Will not gain weight!

Phantomhorse

Post   » Mon Nov 13, 2017 2:55 pm


Hello! One of by boys is a year and a half old, and he has always been small. He has a very small lean body frame, that none of the other pigs have, including his parents. So, he isn't at a low weight... he is pretty average for his weight. He just will not gain! He has a huge appetite and eats everything, but he isn't gaining any weight? What do you guys think?

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Mon Nov 13, 2017 5:38 pm


It's very hard to get an adult guinea pig to gain weight. If he's healthy, why are you trying to get him to?

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Nov 13, 2017 5:46 pm


The only other thing I can think of is to look into hyperthyroidism. You can find an article on it in the Records forum.
www.guinealynx.info/records

Phantomhorse

Post   » Tue Feb 06, 2018 5:58 pm


I'm back with a LOT to update you on. Lynx - can we make this Black Diamond's medical thread? I don't think I have made one for him and if I have I apologize and would be happy to scoot over there and post. Anyway, the issue at hand.

So Diamond has had a lot happen since this post. A few months ago we had multiple issues come through here, we lost two pigs and we almost lost Diamond as well. He presented with these symptoms:

- Loss of weight
- Burning hot to the touch
- Wedged between his house and the corner
- Unresponsive, staring off into the distance, didn't move the whole car ride or at the vet
- Unable to stand on hind legs properly, was sitting on them as if they weren't there, toes and feet bent at worrisome angles.
- Severely dehydrated... eyes were sunken into his head.

I immediately rushed him to the vet where they gave him sub-q fluids and a vitamin B & C shot and pulled blood on him. The blood work revealed that he was borderline hypoglycemic (I expected that based off of his symptoms), and he had low blood protein. We sent off a protein electrophoresis and left him at the vet overnight. I didn't expect him to make it, but he did! One of our other boys also became anemic at the time which led us to think about scurvy. Both pigs got another vitamin C shot, and the first pig made a recovery we never thought we would ever see. Diamond perked up but hasn't made a recovery. He was the runt when he was born. They were a litter of four and they all did well. All of them were small, but the other three filled out nicely and Diamond never has. The highest his weight has ever been is around 800 grams. When he went in for his yearly my vet looked at him, then the weight, then him, then the weight and then checked the record. She relaxed a bit when she saw that his weight was on point from last year, but last year he was eight or nine months old? He will be two in a few months, and his weight has been hovering around 740 grams for the past few months. He looks thin and he feels thin, but he is eating everything. I am just not sure about this... if he gets sick will he be strong enough to recover?

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Tue Feb 06, 2018 6:53 pm


Did they check to see if he's diabetic?

Phantomhorse

Post   » Wed Feb 07, 2018 1:31 pm


Bpatters, they ran a full blood panel on him and nothing was abnormal aside from hypoglycemia and the blood protein levels (which we never retested because he was doing so well). We know the blood protein resolved, but never checked the hypoglycemia. I'm kicking myself right now for that. If he starts losing weight again I am going to tell our vet to do another blood draw on him. His parents were both rescues, but neither of them were diabetic... his father was euthanized a year ago (pneumonia and suspected meningitis). Something feels wrong to me... I have had 10+ pigs and none of them have ever weighed in below 800 grams for their entire life.

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Wed Feb 07, 2018 5:14 pm


They should be able to test blood sugar by clipping a toenail short. I don't think they need to stick him to do blood glucose.

Phantomhorse

Post   » Wed Feb 07, 2018 6:15 pm


bpatters, he had a salad and pellets today, and he just weighed in at 640 grams. And on top of that our vet is going to the other end of the world for two weeks so we will have to use another. Fortunately, we have two more completely competent vets at the same location, so we will not be in bad hands... but last time he dropped like this he nearly died, so we need to move fast. Working on getting an appointment in for sometime in the next three days. I'm not leaving without a blood draw (need to do it anyway at this point because of last time's results), and we will see what else they would like to do.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Wed Feb 07, 2018 7:19 pm


I do not know if this is at all pertinent, but I just posted it for someone else:
https://www.guinealynx.info/hyperthyroid ... study.html

Phantomhorse

Post   » Wed Feb 07, 2018 8:14 pm


Lynx, thank you for sharing that article with me as I would not have found it on my own. This is the only thing I have heard about so far that falls into a partial alignment with his symptoms. Did the author of this article remain online after she passed? Is there a way that I could contact them?

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Wed Feb 07, 2018 9:18 pm


It is an old article and I am unsure if you could contact him. At the top of the page is a link to the page he wrote elsewhere. I don't think he posted on the forum.

Phantomhorse

Post   » Wed Feb 07, 2018 10:05 pm


That's unfortunate... I could use his advice. A few of the symptoms match... his whole life he has never gotten above 800 grams, and he is a small pig with a very lean frame. He also has uncontrollable energy... I put him on the couch and put my hand in front of his face to tell him to sit still (the others will sit for a minute) and he climbed right over it and ran all over the couch, jumped onto the floor and ran off. He eats a lot but is still losing weight. I'm sending a photo of him to you Lynx. Hmmm...

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