Not Eating Friar Tuck's medical thread

Poor Friar Tuck!

But he's in good hands with you!

Have you tried Vetricyn? I have used it successfully for minor wounds and a minor case of bumblefoot one of my older pigs had when I adopted her. I applied several times a day to the foot. It was recommended to me by our local shelter and my vet. It can be bought at amazon, chewy, ect.

https://vetericyn.com/product/vetericyn-plus-all-animal-wound-and-skin-care/

Thank you so much @Smileandnod and @bpatters!

We should be able to get silver sulfadiazine prescription called in today, and vetricyn is at our local pet store and tractor supply!! I really like how the vetricyn is completely non toxic and safe for all animals/all ages.

I think his feet are already looking ever so slightly better with the epsom salt soaks.

I hope he’s improving. You caught it early on so hopefully you’ll get it under control.

I thought of him when I put coconut oil on Lacey’s feet this morning. I do that every few days since the air is so dry. She complained as usual.

We got the silver sulfadiazine, and applied it after tonight's epsom salt soak. His feet are definitely slightly better! but not healed yet.

We can get the vetricyn tomorrow, so having the silver sulfadiazine, coconut oil, and vetricyn, should we use only one? Stick with the silver sulfadiazine alone, or use it with the coconut oil, etc? Apply the coconut oil at a different time of day?

I'd use both. You need to rub the silver sulfadiazene in well, and then you can put a coat of coconut oil over the top.

Friar Tuck's feet are definitely less red today! And this is only after 1 day of the silver sulfadiazine. I'm doing the thin coconut oil coat over it once it soaks in, too. I'm spot cleaning his bedding three times a day now, so it's never damp anywhere, and making it a little thicker. No other changes to report

Feet are looking even better!!! Just barely barely red, he's still eating like a piggy, and weight is hovering around 960-970g.

Can't tell you how happy it makes me to hear he's doing well. I was pretty worried about him for awhile, his situation seemed so very much like Scooter. Every time I saw a negative post, my heart just ached for him and for you.

Way to go, Tuckster! Keep it up!

So glad to read this. I thought of him today when I put coconut oil on Lacey’s feet and I was hoping he was healing up.

Friar Tuck's weight is all the way up to 995g today!! This morning he had emptied his pellet bowl overnight, and munching everything all day long.

His feet are looking SO much better...the peeling skin is almost gone like a healed scab, and the skin I can see underneath looks healthy:

Left foot:


Right foot:


How much longer should we do the epsom salt soaks as well the silver sulfadiazine and coconut oil?

I feel like the silver sulfadiazine/ coconut oil is making the biggest difference, so curious if we could start doing just them. (He's also not fond of the foot soaks, but doesn't mind the cream/coconut) And the main pad/heels of his feet have always been a darker pink/slightly reddish color normally, just like human feet are darker at the heel/ball of foot.

What a difference! His feet are looking great! If it were me, I would just keep up with the silver sulfadiazine/coconut oil. Epsom salt is great for reducing inflammation and cleansing but it is very drying. At this point it looks like moisturizer would do the trick to get that new skin healthy and slough off the old skin. Just my opinion, though. Someone with more experience might have a better idea where to go from here.

ItsaZoo said:

What a difference! His feet are looking great! If it were me, I would just keep up with the silver sulfadiazine/coconut oil. Epsom salt is great for reducing inflammation and cleansing but it is very drying. At this point it looks like moisturizer would do the trick to get that new skin healthy and slough off the old skin. Just my opinion, though. Someone with more experience might have a better idea where to go from here.

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Thank you @ItsaZoo!! That's what I've been thinking...and Friar Tuck is still doing awesome today!

Sorry it's been a few days since an update, there's kind of been a mix of things to make sense of...

Good news is, Friar Tuck's feet are almost completely better! Old skin is almost gone and new skin looks healthy:


(The little black dot was just a speck of something that wiped right off)

His weight, however keeps going up and down, up and down. The last week and half, he dropped to 920ish grams, climbed all the way back up 1005, hovered in the 970s, now going back down again to 946.

Some days he devours his pellets (completely emptying the bowl) some days he only picks at them and his hay. The last couple days he's been devouring fresh corn, oranges, carrot, and cucumber, but is turning up his nose at everything else. He's still active and acting normal. Some days there's slightly less poop, but all his poops are normal.

He still hasn't decided to consistently use his water bottle since he got sick, almost like he blames it for something. He'll do one or two taps out of the blue, but doesn't drink like he used to. So I still syringe him water a few times a day, which he absolutely loves for some reason i got a new bottles, one guinea pig and one hamster sized to see if it changed anything, but it didn't. I can't find anything wrong with the old one.

