Guinea pig losing weight

[Jamfirstest]

Hi folks I have a pair of boy pigs. I don't pick them up much as they are dds but picked them up today and one is half the weight of the other and a bit sad. He's eating but not as much. He's behaving like the rabbit when she's threatening stasis. I've got the empeprid can I give it? I won't without advice but he's looking a bit sorry for himself. I will call the vet in the am. What am I looking for? He's just skinnier.

Hmm we've given our guineas critical care by syringe when in this state so can't comment on emperprid. They hate it and unfortunately it doesn't really do much more than prevent stasis but the guineas don't last much longer sorry to say.

Other things we've tried have been syringe or teaspoon water and favourite treat food to tempt. Have you checked teeth length?

This is why we should weigh our guineas on a regular basis although we often forget and don't do it often enough.

You can syringe feed Science Select Recovery food. It has a pic of a rabbit on the front, but is suitable for guinea pigs for what you need. Ideally syringe feed on the hour every hour until assessed by the vet. It might be that you need to nip to the vet to purchase some, then go back when you have the appointment. In the interim before getting hold of the recovery food you can perhaps use warm (not hot) water to mash up some of the regular guineapig pellets and syringe feed that until you can get hold of the stuff.

are you sure of the difference in weight between them before now? Just asking as we had a pair together and one was way smaller than the other but turned out she was just “delicate” as PP says, if you can weigh regularly- weekly ideally you will have a better idea of what is normal and if it is a drop in weight.

if you can also separate the suspected unwell one out to keep an eye on poo production that will help too so you can go to the vets to say “in the last X hours, this was the poo he produced” and show your vet a pic and make sure you get close ups of any unusual ones too.

good luck, it is worrying.

I do have a success story on the feeding front. One of our male GPs teeth overgrew a few years ago and we syringe fed his usual nuggets mashed up in water for a couple of months. It worked, he lived another 18 months very happily after that. I should weigh our GPs more often too. He wouldn't take a couple of recovery foods we bought but did take the nuggets.

So pleased it worked for you!

I forgot to add in my post that we had a success story with this too.🙂 One of our girls was prone to getting blocked up - first time when she was about 1 but she lived until 5 and a half, with me having to do this a couple of times in her lovely little life.

Thanks everyone - sadly the vet found a tumour the size of a golf ball so he will e put to sleep when he deteriorates. It's all a bit shit

Oh I’m so sorry. They are such lovely things and it’s very sad when you have to say goodbye. I hope you have time for lots of love and extra veggies before you have to xx

Thanks he's fading fast. Vet says my himmy needs a companion back very soon so that's the next project!

so sorry to hear your news, hope it all goes as smoothly as it can

Sorry to read your update. They bring such joy don’t they? It’s always hard to say goodbye. X

He's hanging on by a thread this is grim. He's booked in Tuesday am for pts. I will be glad when it's over. He's stopped eating altogether now. Dd2 is away thankfully. When she gets back I can tell her we will be viewing some baby piggies soon.
Dp very sad he has a weird affinity for the piggies though he is a dog person.

I love all the pets but the slow dying is horrid though it isn't the same as the dog. I will have a complete breakdown when he goes.

Why do we get pets it's heartbreaking!

Sorry to hear he isn’t doing well. Is he interested at all in things like corriander, cucumber or dill? When mine were in their final stages they would still eat those - not ideal food stuffs and hay would be better, but as it is his last couple of days it might be nice to eat the super tasty stuff.

sending you and your family hugs. It’s so tough at moments like this

I've tried all the treats - he was a little interested yesterday but not today sadly. I tried banana herbs kale everything

Once the get to the stage where you need to make them eat it is the end of the road for them . These animals are stomach on legs the reason they are one this earth is to eat. We.ve done the syringe feeding over the years (critical care which has a prebiotic too) made up liquidey and vit c in water. Waking every hour or two to persuade a very annoyed little rodent . Even liquidised cucumber and parsley

Syringe feeding is a skill too , they need to chew the syringe to swallow

Jamfirst - you might find that your Guinea pigs takes things into his own paws and slips off by himself.
We had a similar situation with my daughters beloved pig , he was syringe fed and I cuddled him for hours thinking "this is it" every time he stretched but he lasted overnight and we did the early morning vet trip to say goodbye.

Hope it goes smooth as possible .
Take his cagemate so the last thing he sees is his friend and hears is your voice . Then let his body rest in the cage for his casemate to say goodbye and accept he's gone

He's gone I took him to the vet. He went at least 24 hours without eating so I knew it was time. It was so sad.
I have had advice about the next piggie so that's the plan. Snowy is a bit confused just now but he's off to the small animal hotel so at least he will smell and hear other piggies soon

I’m so sorry. He knew he was loved and it sounds as if you gave him a lovely piggy life. I hope Snowy does ok and your search for a friend for him, when the time is right, goes well.

Hugs to you - they are gorgeous little creatures and hard to say goodbye to 💐

Very sad but you know you did this for the guineapigs benefit.

Hopefully your himalayan boy will find a match.
We had a himalayan sow years back , she was quirky ( feisty) she was part of a huge 240 pig rescue and had just been weaned from her piglets and matched with another sow. (also weaned piglets)
Our bereaved boar was going for his castration but we wanted to give him something to keep him focused (ie the promise of company) so they were kept as side-by-sides very strict while he did his 6 weeks post surgery wait and got acquainted through bars .
They got on very well but needless to say he was not leader of the herd !.