Sick Bella lethargic

bpatters said:

I always used the knurled syringe that holds 15 doses. You just set the ring at the proper place and depress the plunger.

Click to expand...

Great, thanks. The 30 gm gel tip is too big. I assume this will be smaller

I used the same ones as @bpatters. It has a ring on it that measures out down to 1 gram doses. My boys always got 1 gram a couple of hours after each dose of antibiotics. If your pig is only on a single dose of antibiotics daily, one syringe will last 2 weeks.

You could always squeeze out about a gram from the 30 G syringe, and push it into a one ml syringe and administer it that way

Guinea Pig Papa said:

You could always squeeze out about a gram from the 30 G syringe, and push it into a one ml syringe and administer it that way

Click to expand...

I tried. It was a big mess and waste. Mooshy loved this stuff. Not Bella. I got 1. I'll see if the size of the tip is better fo smaller mouths. The 30 gm one is way too big for fighter Bella. She gets antibiotics 2 x a day 12 hours apart.

So you wouldn't ever know there's an issue with bella. Active, eats, behavior same...but still no drinking water on her own. Ugh. Stopped cc yesterday as new exotic vet said doesn't help with size of poops and could keep it small. And some are still dry despite my syringing water. Vet appt in the am for urine culture recheck. 2 weeks and a day in now with antibiotics and benebac. Btw the 15 gm gel is much better. Smaller so fits in mouth much better. I have no idea if this no drinking water on her own will ever end. I changed bottles too and still. I'm lost and so are both vets since she eats veggies, pellets and hay. It's only the water. :/

My pigs took drinking water by spells. Sometimes they drank, sometimes not. I just made sure their veggies were extra wet, and made sure some of the veggies had high water content -- cucumber, tomatoes, etc.

bpatters said:

My pigs took drinking water by spells. Sometimes they drank, sometimes not. I just made sure their veggies were extra wet, and made sure some of the veggies had high water content -- cucumber, tomatoes, etc.

Click to expand...

Hopefully that's it. Haven't seen this with mooshy or bianka. Especially in warmer weather. I don't drink enough in cooler weather but yes in warm.

So I decided to switch to Adobe Hospital in Los Gatos from Wildwood Veterinary in San Jose. No dics at the latter has owned pigs so kind if bothered me. To do an u/s for example is $700 because they have to get the mobile unit. At Adobe it was $170. Adobe has Dr. Nakamura who is the guru for difficult xrays, gp surgeries, etc. And 2 others one who has had gps of her own. It's an updated nice facility too.

Dr. Blackwolf saw Bella there for an u/s. Ovarian cysts on each side have grown but no symptoms and no sign of discomfort so no surgery is recommended right now. The mystery of not drinking on her own continues so syringing water and giving wet lettuce and more cucumbers continues. I'm to start decreasing syringing to see if she'll go to her water bottle. It has to be over 2 months now of not drinking water on her own.

When Lacey became ill, she stopped drinking from her bottle. She would take a swipe at it but not touch it, like it hurt her mouth. I could see she was getting dehydrated and I put a shallow dish of water in her cage and I saw her drink on several occasions. What worked the best, however, was mixing watermelon juice with water in a dish. Since she loved watermelon she would drink this right down.

I think my guinea pig might be going through the exact same thing! She won’t drink water on her own and I have no idea why. She will only drink a TINY bit when eating some pellets. The vet said it was probably a UTI because she did pee blood, but she still isn’t drinking anything after being treated with antibiotics. She was also a bit lethargic at first, but she has gotten better I think.

ItsaZoo said:

When Lacey became ill, she stopped drinking from her bottle. She would take a swipe at it but not touch it, like it hurt her mouth. I could see she was getting dehydrated and I put a shallow dish of water in her cage and I saw her drink on several occasions. What worked the best, however, was mixing watermelon juice with water in a dish. Since she loved watermelon she would drink this right down.

Click to expand...

I put a bowl in and put her favorite wheatgrass in it. If I put a bit of juice then I'm afraid she'll reject water I syringe as she's quick to hate stuff.

Guineapiggie06 said:

I think my guinea pig might be going through the exact same thing! She won’t drink water on her own and I have no idea why. She will only drink a TINY bit when eating some pellets. The vet said it was probably a UTI because she did pee blood, but she still isn’t drinking anything after being treated with antibiotics. She was also a bit lethargic at first, but she has gotten better I think.

Click to expand...

Mine recovered from uti and still doesn't drink. It's important you give cucumbers, wet lettuce and syringe water. I use 1 ml syringes you get on amazon and give like 40 mls a day or they'll dehydrate and could die. Watch the poops. If they are dry then need to hydrate more.

Getting hard to syringe water now. May get down to cucumbers and lettuce. Really don't know how much water they should drink in a day. Thinking of getting iceberg lettuce in addition to green/red for her since is mostly water. Anyone do this? How much to give? Vet says it's a behavioral problem as nothing she sees makes sense for her not to drink. I decrease the syringing and it doesn't increase her finding her water bottle or water bowl. What I do as well is soak tge wheatgrass and lettuce in the bowl and leave it in there. If a piece is under this 1/2" water then she won't get it. So why I'm thinking of adding some iceberg lettuce.

All lettuces are mostly water. You could just as easily soak another variety and get the liquid into her without the needless bulk of the iceberg lettuce in her stomach.