know what else to do, she would take blood etc but as he had no fat on him (didnt even have any muscle mass) that she wasnt comfy doing this.
I told her that I know what needs to happen, he is going to be dead within hours anyway, will she please help him to pass with dignity.
We cuddled him whilst she got the things ready and then he was put under anaestetic and then injected and put to sleep (he was gone within seconds).
So I lost my first ever guinea pig and the light of my life.
The point is that I felt for months that they should do bloods or x-rays or something, but I trusted their opinion and didnt push it...all the time knowing in my heart that they should do more, but who was I to push the point with a professional (or four!).
PLEASE...tell your friend to tell the vets to take some bloods and do further tests on him, losing half of their body weight isnt normal and shouldnt be just explained away as 'it could be its teeth'.
Yes ok, it could be, but PLEASE force them to investigate more deeply.
At the end of the day I dont feel that anything would have helped Charcoal, I think that something was just not working inside of him and it was his time to go, but I will always wish that Id pushed more for further investigation and I dont ever want anybody to feel the way I do.
Yes I'm happy that any suffering that he felt has ended and I dont regret the decision to send him on his way, but I DO regret not standing up to the vets, shouting that I knew MY boy and MY feelings on the subject counted too and that I wasnt just being an over fussy owner, which I think thats what they saw me as.
Please ask your friend to kick and scream if she needs to, but dont be satisfied with 'maybe's, 'could be's and 'perhaps's...the vets cant always be right first time and sometimes they NEED to be pushed.
I hope that your friends piggy is fine and gets well soon.
Keep us informed.
xx Steph xx
 
thank you for your post i have copied it and pasted it into an email and sent it to her. as she is in new south wales and i am in south australia about 1500kms away. so hoping she can get something sorted with her vets, the pain of living in a small country town. thanks again and may charcoal find eternal peace! 0:) 0:) 0:) hugs and cuddles for you from me and the girls from oz. :smitten: :smitten: :smitten: :-* :-* :-*
 
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