Minky just hates being syringe fed..

[josiejo]

Hi all,
I hope you are all okay.
We noticed that one of our piggies "Minky the pretty" has been off her food, has hardly touched her nuggets and hasn't wrestled her cage mate (Karate Kinky) out of the way for fresh food.... she was also very lethargic and has watery eyes. 

So.... as we couldnt get to the see the vet today, we decided to start syringe feeding her last night.... but she hates it.

We've had a little bit of experience in syringe feeding with my beloved Sanchez (who sadly crossed the rainbow to the giant golden carrot last year)... and at that time it went okay, Sanchez didnt 'like it' but we managed quite well at each sitting.

But Minky is having none of it... we'll get to two syringes if we are lucky.

ANY advice would be gratefully received... at the moment we are giving her mashed up nuggets, but should I maybe add some mashed up veggies in it?  Like carrot, cucumber?  As suggested by Dawn in "syringe feeding"....

How much water should we be trying to give her... she tries to get away with that too!

All tips will be gratefully received.

JJ xxx

[Kayleigh]

You need to figure out why shes not eating ideally. As force feeding could make things worse.

Watery eyes and not eating are usually tooth/mouth problems. Absesses, ulcers, overgrown molars etc. All of which need vet treatment asap. Cavies digestive systems need to keep moving. 12 hours with little or no eating and things start to slow down, eventually shutting down. Leaving the cavy in critical condition.

For added umph until you can get to the vet you can feed warmed oats (porridge) mushed fruits/veggies can be mixed through too. And baby foods (fruit/veg based only)

Kayleigh

Sent from my GT-I9300 using proboards

[josiejo]

Many thanks Kayleigh.... we did take Minky to the Vet and he checked her mouth/teeth and said he could'nt see anything. He gave us some antibios and the digestive 'stuff' that should get them to want to eat again....

Minky will now tuck into lettuce, cucumber but I've not seen her attempt nuggets yet..... and she's nibbled on hay...

Her eye is still quite watery and she's not really 'herself'.

Should we take her back to the Vet and maybe ask for an x-ray of her mouth or something like that? I just want to make sure that we are doing all we can for her.

many thanks... josie xx

[Kayleigh]

I would definately take her back, did they check inside her mouth fully, special forceps are needed to check a cavies back teeth.

By eating softer foods its sounds like it is teeth trouble. Could be a small abscess forming, overgrown rear molar.

Did the vets have a feel around her jaw line, neck area etc too? to check for any abnormal lumps.

Perhaps asking for an exotics vet if you have one, or another vet opinion.

Kayleigh