weight loss in older piggy

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Tracy

Post   » Sun Jan 11, 2009 8:41 am


Just an update about Inca (since I also posted one about Winnie). She and her sister reached their 6th birthdays on 12/10, and our next milestone is "Munchkins Day" on 1/21, which is their adoption day -- 6 years for me as their Mama.

Inca has been holding around ~650g (at her peak she was ~1050-1100g), and I'm still giving tapazole since that may be the reason she leveled off and didn't keep losing. Even though the lump in her neck is not related to her thyroid, my vet explained she could still have hyperthyroid. So I've been nervous about stopping the tapazole. It's a cheap and easy "treatment" for the rest of her life, and makes me feel better since I'm not great with "benign neglect" (non-treatment).

I'm also giving supplemental feedings of veggie/fruit baby food mixed with as much Critical Care as it will hold -- a thick, dry consistency where I can give her clumps with a popsicle stick or form little balls -- she loves the stuff! Sometimes I give her junky pellets, too (with a few seeds and colored bits, although I remove the corn and nuts) -- she will be spoiled for all her remaining time with us!

I can still feel her bones, and in fact Inca's walking has become stiff so now I'm also treating for arthritis with a liquid glucosamin/chondroitin product (juice for humans, with dose adjusted for piggies). No verdict on that yet since it's once been a few days. Admittedly the stiffness may be that she has so little muscle mass left, but my vet says the arthritis supplement is safe to try.

And finally, Inca's neck lump is slowly getting bigger. We've gone from "pea" size to a "marble" to now maybe a small "gumball." I mistakenly wrote in an earlier post that it's a cyst, but it's actually a mass (solid) so cannot be drained periodically as I had hoped. Only treatment would be removal, and I won't risk surgery with Inca due to her age, ongoing health probs, and low weight. If the lump or further weight loss (or anything else) diminishes her quality of life, I will just say goodbye to my girl to spare her pain and suffering.

For now, though, she's hanging in and doing OK! Loves to be pet, which is a relatively new thing. Just wants me to rub her all over (gently) whenever I visit the cage or remove her for lap/chest time. I feel very lucky she has lived this long, considering I've worried about one thing or another nearly her whole life (with my very experienced vet often stumped).

Thanks for your cheerleading and brainstorming over the years!

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Tracy

Post   » Sat Apr 18, 2009 4:58 pm


Wanted to wrap up this thread for anyone who may be reading about weight loss issues. My Inca died on April 2, at the age of 6 years + 4 months, and at a final weight of 505 grams.

I had tapered off her tapazole starting around early March, since (1) aspiration said the mass was not her thyroid; (2) T-4 tests were normal; (3) med didn't seem to be helping; and, most importantly, (4) Inca really hated the tapazole toward the end, and I wanted to spare her the stress of daily doses plus retain a loving owner-piggy relationship for the rest of her life (rather than have her run from me, head-butt, squirm around, resist the syringe, increase her heart rate, etc.).

I'd been spoiling her rotten, knowing her days were numbered. She ate whatever she wanted, including junky mixed pellets, rolled oats, Critical Care mixed with baby food, dried banana pieces, dried beets, sprigs of millet -- she loved it all! And we had a lot of quality time (snuggles) as she continued to decline. I stopped weighing her because it was just breaking my heart and we just couldn't stop the weight loss. As a last desperate grasp, I was considering trying heart meds even though echo said her heart was OK. Yet decided to just go for maximum quality of life for her remainder.

In the end, we think she may have had a thyroid storm: her heart was racing, couldn't pump efficiently, fluid build-up in her body (foam coming out of her nose, with coughing/sneezing to try to clear her pathways) -- just a horrible ER visit in the morn and a few hours in the hospital as they tried to manage the situation. I was heading back over to end her suffering (ETA 4:00), but Inca died about 10 minutes earlier. She had been fine just the night before -- standing up to greet me, eating enthusiastically, resting comfortably, moving around well, etc. This was just one battle she couldn't endure, and now she's at peace and free from bodily problems.

