Conditions Experience with aging piggies

That's what I was thinking as well. But I like to double down on knowing what's going on with my fellas. It just kind of breaks my heart knowing that he's getting older and his time is getting short. I just wanted to make sure I was doing everything right.

Thank you for the kind words, spy9doc. Sly turned 5 in November. I love these furry little creatures to infinity and beyond and I actually lose sleep at night worrying about what I should or shouldn't be doing, and getting up to check and make sure everything is as it should be.

It's great knowing that others who've gone through this can share their experiences with relatively new piggy slaves.

The oxbow joint support tabs that sally is referring to are probably the same ones that I started getting Pooper last year when he showed signs of arthritis, and subsequently started feeding them to Sly as well. They won't eat them as a tablet of course, so I use a zester and grind them into a fine powder, mix with a small amount of Critical Care and water, and either put it in a small dish or use a syringe. I think personally Sly prefers the syringe because he gets personal attention when he gets it. He also gets a 1cc syringe of liquid glucosamine every morning, and it truly made a huge difference for Pooper after about 2 weeks. Sly has been getting the tablets since last summer and shows no signs of arthritis whatsoever.

I'll post a photo of the label on my bottle. Dr Ker says everything in it is fine for him. It will only help him, not hurt him. Same goes for the liquid glucosamine.

Here is the label on the Oxbow Joint Support tablets.

Sally, have you tried the liquid glucosamine/chondroitin for Margaret? That's what I started Pooper on first and after about two weeks, I noticed a huge difference in his mobility. I got a big bottle of it from Costco and Sly gets a 1cc syringe full every morning. He drinks it straight from the syringe, loves it. I started with the Joint Support tablets for Poopy because of the natural anti inflammatory properties in the ingredients. Our vet checked out the bottle of glucosamine and told us they can have it no problem, wont hurt them a bit. The bottle is 1 litre, 20 bucks and at 1 syringe per day will last about 3 years for one pig.

My mother suggested it to me years ago, when i was 18 I was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis. I never really bothered with it, but I've been using it as long as I've been giving it to the piggies and it HAS made a difference. That big bottle only lasts me a month, lol, but for $20 a month what the heck. I've always said that if I won $50 million in the lottery and my pig got sick and that it would cost $51 million to cure them, I'd beg borrow or steal that last million. So far it's worked for both me and my piggies, so I can definitely say it's worth a shot for anyone considering it for themselves or their cavies.

The brand that I've been giving my boys is called Wellesse. It's a 1 litre bottle, white at
the top then a red band and a mostly blue label.

And I wholeheartedly agree with spy9doc, congratulations on graduating university! That's a huge accomplishment. I would like to see those picures too!

spy9doc said:

Well, you certainly piqued my curiosity with this one! Sure enough I found it at Costco, although a bit less than you paid. Must be the difference in currency valuation. I have a friend who swears that glucosamine/chrondoitin makes a bit difference in her pain level, so I'm going to give it to her as a present and see what her feedback is. Interesting that it has helped both you can your boys.

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I can definitely say it has helped both myself and Sly, and that it did make a difference for Poopy as well before we lost him. Sly has no indications of arthritis at all other than the odd leg dragging, but he's always done that. When I take and then stop taking it I notice a big difference in my mobility within about two weeks.

grace&piggies said:

Winifred is now 7yrs 6 months. I can't remember exactly when she appeared bonier but it did happen some time ago. I had concerns about arthritis and one vet did suggest metacam however I was concerned about the impact that might have on her kidneys and liver long-term. As she was otherwise cheerful, I opted for upping her vit C intake and playing around with her diet. Mostly in the veggies she's eating, capsicum is on high rotation, and with Oxbow vit C. I was feeding her other oxbow supplements but I noticed the most difference with the vit c supplement. I haven't seen any signs of arthritis in months.
Recently with concerns about ovarian cysts and weight loss, she is on young guinea pig pellets. As a hay & veg pig, it has taken nearly four months to get her up to eating a few teaspoons a day. The vet recommended them as she is an older pig, she may not be absorbing as much from her food and baby pig food is dense in nutrients and calories. I would recommend checking in with your vet before switching back though.
I will definitely be asking the specialist about liquid glucosamine next appointment. Sounds interesting!

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I also opted for the natural alternatives first before Metacam for Poopy. The liquid glucosamine did wonders for him, and only in the last month of his life did he start receiving Metacam when it was apparent that some days it was warranted.

Not sure what to make of this. Sly has started dropping weight again. His last six weeks read like this:

March 5th 1341grams
March 12th 1332 grams
March 26th 1289 grams
April 2nd 1307 grams
April 9th 1291 grams
Today 1250 grams.

