Sick Sick pig with UTI & Bladder Stone advice please

[Moosie]

Not sure if anyone can help me in the comments, I have a guinea pig who has bladder stones and a UTI. She got discharged from the vet with antibiotics and a pain medicine yesterday and its been about 30 hours since she's been home and she's barely eaten. She was 979g when there and is already down to 880g. Just looking for some tips to try and get her to eat, or any possible advice?

She did eat a small amount of romaine/green pepper and a blueberry earlier. Also very low hay intake. But hasn't eaten anything in a while, I have been giving water through a syringe to try to prevent dehydration.

 

[LemonySnickers]

It is good to give a probiotic with the antibiotic if you haven't already done so. Antibiotics can upset piggies' stomachs and make them not want to eat. A good brand that I use is Bene-Bac. It is available off Amazon. Another thing you can do is feed her Critical Care by Oxbow. It comes as a dry mix and then you can add water and syringe feed it to your pig. It's a recovery food that includes lots of nutrients.

 

[Moosie]

It is good to give a probiotic with the antibiotic if you haven't already done so. Antibiotics can upset piggies' stomachs and make them not want to eat. A good brand that I use is Bene-Bac. It is available off Amazon. Another thing you can do is feed her Critical Care by Oxbow. It comes as a dry mix and then you can add water and syringe feed it to your pig. It's a recovery food that includes lots of nutrients.

thanks! I will try to find these first thing tomorrow as nothing is open currently. I was considering taking her back to the vet because of how quickly her weight dropped. I don’t know what to do and I’m very worried for her. I’ve just never seen her weight drop like this or a lack of appetite such as this so I didn’t know how urgent of a situation I have to consider this.

 

[LemonySnickers]

100 grams is a pretty drastic weight decrease. If you have another healthy guinea pig, you can make your own probiotic by mashing their poop with water and then syringe it to her. The reason a probiotic is so important is because antibiotics kill the good bacteria along with the bad, which can cause loss of appetite. You can also soak her pellets and turn that into mush and syringe it to her. I would keep a close eye on her tonight and try to get her to eat as much as possible.
I don't have experience with either of these methods; this is just what I've heard. Hopefully someone else with more knowledge comes along.

 

[bpatters]

The other, and most important thing you have to do is force feed her. There's a saying about guinea pigs that if they're not eating, they're dying. There's unfortunately a lot of truth in that, because unlike humans, who secrete stomach acid only when they're hungry, guinea pigs secrete it all the time. All that acid can eat a hole in the stomach wall, and that can be fatal. I lost a pig that way once.

The other problem with their not eating is that their gut movement slows down, and the contents ferment, causing bloat, which is a medical emergency in and of itself.

Here's a thread on handfeeding: https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/115000-Handfeeding-a-guinea-pig. The pig isn't going to like this, and both you and the pig will think you're killing her, but you're not. You're saving her life. You're well equipped to win this battle, and she must eat whether she wants to or not.

Keep syringing fluids to her. Unflavored pedialyte (the generic stuff is ok, and much cheaper) has electrolytes that are good for her. You can get it at any pharmacy.

Good luck, and let us know how you both get along.

 

[Moosie]

Thanks for all of your help. I used an old pill crusher last night and have been force feeding her some of her ground up pellets mixed with water. Just got some pedialyte but I am having trouble finding the critical care. I did find our petco has the bene bac which I’m gonna grab. How often should I be force feeding her this mix of pedialyte/ground pellets or critical care when I do get it? I was having trouble finding an answer to that on the handfeeding guide.

 

[bpatters]

From that link I gave you: "Here's the rule of thumb for hand feeding: A guinea pig that's not eating anything else needs 100+ cc of Critical Care or a pellet slurry for every kilogram the pig weighs, every day, divided into 6-8 servings."

So if you're feeding six servings, then feed every four hours. If you're doing eight, feed every three hours.

Many vets have CC, or you can order from Amazon or check with the big box pet stores. The pellets will do. But it's much easier to soak them and then throw them in a food processor or blender to grind them up than to cut them by hand.

 

[Moosie]

My apologies I did find that after I posted the last reply. I did go pick up a small food processor and it made it way easier and just started her on the pedialyte mix and will probably do every 4 hours to stress her out less. I overnight ordered some critical care to have also. I’m using a 5cc syringe which isn’t too bad to deal with. Thanks again for all of your help I’m gonna stay this course and I’ll definitely update.

Another small thing I was thinking is her teeth will develop some problems if not eating for an extended period of time right?

 

[bpatters]

Yes, it's possible that she'll have tooth problems if she's off hay for too long. But those kinds of problems are usually easily addressed by just one planing, rather than the recurring planings that elongated roots require.

 

[spy9doc]

I’m using a 5cc syringe which isn’t too bad to deal with. Thanks again for all of your help I’m gonna stay this course and I’ll definitely update.

Go into almost any pet store and ask for a 30cc small animal feeding syringe. This makes it infinitely easier to administer and doesn't require you to draw it up. Simply take out the plunger and pour your mix into the syringe, replace the plunger, and do your magic