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Rodger Has Gone Down Hill Again!

E

Evie whitehouse

Junior Guinea Pig
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Oct 2, 2017
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we thought we were on the up with him, his foot and eye have started healing amazingly! But this week he's not been eating and has lost 100g in just 4 days, he's skin and bone. Been vets twice and theyv noticed his front tooth was chipped, but said try him on stronger pain killers over the weekend and bring him in Monday for his teeth. Honestly don't think he is going to make it through the night Keeps falling on his side when he try's to walk he's that weak. Vet suggested giving him baby food to try get some food down him which I have been doing. But the more I look at him the thinner he looks! He wants to eat and keeps going to try and eat but it keeps falling straight back out his mouth! Vets are shut tomorrow so worried sick about what I'm going to do with him tomorrow if he makes it through the night. Does anyone no of ANYTHING, that I can syringe him to help give him energy and get some weight and health back into him till Monday? Feel so sorry for him! You can see every bone on him it's horrid. Only last week he looked amazing and chunky. Think the fact that he's 10 means weight comes off him in seconds if he stops eating, as normally he has 6 bowls of veg a day and 3 bowls of nuggets just to keep him at a slightly underaverage weight. So if anyone knows of anything I can give him please help!
 
Have you tried mushing up some pellets in warm water and syringing that gently into his mouth? I think you would need to cut the thin tip off a normal oral medicine syringe to do that - have a look for the Syringe Feeding guide sticky thread for further advice. The other thing to try is one of the special powdered recovery foods such as Oxbow Critical Care, but you probably need to get that from a vet. If your vet doesn't open on a Sunday or outside normal working hours at all, try ringing their number and it should have an answerphone message giving you the number of local vets who provide out-of-hours cover.
Best of luck! :hug:
 
maybe get him to an emergency vet if he is very unwell.mushed up pellet slurry is good to syringe feed as much as you can.give water via a syringe,slowly.hope your piggy feels better soon.:hug:
 
Qualcast&Flymo said:
Have you tried mushing up some pellets in warm water and syringing that gently into his mouth? I think you would need to cut the thin tip off a normal oral medicine syringe to do that - have a look for the Syringe Feeding guide sticky thread for further advice. The other thing to try is one of the special powdered recovery foods such as Oxbow Critical Care, but you probably need to get that from a vet. If your vet doesn't open on a Sunday or outside normal working hours at all, try ringing their number and it should have an answerphone message giving you the number of local vets who provide out-of-hours cover.
Best of luck! :hug:
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I have mushed his pelletes up and left them in a bowl in his cage for tonight which he's trying to eat. Think tomorrow I am going to take him to the vets4pets as they are open on a Sunday to get some of that recovery food. Just hopeee he makes it through the night but I really don't think he will. I've been feeding him on and off all day from a syringe and I haven't seen improvement in him. Just think his body is slowly shutting down
 
Also how often should I be feeding him through a syringe? Every hour or every half hour? Iv been giving him about 5 syringes of baby food slowly each time I feed and it's been around half an hour between feeds. But he's tired now and keeps falling asleep so iv left him be as I don't want to stress him any more
 
Best of luck for tomorrow. Some Fibreplex from the vet might be a good idea too, particularly if he hasn't been pooing either. I didn't twig when I read your post first time, that you said he is 10 - that's a pretty amazing age for a pig, so you must have looked after him really well thus far. But I guess it could mean that it is just his age, and as you say his body is slowly shutting down. Sending lots of healing vibes!

Editted to add - i'm not sure about how often to feed - check the syringe feeding guide. Poss every 2 hours. Syringing the pellet mush might be better than baby food, I imagine it's got a better mix of fibre and vitamins for pigs than baby food, and there might be salt and other not so good things in baby food too.
 
He's alive and seems a lot more perky this morning! The baby food Iv been giving him is all organic banana and strawberry and also apple and banana. and then carrot and parsnip. Checked that there is no salts or anything bad in them. Vet said give him these to get his sugar levels up to encourage him to eat. He's defiantly seeming more alert today
 
I wonder if emeraid may be a better thing to syringe feed him? Higher in calories (but less fibre so not long term). I hope he s better soon xx
 
You can order it from here:
Emeraid Herbivore

Or Oxbow Critical care:
Critical Care | The Medicine Chest | The Hay Experts

Emeraid is more nutritious, the pigs like it better and you can give less of it to keep him going, but IMPO is unsuitable for long-term use. Critical care is more of a long-term solution as a top-up feed. I keep a bag of each in my piggy emergency kit.
 
Glad he seems perkier this morning! Other than online, Emeraid appears to be only available from vets, hopefully Vets4Pets would have it but I don't know as I've never used them. I think I read on another thread that it is higher calorie than the other recovery foods, so good short term for giving more energy etc. Let us know how he gets on
 
I chose to wait till tomorrow to take him as he's been more than happy to syringe feed today and seems much more lively. Going to ask for that stuff at my vets tomorrow. He keeps trying to eat but can't chew. He's got a chipped tooth but iv read they can eat fine with a chip in it?
 
