Not Eating Newly adopted boy not doing well

[cinnyminny]

I adopted a ~4 mo old boy last sunday. We already have a girl who is around 4 years. We of course have them housed separately right now. Chili is our new boy and we adopted him after we heard of a lady here locally who was hoarding animals and children in a mini-van. 23 guinea pigs, several dogs, cats, and rabbits, and 4 children were living in a mini van! All of the pigs rescued were altered.

We have never had an altered pig before so we didn't really know about post-op procedures. He seemed to be perfectly fine so we were letting him run around for some floor time. We did notice he seemed to have some upper respiratory symptoms but since all the pigs were altered and "vet-checked" we thought he was probably ok.

He was acting and eating normally until Saturday. I picked him up and noticed that one side of his altered area was really swollen and pussing. It also smelled TERRIBLE. and his poos were very small and he wasn't going very much. once my DF got home from work we both became very worried about the inflammation. So we called a 24 hour vet (since it was later in the evening). She said he probably needed antibiotics to help the infection and that she would text her vet tech and they would call me the next morning to bring him in for treatment.

So Sunday morning I take Chili in. The vet tech weighs him and gets his antibiotics ready for 2 weeks worth. Then she gives him some Sub Q fluids for dehydration but she said he filled up quickly so she didn't think he was too dehydrated. The rest of the day he just hid in his pigloo. He did eat some lettuce and a little bit of his green pepper but all of it like he had been before. He still wasn't pooing very much and they were getting stuck to him.

I also noticed he wasn't getting water too often, so I unhooked the water bottle and brought it to his mouth. He drank quite a bit when I hand fed him the water. Then this morning I gave him his lettuce and he ate some of it again. I was so worried to leave him all day while we were at work. When I got home he didn't really eat but a few bites of lettuce and I could tell he hadn't really touched his hay all day. He only eats maybe one piece of hay every few hours. So I looked up hand feeding and mixed up a pellet slurry to get his digestion going again. The original post I read (I think it was on guinealynx) didn't really say how much to feed of the slurry except for to weight the pig and go based off of weight. so I gave him quite a bit of the slurry. But then I read the post on here about only giving 3-5 mL and I know I gave him MUCH more than that I'm so worried I made it worse by giving him too much.


When should I give him his next feeding? The post on here says every 2-5 hours but since I gave him way too much for his first feeding, when should I give him the next dose? I already did a belly massage because I suspect there may be some bloating.


As i was writing this, I saw him eat a small piece of lettuce that is in his cage. This is a good sign that he is still eating small amounts on his own, right? But there are hardly any poos at all in his cage so I'm really worried about that.

 

[bpatters]

I don't where you saw 3-5 ml, but ignore it. A pig that isn't eating anything on its own needs 50-60 cc (1 cc = 1 ml) of slurry per day, given in several feedings. If he'll only take 5 ml at a time, you need 10-12 feedings. If he'll take 10, you only need 5-6 feedings. If he'll take 15, you only need four, and so on. If he's eating a fair amount on his own, you can decrease the amount of slurry you're feeding. Time your next feeding according to how much he ate the last time. You said he ate a good bit, so you can wait 2-4 hours, particularly if he's eating lettuce in between.

If you haven't already, read https://www.guinealynx.info/handfeeding.html.

What antibiotic did they give you? Antibiotics can really decrease a pig's appetite. Many people recommend probiotics whenever a pig has antibiotics. You may be able to find Bene-Bac at a pet store, or you can use plain human acidophilus or kyodophilus tablets -- crush them and sprinkle them on his food if he'll eat it that way, or mix it in with the slurry. Probiotics should be given at least an hour before or an hour after the antibiotic, and two hours is probably better.

Keep an eye on the poops, but be aware that some pigs will eat all their poop when they're sick, not just the cecal ones. So it may not be a bad thing that you're not seeing any. If he truly isn't pooping, that's a real problem, but if he is and is eating them, it's not. Just in case, also read https://www.guinealynx.info/search_bloat.html.

Feed him pretty much anything he'll eat except a lot of fruit. He needs food moving through his system all the time, even during the night. Unfortunately, that means someone has to get up and feed him. But if he has favorite veggies, put those out for him, and put them close to him if he isn't moving much.

Keep us posted on how he's doing, and good luck with him!

 

[foggycreekcavy]

What did they do to the abscess? I hope they lanced and drained it. It helps for you to flush the wound out several times a day as well. Guinea pig abscesses rarely go away with only antibiotics.

 

[cinnyminny]

I don't where you saw 3-5 ml, but ignore it. A pig that isn't eating anything on its own needs 50-60 cc (1 cc = 1 ml) of slurry per day, given in several feedings. If he'll only take 5 ml at a time, you need 10-12 feedings. If he'll take 10, you only need 5-6 feedings. If he'll take 15, you only need four, and so on. If he's eating a fair amount on his own, you can decrease the amount of slurry you're feeding. Time your next feeding according to how much he ate the last time. You said he ate a good bit, so you can wait 2-4 hours, particularly if he's eating lettuce in between.

