Update on Star and her drop in weight

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karonus

karonus

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Well we have tried her on metacam (dog type) four drops daily on food, she happily munched a piece of romaine with the drops on. Her weight daily since Sunday has been constant at 878gm. We are now thinking that her quietness and the seeking for warm spots may be arthritis related. Certainly her eating is not being affected so we dont think it is teeth related as she is munching all her normal foods including pellets. We think the arthritis may be related to the neck injury she had last year and the sudden dampness in the air, I know I feel it in my knees despite central heating.
 
Thanks for the update on Star Steve. Hoping the metacam will help and you'll see some weight gain.
 
we have never had a piggie (touchwood) with Arthritis we just get ones with bladder issues.... :))
 
I had Bryn with a mysterious weight loss problem in early summer. After a thorough health check, it came down to arthritis, too, so I hope that this is it.
 
I tried to reply to this earlier but the forum went down and it lost my reply. I have had two piggies with weight loss and mobility issues who have then been diagnosed with arthritis and gone on to use metacam at the lowest effective dose as maintenance.

Merry (RIP in my avatar) began to struggle with moving and lost weight after the death of his brother Pippin and when we got Suilven as tiny baby he struggled to keep up. He was diagnosed with arthritic hips and put on long term metacam, he has a totally new lease of life with meds and a new friend and had a very happy six-eight months before dying aged 6 having had a stroke.

Donald (RIP) was 3 and a half but was losing weight and bunny hopping/ avoiding activity. The vet diagnosed arthritis by x-ray (he was having one anyway to check teeth roots so we just had a look at the rest of him too) in his hips, knees and seriously in his wrists. He was also put on the lowest effective dose of metacam for long term use. His condition was a little more complicated in that he seemed to have an issue processing vitamin C and so was chronically deficient which leads to bleeding into the joint spaces and therefore a lot of pain. It turned out he needed 200mg (a humans worth and more than 4x the piggy dose) of vitamin C daily just to keep him ticking over properly! His scruffy coat and damp eyes and nose got much better with this increase in vitamin C. I would NEVER suggest using a dose like that without vet advice though. Dinky was a special case and it was very unusual for him to need so much. Unfortunately he died suddenly only weeks after these discoveries.

Long term metacam (or other anti-inflammatory) use is a balancing act. It will cause kidney damage in the long term but you need to balance this with the increased quality of life a piggy has whilst on meds. It is very much quality vs quantity. The kidney damage will shorten lifespan to some extent but conversely a piggy who is miserable and not eating or moving much will be vulnerable to many other problems that can cause premature illness or death. You need to have a good think and see what is the right thing for you and Star.

Lowest effective dose is always the safest. Use the smallest dose possible to relieve the symptoms and so minimise damage and increase longevity. It also means that if you need to, you can increase the dose. If you give the max allowed dose everyday, whether it is needed or not then you haver nowhere to go if there is a flare up, UTI or another problem that you would want to increase the dose for. We also used to give Merry days off meds every so often, not so much that he got sore but enough to give his system a break every so often.

Sorry for the essay but I hope some of this helps....
 
I don't have any experience with piggy arthritis, so I can't add anything, but just wanted to send some well wishes for little Star
 
Well Star is perky enough and reacts normally when food is offered. I will only use Metacam if I think she needs some. I have found heat a good therapy for Arthritis on so will look to this as a better therapy with Metacam only if she is really off. At present although she is quieter than normal she is lying stretched out with a chookie leg.
 
I thought I had posted here earlier, obviously not.
Rosie has regular metacam for 'arthritis' not formally diagnosed as such, but the vet has checked her over and she is very stiff all around her back end. Particularly round her hip joints in both legs- she also bunny hops rather than actually walking.

I found during the heatwave in summer that she was walking alot better, and was less tense in the way she held herself. So I tried her with it every other day to see how she got on and she did ok. She is back onto more regular doses now the weather has turned colder again and it's finally not such a struggle to get the syringe anywhere near her- let alone in her mouth.
Hope you can keep her comfy, I find heat pads are fab for Rosie. :)
 
I had also thought to try glucosamine for Donald as it has no nasty side effects. But I never got the chance.

I think people have used Cystease with good effect for bladder problems but as a Glucosamine supplement it would probably help joints too. There is no research in Guineas but it has good results in rabbits with arthritis so may be helpful?
 
Well Star is maintaining her 878gm weight and is moving about well and eating okay. As somebody with sports injuries I am coming closer to the view that what Star is suffering from is somewhat similar as a result of her neck injury last year. Whether this is arthritis or rheumatics doesn't matter, heat helps both.
 
Well with Star not losing weight this week (maintaining 878gm) and actually gaining 5gm today I discussed the situation with our vet. We agreed it seemed likely her situation is a result of last years neck injury and the onset of cold damp weather. The metacam we will keep for bad days using as a couple of days pain relief. However, she suggested Oxbow Joint Support as a colleague had used it successfully with a rabbit. So does any one have any experience using it.

Its also been fascinating watching the piggies while Star hasnt been 100%. Although the cage has been open for floor time, they have been reluctant to come out, preferring to stay near Star, grooming her or just keeping her penned up one corner of the cage so she can just rest and eat. They have been taking it in turns to snuggle buy her.
 
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