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Weight Loss Healthy Appetite but still losing weight

kwerbach

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Jul 26, 2017
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I was hoping you all could provide some ideas on why both of my 2.5 year old guinea pigs (biological sisters) could have a healthy appetite but still be slowly losing weight. They are showing no signs of illness at all. (i.e, they are both eating, drinking popping normal, etc.) Because they were both losing weight I decided to take them both to a well-known, experienced exotic vet clinic. I took them in on July 21 and both passed on the physical exam (no signs of illness). They took blood work on each and a stool sample to see if there were any parasites. On July 24, the vet called to say the stool sample showed no parasites and the blood work showed low potassium and mildly elevated liver enzymes for both pigs. The vet told me to vary their diet more and placed them on a medicine called Liver Defense to help with the liver enzyme issue. This past week I added more leafy greens to their meals (and varied it like requested) and when I weighed them today they both had lost more weight. One of girls almost lost an ounce. I've read that it is hard to put weight back on a guinea pig when they lose weight. I was hoping it would remain stable with the diet change. It is as though the food is not be digested properly.


I searched the forum to see what other people have experienced and saw that I should talk to the vet to see if they checked the back teeth when they were sedated for the blood work. I know weight loss in humans can be due to diabetes so I thought I would ask if the blood work showed glucose levels. Any other possibilities?
 

Guinea Pig Papa

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The teeth is what I would check if everything else came back normal. I thought my boar Sly was eating normally but after reading a post here on the forum, I checked his teeth and lo and behold that was the problem.
 

bpatters

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What are they bedded on? The phenols in pine can cause liver disease.
 

kwerbach

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The girls are in a 2 x 5 C&C cage with fleece and wood pellets in the kitchen. The wood pellets are 100% hardwood. The only additive on the bag is 0.05% vegetable oil.
 
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