Feather - Day Three

Not so good this morning. It's incredibly cold and poor Feather didn't do so well through the night. Even with the snugglesafe he was down to 806g this morning. So he got his medication and then 30g of Critta Care and is pretty much glued to his snugglesafe. He's still bright and happy just skinny. His butt was actually clean and dry this morning which was a definite improvement. He's still crying when he pees but his pee is now dark brown like old blood instead of the bright red it used to be. So it looks like the cystitis is starting to clear up, I just hope it was the cause of the weight loss, so Feather starts gaining soon.

Edited to add: His weight stayed sort of steady around the 820's for the rest of the day and I just gave him a big dinner. He ate 41g of Critta Care. I haven't actually reached the point where he absolutely refuses to take it but I can't see a piggy tummy holding much more then 40g or so of feed. Before his feed at 8 PM he was 819g and after 860g. Guess we'll just see how he goes through the night. He did pee bright red blood again as well today.

He's only got one more dose of metacam left and this Saturday will be day seven of the antibiotics. If he's still unable to gain weight by then, it'll have to be back to the vets for an x-ray/ultrasound and a detailed blood analysis. I really hope that's not needed, I've lost pigs under aneasthetic before and I prefer to avoid the need for anaesthesia wherever possible. Makes me kind of wish he showed signs of malocclusion. I have all the equipment needed (professional files and buccal pad separators) and some vets who would be willing to give it a go. But hopefully he will start improving soon. If nothing else he hasn't gone backwards by much. He's lowest weight since medication is just 4g less then his lowest weight before. His butt hair has dried out and he's stopped smelling and he's peeing less (he's always peed about three times the amount of any other guinea pig). Now he just needs to gain weight, and stop having red painful pee.

ETA 2 - I convinced him to eat another 23g of food leaving his final weight for the night at 873g. I was a bit worried about keeping him warm tonight and then realised I had totally forgotten about Fortinbras. So I've popped both Feather and Fortinbras into a carry cage together with food, water and a snugglesafe and set them near the fireplace. Hopefully that'll help Feather stay warm through the lovely -4 degrees night.