Sick Lethargic Piggy with Weight Loss--Tonks Med Question

[jewelgirl94]

This morning when I woke up and checked on my girls my abby Tonks seemed really lethargic. Normally even if I accidentally wake them up from a nap, she will react to me and either go deeper into her snuggle sack or come out to say hi, but today she barely moved at all when I gave her scratches. A bit later I went to pick her up and she didn't run away like she normally does, and when I checked her weight it had gone down from 1 lb 9.3 oz when I weighed her on Tuesday to 1 lb 8.6 oz today (Thursday).

The other day she also had weird, dark dandruff-looking flakes of skin come off of her when my sister was scratching her. I didn't think they looked like mites or bugs of any kind, but I'm not sure exactly what to look for with mites so I don't know for sure.

She's still eating and she ate her treat like she normally does and she did seem to perk up a bit while I held her, but I'm still worried about her. Should I take her to the vet just to be safe? I'm still a pretty new piggy owner, I'm not sure if I'm being paranoid or not. Please help!

 

[bpatters]

You should take her to the vet ASAP. Lethargy and weight loss are very serious signs of illness in pigs, and are unlikely to be related to any skin condition.

Please find a good exotic vet near you and take her today. Don't bother with a small animal vet -- they're trained to treat dogs and cats, not pocket pets.

 

[jewelgirl94]

We went to the vet today and everything was good. The vet even said she was a little on the chubby side. I think I was just a little paranoid, and that when I weighed her on Tuesday she'd had her dinner so she had a belly full of veggies which made her look like she weighed more than she really did. I'm glad we went to the vet, though, because if we didn't I'd just keep being worried.