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Sick pig advice?

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RyanM

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hello all,

I have a poorly piggy with some issues swallowing dry food and has some significant weight loss. We have a vet appointment booked, but does anyone have any advice for wet/mushy food to help build her back up for investigations? We have tried critical care herbivore but she will not eat it and I've not been able to syringe feed her without causing significant distress. We have crushed up some mature piggy pebbles and mixed with water and she has improved a little with this, but still loosing weight.


Any advice is welcome, thank you!
 
I know that some people on the forum mix a little mashed banana in to help their guinea eat.

She's unlikely to add weight at this stage, but ideally you want to keep her from losing any more weight.

Please check the part of the forum you're posting on here for the stickied topic All About Syringe Feeding... Stickied topics are green, and they contain the most up-to-date comprehensive information on the forum, written by the health experts.
 
RyanM said:
Hello all,

I have a poorly piggy with some issues swallowing dry food and has some significant weight loss. We have a vet appointment booked, but does anyone have any advice for wet/mushy food to help build her back up for investigations? We have tried critical care herbivore but she will not eat it and I've not been able to syringe feed her without causing significant distress. We have crushed up some mature piggy pebbles and mixed with water and she has improved a little with this, but still loosing weight.


Any advice is welcome, thank you!
Click to expand...
Not eating in guinea pigs is an emergency so she should see a vet urgently if you can. If she has something like bloat or overgrown molars, she needs vet treatment as an emergency. I hope she can be treated and gets better quickly ❤️🙏
 
I’m sorry to hear this

How soon is the vet appointment?
This does sound to be something that needs to be seen as an emergency.

Syringe feeding during an illness is about stopping any further weight loss and keeping the gut functioning (they won’t regain weight during this stage). When syringe feeding, if weight loss continues to occur then it is due to not getting enough feed per 24 hours.
The amount needed is 60ml (some piggies can need more) of syringe feed per 24 hours to do that.
40ml is the minimum to keep the gut functioning and keep a poorly piggy alive but it may not be enough to fully stop weight loss. However a critically ill piggy may not be able to take much more.

Weight gain is not likely to happen until she is fully recovered from the illness and even then takes weeks to months afterwards (depending on how much weight has been lost) - it happens with sufficient independent hay intake.
It also depends on age - older piggies don’t usually regain any significant amounts of weight and instead maintain at a new lower weight post-illness.

Critical care does come in different flavours so you could try a different one.
Emeraid, selective recovery plus or burgess dual care are other forms of recovery feed.
Mushed pellets is the emergency alternative. It is lower in fibre than a properly recovery feed but it does have a familiar taste so can encourage them to eat it.

The guides below give further detail about emergency measures and syringe feeding quantities and frequencies.

Let us know what the vet says. I hope she is ok

Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support Levels
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
Probiotics & Live Gut Microbiome Transfer ('Poo Soup'); Recovery Formula Foods And Vitamin C: Overview With Product Links and Transfer Recipe
 
Hi and welcome

I am ever so sorry for your emergency.

If you need to improvise with feeding until your ordered stuff has come, you will find the tips in this link here helpful: How to Improvise Feeding Support in an Emergency

Our guide links contain all the detailed how-to tips and in-depth information that we cannot repeat in full in every post, seeing that we are all doing this for free in our own free time. They are always worth reading as 20 years of tens of thousands of questions and collective forum experience have gone into them.

I am keeping my fingers firmly crossed for your poorly one.
 
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