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Specialist What to do next? - mystery weight loss

Emz1999

Emz1999

Junior Guinea Pig
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So little Rosie who I've posted about before has lost 80g over the past week and so took her to the vets today to see our local exotic pet vet (not one of the forum recommended ones but I really do like their style). She had a good check over and had a listen to several parts of her body and apart from a very noisy stomach there is was nothing unusual and nothing that met any known diagnosis. I was given two options: either trial medication with her or have her get a blood sample. I've gone down the medication route and she has been prescribed Co-trixomazole twice a day for a week as well as some intense segregated feeding to bulk her up. She's only a small lean girl anyway and never has exceeded the 600g mark. We're all really hesitant about putting a pig, let alone her, under anaesthetic so I just wanted opinions of people with more experience.

As a side note: she has had a previous lump on the side of her mouth that vanished after 2 days and treated with some salty water to keep it clean. She also has an ongoing intermittent splutter, but with two seperate exotic vets having had a listen to her chest and everything being okay it was suggested that something hereditary might be at play.
 
Sorry I can’t help you there, I just want to wish you and her all the best!
 
Are there any dental issues at play? Is she eating ok, just wondered especially with the lump on the side of her mouth?
Hope you find out what’s wrong and she makes a full recovery soon x
 
Mystery weight loss is the one symptom I really hate because there can be so much behind it that is not obvious at all and extremely hard to diagnose without any further symptoms. Has she had a scan and a check of her back teeth to see whether the noisy tummy is caused by lack of food or gassing of the stomach?

Please step in with syringe feed top up in any case to help her keep up her weight. That is very important - your support care can be crucial.
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide


@Jaycey @helen105281 @furryfriends (TEAS) @Freela
 
600g seems very small, and to say she has never exceeded this weight would make me worry. Is she an adult piggy? Wishing her all the best and hope she improves on the antibiotics.
 
Were they able to get a good look at her teeth? Even the molars in the back? Weight loss can be hard to pin down sometimes, but the teeth seem like a good place to start, especially given she had a bump near her mouth recently.
 
Hey everyone and thanks for replying. I won't quote everyone but will reply to each point.

She eats well and quite happily scoff anything given. Only time she struggles is when she tries to eat too much at once but being her size and having quite a short snout it does seem to happen.

She had an external feel of her back teeth done to feel for any abnormalities and it came back clear. Vet wasn't able to have a look at the back teeth since she had a collection of all sorts in the back of her mouth she hasn't yet swallowed, and since there was nothing from a feel I didn't ask for anything more regarding that.

She's a 2 year old adult and I admit that it did worry me that she never seemed to grow, especially since her friend who is around the same age Daisy is around 700g and the big lady next door is 900g. But she is very alert and very bubbly and I swear has a form of ADHD.

Since she is very keen on her normal food I'm going to segregate her for veg and dried food to make sure she gets her share. I'll give her some critical care just before bedtime to supplement her.

I will post some pictures later for everyone.
 
Both my piggy and chinchilla that had tooth problems also had 'collections' of food in their mouths when had been to vet appts, obviously struggled to chew and swallow certain things properly (hay etc).
The brilliant vet I see removed that food to have a good look at the back teeth.
May be a good idea to get another appt with a good piggy vet that's good with teeth, sounds very similar to my experiences with my babies.
Where do you live? There is a thread on good vets but members could help to point you in the right direction :)
 
alpacasqueak said:
Both my piggy and chinchilla that had tooth problems also had 'collections' of food in their mouths when had been to vet appts, obviously struggled to chew and swallow certain things properly (hay etc).
The brilliant vet I see removed that food to have a good look at the back teeth.
May be a good idea to get another appt with a good piggy vet that's good with teeth, sounds very similar to my experiences with my babies.
Where do you live? There is a thread on good vets but members could help to point you in the right direction :)
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Is this possible without sedation? I was led to believe its not possible without. I might ask in a weeks time at a checkup. I live in Vale Royal area of Cheshire, and the nearest recommended vet is a good 40min drive away but I'm considering it if she doesn't improve. I just wish it was something simple.

Edit: Just checked it and realised my vet is on the recommended list.
 
