Cuddles (G. Pig's name) has been with us for about a 1.5 yrs and she has been so healthy and playful but for the last week she has slowed down and doesn't squeal as much when someone comes in her room. She's not eating at all and has crust under her eyes and a little diarrea. I took her to the vet yesterday and she gave me some antibotics and told us to force feed Cuddles some baby food (Squash, Spinich,ect.)for Vietamin C. We still cannot get Cuddles to eat and she is still sluggish, is she going to be okay or what is going on?
Answers:
I'm sorry to hear of your piggie. I love mine dearly. I even have one named Cuddles. My piggies are all just over 6 years old and one is getting real close to 7yrs. Once the crusting has shown up it's 99.9% to late for the piggie. The crusting is from a respiratory infection which is non-fixable by the time crusting shows up. The diarrhea could be from improper nutrition. To much of the wrong veggies, not enough timothy hay, water bottle contamination, parasite infestation in the digestive tract.
If at that age if they haven't had the proper amounts of vitamin C, they will contract scurvy (vitamin C deficiency.) their body doesn't produce vit.C. When hand feeding with a syringe water has to be given also. Some solid poop has to mixed with the food because the antibiotics kill all of the digestive enzymes. Taking it back to the vet will be an unnecessary expense.
I wish I could be of more help, but piggie health is very hard to deal with, that's why it takes special daily care to keep them healthy. I am a medical adviser for the local Humane Society for guinea pigs.
My heart goes out to you and your daughter, and best wishes..piggie dude.
Has it been around Richard Gere?
i would give the antibiotics time to kick in ( probrably about 3 days) then you should see some improvement.. good luck
try a heating pad and use an eyedropper to feed her make sure the food is getting in
I think GP's have a two year life span, could be Cuddles is getting old.
Our pet rat did the same thing, just give her the food and water with an eye dropper and make her comfortable. Hopefully she will snap back.
you need to liquafy the food and put the food in a syringe and carefully force the food in her mouth a little at a time and make sure that she swollows and you may need to do this with water also. ask your vet if you can give her pedialyte i am not sure if you can give to Guinea Pigs this it shouldn't hurt though but if you can then give her this
Take the guinea pig to the vet and find out what is going on.
Marcia is wrong. Guinea Pigs live 5 to 8 years. And diarrhea is very bad, she could get dehydrated. I would really bring her to the vet. With small animals, it doesn't take long for dehydration to occur. Has she been fed too many veggies? Is she getting enough timothy hay. The hay is very important. What are you using for the bedding? Sometimes if any wood bedding (like cedar or pine) is used, it could be very irritating for a guinea pig's eyes. Carefresh should be used instead.
Good Luck!
Check this site out for more info!
http://www.petsmart.com/global/articles/.
Your vet would know better than we do what's wrong with her. Did the vet tell you what he thougth was wrong?
Guinea pigs do need vit C in their diet. They can't make any of it in their bodies. How long has Cuddles gone without any extra vit C?
Good luck to you!
Aahh. looks like I'm late..piggie dude is right on. there's nothing I could add..I've read his stuff before, he's very acurate..seems to know a lot about them. Sorry to hear of your piggie.
piggie dude do you have a web site?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment