[Gpdd] Health: UTI

[Jackie Bickers]

Hi all...
It's been a REALLY long time since I posted to this, though I still read. My 
adopted guinea pig Rusty is having a rough time of it...this last couple of 
weeks, he has had treatments for mites AND developed a urinary tract 
infection. He is eating and pooping pretty poorly..though he still LOVES his 
romaine lettuce. In fact, that's the only thing he has been eating except 
for the critical care I *attempt* to feed him by hand. I say attempt because 
he is pretty resistant to being force fed....he spits most of it out, but I 
think that with the time and effort SOME of it makes in in there. He also 
has an interest still in some fresh, obsessively cleaned grass. I've been 
mixing it with some of his hay to fool him into eating it. He's still pretty 
spunky and hasn't had any significant weight loss according to our vet (I 
have NO idea how, since the poor eating has been going on for about TWO 
WEEKS.) He has always been a much pickier eater than the rest of my pigs, 
and is on antibiotics to boot. It's gotten to the point that I think that if 
he suspects I'm going to take him out to feed him, he eats for about thirty 
seconds to try to throw me off. And he won't drink his water unless I unhook 
the bottle and put it in front of him...even though he is still very mobile 
and perfectly capable of going to it himself. He has also expressed a bigger 
interest in eating cardboard during his playtime than his good food (I give 
them used paper towel rolls and boxes to play with). If anyone has any ideas 
on how to deal with a bad patient...any tricks to get some food in them or 
otherwise, drop me an email. Good wishes for him would be great too. Or for 
me, because he's in much better spirits and mood than I AM.