Chin has lost weight. Help

[Squirrel_Butt]

Last year about this time my oldest chin Chip weighed 385 grams. Last week when I weighed him he was 337 grams.  2 days ago he was down to 327. Yesterday he went up to 329 grams. Today he went down to 328 grams.  He appears to be eating well and is pooing.  He is going to the vet on January 6.   I'm not sure if he is sick or if he is having trouble absorbing nutrients due to his age. 

Before I noticed this he did sneak into an area that one of the infected chins peed on when they missed the cage drop pan.  I'm not sure If he got exposed to a fecal pellet though. The others are giardia carriers.  Chip has shown no signs of infection at all. The carriers have not lost any weight.

[dianah]

how old is he? that is quite a low weight for a chin to start with, he must be tiny! is he in a cage by himself or is he in with others? sometimes it's very difficult to see if they're eating as much as they normally would because there are others in the cage - you may see him eat but if he's eating slower than usual, he will not take in as much food.

given you're taking him to the vet in january, i would be very tempted to try and get his weight up - i have a rescue chin that suffers from health problems and is small to start with so she needs 'fattening up' a little every so often. you could introduce more rolled oats, i would even be tempted to feed him critical care. it's possible he may have a tooth problem - he would need to go under anaesthetic for that and obviously he needs to be a good weight for that. similarly, if it's something else that needs to be treated with medication, a lot of meds act as appetite suppressants so then you get into a vicious circle of him needing to be heavier but not wanting to eat.

keep an eye on his weight, that's important. good job spotting it!

[Squirrel_Butt]

I'm sorry I meant 585.  I misread the first digit of the scale.  He his now 534. His weight appears to be fluctuating. It goes up and down. I had him for 10 years. I do not know his age though. He is in his own cage.  I just gave him a shredded wheat and he ate the whole thing without a problem. He ate it slower than the young female that I have ate hers.  He doesn't run as fast as  he used to, but he still loves the dust bath.

[dianah]

ah, that's a good weight. i think the main thing is to keep monitoring his weight, it will fluctuate so don't panic if it's up or down 10g or so. sometimes they just lose weight and stay there. see if the vet can find anything wrong but hopefully he'll be all good