Wyndy
Junior Guinea Pig
We usually weigh the piggies each Monday, our cage cleanup day. We forgot to weigh them last week although we didn't realise it until we entered their weights in the chart this week. It was at this point we saw that Pogo went from 1161g down to 1056g, a drop of 105g.
I knew this was concerning so we left them in the pen and did poo checks, all seemed fine, he seemed to be eating okay although more slowly than usual. It crossed my mind there may be a dental issue but I decided to monitor him the next day and take him to the vet if there was a further weight loss or any other indications of illness.
We weighed him again yesterday and he lost a further 24g and noticed some crust around his eyesso I made an appointment to see the vet as I thought it could be a respiratory infection. We saw a vet last night who checked him over and said he couldn't find any problems. I wasn't inspired with confidence because when the vet checked his teeth, he only looked at the incisors until I prompted him to also check the molars. He felt Pogo's body for any abnormalities, he took Pogo's temp, he check the fur and skin so the vet declared he couldn't find anything. I had to bring up the potential respiratory issue to prompt the vet to listen to Pogo's lungs/chest. So, yeah, not confident that the vet knew much about pigs.
Anyway, we weighed him again today and he lost a further 16g, I also noticed some skinny poops where Pogo likes to hang out so I immediately started a syringe feed. I gave him 20ml over the course of 1hr 45mins, with 1ml of water in between every 5ml. He didn't do a single poo whilst on my lap but he had one wee.
Pogo curled up toward his bum, like they do when they eat their poo, but I'm not sure what was going on there? I noticed tonight that his anal sack smell is stronger however the smell is the same as it's been when we do they routine checks. At this point it occurred to me that the vet never checked Pogo's boy bits. And Pogo's testicles do look a bit bigger.
I called the emergency vet because I was worried about gut stasis and potential infection in Pogo's bits. She gave me metcam and baytril and told me to continue with syringe feeding every couple of hours. Pogo has now had his first dose of each medication. I will continue syringe feeding until the morning and go back the vet. I'm going to try to get an appointment with the exotic vet in Cardiff though.
Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to give you as much info as possible. Is there anything else I can or should be doing in terms of keeping him going?
Also, Pogo is the dominant pig but Percy (underpig) is displaying some dominant behaviours like chasing Pogo and rumble strutting. Percy was also chasing and mounting Pogo last week. Perhaps he senses Pogo is unwell so is challenging dominance? They have a 120cm zooplus cage, is there anything I can use to divide them in the event that Percy doesn't let Pogo get adequate rest? I dont want to jeopardise their bond, but I don't want Pogo using valuable energy trying to fend off Percy.
I knew this was concerning so we left them in the pen and did poo checks, all seemed fine, he seemed to be eating okay although more slowly than usual. It crossed my mind there may be a dental issue but I decided to monitor him the next day and take him to the vet if there was a further weight loss or any other indications of illness.
We weighed him again yesterday and he lost a further 24g and noticed some crust around his eyesso I made an appointment to see the vet as I thought it could be a respiratory infection. We saw a vet last night who checked him over and said he couldn't find any problems. I wasn't inspired with confidence because when the vet checked his teeth, he only looked at the incisors until I prompted him to also check the molars. He felt Pogo's body for any abnormalities, he took Pogo's temp, he check the fur and skin so the vet declared he couldn't find anything. I had to bring up the potential respiratory issue to prompt the vet to listen to Pogo's lungs/chest. So, yeah, not confident that the vet knew much about pigs.
Anyway, we weighed him again today and he lost a further 16g, I also noticed some skinny poops where Pogo likes to hang out so I immediately started a syringe feed. I gave him 20ml over the course of 1hr 45mins, with 1ml of water in between every 5ml. He didn't do a single poo whilst on my lap but he had one wee.
Pogo curled up toward his bum, like they do when they eat their poo, but I'm not sure what was going on there? I noticed tonight that his anal sack smell is stronger however the smell is the same as it's been when we do they routine checks. At this point it occurred to me that the vet never checked Pogo's boy bits. And Pogo's testicles do look a bit bigger.
I called the emergency vet because I was worried about gut stasis and potential infection in Pogo's bits. She gave me metcam and baytril and told me to continue with syringe feeding every couple of hours. Pogo has now had his first dose of each medication. I will continue syringe feeding until the morning and go back the vet. I'm going to try to get an appointment with the exotic vet in Cardiff though.
Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to give you as much info as possible. Is there anything else I can or should be doing in terms of keeping him going?
Also, Pogo is the dominant pig but Percy (underpig) is displaying some dominant behaviours like chasing Pogo and rumble strutting. Percy was also chasing and mounting Pogo last week. Perhaps he senses Pogo is unwell so is challenging dominance? They have a 120cm zooplus cage, is there anything I can use to divide them in the event that Percy doesn't let Pogo get adequate rest? I dont want to jeopardise their bond, but I don't want Pogo using valuable energy trying to fend off Percy.
