Wobbly guinea pig

[andrewc]

Hi!
One of my cavies, Hamlet, has been super active (He jumps up about 8 inches onto his pigloo and dives off of it) until one morning a couple days ago he was walking really funny. He looked really weak and he fell over a couple of times and had a hard time getting up.

I was very concerned at first, but he was eating and drinking as usual. Came out to greet me, ate veggies, ran when I tried to pick him up. So I became less scared and more curious.

I figured he might have scurvy so I went to petsmart and got him some vitamin drops and "Calci-O's" and have been feeding him kale.

I was wondering if this is what the problem is and how long does it take for him to get back to normal?

Thanks for your help!

 

[dagwellismypigy]

Get to a vet as soon as possible. It could possibly be an inner ear infection. Make sure the vet is cavy-savvy. https://www.guinealynx.info/vet.html

The "Calci-o's" sound like one of the treats they sell just to get money, I wouldn't keep them. If the vitamin drops are the ones you put in the water, they are no good, go to a drugstore and get vitamin C tablets with no sugar added. Make sure he is getting at least one cup of veggies. https://www.guinealynx.info/hairloss.html#scurvy

 

[Ly&Pigs]

I second the advice on taking your pig to the vet.

 

[rabbitsncavyluv]

What breed is he? What is his regular diet?

How old is he? Did you buy him at Petsmart? If you got him from a pet store, definitely, a vet visit is in order.

Those vit c 'treats' don't sound that great. Italian parsley is high in vitamin C. There are plain vit c tables and liquid vit c you can give directly.

 

[andrewc]

He is a orange, brown and white abyssinian.​

His regular diet consists of Cilantro, carrots, flatleaf italian parsley, the occasional strawberry. For his pellets we use Gerty Guinea Pig...Him and his cagemate seem to like that brand better than the others. We also give them a good supply of timothy hay.

He seems to be more active than he was the other day. Two days ago he was having great difficulty in walking...That was the day he fell over and was flailing his arms and legs.

Now, he comes out of his Pigloo and will run away if I try and snatch 'em. He seems much more active...His appetite and thirst definitely have not diminished, though! Those little things can chomp on that hay forever.

We use critter care (Wal-Mart version of carefresh) for his bedding. His cagemate, Spock, is in great health and was doing laps just minutes ago. They eat the same things.

My girlfriend was worried about him and she bought him the multi vitamin treats. The liquid multi vitamin is a bit hokey, but it says you can add it to their dry pellets which is what I have been doing.

I will see how he is doing tomorrow. If has not improved, I will call the vet, but I am not sure if they specialize in exotics. How much does it usually cost for an examination and/or medication for the piglets?

 

[andrewc]

Forgot to add this in my previous post...

We did purchase him from PetSmart approx. 8 months ago. No other health concerns until this except for dry skin.

 

[rabbitsncavyluv]

I wouldn't feed the multi vitamins. They don't need them and can mess with their kidneys.

Was the flailing like seizing? Dry skin? He probably has mites.

Is Gerty the stuff with colored bits? Someone donated some, but I threw it out. It didn't look that great and had a lot of seeds and colored bits. You need plain pellets.

What type of cage do you have?

 

[dagwellismypigy]

Gerty guinea pig food isn't a good pellet because (i'm pretty sure) that it has dry fruits and nuts mixed in. Mixes are bad because they are high in fats and are choking hazards. Oxbow is the reccomended pellet around this forum ((broken link removed)). Your pigs also need more variety in their veggie diet. Such as romaine, red peppers, almost any lettuce except iceburg, apples, for other guinea pig safe food visit https://www.guinealynx.info/nutrition.html.
Toss the treats also high in fats and choking hazards. I would probably get rid of the multi-vitamins, the only vitamin they really need supplements for is vitamin c.

You need to make sure you get to an exotic vet, not a regular one. You don't want your pig to suffer because of it. Ask the questions on the guinea lynx vetrinarian page. DO you have a c&c cage? If not you will want to look into it.

Your piggie is really cute!!

