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Something Is Wrong With Ivy, But I Don't Know What

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Auntie Katie said:
Is she home yet? x
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Ivy has just come home today! She is at present sitting on top of her log cabin, looking a bit sleepy, but I think she's okay. She's eaten some cucumber, grass and coriander since she got back, her eyes shining with eagerness, which was lovely, considering that last time we saw her she didn't want anything at all.

The vets are very pleased with how she's done, although I gather she has been a bit of a madam over taking her meds and critical care (this does not surprise me in the least, Ivy definitely likes to show who's boss).

We've got metacam, fibreplex, and gut stimulant, in case she goes downhill again, and the vet said to ring if we're at all worried.

I would be pleased to see Ivy tucking into her hay, but she's always been a bit naughty about not wanting the things that are best for her. If she was a child, she would be picky over her cooked dinners, and be begging for sweets the whole time. I can just see it.

Now she's lying on her fleecey tunnel with her eyes shut / half shut. It's very hard not to be a bit paranoid about her! I do hope she's not going to have any more problems.
 
Great news, hope she continues to do well. The gut stim will really help keeping things ticking through. Cuddles to Ivy, will make sure I keep dropping in for updates x
 
Thought I'd better update this, as I have been mentioning Ivy in another thread. Well, she picked up a couple of days after coming home from the vets, then went downhill again, then she was just gradually getting more and more picky and reluctant to eat. It was very worrying and stressful, and then it was all combined with Angelina getting ill and dying, so everything was just like some big piggy nightmare, and we felt we could hardly cope. We didn't seem to be doing anything apart from worrying about the guinea pigs. We weren't getting on very well with syringe feeding Ivy, and we were so concerned that she might have something else wrong with her, some underlying problem. We weren't sure whether she might have some tooth problem, as in some ways she was interested in food, but wouldn't take it when you offered it to her.

We spoke to Debbie from the excellent adventure sanctuary, and she was so kind, and said she would take Ivy on Monday. Ivy saw Simon Maddock on Tuesday, and he could not find anything in particular wrong, but said she was very weak. As far as I understand, I think he examined her teeth, but couldn't do too much as she was so stressed. There doesn't seem to be any problem there though, I think it's just a case of recovering from this gut stasis she had. Anyway, Ivy is much better off in the hands of someone who is experienced and expert at syringe feeding, and so we know she's getting plenty of food now. I hope she will get better and become her usual greedy self again.
 
You poor thing going through all this. You made the right decision with ivy. Syringe feeding is a nightmare. I am hopeless at it. I really hope she gets stronger and recovers soon.
 
Ivy seems much brighter this morning and has taken quite a lot of syringe food. We are up to 45 mls so far today and she is due to have some more very soon. Simon and I were quite worried about Ivy yesterday as just the trip to the vets (6 miles) seemed to have really stressed her and she wasn't coping well with being examined. However she checked out well, with nothing obviously wrong, although her heart rate was rather slow. Simon thinks this is most likely due to her weakened state and is keen for me to get as much food into her as possible so she can regain her strength and hopes that as she becomes stronger she will begin to eat more for herself. Definitely going in the right direction so far!
 
furryfriends Excellent Adventure Sanctuary said:
Ivy seems much brighter this morning and has taken quite a lot of syringe food. We are up to 45 mls so far today and she is due to have some more very soon. Simon and I were quite worried about Ivy yesterday as just the trip to the vets (6 miles) seemed to have really stressed her and she wasn't coping well with being examined. However she checked out well, with nothing obviously wrong, although her heart rate was rather slow. Simon thinks this is most likely due to her weakened state and is keen for me to get as much food into her as possible so she can regain her strength and hopes that as she becomes stronger she will begin to eat more for herself. Definitely going in the right direction so far!
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Thanks for the update! I'm so glad Ivy seems a bit better today. She doesn't normally cope too badly with journeys, so I think it must be an indication of how poorly she has been that she got so stressed going to see Simon. Thankyou so much for feeding her so well, it's such a relief to us to know that now she's staying with you she's getting plenty of nourishment going in!
 
