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Separate poorly pig?

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Coconut

Coconut

Teenage Guinea Pig
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Forrest is quite poorly at the moment and is on a course of antibiotics. He's still in the cage with the (three) girls at the moment but I'm not sure whether to separate him from them and put him in a hospital cage or leave him in there. In the cage he pretty much stays in one spot but I can't guarantee what poo/ wee is his. He's barely eating on his own past some veggies which I sit and feed him anyway so I know how much he is eating, but then I don't know how much he is drinking. I would take him out but then I'm not sure if this will only stress him out. No one has taken the opportunity to pick on him and I do sometimes find someone snuggling with him.

So the question is do I leave him in the cage with company or do I remove him so I can better monitor what's going in and out?
 
I always think its best to leave him and try to keep things as normal as possible in this situation, the others with stimulate him. The best wayt o keep an eye on things is to weigh him daily and record what his weights are.

Are you syringe feeding atall?

x
 
Toffeewoffee said:
I always think its best to leave him and try to keep things as normal as possible in this situation, the others with stimulate him. The best wayt o keep an eye on things is to weigh him daily and record what his weights are.

Are you syringe feeding atall?

x
Click to expand...

Ahhhh good- had been hoping to hear that, didn't really want to separate them.

Ooopps sorry forgot to put that in the original post- yep plenty of syringing being done: critical care, meds, baby food- seem to get more on myself than in him though :)).

Thank you :)
 
Weigh him daily because this is important so you can see if he needs any syringe feeding with Critical Care or similar. What is exactly wrong with Forrest to be on a course of antibiotics, has the vet given any supplementary advice on his care.

I hope he improves quickly. Getting food & drink into him is essential to aid his recovery.
 
Antibiotics, especially baytril, can cause loss of appetite. Are you giving some probiotics about 1-2 hours after the antibiotic?

Please weigh him daily and top him up with Critical Care or mushed up pellets if necessary. Cut off the narrow tip of a 1ml syringe for better results. A guinea pig needs to eat about 120ml in 24 hours in either solids or recovery foods. You can also syringe water if you are worried about dehydration.
http://www.guinealynx.info/handfeeding.html

What is wrong with Forrest?
 
I think your instincts to keep him in with the girls are right. yes you're right about not being able to monitor his poops but as others have said weighing will do that for you.

I do hope he gets better - what does he have? What dose baytril is he on?
 
Stewybus said:
Weigh him daily because this is important so you can see if he needs any syringe feeding with Critical Care or similar. What is exactly wrong with Forrest to be on a course of antibiotics, has the vet given any supplementary advice on his care.

I hope he improves quickly. Getting food & drink into him is essential to aid his recovery.
Click to expand...

Thank you :)

Already weighing him- seems to be on a stable weight now with the help of some critical care. We're not sure what is wrong with him at the moment- over the last couple of days he's been kind of off and then yesterday he was very lethargic and hunched over, had a bit of gunk on his eyes and past a little bit of grass/ veggies didn't want to eat. Went to the vet yesterday and externally everything looked fine and his lungs sounded healthy (I had originally thought it might be a URI) so he said it must be something internal so has put him on a three day course of antibiotics and then if no improvement we'd go back in and either investigate or try something else. He's given me some biolapis and told me to continue syringe feeding and obviously keep monitoring him.

I think he's perked up a bit today so fingers crossed this will do the trick.
 
Wiebke said:
Antibiotics, especially baytril, can cause loss of appetite. Are you giving some probiotics about 1-2 hours after the antibiotic?

Please weigh him daily and top him up with Critical Care or mushed up pellets if necessary. Cut off the narrow tip of a 1ml syringe for better results. A guinea pig needs to eat about 120ml in 24 hours in either solids or recovery foods. You can also syringe water if you are worried about dehydration.
http://www.guinealynx.info/handfeeding.html

What is wrong with Forrest?
Click to expand...

The vet gave me some biolapis to feed half a sachet daily and then Emi is kindly providing some poo to make some soup a little bit later. Already syringing him some CC and baby food so his weight is pretty much stable and food is getting into him.

He was/ is very lethargic and was barely eating and moving. No actual diagnosis at the moment but we're hoping this course of antibiotics should do the trick.

Thank you for the help
 
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Lisajazz said:
I think your instincts to keep him in with the girls are right. yes you're right about not being able to monitor his poops but as others have said weighing will do that for you.

I do hope he gets better - what does he have? What dose baytril is he on?
Click to expand...


Thank you :) was worried it was the wrong thing to do but it's good to hear reassurance.

At the moment he is on 0.5ml of baytril twice a day.
 
HUGS

It is very worrying! Please have his heart and his back teeth checked, too. Unless it is an infectious disease or open wounds, it is often better to leave piggies in their usual surroundings and not stress them out unduly.
 
No real improvement today :( he seems to have perked up a bit but then wasn't as interested in the syringe food as he was yesterday- think this may just be a general dislike of syringing now though after having to spend quite some time trying to get the biolapis into him yesterday. Ate a few pellets and tried some hay but really struggled with the hay so defiantly something to talk to the bet about.
 
I'm swaying towards Wiebke's advice - did your Vet check his teeth ?
Sometimes, teeth become overgrown which makes eating uncomfortable or he may have 'gunk' - try some cucumber if he'll eat it as this often helps. I read somewhere that food will stick to cucumber and is recommended prior dentals ? He may need his mouth flushing out of stored foods.
Hope you get to the bottom of things, it is so worrying when there's something underlying - is your Vet piggy savvy or an Exotic ? They tend to do more thorough consultations and define issues quickly I find and therefore commence the correct treatment.
Hugs sent x
 
Sorry about the lack of update- Forrest perked up very quickly over the week following my last few posts and is now back to normal, a happy boy- defiantly a surprise considering how I felt that first day when I walked out and he was laid out on his side. Went back to the vet and he looked at him again and still couldn't see anything wrong with him. I'm fairly sure it was linked to teeth so at the moment I'm monitoring him and if any weight problems/ problems with eating I'm gonna try and push for an X-ray. For now all is good so I am optimistic :) and fingers crossed all will be well.
 
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