It's good your vet's on there, does sound like a good tooth examinations needed though. I've had vets look at teeth without sedation, it's when they need filing etc that they often sedate.
I travel miles without a car, so taxis and trains to get to my great vet (Cat and Rabbit Care Clinic, Northampton) and it's definitely worth it.
 
There shouldn't be the need for sedation just to look at the back teeth. The vet I used last time used a cotton bud to remove some of the gunk and then was able to see enough
 
Unless the vet has got the proper equipment to keep the mouth open and the cheeks held away from the teeth, they won’t be able to get a good view of the back teeth. I urge anyone who suspects dental issues, with their guinea pig, to go and see Simon Maddock at Cat and Rabbit Clinic

www.catandrabbit.co.uk
 
I also go to Simon Maddock too, it’s 370 miles and an overnight stay in a hotel. We live in West Cornwall. My Ted has a conscious dental every 3-4 months as he has a peg tooth against one of his pre-molars which has little to wear against. He files it down in a few minutes. This vet is fantastic and I would recommend the drive, tried vets down where I live and they are very expensive and pretty poor x
 
@Emz1999 As it's such a rapid loss then the current loss may be something unrelated. I know that your vet claims that her teeth are okay, but how does she seem with eating? Is she slower? Is she moving her mouth differently? Is she leaving any little bits that normally get eaten? If so, then that's a sign of a dental issue.

The other issue of low weight despite eating a lot is very similar to my pig, Jon Snow. He has odd shaped poops, a very rumbly stomach, is hyperactive and has a low weight despite eating loads.

We tried a poop test first and it was determined that he had fungal issues. A course of panacur and itrafungal helped for a long time so that may be somewhere to start.

He's also had a few blood tests and has an overactive thyroid reading. As he's so hyper he's easy to get blood out of with a toenail overclip as he bleeds really well. That could be an option to look into also.
 
Jaycey said:
@Emz1999 As it's such a rapid loss then the current loss may be something unrelated. I know that your vet claims that her teeth are okay, but how does she seem with eating? Is she slower? Is she moving her mouth differently? Is she leaving any little bits that normally get eaten? If so, then that's a sign of a dental issue.

The other issue of low weight despite eating a lot is very similar to my pig, Jon Snow. He has odd shaped poops, a very rumbly stomach, is hyperactive and has a low weight despite eating loads.

We tried a poop test first and it was determined that he had fungal issues. A course of panacur and itrafungal helped for a long time so that may be somewhere to start.

He's also had a few blood tests and has an overactive thyroid reading. As he's so hyper he's easy to get blood out of with a toenail overclip as he bleeds really well. That could be an option to look into also.
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It's funny you should mention your piggie as she sounds very much like him. Rosie has started to get heavier again the past 24 hours but like Jon Snow the weight doesn't seem to get to her as fat whatever she eats, although that being said, she doesn't look skinny, just not chunky. Her poops are all normal looking, no teardrops or diarrhoea and it was something vet questioned me on when she said her tummy was noisy.

What confuses me is she really has no trouble eating anything except the dried food. We had them on pets at home nuggets for years which suited her as the pieces were more her sized. Two weeks ago I weaned them onto another one whose name I can't remember from the top of my head and these pieces are bigger. Sometimes when she decides to grab another before shes finished the first she struggles to chew them which means she sometimes leaves powder sized pieces of the stuff on the floor. When it comes to veg and hay she has no trouble.

The antibiotics do seem to have helped her increase the speed at which she eats the dried food though. I'll be using this thread to document her sort of medical journey since she is so unusual.

I have attached a photo of her lump from back in April for reference. On the first day it was just a smooth looking lump, the picture was taken the following day where a kind of scab appeared on the lump. The day after this it then vanished completely.
20180331_175402_025.webp
 
@Emz1999 I wonder if the lump was a cyst that burst and then went dormant again.

Years ago I had a boar with a sebaceous cyst on his side and it got the scab on it when it burst. It would then disappear and only leave a small black mark on his skin. It came back a few times.

I'd keep an eye on her eating. Maybe the lump is still there and could be causing a bit of difficulty eating.
 
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