piggyfan said:
You poor thing going through all this. You made the right decision with ivy. Syringe feeding is a nightmare. I am hopeless at it. I really hope she gets stronger and recovers soon.
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Thanks piggyfan! I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who finds syringe feeding difficult to impossible. The thing is, I could tell someone how to go about syringe feeding, and it would probably all be very sound advice, but can I put it into practice? There seems to be a knack to it, I just wish I could aquire it. In reality, I had to hold Ivy while my OH did the feeding, as he stands less nonsense than I do - but even the two of us weren't up to very much, although considerably better than the last time we had to do it. I suppose you get better with practice, but to be honest, it's not the sort of thing I really want to get practised at, as it just means sick guinea pigs!
 
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I syringe feed by sitting piggy on my lap, facing across my body, head pointing towards right hand. Then I hold head firmly with left hand and syringe food in using right hand. I always use a 1 ml syringe with the end cut off as you can syringe the full 1 ml in and then while piggy is swallowing it you can refill syringe and then give the next ml. You can get into a nice rhythm and get about 20 mls in in about 10 mins.
 
Katherine said:
Thanks piggyfan! I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who finds syringe feeding difficult to impossible. The thing is, I could tell someone how to go about syringe feeding, and it would probably all be very sound advice, but can I put it into practice? There seems to be a knack to it, I just wish I could aquire it. In reality, I had to hold Ivy while my OH did the feeding, as he stands less nonsense than I do - but even the two of us weren't up to very much, although considerably better than the last time we had to do it. I suppose you get better with practice, but to be honest, it's not the sort of thing I really want to get practiced at, as it just means sick guinea pigs!
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Amelia Jane has medicine daily for arthritis and my partner has to do it as she just will not take it from me. I always feel bad when I see piggies just accepting a syringe and even coming for it.
 
piggyfan said:
Amelia Jane has medicine daily for arthritis and my partner has to do it as she just will not take it from me. I always feel bad when I see piggies just accepting a syringe and even coming for it.
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Don't feel bad, some piggies are better than others at taking the syringe. It was a fight with Pitch but Treacy on the other hand loved it. Luck of the draw, not you
 
Right I am finding the best way to get Ivy to eat is to syringe her 5 mls, and then pop her back in the cage where she starts to eat hay, and then when she stops to get her out and syringe another 5 mls and pop her back. She seems to need some syringe food to get her going and then manages to eat a little for herself. How you approach getting them to eat again depends on the piggy. They are all different and it's trial and error to find what works best.
 
furryfriends Excellent Adventure Sanctuary said:
Right I am finding the best way to get Ivy to eat is to syringe her 5 mls, and then pop her back in the cage where she starts to eat hay, and then when she stops to get her out and syringe another 5 mls and pop her back. She seems to need some syringe food to get her going and then manages to eat a little for herself. How you approach getting them to eat again depends on the piggy. They are all different and it's trial and error to find what works best.
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That's interesting. I'm glad she's eating some hay. When we were trying to feed Ivy, we found she liked to get on the sofa and try to eat the cushions before having a bit more food! And when we let her go on the floor, she kept making a beeline for the rug fringe - anything other than real food, it seemed.

We had trouble actually getting the food into the syringe (we did cut the end off). It seemed as though when it was freshly made it was easy to get the first syringeful, then got more difficult. It was a bit maddening.
 
Katherine said:
That's interesting. I'm glad she's eating some hay. When we were trying to feed Ivy, we found she liked to get on the sofa and try to eat the cushions before having a bit more food! And when we let her go on the floor, she kept making a beeline for the rug fringe - anything other than real food, it seemed.

We had trouble actually getting the food into the syringe (we did cut the end off). It seemed as though when it was freshly made it was easy to get the first syringeful, then got more difficult. It was a bit maddening.
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The syringe food does go thicker after a while. I just add more water. I also find they like the syringe food warm rather than cold.

