Hey Everyone,
I've also posted this on another popular forum but haven't found much help to date so I thought I'd try the again here.
I've got two male piggies who live in separate cages. The younger one, Bailey, is doing just fine but the older one, G.P., has been fighting a suspected URI for some time.
We took G.P. to a secondary vet who knows a little about guinea pigs but not as much as some of the more exotic vets. I did this because money is tight and I know the little guy needs help. On March 31st, we took him to the vet and were there for close to two hours. The little guy normally weighed over 1kg (as much as 1.2kg when he was younger) but had dropped to 834g by this visit. The vet did some bacteria slides and determined he had both cocci and rods present. She prescribed Baytril at 0.14mL x 2day which seemed to improve his look (eyes were less cloudy, watery, crusty and droopy) but he still wasn't eating his own food. By the Tuesday, he was down to almost 725g at which point I went to a 24-hour vet clinic and picked up Critical Care. He seemed to get better -- to the point where we had him up to 800g -- but still wouldn't eat his food. A week had passed and he still wasn't improving so we took him to a second vet who did some blood work, looked at his teeth, and determined that his liver and kidneys were functioning properly. We'd talked about stopping the Baytril incase that was killing his appetite but after close to 10 days, he was getting ill again and no change in his appetite had happened. We've resumed his Bayril in the meantime, gone through a second bag of Critical Care, and not much has changed. We've been ensuring he's been getting enough vitamin C as well (as per both vets) plus plenty of water (which he constantly drinks).
The funny thing is, at first, he'd grab onto the syringe for his Critical Care but now puts up a fight. We might be able to hand feed him his Genesis Extruded pellets but he will only eat so many of those.
If I give him baby spinach (a few leaves), he's all over them. If I give him a couple of baby carrots, he'll have them done within an hour or two. If I give him Vitakraft Happy Frutti treat, he'll go for that and eat plenty of it at one sitting leaving the rest of the food. For those not familiar with this treat, it's made up of hard/dried fruits and veggies:
(broken link removed)
So, his teeth are fine but he's just not wanting to eat any of the foods he normally should eat. He grew up on Oxbow Cavy Cuisine but has gotten over that so I switched him to Genesis Extruded Pellets which he gave up on (we can hand feed 15-20 of these at a time but the recommended feeding is 70-75 pellets/day -- if we don't hand feed, he might eat five on his own). We also tried the Hagen Guinea Pig pellets but he doesn't want those either.
Anybody have any ideas?
Thanks... we're more than concerned at this point because he's still in great spirits and very inquisitive (it's not like he just sits in his house when we're around).
I've also posted this on another popular forum but haven't found much help to date so I thought I'd try the again here.
I've got two male piggies who live in separate cages. The younger one, Bailey, is doing just fine but the older one, G.P., has been fighting a suspected URI for some time.
We took G.P. to a secondary vet who knows a little about guinea pigs but not as much as some of the more exotic vets. I did this because money is tight and I know the little guy needs help. On March 31st, we took him to the vet and were there for close to two hours. The little guy normally weighed over 1kg (as much as 1.2kg when he was younger) but had dropped to 834g by this visit. The vet did some bacteria slides and determined he had both cocci and rods present. She prescribed Baytril at 0.14mL x 2day which seemed to improve his look (eyes were less cloudy, watery, crusty and droopy) but he still wasn't eating his own food. By the Tuesday, he was down to almost 725g at which point I went to a 24-hour vet clinic and picked up Critical Care. He seemed to get better -- to the point where we had him up to 800g -- but still wouldn't eat his food. A week had passed and he still wasn't improving so we took him to a second vet who did some blood work, looked at his teeth, and determined that his liver and kidneys were functioning properly. We'd talked about stopping the Baytril incase that was killing his appetite but after close to 10 days, he was getting ill again and no change in his appetite had happened. We've resumed his Bayril in the meantime, gone through a second bag of Critical Care, and not much has changed. We've been ensuring he's been getting enough vitamin C as well (as per both vets) plus plenty of water (which he constantly drinks).
The funny thing is, at first, he'd grab onto the syringe for his Critical Care but now puts up a fight. We might be able to hand feed him his Genesis Extruded pellets but he will only eat so many of those.
If I give him baby spinach (a few leaves), he's all over them. If I give him a couple of baby carrots, he'll have them done within an hour or two. If I give him Vitakraft Happy Frutti treat, he'll go for that and eat plenty of it at one sitting leaving the rest of the food. For those not familiar with this treat, it's made up of hard/dried fruits and veggies:
(broken link removed)
So, his teeth are fine but he's just not wanting to eat any of the foods he normally should eat. He grew up on Oxbow Cavy Cuisine but has gotten over that so I switched him to Genesis Extruded Pellets which he gave up on (we can hand feed 15-20 of these at a time but the recommended feeding is 70-75 pellets/day -- if we don't hand feed, he might eat five on his own). We also tried the Hagen Guinea Pig pellets but he doesn't want those either.
Anybody have any ideas?
Thanks... we're more than concerned at this point because he's still in great spirits and very inquisitive (it's not like he just sits in his house when we're around).