Not Eating Pig seems to have trouble eating

[PetFamilyBK]

I’ve been reading your thread and keeping my fingers crossed your little one recovers! I suppose switching up the hay/types could be a good idea and may spark some interest and motivate him to get eating a bit more on his own. I’ve tried that once before when my pig was sick last year and it worked out well. It was just a switching of the brand of hay and unrelated to dental issues, but heck, it doesn’t hurt to try. Does he eat any pellets? Also, how many ccs/mls of Critical Care are you supplementing daily?

My pig is going through a weight loss issue now and so I was thinking about doing a regular supplemental feeding at night. I’d say he’s smaller than yours and at his age best weighing at 2.4lbs/1088g.

 

[onefutui2e]

I’ve been reading your thread and keeping my fingers crossed your little one recovers! I suppose switching up the hay/types could be a good idea and may spark some interest and motivate him to get eating a bit more on his own. I’ve tried that once before when my pig was sick last year and it worked out well. It was just a switching of the brand of hay and unrelated to dental issues, but heck, it doesn’t hurt to try. Does he eat any pellets? Also, how many ccs/mls of Critical Care are you supplementing daily?

My pig is going through a weight loss issue now and so I was thinking about doing a regular supplemental feeding at night. I’d say he’s smaller than yours and at his age best weighing at 2.4lbs/1088g.

Thanks! I'd say today was a huge, huge relief because now that I see he's eating, I'm less worried that 1) his teeth will overgrow again and 2) I'll need to continue to heavily supplement him with Critical Care!

He does try to eat pellets, but I need to break them up into small pieces for him to eat. These are Supreme Science Selective pellets. He eats them just fine if I break them in half.

Prior to a day or two ago, we were giving between 80-100cc of Critical Care a day, which kept his weight relatively stable at about 46-47oz (mind you, his peak was 53oz). We might back it off to 60cc a day if he keeps showing us that he's eating. What really helps is using the 1cc syringes you can buy from Amazon. We would mix and fill 10cc syringes, but once feeding time came, we would fill up individual 1cc at a time. This let us kind of "shove" everything into their mouth more easily. Pigsilver usually took 2-3 at a time before it spilled out of his mouth. It takes us about 10-15 minutes per 10cc this way.

I think you'll need to weigh him regularly at the same time daily and adjust your feeding accordingly. We stepped Pigsilver's feedings up to 100-120cc at his worst to keep him steady. I don't think there's a science to it, unfortunately. It's really rough, but fortunately my girlfriend and I can keep him topped up every 3-4 hours between the two of us (she's up at 6am every morning, I sleep at 1am every night).

As an additional update, Pigsilver was drinking water from the bottle today! Woo!

Thank you for following the thread. I haven't been this optimistic in 3 weeks and I hope that others will see this thread in the future.

As an additional update, Pigsilver is drinking water from the bottle!

 

[bpatters]

Those are alfalfa pellets, and should not be fed to pigs over six months old because they're too high in calcium. You need a plain timothy hay pellet, such as KMS Hayloft or Oxbow.

 

[ItsaZoo]

Thanks for the update - that is great news!

 

[onefutui2e]

Last update on Pigsilver (barring anything substantial), then I'll provide another one for Spiderpig after his Friday appointment:

Pigsilver is more or less back to normal. He's eating in ways he hasn't been able to for the past three weeks, such as taking the entire length of a stick of lavender, eating a seed head, etc. We'll keep weighing him daily to confirm and will wean him off his Critical Care accordingly.

Spiderpig is eating, but still seems a bit off. His weight is stable at around 41oz, but he was about 43-44 three weeks ago. We're going to supplement him with Critical Care and see what the vet says on Friday. He doesn't seem any different in behavior, but his eating habits have changed.

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

Glad to hear that Pigsilver seems to be on the upswing. I did see the link that @bpatters provided regarding the chinsling. If he continues to have issues that may be a great way to go.

Waiting to hear what happens with Spiderpig. Its odd that both seem to have had eating issues at roughly the same time. Thats very, very similar with what happened to Punkin and Scooter. I'm curious to see what turns up with your boys.

 

[onefutui2e]

Yeah, I was going to go down the route of a chin sling if the 3rd cut and orchard hay didn't work out. But it was so weird, as soon as we put it down he sniffed it, and just dove right into the pile! Now every time I look over I just see him camped in the same spot eating nonstop. Perhaps he'll regain his chonk soon!

Here's a video I caught of him literally stuffing his face: https://youtu.be/_N3k-67vIcU

 

[onefutui2e]

So prior to Friday, we noticed Pigsilver stopped eating as much. So we took him to the vet with Spiderpig.