It's almost like whatever gave him GI issues in the first place still flares up a little, then goes away. Or like he eats one veggie well, then blames it for not feeling good (even though it's not what caused it). It kind of popped in my head because we also have a macaw with a sort of bird form of human IBS (best way to describe it) For her, every few months or so it flares up, she doesn't eat well and blames whatever food she normally loves and most recently eaten. She gets her medicine for it a week or so and it goes away again for another few months. I've heard some guinea pigs are born with chronic GI troubles too....

But overall he's a happy piggy and doing amazing compared where he was <3

Thoughts? Has anyone else had a previously ill piggy do similar things?

Scooter. He went off his water bottle for months when he got sick. Even when he was feeling much, much better, it took weeks for him to drink normally again. The first time he began drinking again was during introductions to Leo. The second time, I have no idea what prompted it. He just started again........and then I lost him.

If you're syringing him water, thats a good thing. I wonder if maybe he might benefit from a daily dose of poop soup for awhile. You do have another healthy pig if I remember correctly. With all the ill pigs I've had, oddly enough I have found that poop soup works as the absolute best probiotic. That may help settle his tummy and start it working normally again.

Also, like you, I was weighing Scooter twice a day, and I would fret needlessly over the weight lost. I was absolutely triumphant when he made any gains, and devastated when he slid back down again. I was still doing his weekly weigh ins, and I found that over the course of a week even though the daily fluctuations seemed large, over the course of seven days that most of the time they generally weren't all that big at all. Believe me, I KNOW how worried you are and the impulse to weigh him is strong. I've been there and done that. But if all his other habits seem to go back to normal, it might be time to force yourself to go back to weekly weigh ins.

I should also add that I also bought new water bottles for Punkin and Scooter (Punkin also stopped drinking, but mostly due to pain) and it also had no effect.

Look back on your weights for Friar Tuck last Sunday morning, and compare them to THIS Sunday morning. How much of a difference is there?

Fresh corn, carrots and oranges are an awful lot of sugar for a guinea pig. And sugar can upset the digestive tract because it affects the balance of good and bad bacteria.

I would take him off all that stuff. If he won't eat hay and pellets, then hand feed him with Critical Care, Critter Be Better, or a pellet slurry. Make sure he has good fresh hay. You want to see if you can reset his diet. Pigs are like kids -- you give 'em candy and they won't touch their veggies. Once he's eating hay and pellets, then add back bell pepper and red or green leaf lettuce. Let everything else be a treat, not his main diet.

Thank you SO much @Guinea Pig Papa!

I've only been weighing him once a day now, but there were still swings worrying me. The week to week perspective really helps! There's only been about a 20g difference, up or down, over the last three weeks.

He LOVES syringed water even though he ignores his bottles now...I just give him whatever he wants to drink, usually about 25 ccs in total for the day. He frequently tries to pull the syringe out of my hand and take it in his house with him lol

I do have another healthy piggy, Robin Hood...so not to sound silly, but what's the best recipe for poop soup? Just mash it up real watery or more a critcal care consistency?

@bpatters, yesterday he ate healthy food much better, especially his pellets!

Honestly I think he is getting a bit spoiled like a kid with candy; when he was really sick I'd let him have anything he wanted if he'd just eat it. Now I do limit his less healthy things, though--- he gets a quarter ear of corn, half an 1/8 slice of orange, 1 baby carrot. Some days he eats lots of hay and pellets, some days less. I give him fresh timothy and orchard twice a day, but he hasn't been eating it as well as his pellets. He's been snubbing bell peppers but eating some lettuce greens, too.

That's better, but that's still way too much corn. Corn these days has a tremendous amount of sugar, and I never fed mine any more than a few kernels. The silks and husks, however, are good for them. Just cut off the dry ends of the silks and wash well. Throw away the outer husks, because corn is grown with a ton of insecticide. But the inner husks are find to give.

MerryFriarTuck said:

Thank you SO much @Guinea Pig Papa!

I've only been weighing him once a day now, but there were still swings worrying me. The week to week perspective really helps! There's only been about a 20g difference, up or down, over the last three weeks.

He LOVES syringed water even though he ignores his bottles now...I just give him whatever he wants to drink, usually about 25 ccs in total for the day. He frequently tries to pull the syringe out of my hand and take it in his house with him lol

I do have another healthy piggy, Robin Hood...so not to sound silly, but what's the best recipe for poop soup? Just mash it up real watery or more a critcal care consistency?

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What I always did, and I know it's gross but it is what it is, I took a healthy poop (green cecal one if I could which was exceedingly rare) and squished it up. I added about 4 or 5 mls of warm water to it, let it sit for awhile and then stirred and mushed it up. I then gave Simon two 1CC syringes full of the liquid that was left. Oddly enough he seemed to like them.

I know what you mean about the syringes. Every pig I've ever had that was being syringed water, started tugging and/or outright stealing the syringe once they were feeling better.