Wow, haven't been on LJ in so long my previous account was erased! I'm not even sure if this is the same guinea pig community I was in before.... Anyways
( Read more... )
I have nothing current to offer, but when I was young and our first guinea pig refused to eat (this was before one could get them in pet stores, let alone find a vet to treat them) my mother created a thick soup of mashed pellets and water (or possibly milk) and gave it to her using a dropper several times a day. Gwenyth didn't fight the process; somewhere I have a Polaroid of her sitting placidly on old newspaper while Mom put the dropper in her mouth. She would accept each squirt and mumble it around for a bit before swallowing.
I don't remember how many days it took before Gwenyth began eating on her own again, but Mom pulled her through not-eating twice.
A few months ago Marie started refusing veggies, but was still eating hay and pellets. Nothing was obviously wrong other than that so the vet prescribed both antibiotics and a gut motility aid (reglan, I think?) She did recover. I second the mashed pellets suggestion, and would also suggest supplementing vitamin C - I gave Marie a children's vitamin C solution, orange flavored. The vet said to give 0.2mL per day. The pellets should have some C but just in case.
i'm wondering if she may have a blockage of some kind. she isn't pooping much and her poops are misshapen and small. it took me two days to collect enough of a sample for the vet :\. i wonder if a gut motility aid would help her.
Have x-rays been done? The motility aid will help if her digestive system is shutting down b/c she's not eating, but I do not believe it will help if there is a physical blockage. When Marie went off veggies, it took about 3 days for her to poop again with the combo of antibiotics and reglan. If she is pooping a little bit even, I would assume there is no physical blockage, so the gut motility aid might help?
no xrays yet. i think this should be the next logical step though when i get her to the vet next. she's attempted eating on her own but seems to have trouble swallowing sometimes. i thought it was her teeth initally but the vet says the front and molar teeth are all good. it cound be anything. have to wait for tomorrow to get her checked again. her attempt at eating at least gives me a little hope.
Sorry, but there are a million possible causes for this, and finding out what's going on over the Internet is much too much of a long shot. What you need to do is get that piggy back to the vet right now if not sooner!
yeah i know, it just sucks I can't get her in until tomorrow. was just trying to see if anyone else had the same issues. she has attempted to eat a little today and seems to have trouble swallowing chunkier bits of veggies. you're right it really could be anything. just so damn frustrating and heart breaking.
Is your vet well educated in how to treat guinea pigs? Not all of them are. I'd be very concerned if a vet I took my pigs to was not worried about a pig having diarrhea.
We had issues when one of our pigs was sick because the so-called emergency vet in our city actually knew nothing about guinea pigs. I had to do a bunch of research, tell the emergency vet what to do, and find other ways to help our pig while we waited to get into our regular vet.
Comments 10
Reply
I don't remember how many days it took before Gwenyth began eating on her own again, but Mom pulled her through not-eating twice.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Good luck!
Reply
Reply
Reply
We had issues when one of our pigs was sick because the so-called emergency vet in our city actually knew nothing about guinea pigs. I had to do a bunch of research, tell the emergency vet what to do, and find other ways to help our pig while we waited to get into our regular vet.
Reply
Leave a comment