Will you help me and my guinea pig, please

My Guinea pig is seriously sick and my mom will not take her to the vet. I am 13 so I can't. I have begged her. I really want to help my piggy. He is very young and I don't want him to die! He is not eating much and he has gotten very skinny. He is also hopping/limping. I have seen that these are signs of being seriously ill. I know that they get sick very easily and their health deteriorates very quickly. I am upset. What should I do!

First of all, take a deep breath & try to think clearly. If your pig is not eating, he MUST eat & since you can't get to a vet, you'll have to help him.

I don't think he has overgrown teeth (malocclusion) because of his young age. If he has no crusty eyes, labored breathing, or snotty nose, it probably isn't upper respiratory infection. Due to his limping it could be scurvy, which is caused from a lack of Vitamin C in his diet. Do you feed him veggies? If not, he needs them. A bell pepper, some Romaine (not iceburg!) lettuce, parsley, cilantro, a piece of tomato, a slice of orange, etc. Anything he'll take right now will do him good.

Take some of his pellets & put them in a bowl. Crush them with the back of a spoon & add a little water to make a mush. It should have the consistency of mashed potatoes.

If you have a small syringe, cut the end off of it (the part where the needle goes) so the hole is big enough to draw up the pellet mush mixture. Then you will need to gently place the syringe back into his mouth where the back teeth are. GENTLY depress the plunger a bit to expel some pellet mush. Do not press hard or it will shoot out & he will inhale it. This would be very bad. See http://www.guinealynx.info/handfeeding.h... for help.