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Rusty's Not Well

Poor little Rusty, hopefully he’s hungry after his long day and won’t mind the feed with you. Hope you both have a good night and he perks up in the morning xx
 
Bluebell said:
Are there any actual statistics or research on this? I'm fascinated by it. Is it more common in certain breeds, or more often in one sex or another? Is it an older age thing?
There may still be a diet connection if it is said that outdoor guinea pigs suffer less, certainly mine get bucket loads of anything and everything green, including many things that are not "approved" of, and I would not be happy with them only eating dried forage. Though I have had to change the way I keep mine now, and I'm beginning to worry , the more I read on here, that bringing them in and feeding less green may mean I'm going to start experiencing these issues. I wasn't worried until I started reading the forum , I thought guinea pigs were incredibly healthy long lived animals and now I'm panicking I've just been incredible lucky over the years!
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My vet feels the diet that most feed is very dry, which can mean the bladder doesn't get a good flush through, on a regular basis. I think we've become so fixated on the need for at least 80% of the diet needing to be hay, that we tend to feed very little of anything else. Guinea pigs are generally very good hay eaters, and although I feed a huge amount of veg, plus I pick grass for them a few times a day, they still eat an enormous amount of hay. Each evening I fill the cages, almost to the top with hay, which the piggies love and they start popcorning through it! By morning, most of it is eaten!
 
Betsy said:
Velvet had a bladder stone and she was kept outdoors.
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So was @Lady Kelly piggy Donald I believe.

Thank you @furryfriends (TEAS) we had a reasonable night. We went to bed early straight after meds which gave me 6 straight hours sleep (I needed it after several sleepless nights!). We were back up at 4.30 for a syringe feed, he is eating a bit on his own so I don't have to do the full on up every few hours feeding. He's taking 15mls a time and a small bit of grass as a reward so I'm going to try 3 feeds today unless he stops eating for himself altogether. He hates being handled, I don't have cuddly lap pigs so I'm totally in the dog house at the moment.

I find mine eat more hay with more veg, the veg seems to stimulate their need for roughage.
 
So glad you’ve had some sleep and Rusty is eating a little food
Hope you both have a good day today x
 
Poor Rusty, and poor you with all this stress! Sounds like he's doing well with the eating which is the main thing, best of luck and many healing wheeks for his bladder stone op x
 
Yes I do keep mine outdoors but they don't get the amount of grass that Furryfriends feeds. Mostly cos I'm not around in the day and my hubby likes to fertilise the lawn several times a year. It's on my neverending list of things I need to remember to do more often but with the puppy I am limited as he does tend to wee all over so I'm going to have to rely on the front garden where there isn't much grass or grow them some
 
Thanks @alpacasqueak not such a good night but I have a lot on my mind at the moment. When things go wrong, they really go wrong they all go at once! Rusty ate for himself this morning and his weight had gone the right way from yesterday so I took the opportunity of a visit to my daughter who I should have been staying with this week. Don't know when I'll get the chance to see her again once he's had his op. Hope he doesn't react like Peanut did and need syringe feeding for 6 weeks. I'll check his weight when he has his next meds and decide if he needs topping up again or if I can leave him until after the operation, he may have just stopped eating because of the sedation he had for his xray.
 
He's not looking good, the vets are keeping him a 2nd night. Please send Rusty bucket loads of healing vibes.
 
Sending rusty lots of love and hugs to you mate too x x
 
He's home, very quiet still and not eating much. He is going back for a check up in the morning as his temperature was still high but it was decided he would be better here with me nursing him than in the hospital. He's such a timid boy and hates to be handled, stranger's stuffing syringes in his mouth was very upsetting for him, better the slave you know! Once back in his own cage with Peanut they were talking in what I call their plippy chat over a handful of grass like a couple of old men.
 
piggieminder said:
He's home, very quiet still and not eating much. He is going back for a check up in the morning as his temperature was still high but it was decided he would be better here with me nursing him than in the hospital. He's such a timid boy and hates to be handled, stranger's stuffing syringes in his mouth was very upsetting for him, better the slave you know! Once back in his own cage with Peanut they were talking in what I call their plippy chat over a handful of grass like a couple of old men.
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Poor Rusty, hopefully he will pick up faster at home with Peanut and his familiar slave to fuss over him x
 
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