7 year old girl with gas

[hadleyspiggy]

hello, i have a 7 year old guinea pig. for a few days now, she’s been having pain when pooping, but her poops look fine.
her pee is good, but she does have sludge.
i’ve eliminated all veg for a bit until it improves and she’s just having critical care and hay/pellets at the moment.
her appetite is fine, we brought her to the vet to rule out any infections, she takes benebac every day and i’m going to be some gripe water... i can hear her stomach gurgling sometimes, and she passes gas quite a bit. she tends to rock back and forth and then squeak in pain a few times a day when attempting to poop.
is there anything i can do? i’m taking her to a different vet on saturday.

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m sorry to hear this.

This guide provides further information - Digestive Disorders: Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement) And Not Eating

Ensure you switch to daily weight checks so you can be certain she is getting enough food in each 24 hour period and allow you to adjust syringe feeding accordingly

I hope she is ok

 

[weepweeps]

Good luck. I hope she feels better soon

 

[Free Ranger]

We had bloat recently in a 4 year old girl and ours turned out to be overdoing the wrong type of grass. It's spring here and she's used to meadow grass but I had recently re-turfed my little patch and we think that upset her. The other two are hoovering it up but she is being very careful now. This bloat was serious but fortunately transient as there was nothing physical underlying it. That was the worry - that there was some physical problem/lump/obstruction but we just had to be patient and see if it cleared up before returning to the vet for any scans etc.

She had nothing but hay and pellets for 2 or 3 days and then we reintroduced veg very carefully. Her poops looked healthy but were an unusual shape for her - then we had a mix of normal and short stubby ones intermixed with a bit of squish. She had painkiller (1.5 mg/ml metacam twice a day) and gut stimulant (emeprid at 1 mg per kg of pig every 6 hours as needed) and although she hadn't lost any of her weight she was also syringe fed 5 or 6 mls at a time at intervals during the day to keep her guts moving... she seemed happy enough to take this although for the last bit I mixed in some 'poop soup' from a healthy companion and she thought that was disgusting - but I'd do it again! The painkiller was very important for her - you could tell from her squinty eyes that she felt rough. If your piggy has stopped eating completely this is vital - Louise hadn't but she was having long periods of not eating much at all so I was supplementing but didn't go round-the-clock or anything. After she recovered it took the poops a day or so to reflect that.

I didn't do any of the 'squeezing' type massage you find on the internet but I did lay a fleece on a warm rubber water bottle and she relaxed sprawling on that while I massaged with an electric toothbrush handle - I think this is supposed to break up the gas and help it pass. Louise normally doesn't want to be groomed or stroked but she didn't argue about this at all! The vet told me they do not prescribe the simethicone which is sometimes offered... I was relieved because I learned from the forum that this collects the gas into one big bubble and actually that can be worse in an animal with a long thin gut. Louise didn't like gripe water but Wiebke's guinea pigs apparently love it!

If you're hearing her pass gas and she feels bloated up this is likely your primary issue but if there is grit and sludge in the bladder this can sometimes also cause pain when peeing and pooping. We use 'soft' bottled water and limit pellets but with 3 piggies Louise takes more than her fair share and she's had a bout of painful gritty pee in the past. She's now supplemented with 1/2 an oxbow joint support crunchy lozenge each day as my old male has them (a full one) for his arthritis... it's really helped him and 1/2 contains the same amount of glucosamine as in their urinary support lozenges.

Good luck at the other vet x

 

[Merab]

Hope you can get her properly treated