Our girl Cherry has taken ill and has lost some of her appetite

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sun May 23, 2021 9:10 pm


All I can say is that normally we recommend giving whatever it takes to maintain weight. I know you are doing your best for her.

Do you feel she is dehydrated? If so, a small amount given slowly through the day may help. If she seems okay, the fluids in the CC may be adequate.

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Sun May 23, 2021 9:48 pm


There shouldn't be any problem syringing liquids to her. In fact, if you give her Pedialyte (generic is find) that's diluted half and half with water, all you may have to do is hold the syringe low enough so she can get to it. Every pig I ever gave it to just guzzled it down.

duskern

Post   » Mon May 24, 2021 3:18 pm


I'm not sure Pedialyte is something that you can buy in the stores here in Denmark. I vaguely remember it being proposed to me at some point. We have this product, but I'm not sure it's the same: https://www.webapoteket.dk/helbred/erna ... n-p-208282

On another note. Like I wrote earlier, we have been struggling with respiratory infections in Cherry. I think I saw something on the medical board about giving too much CC at a time using a syringe could get stuff into the wrong pipe of a pig and thus cause infections. I can't seem to find it now. For a long time we have been giving Cherry half a syringe at a time into her mouth, which is roughly 0.6 ml. It seemed like she could take it and that was her limit. But after reading the part I mentioned above, about the infections in the airways, I'm now not so sure. Maybe we have been giving her too much at a time. I feel so bad now :( we might have even made things worse for Luna in giving too much CC at a time. I can't remember how much we gave her though.

So as of yesterday I have been going down to not giving more than 0.3 ml into her mouth at a time and waiting for her to be done chewing before giving any more. This just makes every feeding session take close to an hour for approximately 6ml of CC. It seems really slow, but I don't know... I feel a bit lost right now :(

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Mon May 24, 2021 4:32 pm


Ecolyte looks pretty similar to Pedialyte, and seems to be sold in Denmark.

duskern

Post   » Tue May 25, 2021 4:28 pm


Could I somehow have been the cause of the respiratory infection by giving too much CC at a time into her mouth? Is that likely? We are taking every precaution now, but I hate to think that I could have been the cause of death to some of our pigs by giving them too much at a time, and thus getting it into their lungs or something. I feel terrible right now :(

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Tue May 25, 2021 9:27 pm


I have the feeling you would have recognized this happening at the time it happened and that you have done nothing wrong.

It is so easy to second guess ourselves. I think you have been more careful than you realize you have been.

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ItsaZoo
Supporter in 2023

Post   » Wed May 26, 2021 12:29 am


I felt the same way when I had to feed Lacey CC. They're so small and delicate, I just was afraid of doing something wrong. But I agree with Lynx, I'm sure it would be obvious if the CC was inhaled rather than swallowed.

Lacey was still eating some veggies, so I would slowly feed a cc or 2 of Critical Care, then offer a piece of very wet lettuce so I knew she was swallowing okay.

duskern

Post   » Sat May 29, 2021 6:46 pm


We are fighting for Cherry at the moment. She's on something called Ronaxan which is an antibiotic. It's a real struggle getting 14 ml of CC into her. It's like she's exhausted from chewing, so sometimes a lot of it comes out of her mouth. Sometimes she will just have it all sitting in her mouth without chewing it.

Right now we have increased the dose from around 8 ml every three hours to 14 ml every three hours, with a rest period during the night. 8 ml seemed to have her at a stable weight for some time, but now she has dropped to 790g, which is why we increased it.

Any advice on how we should proceed?

Should we give some water during the syringe feeding sessions? Should we give her something every two hours instead, so it's so much every session?

It's also very tiring for us, since every session takes more than an hour now. I find it hard to know how much I should give at a time. If I should give a little and let her chew, or give more at a time. It's clear that she doesn't like it as well. What's the best way to feed a semi uncooperative pig?

We are desperate! I really fear we are losing her. She's also alone right now, since we can't introduce another pig in her weakened state. The vet also agreed, since they would have to fight for dominance, and that's something Cherry can't do right now.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sat May 29, 2021 8:50 pm


I am so sorry to hear she is having trouble eating. When it is slow and not much progress seems to be made, it can be very discouraging and worrisome.

I know Pinta would advise jiggling the syringe and slowly depressing it as long as the guinea pig was chewing. One poster used the technique of covering the eyes with one hand and syringing with the other, especially helpful for an uncooperative guinea pig. Bpatters goes into detail here:
https://www.guinealynx.info/forums/viewt ... 9#p2299759

I don't know if either of the techniques would give you some ideas for alternate methods. I know how hard this is.

p.s. I was trying to figure out what Ronoxan was. A google search turned up Doxycycline.
"Ronaxan contains either 20 mg or 100 mg doxycycline as its active ingredient."

duskern

Post   » Mon May 31, 2021 9:31 am


Thx for the reply Lynx. We are trying out different techniques when feeding her.

We put her on the weight today, and for some reason she has dropped from 790g to 780g. Although we didn't weigh her at the same time as a couple of days before, the drop in weight really surprised me, when giving her 14ml every 3. hours. I'm not sure what to do right now as the only thing she is eating is CC and FP. We can't get her to take anything on her own. I was really sure that we would see a small increase in weight with this amount of CC put into her. That was my experience from the last time we gave a dose this high.

Yes it's correct, the Ronoxan we have is 20mg Doxycycline.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon May 31, 2021 9:26 pm


The 10g might not be significant. As you probably know, you are looking for a pattern of weight loss. You can pick a couple times a day to weigh her. Try to pick times that have some kind of pattern (like just before feeding her at a particular time of day).
https://www.guinealynx.info/weigh.html

duskern

Post   » Wed Jun 23, 2021 7:39 am


It has taken me some time to actually be able to write this. We decided to put Cherry to sleep on the 1st of June. It was not an easy decision, but our vet helped us reach it. Cherry couldn't really take any more and was not showing any signs of getting better. Along with the heavy costs in time and stress, that was taking a real toll on our family, we just couldn't do it anymore.

Just writing this takes me back, and I miss our last pigs, Luna and Cherry, so much <3 The time after have been hard, but I also feel an immense relief, since the anxiety I have been dealing with for years, was tightly coupled to worrying about our pets. All this time with Cherry constantly being ill, has been somewhat of a nightmare for me. Now it's over and we are not getting any more pigs, since I just can't deal with the constant worrying. Having two kids is enough! That being said, I'm so terrible sad that it had to end this way. I'd rather we could have had Cherry for a couple of more years without her being sick all the time, while also letting me get used to the idea of not having her anymore...

I'd like to put up some pictures of her, but I've forgotten what picture sharing services actually work on this forum. Any suggestions?

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