@bpatters - I know, wasn't that vet report so great? At first I felt a little bit reluctant to bring Piggy (Buttercup's sister) to the vet for her fungal nose and have been trying to treat it myself, but I felt that they did such a comprehensive job with Buttercup that even if my treatment on Piggy does work I am still going to bring her in just so she can get a really thorough check up as well.
[MENTION=21108]Delaine[/MENTION] - I know, I worry about how much Vitamin C my piggies are getting as well. If I chop up green peppers really finely and mix it with some other veggies I can get Piggy to eat a bit and Buttercup to take a few nibbles. The vet said that red bell peppers have almost twice as much Vitamin C as the green ones (confirmed by Ly&Pigs nutrition charts), so even though they have a higher sugar content I figured that the sweeter taste might convince Buttercup to eat some. Go figure - neither Buttercup nor Piggy would get near the red ones, even when cut into really thin slices with pieces of yummy romaine lettuce wrapped around! They really like romaine, green leaf, and red leaf lettuce, but I try not to give them more than a cup each daily because I don't want to make Buttercup's mushy poops any worse. They go absolutely nuts for parsley which also has a pretty good amount of Vitamin C but like you, I don't want to give them too much because of the high levels of Calcium. Piggy seems a bit indifferent to strawberries, but Buttercup absolutely loves them and they are probably her favorite food right after parsley. Ly&Pigs charts lists them as okay for daily use but also says that all fruits are best fed only 1-2x a week. Buttercup likes them so much though and it's hard not to give in to her begging little eyes, so she probably gets about one big one every other day. How do your piggies like the Oxbow Daily C tablets? I think I might get them for my piggies but am a bit worried about them overdosing on too much of it. I guess that wouldn't really be a problem though since as it is they barely eat any peppers and get most of it from romaine and parsley.
Update on Buttercup:
It is now day 4 of her being on the medication. It's probably too soon to tell, but so far the Flagyl has not seemed to make too much of a difference. In fact, just during the time I've been sitting here writing this post I saw her raise her butt, squeak, and this big thing came out:
It's strange, but she absolutely loves her Flagyl. I think she thinks it is at treat! This is a huge difference from Piggy, who has the fungal nose that I've been putting Betadine and Miconazole on. I don't blame her, but she fights me the whole time and when I am done skulks back and glares at me from the cage.
One of the things the vets told me is that Buttercup really needs to gain some weight. As you can see from the report, she only has a body condition score of 1.5/5 and also you can prominently feel her spine when petting her back. I have increased their amount of pellets to 1.5 cups a day (they don't eat that much but basically their food bowl is never empty), but even though Bcup needs more pellets I don't know how to stop Piggy from eating them as well. Fortunately, from 2/16 to 2/19 Piggy's weight has remained relatively stable (from 1150 g to 1145) but Buttercup's has increased from 650 g to 667. It's not too much of a difference, but at least it's in the right direction!