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Suddenly lethargic and lost interest in food. No critical care available!

Pantalaimon

Pantalaimon

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hi. Apologies for pretty much only posting on here when something goes wrong! The advice is always really helpful.

One of my pigs has suddenly become uninterested in food. I first noticed she was not begging at the front of the cage yesterday morning for a pea flake but neither was my other pig so I put it down to the room temperature suddenly dropping from 20°C to 17°C (problems with the heating) and her just not wanting to leave her warm bed (I certainly didn’t want to leave mine!) But today she won’t leave her bed for anything. She won’t eat pea flakes and will slightly nibble hay but not eat much (if any) then just go back to bed.

I gave them both a health check and nail trim on Wednesday and all was normal then, including her weight. Today I got her out and felt her belly and teeth. Nothing felt unusual but her abdomen is strange anyway from her past problems (severe ovarian cysts and spay complications as well as potentially being pregnant in the past based on her belly and nipples). I compared the feeling of her molars through the skin to my other pig and nothing stood out as unusual.

She did pass one pellet while I was holding her and it was very small and dry looking with a string on the end. This makes me think she hasn’t been eating properly in the last 12 hours. (I did hear veg crunching noises this morning which implied there was veg left over from last night, which implies someone hadn’t eaten their share, almost certainly her).

The problem is that I don’t have any critical care, recovery or emeraid! I am usually well prepared so I feel a bit stupid to be caught out like this. The worst thing is that I don’t even have pellets to make a paste with!

I will be phoning my vet in the morning, but am not sure what I can do to keep her guts going in the meantime and prevent a potentially small and manageable issue from become life threatening?
 
I’ve just dug through my cupboard and found a packet of critical care! The BBE is December 2024 though, and it is supposed to be used within 30 days of opening, but it was opened in November last year. I’m guessing it would just be that some of the micronutrients have denatured? It smells fine and it will still have fibre and energy.

Is this a big risk? Or is it better than her eating very little for the next 12-18 hours?
 
I’m sorry to hear that.

Is there a Tesco or other supermarket you can get to now to buy pellets to mush up - even if they aren’t a brand you would normally get. I know the Tesco near me sell pellets (burgess excel) so I assume most do.
Getting pellets would be preferable; Using out of date, opened critical care would not be recommended. Using out of date opened critical care can be a great risk factor to piggies suffering with stasis, it will not have sufficient nutrition in it now and could be contaminated given the length of time it’s been open and out of date.

Her poop being abnormal today means she may well have not eaten properly for 1-2 days (that is how long it can take for poop output).

Also make sure you weigh her daily now

I hope she is ok
 
Piggies&buns said:
I’m sorry to hear that.

Is there a Tesco or other supermarket you can get to now to buy pellets to mush up - even if they aren’t a brand you would normally get. I know the Tesco near me sell pellets (burgess excel) so I assume most do.
Click to expand...

I've known both Asda and Tesco to sell the Burgess mint (when I've forgotten to buy my usual pellets). Just in case that's of any use to you, @Pantalaimon
 
Piggies&buns said:
I’m sorry to hear that.

Is there a Tesco or other supermarket you can get to now to buy pellets to mush up - even if they aren’t a brand you would normally get. I know the Tesco near me sell pellets (burgess excel) so I assume most do.
Getting pellets would be preferable; Using out of date, opened critical care would not be recommended. Using out of date opened critical care can be a great risk factor to piggies suffering with stasis, it will not have sufficient nutrition in it now and could be contaminated given the length of time it’s been open and out of date.

Her poop being abnormal today means she may well have not eaten properly for 1-2 days (that is how long it can take for poop output).

Also make sure you weigh her daily now

I hope she is ok
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I have no access to any shops around me. I live far out in the middle of nowhere and don’t drive. I have ordered some critical care for next day delivery, but obviously that’s no good for tonight. I can get something early tomorrow morning.
 
Another question. I’m wondering for the future, what are the expiry dates of things like bio lapis probiotics? And which recovery food has the longest life if unopened?

