I am very puzzled as to the condition that my Badger has. He started having trouble eating last week - stopped eating lettuce, even his favorite parsley, and his hay. After 2 days of trying to feed him everything I could think of in addition to his normal veggies (fresh grass, wheat grass, Oxbow pellets, various kinds of Oxbow hay- he refused all) I took him to the vet, who checked out his teeth with a camerascope in the mouth and felt all round his head and jaw. His heart and lungs were fine. He was not depressed-looking in front of the vet; he said he had a good attitude. The vet saw nothing wrong with his teeth, no uneven wear etc. But it was clear Badger was losing weight - down to 1150 g. which is very low for him. (He was about 1480 when I brought him to Colorado two months ago.) That vet visit was one week ago, Thursday. The vet gave me Critical Care and I began feeding as much as he would take of it. He would eat it off a popsicle stick, obviously hungry and eager to eat. He began to improve that day, once he started getting food in. The vet also gave me a probiotic for him. He went from no poop to larger and larger and finally pretty healthy looking poops (to me).
By Sunday he was eating some blades of cut wheat grass, and I could roll up some tender leaves of baby lettuce and he would take them and was able to chew them slowly using his usual wood-chipper style - direct full-frontal munching as the food disappears through the front teeth and into the mouth. (He is normally a very fast eater, but not since this started; he's very slow). But with larger leaves, he had trouble. And, especially hay. I managed to get a bit of hay into him by rolling up a strand in a leaf. But I noticed that sometimes he'd finish the leaf but have the hay strand hanging out of his mouth as though he can't get it to move into his mouth. It gets stuck there - with the end chewed but not cut through. Sometimes the same with spinach - I don't usually feed spinach but he loves it so I let him have some leaves from the spring greens packet. The spinach leaf would be chewed on the end but then expelled, like he couldn't get it in. He tries to maneuver a leaf into the center of his mouth by tossing his head, trying to get it positioned right, but when he can't, he steps on it to tear it. If he can't get it right he gets frustrated and gives up and goes for something else.
This past Tuesday I took him for a follow-up vet visit. I took the 5 days of poops in yogurt containers so the vet could see the progress. He said Badger was 80% back to normal but he wanted to see more and moister poops. Heart, lungs, attitude still good. I said he still would go into a corner and face the wall, hunched up, after eating sometimes, as though he possibly had some pain. The vet still could not find any problem with the teeth. He said maybe it is a root problem, but that would be difficult to treat. He did not see any mouth sores or other mouth problem. He did not want to take an x-ray because he would have to put Badger under and he said we should see whether he improves first. He gave me an NSAID in case it seemed like Badger was in pain. Badger picked up a piece of hay in the vet's office and was nibbling at it, which vet and I found encouraging, but later I noticed that he had not actually eaten that piece. Today, Thursday, he seemed to backslide a bit and not want to eat much of his mush, and refused any baby lettuce leaves and parsley and cucumber cut up very tiny which he had been eating the last 4 days. So I gave him the NSAID (.2cc of Metacam) and then fed him some mush (i.e. Critical Care) via syringe, which he struggled against mightily. At least I got the medicine and his probiotic and some of the mush into him. I let him rest and then he ate more mush off a popsicle stick, eagerly as though hungry. I saw him trying to eat hay but dropping it. He also ate some very thin matchsticks of carrot (again, not something I give him often due to the high sugar) and of fennel. The vet said I should also give him a lot of water through syringe as he won't drink from the bottle. He never did drink much, but now we're in a dry climate. Badger was drinking from the bottle when it was hot out, before he was sick, but now it has cooled down a lot outside and in (we have no A/C) and he won't drink.
What could it be if his teeth are ok? I'm at my wits' end. Luckily Badger is a feisty boy and wants to get better.
By Sunday he was eating some blades of cut wheat grass, and I could roll up some tender leaves of baby lettuce and he would take them and was able to chew them slowly using his usual wood-chipper style - direct full-frontal munching as the food disappears through the front teeth and into the mouth. (He is normally a very fast eater, but not since this started; he's very slow). But with larger leaves, he had trouble. And, especially hay. I managed to get a bit of hay into him by rolling up a strand in a leaf. But I noticed that sometimes he'd finish the leaf but have the hay strand hanging out of his mouth as though he can't get it to move into his mouth. It gets stuck there - with the end chewed but not cut through. Sometimes the same with spinach - I don't usually feed spinach but he loves it so I let him have some leaves from the spring greens packet. The spinach leaf would be chewed on the end but then expelled, like he couldn't get it in. He tries to maneuver a leaf into the center of his mouth by tossing his head, trying to get it positioned right, but when he can't, he steps on it to tear it. If he can't get it right he gets frustrated and gives up and goes for something else.
This past Tuesday I took him for a follow-up vet visit. I took the 5 days of poops in yogurt containers so the vet could see the progress. He said Badger was 80% back to normal but he wanted to see more and moister poops. Heart, lungs, attitude still good. I said he still would go into a corner and face the wall, hunched up, after eating sometimes, as though he possibly had some pain. The vet still could not find any problem with the teeth. He said maybe it is a root problem, but that would be difficult to treat. He did not see any mouth sores or other mouth problem. He did not want to take an x-ray because he would have to put Badger under and he said we should see whether he improves first. He gave me an NSAID in case it seemed like Badger was in pain. Badger picked up a piece of hay in the vet's office and was nibbling at it, which vet and I found encouraging, but later I noticed that he had not actually eaten that piece. Today, Thursday, he seemed to backslide a bit and not want to eat much of his mush, and refused any baby lettuce leaves and parsley and cucumber cut up very tiny which he had been eating the last 4 days. So I gave him the NSAID (.2cc of Metacam) and then fed him some mush (i.e. Critical Care) via syringe, which he struggled against mightily. At least I got the medicine and his probiotic and some of the mush into him. I let him rest and then he ate more mush off a popsicle stick, eagerly as though hungry. I saw him trying to eat hay but dropping it. He also ate some very thin matchsticks of carrot (again, not something I give him often due to the high sugar) and of fennel. The vet said I should also give him a lot of water through syringe as he won't drink from the bottle. He never did drink much, but now we're in a dry climate. Badger was drinking from the bottle when it was hot out, before he was sick, but now it has cooled down a lot outside and in (we have no A/C) and he won't drink.
What could it be if his teeth are ok? I'm at my wits' end. Luckily Badger is a feisty boy and wants to get better.