I would agree those teeth look a little long to me too - Not a vet - Our vet reccomended baby food mixed with some mushed pellets for syringe feeding - Plenty of water.
 
Yeh they are long, he's having them done tomorrow at our vets. But they are a bit hesitant to do it and have been for a while due to his age. He has no back teeth now as after a certain age they stop growing and eventually wear down to nothing. And his fronts are long and need doing but it's a risk as it's stressful for him. Now he's not eating though we have no choice. But do you think it's the length and not the chip that's causing him not to eat?
 
Was there actually an accident when the tooth was chipped?

I'm asking, because to me this doesn't look like a chipped tooth, but more like malocclusion issue. The teeth appear to be worn off asymmetrically, i.e. the top right and bottom left teeth are longer, while the top left and bottom right are shorter, respectively, which makes me think he's been chewing on one side only and there's an issue with the molars, which could have resulted in the uneven wearing of the incisors.

Or that could be just the angle of the picture, of course - photos can be deceptive, and I'm not a specialist! But in either case, the chip appears to be very small, so I don't think he should be having any issues with it...
 
Oh no! I feel so sorry for you I could not imagine what you are going through right now !Just like other people said mushed up pellets/nuggets that are high quality and syringe fed .Another tip is give him water ALOT it will do good for him and keep him hydrated.lots of snuggles if he is tired and run down ;it will make him feel safe .I hope your little guy pulls through!
 
RosieMaia said:
Was there actually an accident when the tooth was chipped?

I'm asking, because to me this doesn't look like a chipped tooth, but more like malocclusion issue. The teeth appear to be worn off asymmetrically, i.e. the top right and bottom left teeth are longer, while the top left and bottom right are shorter, respectively, which makes me think he's been chewing on one side only and there's an issue with the molars, which could have resulted in the uneven wearing of the incisors.

Or that could be just the angle of the picture, of course - photos can be deceptive, and I'm not a specialist! But in either case, the chip appears to be very small, so I don't think he should be having any issues with it...
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I was about yo say have his back teeth checked as that looks more like mail occlusion than it being chipped. I'm no expert but from the photo that's what it looks like. It shouldn't be too difficult for them to do the front teeth, they do jets on a regular basis.
 
Evie whitehouse said:
Yeh they are long, he's having them done tomorrow at our vets. But they are a bit hesitant to do it and have been for a while due to his age. He has no back teeth now as after a certain age they stop growing and eventually wear down to nothing. And his fronts are long and need doing but it's a risk as it's stressful for him. Now he's not eating though we have no choice. But do you think it's the length and not the chip that's causing him not to eat?
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What do you mean, he’s got no back teeth? Of course they don’t stop growing after a certain age! Who on earth told you that?
 
RosieMaia said:
Was there actually an accident when the tooth was chipped?

I'm asking, because to me this doesn't look like a chipped tooth, but more like malocclusion issue. The teeth appear to be worn off asymmetrically, i.e. the top right and bottom left teeth are longer, while the top left and bottom right are shorter, respectively, which makes me think he's been chewing on one side only and there's an issue with the molars, which could have resulted in the uneven wearing of the incisors.

Or that could be just the angle of the picture, of course - photos can be deceptive, and I'm not a specialist! But in either case, the chip appears to be very small, so I don't think he should be having any issues with it...
Click to expand...
We really arnt sure. He's completely blind and deaf and he walks into things on a regular, he has a massive cage which was great when he was younger but now I think it's just to big for him. So not sure if he's walked into a wall and done it, or as you say could be where he's chewing funny. And the photo is literally how it looks. He has no back teeth and his right eye is bulging which they think is a tumour behind his eye. So that could be the cause of him chewing more on one side maybe?
 
furryfriends (TEAS) said:
What do you mean, he’s got no back teeth? Of course they don’t stop growing after a certain age! Who on earth told you that?
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Our vet. She's a guinea pig specialist. He hasn't had back teeth for a while and our old vet who was just said she doesn't no why. But the new vets given us a reason in why he has no back teeth
 
Evie whitehouse said:
Our vet. She's a guinea pig specialist. He hasn't had back teeth for a while and our old vet who was just said she doesn't no why. But the new vets given us a reason in why he has no back teeth
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I can assure you, that is not correct. I run a sanctuary for guinea pigs with dental issues and the teeth most certainly continue to grow throughout their lifetime. There may be some other reason your piggies teeth are not growing, but it certainly isn't the norm.
 
He's gone in for surgery on his mouth to see what the problem Is. but she's not sure if he will survive as he's so skinny and old, and also she has a feeling it's neurilogical because of the brain tumour he has. So gunna wait and see but it was worth trying for him as he is a fighter
 
Evie whitehouse said:
He's gone in for surgery on his mouth to see what the problem Is. but she's not sure if he will survive as he's so skinny and old, and also she has a feeling it's neurilogical because of the brain tumour he has. So gunna wait and see but it was worth trying for him as he is a fighter
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Lots of healing vibes for Rodger. Hope he makes a good recovery from the surgery and it helps to find out what's wrong.
 
He made it through the operation but died shortly after I tried that was the main thing
 
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