Lethal Guinea Pig Care/Advice

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Ashleyh

Post   » Wed May 10, 2017 4:03 pm


Hello,
I am new to this forum and website, so I hope I'm posting in the right section/using it appropriately and please correct me if I'm not.
I recently rescued a 1 month old white guinea pig 4 days ago from a pet store that I stumbled across. He was in bad shape and not being properly taken care of by the store owners. So I took him home with me. His name is Albert and right away I noticed he had a head tilt, was bumping into everything, didn't seem to react to any sounds, had numerous bite wounds on his rump, and one overgrown front tooth. Not knowing at the time he may be a "lethal guinea pig" I took him to an exotic vet that helped me previously with one of my other guinea pigs URI's. She confirmed his blindness and deafness as well as told me I may have to consider putting him under anesthesia to shave down his tooth and check his molars. After the vet visit I wanted to do some more research on blind and deaf guinea pigs and how to properly take care of them. I later stumbled across numerous posts/videos/forums about lethal guinea pigs and realized Albert is probably one of them!
So my point in posting this is that I wanted to get advice on how to properly care for little Albert and if anyone has any tips and tricks for these types of guineas.
He is currently in a 2 by 2 c&c cage for ease of access to water and food so he doesn't have to search very far. He is also on fleece, eating Oxbow guinea pig pellets and hay. He is eating his pellets good and drinking water, but not so much on the hay. He eats some here and there but I think it may be harder for him to chew the long pieces (help to cut them up?). I offered very tiny cut up pieces of green pepper the last two days and put in with his pellets but he still hasn't eaten them. I plan to get his tooth fixed once I have some extra money but was also wondering if his tooth may fix itself on a proper diet? (Hopefully that doesn't sound too foolish of me to think). Any advice and help will be much appreciated!
Thank you!

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Wed May 10, 2017 5:59 pm


Thank you for taking him in! It's a real commitment to take on a lethal guinea pig.

MildredM has a ton of posts on here on Fairy, her lethal, including her dental issues. She needed her incisors trimmed regularly, and MildredM did that herself, with a tool called a rongeur. Here's Fairy's website, with a lot of information on there that is also posted here: http://www.fairymagic.me/

If she doesn't have molars, that may be the reason she doesn't eat hay. If she does have molars, they may not be meeting correctly. If she doesn't, I think I remember that they may develop later, and enable the pig to eat hay by itself.

You may find it easier for him to eat things if you cut food in long narrow strips, like matchsticks, which you then insert in his mouth. If he does have any effective chewing action with his molars, getting the food back that far in his mouth may help him eat better by himself.

Ashleyh

Post   » Wed May 10, 2017 7:22 pm


I know I'm so glad I saw him because I couldn't stand the thought of him going to an inexperienced pet owner especially a young child. It would have been just awful for him.
Thank you for the link! I'm gonna check it out now.
And I didn't even think of the fact that he could have no molars so I will for sure try to cut his food into strips. That may help him with eating some veggies. He seems to be eating his pellets great which are long narrow sticks like what you are describing. I also have critical care on hand in case he stops eating completely on his own.
Would you recommend vitamin C tabs for him since he only seems to be eating his pellets?
Thank you again!!

Ashleyh

Post   » Wed May 10, 2017 7:25 pm


Oh and the tooth tool sounds great for managing the overgrown tooth! It's not terrible so maybe this tool could get the job done!

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Wed May 10, 2017 9:36 pm


If you're feeding him a good quality pellet (KMS Hayloft and Oxbow are the best), they'll have stabilized vitamin C in them. I'd concentrate on getting him to eat veggies rather than give him a vitamin C tablet.

Ashleyh

Post   » Thu May 11, 2017 12:33 am


Okay great! He's on Oxbow. Thank you!

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MildredM
The-Fairy-in-my-Heart

Post   » Thu May 11, 2017 10:00 am


Got your message!

I could write realms and realms of advice but honestly I reckon you'd be better finding as many threads and pages on here as you can and just keep on reading. A LW could potentially have so many issues it would be hard to simply offer any aspect of care and there is such a lot of excellent info on the forum already.

My one bit of advice would be to take Albert to a decent, cavy savvy vet, for a though examination. You need to know if he's got his molars for starters. Weigh him daily. He needs to go up in weight every day, the only way you will know if he's eating enough is to weigh him and keep a chart.

As I say, there really is too much to cover in a single post. I am sure if you have problems people here will be pleased to help. Try and specify each problem separately and work from there.

I really do wish you all the very best. At least Albert has the love he deserves . . . . xxx

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MildredM
The-Fairy-in-my-Heart

Post   » Thu May 11, 2017 3:35 pm


I have been thinking a little more . . .

Are you in the UK or America, Ashleyh? In the UK there is a dedicated LW rescue who would probably be glad to help. I am sure there will be suitable rescues in America too. It may be that you yourself are not equipped to deal with his problems. The bottom line is doing what is best for this poor little piggy xx

Ashleyh

Post   » Thu May 11, 2017 7:47 pm


Thanks for replying MildredM!
Thanks for the tips! I plan on going to a guinea pig vet I know of through my work. I am weighing him and so far he's been at a good weight, could stand to gain some more, but today he just stared eating some veggies so I'm hoping it will boost him up in weight even more.
I'm in the US so I'm sure there are a handful of rescues that could take Albert in, but I'd like to think I'm more equipped than the average pet parent considering I'm a Zookeeper. I have many reasources to reach out to and get help from. I just thought maybe writing on this website could give me even more help. Obviously if Alberts health were to decline I would get him the right help he needs :)
Thanks for the help!!

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Thu May 11, 2017 9:58 pm


A real zookeeper! That is awesome!

It sounds like you will succeed!

MildredM's guinea pig lived quite a few happy years. I hope yours does well too!

Ashleyh

Post   » Thu May 11, 2017 10:01 pm


Thank you Lynx! :)

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