Weight gain tips

[Teatae23]

Hello! So my piggie has been losing a lot of weight due to a cheek abscess (and we are currently in the process of curing it via antibiotic shots every day).
Currently she weighs 644 g and she is a 1 year old female guinea pig and she lost almost 100 g over the course of 10 days
She was never so thin before and I can literally feel her bones sticking out.
I have been syringe feeding her with good quality soaked pellets and today I gave her baby food (organic carrot)
Is there anything else I can do to make her gain weight?

 

[PigglePuggle]

Hi, apologies if I have misunderstood the treatment you are getting but an abscess cannot be cured just with antibiotic injections- the abscess needs to be either surgically removed, or surgically opened by the vet to be fully drained and flushed out, usually being left open to flush out every day for a couple of weeks- as well as giving antibiotics and pain relief.
Please discuss this with your vet, or seek a second opinion from a more experienced vet- once the abscess pressure is removed she may feel more like eating.
Keep up the syringe feeding, ideally every couple of hours as her weight sounds extremely low- and you can offer her grated carrot, sweet potato, and apple, also porridge oats, to try help her maintain and gain some weight- but until the abscess is treated properly you are rather fighting against the odds unfortunately

 

[Teatae23]

Hi, apologies if I have misunderstood the treatment you are getting but an abscess cannot be cured just with antibiotic injections- the abscess needs to be either surgically removed, or surgically opened by the vet to be fully drained and flushed out, usually being left open to flush out every day for a couple of weeks- as well as giving antibiotics and pain relief.
Please discuss this with your vet, or seek a second opinion from a more experienced vet- once the abscess pressure is removed she may feel more like eating.
Keep up the syringe feeding, ideally every couple of hours as her weight sounds extremely low- and you can offer her grated carrot, sweet potato, and apple, also porridge oats, to try help her maintain and gain some weight- but until the abscess is treated properly you are rather fighting against the odds unfortunately

Oh yes, yesterday the abscess was punctured but it is being treated with antibiotics as well
There is still a bean sized lump though but that is most likely swollen lymph node according to the vet

 

[Wiebke]

Hello! So my piggie has been losing a lot of weight due to a cheek abscess (and we are currently in the process of curing it via antibiotic shots every day).
Currently she weighs 644 g and she is a 1 year old female guinea pig and she lost almost 100 g over the course of 10 days
She was never so thin before and I can literally feel her bones sticking out.
I have been syringe feeding her with good quality soaked pellets and today I gave her baby food (organic carrot)
Is there anything else I can do to make her gain weight?

Hi!

Please keep syringe feeding; if possible add more fibre like mixing in timothy fibre based recovery formula. It is the grass/hay fibre that is keeping the gut microbiome balanced.

If she eats it, fresh grass or porridge oats make a good addition to the diet. Otherwise you need to step up the syringe feeding frequency and hang on in there until the abscess can be seen and sorted.
A healthy guinea pig in their prime is eating about the equivalent of 120ml a day; ideally you aim for at 60-90 ml of solids in whatever form in order to stabilise the weight. 40-60 ml in 24 hours is just for keeping the guts ticking over through a life threatening crises until medication kicks in or the problem can be addresses otherwise but it is not enough to prevent weight loss.