I have just put a little video on FB of Ivy munching on some hay xx
 
furryfriends Excellent Adventure Sanctuary said:
The syringe food does go thicker after a while. I just add more water. I also find they like the syringe food warm rather than cold.

I have just put a little video on FB of Ivy munching on some hay xx
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I've just had a look at the video! She is so cute! She seems to spend ages rooting through the hay before finding a bit that she wants to eat, we have found - I wonder if that is normal.
 
Katherine said:
I've just had a look at the video! She is so cute! She seems to spend ages rooting through the hay before finding a bit that she wants to eat, we have found - I wonder if that is normal.
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I knew she reminded me of something. It is how my daughter, Hannah, used to eat chips when she was little. She would spend ages checking through them all until she would pick one up and eat it! lol
 
furryfriends Excellent Adventure Sanctuary said:
I knew she reminded me of something. It is how my daughter, Hannah, used to eat chips when she was little. She would spend ages checking through them all until she would pick one up and eat it! lol
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Oh how funny! I wonder what exactly she was looking for, and what one chip had that all the others didn't!
 
I thought to start with that Piglet and Ivy seemed so have very similar symptoms. He did have a dental, and they did find a spur, but he's still picky with his food and I'm having to clean his bottom out every day. I stopped syringe feeding him as he gets stressed by being taken out of the hutch - he's fine once he's out and when I put him back he wasn't interested in the food. I put a plate of veggies in before lifting him out and he rushed down to eat some so have just been monitoring him that way.

Up until this week I've not seen any of the soft poo but he has produced some this week and its the first thing he's eaten with gusto for weeks and weeks - he also had the best looking bottom for weeks tonight too. I feel that we are teetering right on the edge of the woods but aren't quite out yet just moving slowly and steadily towards the clearing!

I hope Ivy gets on OK and is soon on the mend too. xx
 
A quick Ivy update - this evening there has been a significant improvement. I went to the vets with another sanctuary piggy and when I arrived home Ivy was tucking into a carrot. Since then she has eaten some parsley, some romaine lettuce, cucumber and turned her nose up at some broccoli! I'm really hoping we've turned the corner!
 
You could take Flora there too if you have a lift, it may help to perk Ivy up even more having her friend stay while she is in the vets :) x
 
I'm so pleased about Ivy! Not worried that she turned her nose up at broccoli though, as she doesn't usually seem to like that much anyway!

We often say at home, and it really struck me again when watching the videos of her, how much she looks like a little, round, fluffy ball! But when she stretches out she looks all long and thin, like a weasel! (It's alright for me to say that, 'cos she's my piggy, and I love her!)
 
Thought it was about time I did a little update on Ivy. She's still being looked after by Debbie, and we keep hoping we can fetch her home soon, but after seeming to improve for a while, she still decides to stop eating. She's been thoroughly examined by Simon, and all the obvious possible causes of her reluctance to eat have been ruled out. Debbie wants to have another chat with Simon, to see if there's anything else they could possibly try.

It's so odd and mysterious that Ivy isn't really getting back to normal. She's being quite lively, I understand, and goes to the bars to see what Debbie has got for her, but doesn't eat enough.
 
I am so sorry ivy is still poorly and not back at home with you. I really hope they can find out what is wrong and get her better.
 
Unexplained anorexia? I've known piggies in the past to just slowly stop eating, and at first it's not noticeable until they start dropping weight. Have had vets flummoxed in the past as no obvious cause. It does happen to humans though, it's like suddenly food becomes uninteresting, boring, and doesn't taste the same..
 
BonBon2010 said:
Unexplained anorexia? I've known piggies in the past to just slowly stop eating, and at first it's not noticeable until they start dropping weight. Have had vets flummoxed in the past as no obvious cause. It does happen to humans though, it's like suddenly food becomes uninteresting, boring, and doesn't taste the same..
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In the experiences you have had with piggies stopping eating, did they ever regain a normal appetite? I would be really interested in any insights you might have! I think we need a guinea pig psychologist.....
 
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