[Gpdd] [HEALTH] Starting to feel a little concerned...

[Janna Hoskin]

Hi everyone, I want to thank you all for the replies I've received so far.
They contained some very useful ideas. I thought I would offer a bit more
information about Guido, our situation, and the boy's diet.

We are in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Canada). I think I will have to take
Guido to the local university to get proper care for him. We looked when we
first arrived (a little over a year ago now), but even though the university
here is primarily geared towards veterinary practice and agriculture, there
are no exotics vets in the city. However, since the university has a proper
veterinary program, I am confident that someone there would be able to look
after my little man quite well. (In fact, the exotics vet I went to in
Calgary was trained partially at this university, and she was fantastic.)

The immunity booster is called just that - Booster. It's from the Zoological
Education Network. I looked it up online when we were given it by the vet.
It's just fatty acids suspended in red palm. I haven't given him any just
yet as it is a bit of a pain; you have to warm it up by submerging the
bottle in hot water so you can use a syringe to get the proper dose, because
its normal state is rather solid.

The treats I give are little baked hearts that I know are made of safe
ingredients - I always read the ingredients on the food I feed myself and my
fiance, so why would I do anything less for my animals? :) There are no eggs
or other animal products in these little treats, and I believe they are made
of corn flour. It is part of my attempt to keep his teeth filed down
naturally - that is also why I have the treat stick (which I also inspect
carefully prior to purchase, to ensure that there are no unsafe ingredients
like sunflower seeds still in the shell). The dry food that I buy is always
timothy pellet based, and if it is a mix I make sure that most of the extras
are things like dried peas, leaves, grasses, and other such items that
guinea pigs would eat off the ground. I picked up a new pellet-only feed
yesterday and am feeding him 1/4 cup per day with just 1/8 cup of the mix
feed. He is eating his pellets and his timothy hay quite happily now, so I
am less worried.

I weighed him today, and he is a healthy (and solid!) 1043g (2lb 4.5oz).
Considering the fact that he weighed under 800g when I brought him home two
years ago, I do think this is proof that I take good care of my animals.

Alas, I can't take him with me to work. I'll continue to weigh him daily,
though, and I'm glad Friday is my last day, since then I'll have more
ability to nurse him if he requires a lot of extra attention.

He is eating lettuce (I only feed Romaine or green or red leaf lettuce). I
might tempt him with a bit of baby carrot tonight, just to see what he
thinks. He is rather picky (so was Napoleon) and won't eat bell peppers. He
does like apples. I haven't tried the more exotic leafy vegetables yet. He
doesn't like parsnips very much. (I have tried a lot of different vegetables
in the past year and given the guinea pigs the ends.) I don't remember if he
likes parsley, I will have to check.

At some point in the next few months we are planning to get another guinea
pig, but probably not until after the wedding - so not until mid-July (after
we're back from the honeymoon).

-Janna and Guido (and Roy the cat and Juniper the fiance)

"Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be
normal." Albert Camus
"I want to remake the world; anything less is not worth the trouble." Karen
Cushman


On Sat, Apr 10, 2010 at 10:31 PM, Janna Hoskin <janna at thehoskincentre.com>wrote:

> Hi everyone, I hope all are well. Guido sends his regards and is sure that
> all those who have recently crossed over the bridge are playing happily with
> his old friend Isabella, who crossed over at the end of January this year.
>
> I'm writing tonight because I'm a little worried about Guido. He's eating
> hay and pellets and is mostly perky and bright-eyed and all. I've checked
> his front teeth (doing fine), his bum (no impaction), and his nails (nicely
> trimmed). So what's the problem?
>
> When I clean his cage, I give him one of those treat bar things that you
> hang from the side of the cage. He won't eat it, and he used to love them.
>
> I got him food that's pellets mixed with dried veggies and treats, and he's
> picking out the pellets and not touching the goodies.
>
> He won't eat the little goodies I offer him - he'll take it in his teeth
> and then just drop it on the floor of his cage, or he won't take it at all.
> These are his all-time favourite goodies, the little baked hearts by Sun
> Seed.
>
> He'll eat veggies, but not tomatoes (I give him the end when I cut one for
> salad, and he used to like them).
>
> So I am very confused!
>
> I picked up some plain food - just straight timothy pellets - today at the
> pet store, along with some vitamin C drops for his water bottle (it's opaque
> so it shouldn't degrade too much) and some yogurt drops. He actually ate a
> yogurt drop (I'm not planning to give him more than one a day, I know they
> have a lot of sugar in them) - he wouldn't eat those before at all.
>
> So I am so confused and kind of worried, because when Napoleon started his
> final decline, it was just a few months after Katonia died (pneumonia; she
> lived in a different cage, just like Isabella lived separately from Guido).
> He just... got depressed and stopped eating. I fed him Critical Care with a
> large syringe, but I wasn't able to be home to feed him more than twice a
> day because I was working full-time, and I'm sure he starved himself to
> death. I still have a week to go with my full-time job, and I'm scared Guido
> is going to go the same way.
>
> Hence the vitamin C stuff. I have a bottle of natural immunity booster that
> the vet gave me for Katonia. It obviously didn't help her, but the vet said
> it won't hurt a healthy guinea pig and will help them keep from getting
> sick. So I'm thinking about giving Guido a dose every night when I feed him
> before I go to bed.
>
> What do you guys think about this? Might my Guido-Man be depressed and in
> need of a cage-mate? Or is he just starting to get old? (He's almost four
> years old now, I think; he was two and a half when I got him in the summer
> of 2008.)
>
> Speaking of new wheekers, there was a lovely herd of month-old piglets at
> the pet store. They were so tiny, and so cute! I would prefer to
> adopt/rescue, of course, but if it comes down to it, I may have to buy.
> (I'll scour the SPCA and the Humane Society first, as well as Craigslist and
> Kijiji and Facebook Marketplace, of course, but you can't always strike
> gold.)
>
> -Janna and Guido (and Roy the cat and Juniper the fiance)
>
> "Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be
> normal." Albert Camus
> "I want to remake the world; anything less is not worth the trouble." Karen
> Cushman
>