What is normal weight gain or loss in a chin?

[rodneyc8063]

I currently have a chin that is about 7 years old that has lost some weight in the past two weeks.

What had happened was that my chin weighed in at about 585 grams, then we noticed she had a growth on her eye. This led to us bringing her to the vet the next day, which they diagnosed it as an abcess and sent us home with metacam and baytril.

We noticed an immediate drop in her appetite and after discussing with the vet agreed to stop the medication until her appetite comes back.

From that vet visit till now shes dropped to about 545 grams give or take in the span of 2 weeks. Since her weight drop began we fed critical care, currently we are feeding about a total of 60 CC/ML per day. We did notice that after stopping the medication her appetite has slowly improved.

This past week shes been eating an average of 7 grams of oxbow pellets, and rummaging through most of her hay. I cant measure hay intake really since shes a tornado and goes through things.

So we have been slowly stopping feeding the critical care to just let her eat her pellets and hay on her own. I read somewhere that once a chin starts to show appetite to not feed them critical care anymore and let them start eating on their own.

Funny thing though is that for the past 4 days or so, since her appetite seemed to really pick up her weight still seems to be holding steady?

She has her good days, where she weighed in at about 560 grams just 2 days ago. Then this morning when I weighed her she was 540 grams.

I understand to try and weigh her at consistent times, but I just find it odd how she doesnt seem to be gaining weight?

So my question is - Since her vet visit shes dropped quite a bit of weight - How "fast" can chins regain weight?

I would have thought that since my chin lost about 30-40 grams within 4 days, that within 4 days or so she would also regain all this weight? Not sure if the weight loss rate is the same as the weight gain rate?

Also, I noticed that generally her activity level while still active - Is lower then before. I used to open her cage door and just let her bounce in and out as she pleases. Now though she just sits at the cage door when I have it open and stares off into space.

Should I try to increase her activity level by just taking her fully out of the cage and closing the door? This would force her to run around instead of letting her choose to come out or not.

Im not sure if the weight loss was muscle, and like humans we have to "work out" to regain the muscle back, which I understand can take time.

Or is this new weight that she is holding steady at the new "normal" for her?

I know when there is weight loss to supplement with critical care. What Im not so clear about is how and when to stop giving critical care.

Any insight would be much appreciated, as I cant tell whats "normal" to regain weight

 

[Amethyst]

Chins don't really have much fat to begin with so I would think most weight loss would be muscle loss. I'm not totally sure but I think chins gain weight at a rate of about a couple grams a day, so to regain 30-40 grams would probably take close to a month or so. Also keep in mind that a full bladder and a full stomach can each hold up to about 5-10 g each. So theoretically if weigh the chin with an empty bladder and stomach, then the next time the chin has a full bladder and a full stomach it can appear that they gained up to 20g (or lost up to 20g if the other way around).

Maybe instead to trying to giving syringe feedings of Critical Care at this point, since she is eating on her own, you can try making cookies out of it. That way she isn't relying on you for feedings, but is still getting the extra calories and nutrients from the CC to help gain more and thinks she is getting a treat.
A simple recipe is just make up the CC with a small amount of water so its a thick paste, then put treat size globs (pressed flat like a cookie) on a foil covered baking sheet and bake at 200F for about a hour or until fully dried out. You can also add in some chopped up hay if you want.