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severely underweight piggy..what to do?

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Spishkey

Spishkey

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a few months back i rehomed a piggy pair to what i thought was a good family home for them.

ive just opened my door to the daughter of the family, with one piggy in a box and the girl babbling on about piggy is sick, not eating, they dont have money for vet etc so shes brought her back. no sign of 2nd piggy and girl didnt hang round long enough to let me ask about her.


the poor piggy is in a state, never in my life have i seen a pig so thin and still be alive. I'm unsure whether to put pictures on here as it upsets me looking at her.

the poor thing is starving. but i dont want to offer her a whole load of food for fear of upsetting her stomach. i gave her plain pellets, 20g, to see if she 'could' eat them (maybe a tooth problem was the cause) she wolfed them down in maybe a few seconds and is wheeking her heart out for more. she had no problem eating them.

i think she just hasnt been given enough to eat.

should she stay on pellets.....can i give hay? no veg for now perhaps...?
 
I don't know if it's the same for gp's but when one of my rabbits was underweight I was told to feed her porridge oats by the vet to help fatten her up.

Also is it Cavy Performance which is higher in protein?
 
oooh yes, another thing i gate to my Pepper when he was underweight, dry porridge oats, he loved them
 
could it be cocci? this causes piggies to lose an extreme amount of weight. plain rolled oats and corn are very fattening so they could be offered in small amounts, are there any other symptoms?
 
Barley rings will help her put on weight and give her a nice shiny coat. You can get them from horse feed suppliers, not she if P@H sell them, or you can get small quantities off ebay for a few kid. Piggies love them
 
dont say the dreaded C word, we've just gotten over a bout of that ourselves on the farm. no piggies showed any symptom of losing weight, just the skits then death followed soon after...
corn we have plenty of, and oats, but how much is safe to give and how often, I'm just worried about overloading her system and causing more problems. I'm going to put pictures in the next post,so you can see how thin we're talking here. this isnt a sudden developement by the looks of things...
so if you dont want to look, skip the next post from me.
 
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awwwwwww bless her, it doesnt look like shes been fed in weeks. Its made me cry. Look on the bright side, shes with you now and you will give her all the love and affection she needs and lots of food. Have you thought about reporting the people who had ** 2 piggies? Looks like animal neglect to me. I wish you and that beautiful piggy all the best x
 
Spishkey said:
dont say the dreaded C word, we've just gotten over a bout of that ourselves on the farm. no piggies showed any symptom of losing weight, just the skits then death followed soon after...
corn we have plenty of, and oats, but how much is safe to give and how often, I'm just worried about overloading her system and causing more problems. I'm going to put pictures in the next post,so you can see how thin we're talking here. this isnt a sudden developement by the looks of things...
so if you dont want to look, skip the next post from me.
Click to expand...

yes no rescue ever wants to hear that word :(, i would offer unlimited hay, 10 grams of pellets at a time throughout the day, and very very small amounts of veg maybe steer clear of watery/gassy ones until she has gained a little condition. just small regulars meals would be my best thoughts, and over time you can increase this, as long as she is getting enough to survive comfortably that might be all you can do without overloading her system right now.
 
Oh my God, poor guinea pig. :( Are you going to follow up on the other one and see if she's ok?

For rabbits I've been told that black sunflower seeds and oats are good for helping them gain weight after nursing babies.

I really hope she'll be ok. :(
 
i have their adress on file so will be going round this evening to hopefully collect the other piggy (if its still alive) and to see what the heck happened

for her to be in the state she is must have taken weeks of slow starvation surely? (dont piggys need food every 12 hours or their guts stop? so she must have had bare minimum?)
 
you need to watch for Cocci signs but honestly just by the looks of her body shape that is what my guess is :(, i hope to god i am wrong, id be off to a vet quick smart x
 
kingboris..I'm 99% sure its not cocci....if you read my post up there¨¨ somewhere..we've just beaten cocci here so i know what to look out for and not one piggy looked like she did....? plus she doesnt have the yellowy diarhea (sp) and is not listless/unactive/uninterested in food (symptoms)
she has hard dark poops which are about a quarter of the size of normal piggy poops (if that helps anyone diagnose something I'm missing?)
 
the vets will sadly have to wait until at least tomorrow mornng. my OH is on the late shifts (he left an hour ago) so will not be back until midnightish. but she will be going to a vet first thing in the morning.
 
oh my. all the best with this one. thatnk god she is now in your hands. i've just taken on 2 skinny sick pigs too. they're both under half the body weight they should. i don't enough to offer help, but my good thoughts go out to you x
 
I'm going to nip to a neighbours house to borrow some scales, mine arent working :(
 
Hope that she gets better soon and that you are able to pick up the other pig.

I would also offer hay and small amounts of nuggets/veg throughout the day.

x x
 
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