malo chin: is he worse or is he better?

[WhiteTree]

As stupid as it sounds I don't know whether he's getting worse or if he's getting better. He was last at the vet December 6th. He had a filing done and they pushed the gum back down some more. Back story is the previous vet cut the teeth too short, the gum grew over the back teeth and became infected. The current vet is working on letting the teeth grow back out some and pushing the gum back down into it's proper place and it's going well. At his last appointment he was 512grams. The vet made no mention of his weight to me but when I saw that on my receipt I was in a panic and contacted dawna about an emergency shipment of lifeline since I heard it helps with weight. He's now getting a half and half mixture of lifeline and critical care.

Previously I've been doing nothing but syringe feeding him 4-5 times daily and he would eat around 45-50 eye droppers per feeding. However in the last week his drooling is pretty much nonexistent, I think the wetness on his chest is just him being a messy eater because his mouth is looking dry. And he started eating the mixture off a spoon and out of a dish. So I leave a dish in the cage at all times and dump, clean the dish and refill it several times a day. Most of the time the dish is empty but there is another chin in the cage. I see both of them at the dish eating so it's not all from him. I'm still offering the syringe but he's barely eating for me with the syringe. He did try to eat the solid pellets that are in there for his cagemate the other night and managed to eat some but seemed to struggle. He eats his timothy treats but I have to wet them first. He's also active, alert and playing.

So this all sounds like he's improving but here's the bad news. I weighed him tonight with the digital gram scale I just bought. 492grams, so he's lost another 20grams which doesn't seem like much but he use to be over 600grams. He looks so thin and when I pick him up he's bony. But he's still active and feisty.

I wish he would still eat from the syringe for me, I'm hoping it's just that he's getting enough from the dish and the solid food he's starting to nibble on but I can't measure that. I can't take the dish out though and just do straight syringe feeding because I'm out of school and started a new fulltime job just this week, I'm at work for up to 10 hours a day and there's no one to feed him without the dish.

I can't separate the cagemate out because they're severely bonded and don't let each other out of their sight. Andy even goes to the vet with Scamp for his filings. The last thing I want to do is stress Scamp out when he's sick and removing Andy would do that. They sleep together every night and it shows because Andy's front half is all fluffy and perfect looking then his back and hips are all scruffy looking from Scamp drooling on him at night.

Any ideas on whether he's better or worse or what else to do for him. This is my first malo chin and I'm ready to pull my hair out. He's up he's down he's back up and then back down I'm getting dizzy from it all. Worse comes to worse I am able to take him to work with me, there's a vet that sees exotics at my new job but I really don't want to start using the perks of the job within my first week of employment. So in an emergency if he's bad when I'm getting ready to leave and I'm afraid to leave him home alone I can bring him with me.

Also one more thing, one of the vets does acupuncture and she said it could help him with his pain and would be willing to try it with the exotic vet's help. Any thoughts?

 

[ticklechin]

As far as the acupuncture, I did it, it did not help and the chin was less than impressed. Long term pain management I use metecam, tramadol and pepcid, its the best I have found for "normal" malo pain.

Malo chins are always one step forward, two steps back, three steps forward etc, there is no predicability and there is no let up in the stress on the parent. Malo chins also suck when it comes to weight gain and loss, I have had loss when feeding 120ml a day I have had gain when feeding 60ml a day, as long as the loss is not too bad and the poo production is good I don't stress too much. In your case, try to feed him breakfast and dinner with the syringe and give him the dish during the day-a trick is to freeze the CC/LL mixture in ice cube trays and put a cube in a dish-this way the mixture stays cooler longer, it has a shape that has corners the malo chin can nibble on and you have a set amount given. Keep his weight in a 20mg range with feeding.

As long as he is playing, has the spark in the eye, has a appetite and is doing chin things minus the eating, enjoy your time with him. My mantra is malo chins do not have a set expiration date stamped on their butts, its a individual situation and he will tell you when he is done.

 

[WhiteTree]

I keep the mixture in the dish thicker because he seems to prefer a chunky mix over watery. He also doesn't like it cold. I have to warm it in the microwave for 10 seconds before feeding or he'll turn up his nose at it. I'm putting about 2 spoonfuls before mixing with water of critical care, I left out the lifeline today and he ate like crazy. I'll try mixing it in again in a day or two but for now I'll just do critical care since he likes that more it seems. He ate most of the dish today and ate straight out of the container I syringe feed him from, he didn't want to wait for me to suck it up each time so he just shoved his head in the dish.

 

[ticklechin]

Feed him all he wants, what he wants, if its no LL that is cool, there is no limit. Its funny how he wants it warm, the ones I had always wanted it cool.