Sick piggy, help ):

I adopted my guinea pig, Sally, from Petsmart last June. She's still young, not yet a year old. She has always been very vocal, entergetic, etc.

The past couple days, she hasn't been acting like herself. She hasn't been eating and drinking much. She drinks A LOT if I hold the bottle for her, but other then that she doesn't touch it. Eating is a different story. I try hand feeding her. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. If it does work, she only eats a little bit. I even tried giving her treats, like lettuce. She use to love lettuce, she use to devour it, but now she won't touch it. She still chews on her chew toys, so I don't think it's a tooth problem.

Now, she is very lazy. She rarely comes out of her house in her cage and if I took her out and put her in the play yard, she just sits a corner and doesn't move. Before, she'd run laps around her cage and the play yard. Now, it's the opposite. She isn't very vocal anymore either unless I pick her up.

Last night, I noticed crust around her eyes. It wasn't a lot, so I wiped it off of her. So far, it hasn't came back, but I'm still checking out for it. I also noticed her sitting very weird too, in and out of the cage. She'll sit like it seems hunched, and all her hair would stick up. It seems like she isn't relaxed, but there would be nothing bothering her. I took a couple pictures of it to show you:

http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/...to10231722.jpg
http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/...to10231717.jpg
This one you can really notice it:
http://i1236.photobucket.com/albums/...to10231721.jpg

Does anyone have any ideas of what this could be? Tomorrow after school, I am going to go around different veterian offices to see if they handle guinea pigs aswell. Thank you everyone for reading this and helping!

Has she pooped at all lately? I am glad you are planning on a vet trip tomorrow. Are you able to look in her mouth at all? It could still be a tooth thing - chew toys are mostly for those front teeth but the back teeth could be sore ...

Where do you live? Maybe someone knows a good piggie vet in your area ...

She is so cute. I am so sorry she is not feeling well. I would get her to a vet ASAP, tomorrow that is. Let us know what the vet thinks. Just about any vet can give the piggie an exam. I hope things work out just fine.

Fingers and paws crossed.

Sasvermont, thank you! I will keep you updated!

Karen, her pooping has been normal. I tried to look into her mouth, she'll only let me look for a split second before she pulls away. I live in Philadelphia, so if anyone knows a good piggy vet, it would be greatly appreciated! :)

So how did it go? Did you find a good vet?

Yes, I took her earlier today and it went very good! Lemme tell ya, it was so hard finding a guniea pig vet that took last minute appoitments! :eek: Finally, I found one that wasn't too far from my house. She checked her teeth, heart, weight, etc; everything was good. She said Sally wasn't getting enough fiber (because of the type of food I give her, she's eating the parts she thinks is good and not the nutrisious parts.) Because of this she started to not feel like her herself and became dehydrated. They shot water in her skin, sounds painful, yes I know! It must of been by the way she squeaked and threw her head around so much. :( The vet gave us completely new guinea pig food that has more of the healthy pellets and not so much the sweet treets usually found in store bought food. She said Sally won't eat herself for a couple days, so I have to hand feed her: the pellets cut up and a mixture of fruit juice (apple, grape juice) through a syringe. After we got her home, I put this all together and fed her. She could not get enough of it! The way she was nibbling on the syringe and going for more made her seem like she loved it!

Hopefully in the next couple days, she'll be back to her ole happy self. :)

Oh, yay! What was the vet's name, just in case anyone else in Philadelphia needs a good piggie vet! So often the store foods are not well balanced, I am glad she is liking her new stuff, and hopefully will be back to her normal self soon!

Thank you so much. :D

The vet's name is Dr. Dawn at Blvd Animal Hospital. If anyone needs a good vet, I would deffinitly recommend her, she was very nice. :)