My vet did a gross necropsy and submitted both the heart and Inca's neck mass to the lab for analysis. (Her GI tract looked fine.) The neck mass was a "thyroid follicular adenoma with osseus metaplasia" -- that's a benign mass with mineralization so that it was almost bone-like, as I understand my vet's translation. About 2 cm x 1 cm. Heart showed "mild myocardial fibrosis" and also a small sarcoma within heart muscle that pathologist thought was probably incidental -- neither thought to be significant for her cause of death and health problems.

We think Inca had a definite thyroid problem from the mass that T4 tests did not reveal and an aspiration did not detect. The tapazole may have been helping somewhat, and perhaps Inca needed an even higher dose. If the tapazole was working, it did so for about 8 months. (All told, Inca lost weight throughout a 2-year period.) Removing the mass was always an option, yet I didn't think Inca would survive surgery (given her low weight, occasional respiratory problems post-anesthesia, and sometimes rapid heart) nor recover post-op unless we had achieved the proper dose of tapazole beforehand. I think we had time together that we wouldn't have had going down the surgical path, and she didn't suffer except for her final few hours of struggles.

All in all, I don't have regrets about anything we did or didn't do; I know my vet and I tried our best at every point. And I'm thankful that Inca was such a trouper to endure health issues that perplexed us throughout her life (not just the presumed hyperthyroidism) and all the diagnostics we did. I'm also glad that some piggies DO benefit from tapazole, though I hope analyses of T4 numbers improves for guinea pigs.

I may post a happier tribute to my girl in the Chat forum, and hope to update the T4 thread at some point.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sat Apr 18, 2009 9:44 pm


Thanks for the update. It sounds like this was a long and difficult journey. I am sorry you lost her.

Tracis
Let Sleeping Pigs Lie

Post   » Sun Apr 19, 2009 2:41 am


I'm very sorry that lovely Inca is gone. She was so fortunate to have your devoted care. She knew she was cherished.

pinta

Post   » Sun Apr 19, 2009 3:31 am


You definitely did everything possible.

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Tracy

Post   » Sat Mar 13, 2010 7:15 am


Not sure how long this link will be active and available to laypeople (since it says "members only"), but summaries are available from the proceedings of 2009 AEMV Conference (Assoc. of Exotic Mammal Veterinarians), including sessions about guinea pig hyperthryroidism. Personally, I've printed the info for my files since I have a specific interest in this condition (due to Inca's struggle). Here's the web page:

http://www.aemv.org/members_only/proceedings.cfm

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sat Mar 13, 2010 8:38 am


Thanks for adding these links, Tracy.

I removed the trailing period you added to both links (the board software makes everything that is "touching" part of the link - so if you add a period, it is best to put a space after the actual link).

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mmeadow
Supporter 2004-2022

Post   » Sat Mar 13, 2010 11:47 am


Tracy, I feel like you sneaked us in to the super-secret vet clubhouse! Thanks; I've saved the PDFs for perusal. Our own hyperthyroid experience with Scooby was so frustrating and confusing.

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Tracy

Post   » Sat Mar 13, 2010 1:44 pm


mmeadow, I was searching for something else and stumbled into it. Usually there's some vet stuff out there I'd want to read but we cannot access, so it was exciting to get a glimpse (also of other years' conference proceedings).

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Sat Mar 13, 2010 9:25 pm


Awesome. Ditto, thanks!

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Tracy

Post   » Sat Apr 02, 2016 5:38 pm


I was re-reading the end of Inca's thread here, in response to someone else's post and another member who just lost a hyperthyroid piggy suddenly. My heartbreak returns rather palpably about this stuff, and I share sadness with others going through similar struggles.

BUT, as today marks the anniversary of Inca's death, I'm trying to celebrate the happiness she brought to my life for several years. And I realized I never posted a photo in her thread; I think I didn't know how back then.

Here's my little girl... who I hope is running and popcorning with lots of others in some Eternal Meadow. Miss you and love you, Inca.

Image
Image

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sat Apr 02, 2016 9:11 pm


She was such a beautiful girl. What wonderful memories of her you must have.

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