onefutui2e
Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
- Joined
- May 19, 2013
- Posts
- 227
- Joined
- May 19, 2013
- Messages
- 227
Hi all,
We've had Magneto for 4 years now; we adopted him from his previous owner who couldn't bring him to his new apartment. He's been a great joy to both my girlfriend and I. As he's gotten older, he's become more picky with food, and consequently dropped some weight. We brought him to the vet twice, who said he's losing muscle mass and we should supplement his diet with Critical Care. Other than that, there were no obvious signs of any health issues. We've done that, which has helped stabilize his weight for the most part of the past year.
However, over past 2 weeks I noticed he had sporadically stopped eating. At first I brushed it off as one of his "episodes" where he would go through a day or so without eating as much. He still ate most of his veggies and his go-to treats of pepper, cilantro, and carrot without issue. He took his Critical Care with the usual gusto, too. At first I thought it may have been malocclusion but I see that when he does eat, he doesn't seem to have any issues with food spilling out. When I hand-fed him seed heads he ate them without issue. However, over the past 3-4 days it's gotten BAD. Like, his hay is so barely touched I can give it to the other cage and they'll eat it as if I just took it out of the box. This morning, he ignored his pepper and carrot and it remained untouched when I got home in the afternoon. He poops so little I haven't even really needed to clean his side of the cage. When I tried to force feed him his Critical Care, he spat out a lot of it. He's essentially skin and bone at this point such that I don't even want to weigh him anymore because it'll just be disheartening to me. It was a real sudden turn for the worse.
I have a vet appointment for him in 2 days, so I have that covered (yes, I understand I should've taken him in earlier but it really didn't strike me until a day ago). But I'm not optimistic. I really want to know, is this the end? I've heard anecdotal stories of some animals just "giving up" once they "know" their end is near, but what I can't reconcile is how sudden it was. He went running to the edge of the cage, begging for his treats, devouring his hay, taking his Critical Care like a champ, and being fairly chipper, if a bit skinnier, to being...very decrepit looking.
Has anyone else had a similar experience with their senior guinea pigs...?
We've had Magneto for 4 years now; we adopted him from his previous owner who couldn't bring him to his new apartment. He's been a great joy to both my girlfriend and I. As he's gotten older, he's become more picky with food, and consequently dropped some weight. We brought him to the vet twice, who said he's losing muscle mass and we should supplement his diet with Critical Care. Other than that, there were no obvious signs of any health issues. We've done that, which has helped stabilize his weight for the most part of the past year.
However, over past 2 weeks I noticed he had sporadically stopped eating. At first I brushed it off as one of his "episodes" where he would go through a day or so without eating as much. He still ate most of his veggies and his go-to treats of pepper, cilantro, and carrot without issue. He took his Critical Care with the usual gusto, too. At first I thought it may have been malocclusion but I see that when he does eat, he doesn't seem to have any issues with food spilling out. When I hand-fed him seed heads he ate them without issue. However, over the past 3-4 days it's gotten BAD. Like, his hay is so barely touched I can give it to the other cage and they'll eat it as if I just took it out of the box. This morning, he ignored his pepper and carrot and it remained untouched when I got home in the afternoon. He poops so little I haven't even really needed to clean his side of the cage. When I tried to force feed him his Critical Care, he spat out a lot of it. He's essentially skin and bone at this point such that I don't even want to weigh him anymore because it'll just be disheartening to me. It was a real sudden turn for the worse.
I have a vet appointment for him in 2 days, so I have that covered (yes, I understand I should've taken him in earlier but it really didn't strike me until a day ago). But I'm not optimistic. I really want to know, is this the end? I've heard anecdotal stories of some animals just "giving up" once they "know" their end is near, but what I can't reconcile is how sudden it was. He went running to the edge of the cage, begging for his treats, devouring his hay, taking his Critical Care like a champ, and being fairly chipper, if a bit skinnier, to being...very decrepit looking.
Has anyone else had a similar experience with their senior guinea pigs...?