If you haven't already, read https://www.guinealynx.info/handfeeding.html.

What antibiotic did they give you? Antibiotics can really decrease a pig's appetite. Many people recommend probiotics whenever a pig has antibiotics. You may be able to find Bene-Bac at a pet store, or you can use plain human acidophilus or kyodophilus tablets -- crush them and sprinkle them on his food if he'll eat it that way, or mix it in with the slurry. Probiotics should be given at least an hour before or an hour after the antibiotic, and two hours is probably better.

Keep an eye on the poops, but be aware that some pigs will eat all their poop when they're sick, not just the cecal ones. So it may not be a bad thing that you're not seeing any. If he truly isn't pooping, that's a real problem, but if he is and is eating them, it's not. Just in case, also read https://www.guinealynx.info/search_bloat.html.

Feed him pretty much anything he'll eat except a lot of fruit. He needs food moving through his system all the time, even during the night. Unfortunately, that means someone has to get up and feed him. But if he has favorite veggies, put those out for him, and put them close to him if he isn't moving much.

Keep us posted on how he's doing, and good luck with him!

I read the guinealynx info prior to handfeeding. Then I came here (after several years of not being an active member here) and I saw the thread on GI stasis and thats where I saw 3-5 mL. I wasn't sure if that was just a guideline of how much to feed in that one particular squirt or for the whole feeding.

ATM it is 6:15am and he is propped up on his bowl eating pellets on his own. yay! I will be giving him some fresh lettuce and green peppers soon. Should I still be giving him the slurry if he's doing this? This is actually an improvement from yesterday as I don't think he really ate any pellets on his own yesterday (but its hard to say since I was at work for 10 hours).

Regarding the probiotics, I have Philips colon health here at home. Are those okay to use? They have 3 different strains of bacteria so I wasn't sure if they were okay to give to him. He has only had 2 doses of the antibiotic, going to receive his 3rd dose this morning. I would like to start giving him a probiotic asap.

With the poops, I used to have a pig who ate poos ALL the time so I'm used to seeing that. But since he has an infection back there from the surgery I don't see him moving that much really, so I would think bending to get the poos would hurt. And whenever we check the area, the poos are usually stuck either to the outside of his bum or are kind of stringy and we have to pull them out of his bum


THANK YOU for all the help, and I will keep you guys posted on his status. It would really hurt to lose him, being so young and the situation that he came from We lost our first girl we ever had a little over a year ago to an ovarian cyst. She died in my arms and it was so so hard to watch.

 

[cinnyminny]

What did they do to the abscess? I hope they lanced and drained it. It helps for you to flush the wound out several times a day as well. Guinea pig abscesses rarely go away with only antibiotics.

The vet does not specialize in small animals, although she does work with them. But we went to her because she's very close and it was a saturday night, sunday morning. However, she went back and forth with the tech vet about whether we should leave the infection completely alone or if we should be cleaning it and doing warm compresses. She said she didn't want us to hurt him or make it worse since its his testicular area.

What do you recommend? I trust the information here and the people giving it so if you think we need to be tending to the infection site that is what we will do!

 

[cinnyminny]

oh also from reading around I read that taking a poo from a healthy pig, dissolving in water, and adding to slurry is better than a probiotics. would anyone here agree?

 

[bpatters]

I don't think an infection is going to heal up on its own. I'd be looking for a good exotic vet, especially given the complicated nature of this and the fact that you're not sure what the problem is.

And yes, I'd definitely recommend poop soup for him, especially since he's unable to eat his own poops. Or pull his own yucky green ones out and offer them to him -- that'll be even better.

Re the 3-5 ml, that is appropriate for GI stasis, because the gut isn't moving, and you don't want to overload it. But for a pig who's just not eating but is still pooping, you can feed more at a time.

 

[cinnyminny]

Im going to mix some poo soul into his slurry. This morning he ate it right off the spoon but didnt eat too much. I also realized the syringe I have is only 1 mL so we didnt give him as much as I thought last night. Maybe 8 mL total. Im going to continue the slurry for now to supplement his own eating, which isnt enough.

Im trying to find a local exotic vet but Im having a hard time. All the vet results Im findig online say they work with small animals, even the one I took him to Sunday morning. But I know they are not experts in guinea pigs. Im going to continue looking.

 

[bpatters]

What's the closest city to you?

 

[cinnyminny]

I looked over my lunch break and the closest exotic vet is over 2.5 hours away

 

[cinnyminny]

I just wanted to let everyone know that we lost Chili today. My fiance took him to the vet this afternoon. The vet decided to sedate him and go into his incision from his altering surgery to drain it out. When she brought him out of sedation he was doing okay but then started having trouble breathing so she put him on oxygen. She came out a few minutes later and my DF knew he hadnt made it. He said the vet even began to cry.

This poor baby is no longer suffering, which is the best thing. I cant help but be mad at the lady who hoarded these animals in her mini van. I hope none of the other pigs ended up sick like our Chili.

 

[foggycreekcavy]

I'm sorry.

 

[MuggleMaggie]

So sorry for your loss.