Piggy who has lost sense of smell

[momo526]

This is the first time I have posted to this forum and I am afraid of doing something that is against the rules. I am posting about our sweet little piggy named The Baby. We have been battling SOMETHING for two and a half weeks. I will try to give the Reader´s Digest version. She is 3and1/2 years old. She had cystitis which we took her to a vet for. We do not have many piggy knowledgeable vets and we had to convince him it really was cystitis. He did realize it finally and gave us a sulfa antibotic for her. Within 24 hours she seemed alright again. No pain and peeing easily. But within 36 hours she began to have trouble eating. Not swallowing, just with chewing. We thought maybe it was thrush fromthe antibiotic or sudden teeth problems. We took her to a new vet who knows more about piggies(Long story). He said there was no thrush and her teeth were perfect. He gave us a probiotic in case the antibiotic was upsetting her stomach. All this time it was obvious to us that she wanted to eat. She would take a few bites, chew, then spit whatever it was out. As we left the vet´s office, I finally figured out that the problem was that her food tasted bad. That can definitely be a side effect of antibiotics,We gave her the probiotic for 24 hours with no change and tok her off the antibiotic thinking that her taste would return to normal. That did not happen and she will eat almost nothing on her own. We are syringing at least 72cc of fluids daily. We give her both water and Pedialyte. WE are syringing food also but we know that we just can´t get enough into her. We just heard about Oxbow´s Critical Care and had it overnighted and have started that also. We believe that the real problem is that she has lost her sense of smell. Oddly enough, the one thing that she still expresses some interest in are her paper cup toys. She will chew and eat them till they are gone. We think it´s because they don´t smell like anything and still taste like they alwats did. We know they are not the best thing for her but they keep her active and interested so... Has anyone experienced this and do you have any suggestions? We are honestly surprised that she is still alive. She is not in any discomfort, and purrs and wheeks for us. We are unable to find a vet who is able to help in any way. If anyone knows anything we would be most grateful. Thank you and sorry for the length.

[Lynx]

I have never heard of anyone´s pig losing their taste for food. I tend to think something else is going on.

Many vets (even reportedly good ones) can miss tooth problems. With any illness, a reduction in eating may start a tooth problem. I suggest you try to track down a veterinary dentist (check the link at the top of this page: www.guinealynx.info/guinealynx/teeth.html ) and also read the article on malocclusion. Sometimes a particular antibiotic will not agree with an animal and they can quit eating. If not enough abrasive food is getting eaten, the teeth will overgrow further. Critical Care supposedly will provide something to chew on. Check the article on Hand Feeding on Guinea Lynx also in case it gives you any ideas (see button top right). Sometimes it´s hard to tell exactly what is going on, but the behavior you describe most closely fits malocclusion.

By the way, by cystitis, do you mean a urinary tract infection? [Oh, and please don´t worry about doing anything "against the rules". I hope we can help you.]

[momo526]

Yes, it was a urinary tract infection. Our main reasons for not believing that the problem is her teeth are that 1) the problem came on very suddenly 2) the vet did check them and 3)she has no problem with the fairly hard paper cups. Any one of those reasons alone would not be enough for us, but put all together we look at them differently .I will definitely check the teeth sites again but we have very few good vets of any kind let alone a veterinary dentist. Also, we know that studies have been done on rats that show they definitely can lose their sense of smell. We are stumped. so appreciative of all suggestions.

[Josephine]

Sounds like teeth to me. Cavies rarely, if ever lose their sense of smell. When they spit food out, it is usually a sign of pain and systemic malaise.

[pinta]

She might have an ulcer in her mouth that food irritates but paper doesn´t. The most common cause of mouth ulcers are spurs - where the molar overgrows and juts into the soft flesh of the mouth. The ulceration can come up suddenly.

What kind of tools did the vet use to examine her teeth? A buccal pad separator? That is a proper tool and a tip off that the vet is familiar with cavy teeth. Some cavies have to be sedated to get a really good look, especially if the vet is inexperienced.

[momo526]

Thought I would let you know how Baby is doing. After literally seeming to be at death´s door, she now seems to be well on the road to recovery. She´s eating... well... like a pig. It seems we were right in thinking that it was not her teeth(although I can´t tell you how much we have appreciated all the great teeth advice and links) but a problem with either her smell or just the way things taste. It seems to us that Critical Care by Oxbow has made the difference for her. Within about 36 hours of begiining to feed it to her she ate a bit of apple. The next day(Thursday) she started to eat more, grabbing grapes an carrots out of my hand and gobbling them down.Then, she ate pellets out of hand and started digging madly in her food bowl again.Today she has eaten romaine lettuce again. She stll seems repulsed by her hay. We´ll just keep trying and giving her Critical Care till we believe she is completely out of the woods. Personally, I believe it is the particular probiotics in the mix that have helped her. I would recommend this product to anyone. Baby was doing so badly that we were considering taking her to the vet for the unthinkable and I almost didn´t order the Critical Care because I didn´t want to force more on her. Thank God I didn´t follow that bad impulse. Thank you for your helpful responses. I hope to keep posting at this site.