Alicia
Adult Guinea Pig
Roy is 7 years old and I've had him since he was a baby, in the past couple of days he's bee and eating and drinking a lot less. He still eats some hay, grass and a few pellets (although a lot less then he normally eats) and he'll only eat a very small amount of vegetables. I've checked his teeth and compared them to images on the internet and they seem to look ok (I know I'm not a vet so I don't know for sure but I don't think it's his teeth) and I thought that perhaps it was just a sign of him getting older and not eating as much because of that. Today I went to see him and he smelt quite bad, kind of like guinea-pig poo. I picked him up and there was one stuck, and he was a bit unclean around his back end, so I got that one out and cleaned his back end up a bit and there haven't been any stuck since. He's got vetbed as his bedding so I sweep it off daily and can see how many poops he does and he has done more since then. I had a 4 year old guinea-pig in January, Billy, who had a similar problem with poops getting stuck, but I'm certain that was because of a sudden change in diet, which Roy hasn't had. Roy hasn't had any change in diet at all, the thing that worried me is he is now living in the same hutch Billy lived in (Billy died in January - which is why I am pretty sure this is not just a sign of Roy getting older and I want to find out what's wrong with him and try and make him better) after Billy died, his hutch was washed and sprayed with a hutch disenfectant so it couldn't be a disease that could be in the hutch could it? If it was washed? This afternoon I sat with him and tried to feed him some dandelions, but he mushed them up in his mouth and then spat it out, but I've been filling his hay racks up with grass and hay and he's been eating all of that. I am going to try and take him to the vets next week, but I'd really appreciate any information anyone could give me until then.
Sorry for a long post
Sorry for a long post
Last night I soaked some of his pellets in water and mushed them up a bit and he's eaten most of them this morning, and he's eaten all his hay and grass. I've been cleaning his back end twice a day because I'm worried about flystrike and he does seem a bit better then he was before. He hasn't had any vegetables yet I might try and offer him some later.