I’m going away to uni next year (mature student) and will be leaving all of my creatures with my mum. So I need to put together a kit for her if there is an emergency like this. But there’s no point buying stuff like critical care or probiotics if they will expire in like 8 months and be dead before they are needed!
 
Hi, first thing is if she has stringy poo, she is likely dehydrated. Lots of water syringes!

If you are in a fix, for now I would make a wet pellet porridge and add whatever probiotics you have to hand. Feed as per the syringe feeding guide!

That will tide her over until you can get critical care/similar.
 
For future reference, we keep our critical care and harrisons flora fauna in the freezer for longevity. They have kept a lot of our peegs going so they must still be somewhat good.
 
Sorry, just seen you don't have pellets either!

I would use the critical care if it looks ok. It's better than nothing even if it doesn't have all the vits&mins, at least it will keep the digestive tract moving and provide some energy.
 
I'll be honest, I have used out of date critical care when I've been caught out and there was no issue. Obviously the vitamins etc will have degraded but you'll get some bulk and fibre into them which will help the mechanics of the gut keep working until you can get something more suitable delivered. As long as it smells OK, isn't clumpy or visibly mouldy, it'll be fine in an emergency.
 
GuineaDobbin said:
For future reference, we keep our critical care and harrisons flora fauna in the freezer for longevity. They have kept a lot of our peegs going so they must still be somewhat good.
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That’s a really good idea!

I might contact oxbow and ask if any of the ingredients could be affected by freezing. That could potentially help a lot of people.
 
Eriathwen said:
I'll be honest, I have used out of date critical care when I've been caught out and there was no issue. Obviously the vitamins etc will have degraded but you'll get some bulk and fibre into them which will help the mechanics of the gut keep working until you can get something more suitable delivered. As long as it smells OK, isn't clumpy or visibly mouldy, it'll be fine in an emergency.
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That’s exactly what I was thinking. Even if most of the nutrients have denatured, it’s better she gets fibre, water and some bulk going through her digestive system rather than nothing.

She’s a difficult pig as normal I would attempt to coax them with some critical care with something tasty mixed in like banana. But she is the first pig I’ve ever met who shows no interest or actively hates fruits! The only thing that gets her truly excited is lettuce.😆

She seems to be eating literally nothing now. So I am going to give her the critical care regardless, as otherwise her chances of recovery are going to be horribly low.
 
- YouTube

The guinea pig who needs the syringe food (and hates it), vs the one who is fat enough and really doesn’t need it (but loves it!).
 
As you can’t get pellets then yes you will have to use the critical care as an emergency means.

Stringy poop means a much more serious digestive issue and possibly dehydration. If she isn’t eating anything then this would constitute an out of hours emergency vet visit even if you are able to get some of the critical care into her.

I hope she is ok
 
Piggies&buns said:
As you can’t get pellets then yes you will have to use the critical care as an emergency means.

Stringy poop means a much more serious digestive issue and possibly dehydration. If she isn’t eating anything then this would constitute an out of hours emergency vet visit even if you are able to get some of the critical care into her.

I hope she is ok
Click to expand...
I have got most of a science selective recovery syringe of critical care into her. I will give her some more in an hour or so and make it very wet so she is getting plenty of water. She’s perky enough to fight the syringe which is usually a good sign, when I got her and she was extremely ill she stopped fighting the syringe.

She eats a few bits of hay and then gives up, so I suspect she may have a dental issue going on. Similarly, she will take a pea flake and then drop it. She has eaten the few little bits of lettuce I have given her, but I don’t want to give her too much as I know it can cause diarrhoea if that is all they eat.

I don’t drive so rely on my parents. They would be extremely upset if I asked them to drive a 40-50 minutes round trip plus any waiting time at the vets at 11 at night. I also don’t fully trust any vet there who isn’t my usual exotics vet as I have had some terrible experiences. If it were necessary and I could drive then I would do so without a second thought, regardless of the time, but unfortunately I do not currently have that ability.