 

[andrewc]

Thanks for all of your posts!
Gerty Guinea Pig doesn't have nuts, seeds or fruit. It has pellets, hay, some little black pellets that they don't eat, and I think thats it. I will switch to another pellet when Hamlet fully recovers.

They really seem to like kale! Its a bargain, too, compared to the other greens that I buy at the supermarket. Here cilantro is 1.50 for a small bunch, but a gigantic head of kale is 2.00 and they seem to go crazy for it. I wasn't going to give them a whole head, so I made Portuguese kale soup with the rest

When I said he was flailing I meant he fell over, and was flailing his arms trying to get back up. Have only seen him do it once (and that was enough!). It didn't look like a seizure. His brother ran by and pushed him over (accidentally) and thats when he started flailing his arms and legs. Lasted maybe 3 seconds.

He seems to be doing a lot better. Hopping around in his cage and he started weeping again (which stopped when he became ill).

Gave them some green bell peppers last night because I heard they had a good supply of vitamin c (but not as much as red peppers).

My cage is a homemade C&C cage 2'x5' They love it. They like to stick their noses through the cubes and smell around. It gives them a lot of running space. We moved them into our bedroom so we can keep an eye on the ailing one.

 

[Percy's Mom]

You might want to cut back to a couple days a week on the kale in exchange for daily romaine or red or green leaf lettuce or things like that. I think the kale is higher in calcium than lettuces, but I might be wrong on that. It's been a while since I printed out veggie nutrition lists.

It's great to hear that Hamlet is perking back up and doing better!

 

[pennick]

He may have just had a sore leg from falling. Yes, please cut back on the kale, kale and parsley should be fed only approx. 2x a week. Do add other variety of greens like romaine, ridichio, red leaf, endive, etc. Glad your piggy is feeling better.

 

[Ly&Pigs]

Good everyday foods include: cilantro, red or green leaf lettuce, romaine, bell peppers (any color), green beans, corn husk and silks (corn itself once per week). Carrots have a high amount of Vitamin A in them which causes liver damage and should be fed sparingly (like one baby carrot per pig) 2-3 times per week. Parsley has a lot of calcium and Vitamin A in it and should only be fed a couple times per week. Kale is also a veggie that is very high in Vitamin A and Calcium and should be fed in small amounts a couple of times per week.

Gerty Guinea pig food does have crap in it besides pellets. It's one of the very worst pellets you can feed according to guinealynx, it rates right up there with Hartz. I looked up this Gerty stuff on the net and every picture of a bag I have seen shows it has other stuff besides pellets in it. Please get your pigs a better pellet. Don't wait until they finish this bag, to switch them over more easily, get a good brand and start mixing it at first 75% old/25% new, then after a week mix 50/50, third week 75% new/25% old and finally on the fourth week go all new pellets.

Get rid of those calci O's or whatever they are. Pigs don't need them at all. Get a good plain 100 mg Vitamin C tablet with <1 gram of sugar or sugarfree if you can find them. (Healthfood stores usually carry the plain C tablets). Break the tablet into halves and give your pig half a tablet, 50mg, for a couple of weeks then cut back to 1/4 of the tablet, 25mg.

 

[emithebug]

Gerty is bad. I work at PetsMart - it's no good. If you HAVE to buy from PetsMart, see if they carry plain Mazuri. After that, maybe Kaytee Timothy Complete. I think those are the only two pellet-only timothy-based foods we carry...

Get rid of the Calci-O's, definitely. If you want to give your piggy a treat, give him cilantro or some red bell pepper.

I could never find a Vitamin C tablet under 500 mg. If you can find onethat's 100 mg, then go for it, but I never could... I tried breaking bits off the 500 mg, but my pigs wouldn't eat it. THey acted like they were chewing 'em up, but they'd spit them back out at me. I had to go with liquid supplements, fed by syringe - they'll take ANYTHING by syringe, ever since they got their cherry-flavored Bactrim out of it =D

The only veggies I ever really get are romaine hearts, red bell peppers, and cilantro. Check Walmart for the veggies - the packaged romaine hearts are REALLY nice (here, anyways), bell peppers are cheap, and cilantro is like, $40 for a bunch. My piggies always eat all the leaves off the cilantro and ignore the stems like they're going, "Yeah, you're trying to make it LOOK like a lot by giving us the stems. Heck no."