On Pigsilver, the vet said his teeth looked "okay", and we should keep him on metacam and gabapentin as it seems like he responds well. She also said Spiderpig looked fine, and his weight held steady from when he was last checked in January the day after his surgery to remove a lump. Since it was getting warm/humid right when Spiderpig was eating less and spiked to the first major heat wave when Pigsilver seemed to regress, she also suggested that we can try to keep the room between 72-75F and see if they respond well to that. So that's what we tried doing, and it seems to be having a positive effect on the pigs. Spiderpig is back to 42oz (his all-time high was about 43.5) and Pigsilver is hovering between 45-46 with minimal Critical Care support.

She said that we're doing a good job of adjusting his Critical Care depending on his weight change, and suggested we keep doing at least 20cc a day.

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

72-75 is where I keep my room for the pigs at all times, summer or winter. I notice a difference when the temperatures start to get above that. They get lazier, eat less, drink more.

 

[bpatters]

If they're haired pigs, they'd probably enjoy it even cooler.

 

[ItsaZoo]

I'm glad the pigs are holding their weight, that's a good sign.

I've noticed my pig doesn't eat as well during the hot days, even though she has an air conditioned room. It's still warmer and more humid. I also think there's a barometric pressure component, animals can sense weather changes, like when a storm is coming.

Mine was picky about hay but continued to eat the frozen corn husks I put away last fall. She also liked frozen green pepper strips. Maybe something like that would help your pigs get their appetite.

 

[onefutui2e]

It's been up and down for the past few weeks. Pigsilver is still eating, but his weight is struggling to stay at 44, occasionally dipping into 43. We noticed that he seems to respond well as long as we give him metacam. We keep giving him hay to make sure he keeps eating in the meantime. Spiderpig is back to his old self again.

Today, we also noticed a very, very sizable lump by Pigsilver's neck. At first we thought it was neck fat, but upon touching it's clearly solid. So that's going to be another vet appointment this coming Friday.

 

[onefutui2e]

It's pretty big. I'm not sure if we just didn't notice it or if it grew that big overnight...the picture doesn't even do it justice. I'd say it's a solid third of the size of his head right now...looks almost like a swollen thyroid or something.

He seems to be behaving well; just dropped some more hay for them and he's going at it.

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

Thank you for the update. One oz fluctuation on a weekly basis is considered normal, so Pigsilver's weight seems to me to be fairly stable which is great.

Very happy to hear that Spiderpig is back to his normal self, but definitely keep on eye on him.

Whatever that lump on Pigsilver's neck is could be what's affecting his eating.

Please keep us posted on how they are doing. Looking forward to positive updates.

 

[bpatters]

That lump is probably cervical lymphadenitis. It needs to be drained and the sac removed, and you need to do it ASAP. Those things can burst, and they're very contagious to any other pigs around.

See https://www.guinealynx.info/forums/viewtopic.php?p=160439#160439

 

[onefutui2e]

Thanks for the link and the information. We've separated the tw for now splitting their 2x6 into a 2x3 for Spiderpig and a 2x2 for Pigsilver (with a "DMZ" of 1x2). It's obviously temporary, but yeah, I really really don't want something to happen to the healthy pig.

 

[onefutui2e]

Not looking great. This morning he just hit an all-time low at about 40.62oz. Just shoving his face full of Critical Care at this point until he can make it to the vet tomorrow. My girlfriend noticed that there was a pink-ish discharge coming out of Pigsilver, but wasn't sure where. Then in the afternoon it was clearly coming from the lump on his neck and there was a bunch of fur missing (possibly from irritation?). And it smells really, really bad. I'm sitting across the room and I can smell it. Right now (4pm EST) it's quite visibly oozing out, and his lump has gotten smaller in the meantime.

Vet told us to keep washing his chin with warm water and keep his cage area as clean as possible. They said we could certainly bring him to an emergency medical center, but were confident that waiting until tomorrow for the vet appointment is also fine.

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

Oh, the poor little man. I do hope everything turns around for Pigsilver. Keep us posted on how he's doing.

 

[Smileandnod]

Poor Pigsilver...I do hope things improve soon. Very glad you have a vet appointment.

Thanks for the updates and let us know how things go.

 

[onefutui2e]

Vet said it was an abscess, no signs of any issues with his teeth. In fact, she said they looked fine. So that's good.

She shaved the fur on his chin, sedated him, drained the rest of the abscess, flushed it with antibiotics, then stuffed some other antimicrobials in there before stitching it back up. We have to go back two more times (once weekly) to get the sutures removed and flush the abscess again. We got him back same day. He's a bit woozy but seems to be recovering well. He was slowly eating some hay yesterday evening and he was going at the vegetables, though at the moment we need to hand-feed it to him. The cage remains separated so that Pigsilver can heal.

If you all want to see the after pictures: https://www.instagram.com/p/CR-dUPVDqoI/
The upside is that he put back the weight that he lost on Thursday; he's back to about 43.5oz.