He appears to be in excellent spirits, is a happy pig, and appears to have a healthy appetite. About week ago he was binge drinking a fair bit but that has stopped. He has never been this light since he was a pup. Flabbergasted.

Sly is 5 1/2 now

That's what I'll do then. I didn't get the opportunity to monitor Poopy under the same conditions as he had fallen ill in May last year, and even though he recovered arthritis set in and I couldn't really get a good baseline. The heaviest he's been since I got the digital scale has been 1416 grams and that was beginning of August and though he ha had weeks where he gained some back, what you've described is exactly what's happening.

I just picked up the Oasis vitamin c drops for Sly, so hopefully they will make a difference. He's still a happy, playful pig so fingers are crossed.

I just have one issue that I've noticed now. Sly won't eat hay any more. He eats his treats fine, his pellets fine, his daily vegetables fine. He just picks at the odd strand of hay now and then but for the most part won't eat it. He's not getting much in the way of vegetables or treats, and I've also tried switching to orchard grass hay several days ago, but he won't eat that either. I'm pretty sure he'll eat alfalfa hay, because he dove right into that when the babies were getting it, but I know it's high in calcium so I'm not sure if that's a viable option. I don't want to cut him back any further on his other foods, because he's still having a weight loss issue.

Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do to get him to eat his hay?

He's always gotten Oxbow, I don't feed him Kaytee or other crap. He'd always gotten Oxbow Timothy Grass, and I bought a bag of Oxbow Orchard grass to try several days ago, but he won't touch it either. He loves it though, he makes a bed out of it and lies on it.

I'll have to try the corn, though in Canada I've not seen any recently in my grocery store. And a lot of the hay brands that those of you in the U.S. can get are unavailable to me in Canada. I believe I can get Small Pet Select through Amazon here, just unsure of shipping time and of course costs for shipping will likely be high.

Hmmmm. KMS Hayloft's website does say they'll ship to Canada, for some reason I thought that had changed. Perhaps it was Kleenmama's I was thinking of.

And now as I'm trying to order from KMS, Canada is not an option in their list of countries that they ship to.

Small Pet Select won't ship to Canada, but I can get it from Amazon.ca. The price is a staggering $207.77 Canadian for a 10 pound box of 3rd cut timothy hay.

I'm trying to figure out a way to get it over here, or get the little bear cub to eat hay again. I'm reluctant to go the alfalfa hay route again, but I know he'll eat it and his teeth seem to be angling a bit again so he needs something that will grind his teeth down.

sallyvh said:

The price of shipping hay from KMS or small pet select into Canada would be horrendous. The only way you may be able to get it in cheaper would be to ship it to a border mail service center (Kinek or something similar) then drive over the border and pick it up. I have no clue what kind of duties you would face at the border though or if you would have any difficulty getting it across.

KMS used to ship to Canada but they were having issues with huge charges on delivery so they were cancelling orders. Not sure if this was ever properly resolved or not. I used to buy pellets 50lbs at a time from them but we have since switched to Oxbow's new formula and I'm sticking with it as it is much cheaper for me to get here!

We are extremely limited with hay options here. The only decent brand available for bulk is Oxbow. We can't get really get any of the American stuff here.

I also haven't seen any fresh corn here yet, it's usually mid to late June when we start getting cobs of corn in the grocery store.

If he's off of hay and his teeth are starting to angle again I would be taking him back to the vet for a molar exam. Unfortunately teeth issues seem to be ongoing in pigs and very rarely does it seem to be a one and done issue.

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I'm glad you took the time to answer, Sally. I knew you'd pretty much be in the same boat that I'm in, and you've basically confirmed what I've been finding already.

After Sly's initial round of dental work, he had another checkup done at the end of March, 3 months after his surgery. I wanted to have him checked just to make sure, but at that time his teeth had started to angle again so I was worried. After a couple of cancellations I finally got him in two weeks later that I was supposed to get him in, and his teeth had straightened themselves out again. He got a clean bill of health and his teeth were great.

That was end of March, and it's only been the last couple weeks that I've seen the drop in hay consumption. Fortunately for me, driving across the border is a possibility as I only live about 15 minutes from it, but it's been awhile since I've brought anything back across the border and I have no idea what may have changed since Donald Duck took office.

lissie said:

Is there a local farm in Canada that you can order hay from? Where do people with horses get their hay?

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There actually are many many farms around here, and a place called Minor Bros. that basically does farm supply. I believe I can get hay there, I've not yet tried. I would actually have to go there and check, as their website is virtually useless.