 

[emithebug]

Oops. Forgot.

Several vets in my area carry Oxbow, so see if you can find it around someone around you before you give up and go back to a PetsMart food.

 

[Ly&Pigs]

$40 for a bunch of cilantro. Boy you are getting ripped off! I think you meant .40 or 40 cents. The key to a good piggie diet is variety, variety, variety.

 

[emithebug]

Oops. Yeah. I meant to type $.40. XD Thanks for catching that, Ly. I just read voodoo's response to "Can you..." over on General, and I'm still giggling my brains out. XD I love this forum.

Yay for $40 Cilantro! XD

 

[andrewc]

Gerty bad, gotcha. Will return the gerty, the calci-o's, and the vitamin drops. We were so worried about Hamlet we wanted to buy anything to make him better. I guess thats why they make those products...so people will just grab them and buy them. I work for Wal-Mart as a manager and we will take back anything regardless of the reason...Petsmart most likely has a similar return policy.

The majority of their diet consists of mainly green veggies (They love cilantro and peppers). Occassional carrots, but we have lots of broccolli in the fridge, but since it is a type of cabbage (Look closely...the buds look like brussel sprouts), I am weary to give it to the pigs because of bloat. There is a Wal-Mart supercenter opening here in July, but until then I will have to pay big city prices. The Boston area is not the cheapest.

We just want to be the best parents to our boys. They love us back, but for some reason they like to run from us. They don't like to be picked up....once we get them up they are fine. Maybe they like the chase.

 

[Ly&Pigs]

They can have broccoli in very small portions once or twice a week. I wouldn't feed it more often because of it being a gassy veggie.

As far as pigs not liking to be picked up. Piggies are prey animals and it's built into their natural instincts to run when us huge humans come to get them out of their cage for laptime or floortime. My Bubba is one of the sweetest pigs I have ever known, every time I go in the bedroom, he comes to the side of the cage and wants his head scratched, but if I go to pick him up, he runs like a bat outta heck. Sometimes with my girls, I can just look at them and they will run. I think they know ahead of time that Momma is coming to get them out.

 

[andrewc]

I've noticed they are much easier to pet when they are eating. I usually let them smell my hand and then start petting their nose. After that its easy, but once I touch their side to pick them up, they bolt. I heard throwing a washcloth over them and picking them up helps since they cannot see where they are going, but it seems mean for some reason.

 

[Moxie]

Good everyday foods include: cilantro, red or green leaf lettuce, romaine, bell peppers (any color), green beans, corn husk and silks (corn itself once per week). Carrots have a high amount of Vitamin A in them which causes liver damage and should be fed sparingly (like one baby carrot per pig) 2-3 times per week. Parsley has a lot of calcium and Vitamin A in it and should only be fed a couple times per week. Kale is also a veggie that is very high in Vitamin A and Calcium and should be fed in small amounts a couple of times per week.

Gerty Guinea pig food does have crap in it besides pellets. It's one of the very worst pellets you can feed according to guinealynx, it rates right up there with Hartz. I looked up this Gerty stuff on the net and every picture of a bag I have seen shows it has other stuff besides pellets in it. Please get your pigs a better pellet. Don't wait until they finish this bag, to switch them over more easily, get a good brand and start mixing it at first 75% old/25% new, then after a week mix 50/50, third week 75% new/25% old and finally on the fourth week go all new pellets.

Get rid of those calci O's or whatever they are. Pigs don't need them at all. Get a good plain 100 mg Vitamin C tablet with <1 gram of sugar or sugarfree if you can find them. (Healthfood stores usually carry the plain C tablets). Break the tablet into halves and give your pig half a tablet, 50mg, for a couple of weeks then cut back to 1/4 of the tablet, 25mg.

About the green beans, do you give them the whole thing? Do they look like this?