Henry's Thread
- Lynx
- Celebrate!!!
Very interesting. This refers to kidney stones in humans (it is bladder stones that plague guinea pigs most often). It would be helpful to know if oxalobacter formigenes are present in guinea pigs. Stones are quite complicated though. There is likely a genetic component. What works for humans may not work for guinea pigs. I found several interesting articles on humans. Here are a couple of them:
http://www.healthbasis.com/In-Depth%20R ... 000081.htm
http://www.centurahealthinfo.org/In-Dep ... 000081.htm
http://www.healthbasis.com/In-Depth%20R ... 000081.htm
http://www.centurahealthinfo.org/In-Dep ... 000081.htm
A quick update on Henry: Friday night, he ate very slowly, but he finished all of his food (we had to take Frost out for a while to give Henry a chance to eat). Yesterday he was eating better. He keeps going to the hay pile, and you can see he really wants to eat hay, but his mouth just isn't quite up to it yet. Same goes with the water bottles. He will drink water in a bowl, but I don't want him to get into the habit of that.
Henry's eating is picking back up, but he has dropped down to just under 1 lb 6 oz as of this evening (3/19). We gave him a bath--he's been sleeping in one spot when he isn't out and about, he's probably trying to stay warm with so little body fat on him.
The good news is that he has started to eat dry pellets and drink more water. The bad news is, obviously, his weight. We gave him a bath tonight, and he seems to feel better now (he likes to be clean).
We're still working on trying to find higher calorie diet to help him out. We're giving him plenty of pellets--he is eating them with more vigor. I'm going to be trying to get him a meal of sweet potato and celery, parsley, or papaya to boost his calorie intake.
The good news is that he has started to eat dry pellets and drink more water. The bad news is, obviously, his weight. We gave him a bath tonight, and he seems to feel better now (he likes to be clean).
We're still working on trying to find higher calorie diet to help him out. We're giving him plenty of pellets--he is eating them with more vigor. I'm going to be trying to get him a meal of sweet potato and celery, parsley, or papaya to boost his calorie intake.
If I read the charts right, lettuce is about 15 Calories per 100 grams. They get about 20 grams of lettuce per meal, so that works out to about three Calories of lettuce per meal.
Giving Henry 4 grams of sweet potato should be a hair over 4 Calories. That's about one 3 mL syringe full. He LOVES it. He got about three grams of kale to keep the Ca:P ratio in a good range, there's another calorie or so.
We're going to try supplementing him twice a day with this and see what happens.
Does anyone know a verifiable value for either the daily Calorie needs for guinea pigs, or for the calorie value they get from eating hay? Since Henry isn't eating much hay right now, we want to supplement his diet to make up for that AND give him extra calories on top of that.
Giving Henry 4 grams of sweet potato should be a hair over 4 Calories. That's about one 3 mL syringe full. He LOVES it. He got about three grams of kale to keep the Ca:P ratio in a good range, there's another calorie or so.
We're going to try supplementing him twice a day with this and see what happens.
Does anyone know a verifiable value for either the daily Calorie needs for guinea pigs, or for the calorie value they get from eating hay? Since Henry isn't eating much hay right now, we want to supplement his diet to make up for that AND give him extra calories on top of that.
Henry is eating well, though he continues to refuse hay. He is drinking. He is also dribbling worse than ever, and I just gave him another bath because he smelled bad (from the food liquids and pellet slobber in his fur).
He makes some weird clicking sounds when he eats.
He has also developed a hoarse wheek.
While his eating and drinking is better in terms of quantity and enthusiasm, overall, I feel like he's getting worse.
They attempted to do a blood draw on his neck, but no luck (this was while he was under)...any chance that there could be a problem with this? I took him back to see Dr. M. on Friday morning, and she said there were no signs of infection or swollen lymph nodes.
Could this all be something else? A heart issue? Diabetes?
He makes some weird clicking sounds when he eats.
He has also developed a hoarse wheek.
While his eating and drinking is better in terms of quantity and enthusiasm, overall, I feel like he's getting worse.
They attempted to do a blood draw on his neck, but no luck (this was while he was under)...any chance that there could be a problem with this? I took him back to see Dr. M. on Friday morning, and she said there were no signs of infection or swollen lymph nodes.
Could this all be something else? A heart issue? Diabetes?
Henry is making me crazy. Now he's eating hay like there has never been an issue. He's also amusing himself by running from one water bottle to the other, because they're different.