6 year old female stopped eating

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Chrisdon23

Post   » Sun Dec 10, 2017 11:13 pm


I have a 6 year old female that’s been having problems over the last week. It started last Saturday; she wouldn’t eat anything in the morning when I tried to give her the usual piece of romaine first thing in the morning. I tried to get her to eat a few different things but she wouldn’t touch anything. I called her vets office and was told that her vet was gone on vacation for the next month and the other vet in the office didn’t want to see her because she wasn’t trained to treat guinea pigs. (I live in a city of over 70,000 people and my vet is the only Exotics vet in the entire city).

After phoning around to all the vets and having no luck in finding one who would see her, I finally found a clinic just outside of the city whose vet would have a look even though she wasn’t an exotics vet. The vet looked her over a little —she didn’t think she was in pain or anything. She sent us home with some critical care; a few hours later, after 3 or 4 doses, she started eating her hay again and by the end of the day was completely back to normal. She’s been great all week, eating lots of hay/ pellets and drinking lots of water and begging for vegetables every time someone opened the fridge.

This morning, she begged for veggies like she normally does so she was given some romaine lettuce. A few hours later, we noticed she wasn’t eating again so we started critical care once again. She’s had about 4 doses in the last 6 hours or so but hasn’t reacted at all.

History: at her wellness check up a few months ago, her vet felt a large mass in her abdomen on her left side. He didn’t know if it maybe her kidney was enlarged so he did an X-ray. The x-ray didn’t tell us much — just that the mass wasn’t her kidney. He said he can’t tell much else without doing surgery but that at her age, surgery was really risky and he wouldn’t want to do it.

I have to go back to work tomorrow so I won’t be home to keep an eye on her — I don’t know if there’s something else I should be doing or if it’s just her time.....

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Sun Dec 10, 2017 11:38 pm


I'm sorry she's having problems.

And it is hard to diagnose an abdominal mass in a guinea pig. If you had access to a clinic that offered ultrasounds for guinea pigs, you might be able to learn something. But I agree with your vet that exploratory surgery on a six year old is too risky to undertake.

Given your location and lack of exotic vets, I'd probably opt for keeping her comfortable as long as possible. If she's still alive by the time your regular exotic vet gets back, he might have other ideas.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Dec 11, 2017 7:19 am


I am sorry she is ill and you don't have good options for vets. Besides bpatters' advice, I would watch for signs of pain and see if this vet could prescribe you some meloxicam if so.
www.guinealynx.info/pain.html

Because you do not seem to have a vet who could do a surgery if required, pain medication may help keep her comfortable.

Start weighing her daily and read over www.guinealynx.info/handfeeding.html too.

Chrisdon23

Post   » Mon Dec 11, 2017 11:10 pm


Update: No change today — see has very random poops and pees once in a while. Only drank a small amount and ate a small piece of romaine on her own. I’ve been giving her critical care all day - yesterday’s weight was 1014gm and today’s is 928gm.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Tue Dec 12, 2017 8:45 am


Do you see any signs of pain?

I hope you are able to stabilize her weight. It can be hard if all she is really eating is what you hand feed.

Bookfan
For the Love of Pigs

Post   » Wed Dec 13, 2017 10:58 am


Is she drinking water from her bottle? Are you giving her some syringed water after her critical care?

Chrisdon23

Post   » Sun Jan 14, 2018 11:59 pm


Sorry, I haven’t posted in a while. It was touch and go with Sophie in the last 3 weeks of December. We did critical care for a couple of days until she started eating again and she seemed to be getting a little better — then a week later, she stopped eating again so we went back on the critical care. She wouldn’t drink from either water bottle so I was syringing water as well. Very gradually, she started eating a little more and more and now when I watch her, it’s hard to believe she was even having issues at all.

I’ve had to change up the hay placement a little; I have a hay rack that she used to sit in front of constantly to eat but since she was sick, she has no interest in getting hay from it at all. Now she’d rather just eat it from the floor of the cage so I just pile it in and let her go to town -she’s gained back 30 grams!

I’ve also added a water bowl along with the 2 water bottles that are normally in the cage — she’s always liked drinking from a bowl so I figured the more options for getting water, the better.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Jan 15, 2018 11:47 am


I'm glad to hear she is improving. I take it you are weighing regularly? Since she was so ill, I would tend to want to weigh frequently in case she starts losing weigh and you don't notice until there are clear signs something is wrong.

Bookfan
For the Love of Pigs

Post   » Tue Jan 16, 2018 9:53 am


Good news!

Chrisdon23

Post   » Sat Jan 20, 2018 7:42 pm


Her weight is still holding steady; still eating and drinking well! Today, she’s been rumblestrutting and chasing my other female around so much, I had to separate them for a while to give my other one a break :)

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Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Sat Jan 20, 2018 10:23 pm


Very good news indeed. Here's hoping for continued improvement.

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