I lost a pig 1.5 years ago to what I thought was bloat but I believe may have been a blockage or twisted gut. She had a very hard distended abdomen that was noticeable quiet and her walking was visibly painful. Ruby’s abdomen feels soft and normal and I can hear lots of gurgles while feeding her. So I am thinking this is a dental issue that has caused her to avoid eating/drinking and that’s why she is now getting the weird poos. I think this has escaped me for 1-2 days because she eats when first fed, but then leaves, so I have seen her eat when I initially feed them and not noticed her walking away afterwards.
 
Could you use a blender to puree lettuce / cucumber and a small amount of grass and offer them via syringe as an appetiser?
 
I managed to get about 10ml of wet critical care into her in the early hours of the morning. She is fighting it hard, which for her is a good sign. She is very good at spitting it back out though which is not so good.

The problem is that my exotics vet is unavailable until the end of next week. The only available vets are dog vets who are truly unreliable with small creatures. One of them was responsible for nearly killing her with a complete unnecessary surgery last December. I have had terrible experiences with multiple other vets at the practice.
 
All we can advise is that you continue with at least 60ml of syringe feed each day, make sure you weigh her every morning so you know you’re getting enough syringe feee into her and to see the vet as soon as you can.

I hope she is ok
 
She’s been to the vet, and of course he had no idea what was wrong. He said her molars are wonky but shouldn’t be stopping her from eating. Hopefully I can get another appointment on Friday with the exotics vet.

She’s had an injection of metacam and one of a gut stimulant. She is also starting the gut stimulant orally tonight and metacam orally tomorrow. Then 0.2ml metacam 2x daily and 1ml gut stimulant daily (maybe 2x, don’t have it with me right now!). Is the dosage of metacam quite low? I’m sure I’ve had pigs on 0.6ml before.

They’ve given me emeraid which is so much easier to get into then as they don’t really need to chew much. She is giving the syringe all the fight she has which makes syringe feeding a challenge!
 
Pantalaimon said:
She’s been to the vet, and of course he had no idea what was wrong. He said her molars are wonky but shouldn’t be stopping her from eating. Hopefully I can get another appointment on Friday with the exotics vet.

She’s had an injection of metacam and one of a gut stimulant. She is also starting the gut stimulant orally tonight and metacam orally tomorrow. Then 0.2ml metacam 2x daily and 1ml gut stimulant daily (maybe 2x, don’t have it with me right now!). Is the dosage of metacam quite low? I’m sure I’ve had pigs on 0.6ml before.

They’ve given me emeraid which is so much easier to get into then as they don’t really need to chew much. She is giving the syringe all the fight she has which makes syringe feeding a challenge!
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At least they've dispensed the things you need!

Emeraid is good stuff, the trick with it is to make it runny compared to other feeds. In my experience pigs can struggle with it if too thick and aspirate it.

Metacam dose will depend on pig weight and pain level, as well as whether it is dog or cat.
 
I got 15ml of emeraid into her around 17:30-18:00. I’m now trying (and have been for some time now), but she is refusing to swallow anything. Honestly I’m struggling to stay awake enough to do it.

She seems to have passed lots of poo which is great. But I can’t get anything into her now.

Do I just keep pushing the syringe into her mouth and forcing it? I know there is a high risk of aspiration if doing that.

My exotics vet is unavailable until Friday, I don’t think I trust the other vets to give her a GA and look further into her mouth. So I need to somehow keep her going for a week?!
 
Update. I put her back in the cage last night and I just knew. I gave her several beds around her and some bits of lettuce (which she wanted to eat but couldn’t). She was nice and warm and comfortable. This morning she is curled up as if comfortable in one of the beds but has been dead for several hours.

Thanks for the support.
 
I’m so sorry. The pain injection meant she wasn’t in any pain and she’s passed peacefully in her own bed. Popcorn high over the bridge sweet piggy ❤️
 
Thanks for all the kind replies.

Here’s a few pictures from happier times, this time last year I managed to get her to eat a vegetable after weeks of syringe feeding.
 

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