Baby guinea pig dried, misshaped poops

[Sullivancourt]

My 10 week old boy has had one heck of a ride. I’ll spare as much drama as I can.

So my baby was being treated for a respiratory infection. Baytril was the first medicine and it messed up his stomach. So he got switched to Septra. At one point he was on 3 medications and oxbow critical care.

His poops have been dry, and yellow but formed. Now he’s off all his medications and his poops are just weird. Most are dark yellow, dry, hard, and misshaped. Sometimes they are dark brown and mushy, but only 2 or 3 poops. For a while his urine has been Orange, I took him to the vet, and they didn’t think he had a bladder infection. Also he was taking a bright pink medicine, but he’s been off of it since Saturday. With him being a baby, sometime their urine color can vary. He does eat pellets, hay, drinks plenty of water. I just don’t understand what else could be going on. Last thing I want to mention is he has been active, and his normal self. I give him veggies everyday too, not very much though.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Those poops don’t look too strange to me. Perhaps they are showing different in person, but on the picture I’m not seeing anything strange about their colour.

If he is feeling better and has no current medical health issues and is eating well, then their diet needs to be the majority made up of hay, some vegetables (they need to have around a cup of veg a day but any new veg needs to be introduced slowly so as to not upset tummies) and a limited amount of pellets (they can have two tablespoons of adult pellets per day until 4 months old and then reducing to one tablespoon of pellets per day from four months onwards)

 

[Sullivancourt]

Those poops don’t look too strange to me. Perhaps they are showing different in person, but on the picture I’m not seeing anything strange about their colour.

If he is feeling better and has no current medical health issues and is eating well, then their diet needs to be the majority made up of hay, some vegetables (they need to have around a cup of veg a day but any new veg needs to be introduced slowly so as to not upset tummies) and a limited amount of pellets (they can have two tablespoons of adult pellets per day until 4 months old and then reducing to one tablespoon of pellets per day from four months onwards)

I guess I see that too...maybe I’m just being paranoid. Is the fact that they are super dry and concern?

 

[Piggies&buns]

I can’t tell how dry they really are from the photo. If you think they are too dry, then speak to your vet first off but also check how much water he is drinking and how much veg he is getting.

 

[Julie M]

They look normal to me. Piggies poops dry out after they've been done, are there any moist ones at any point. Theyre not like dog or cat poops that stay moist they will dry out. If youre really concerned about his tummy you could always get him onto some probiotic as antibiotics kill off the good bacteria in the gut. But to be honest i think his poop looks ok. The orange urine is where its oxidised with the air and completely normal. I hope your little one is doing good.

 

[Sullivancourt]

They look normal to me. Piggies poops dry out after they've been done, are there any moist ones at any point. Theyre not like dog or cat poops that stay moist they will dry out. If youre really concerned about his tummy you could always get him onto some probiotic as antibiotics kill off the good bacteria in the gut. But to be honest i think his poop looks ok. The orange urine is where its oxidised with the air and completely normal. I hope your little one is doing good.

Thank you so much. I have given him some bene bac. I honestly think I’m just paranoid. I’ve had a terrible ride with my two boys(one passed). So I think I’m just worrying.

 

[Sullivancourt]

They look normal to me. Piggies poops dry out after they've been done, are there any moist ones at any point. Theyre not like dog or cat poops that stay moist they will dry out. If youre really concerned about his tummy you could always get him onto some probiotic as antibiotics kill off the good bacteria in the gut. But to be honest i think his poop looks ok. The orange urine is where its oxidised with the air and completely normal. I hope your little one is doing good.

When I woke up this morning there was a poop smeared in his bed but all the other ones are normal, I don’t get it.

 

[Piggies&buns]

When I woke up this morning there was a poop smeared in his bed but all the other ones are normal, I don’t get it.

I’d keep an eye on it and if you see any others which are very soft, then take action. From the picture though the majority looks fine. His tummy may just need time to settle following the meds. You can give a probiotic though.
Worrying is entirely understandable after a difficult situation. Does he now live alone?

 

[rudent]

You can check for dehydration in a young piggy by very gently pinching the skin on the bald patch behind his ear. If it stays pinched and only slowly returns to normal, that's a sign of dehydration. A hydrated, young pig's skin should quickly return to lying flat. If there's something he really enjoys the taste of, try syringing him some water with that as a flavouring. When my pigs are dehydrated I give them really diluted oxbow critical care & they guzzle it from a syringe.

 

[Sullivancourt]

You can check for dehydration in a young piggy by very gently pinching the skin on the bald patch behind his ear. If it stays pinched and only slowly returns to normal, that's a sign of dehydration. A hydrated, young pig's skin should quickly return to lying flat. If there's something he really enjoys the taste of, try syringing him some water with that as a flavouring. When my pigs are dehydrated I give them really diluted oxbow critical care & they guzzle it from a syringe.

Oh the diluted oxbow critical care is a great idea! Thank you!

 

[Sullivancourt]

I’d keep an eye on it and if you see any others which are very soft, then take action. From the picture though the majority looks fine. His tummy may just need time to settle following the meds. You can give a probiotic though.
Worrying is entirely understandable after a difficult situation. Does he now live alone?

Yes he does unfortunately. The place I adopted him from isn’t doing boar bondings right now because of the virus. I don’t want to just get a random single guinea pig and have it not work out. So for now he’s single.

 

[Sullivancourt]

You can check for dehydration in a young piggy by very gently pinching the skin on the bald patch behind his ear. If it stays pinched and only slowly returns to normal, that's a sign of dehydration. A hydrated, young pig's skin should quickly return to lying flat. If there's something he really enjoys the taste of, try syringing him some water with that as a flavouring. When my pigs are dehydrated I give them really diluted oxbow critical care & they guzzle it from a syringe.

Is 3 ml enough? He guzzled the water with oxbow in it.

 

[rudent]

Is 3 ml enough? He guzzled the water with oxbow in it.

Glad to hear it! :^) I'd give him as much as he's willing to drink. Critical care usually comes with a 15 or 20ml syringe with a long nozzle that's perfect for this stuff.

I tend to manage to give my pigs a full syringe every 2-4 hours depending on how much they want to drink. I don't know how tame he is but if he'll come up to the bars of his cage, you might be able to just poke the syringe through every so often and give him 1ml at a time so he doesn't have to be held. It might also be worth putting a bit in a spare drinking bottle if you have one (maybe 30 or 40ml), and seeing if he'll drink from that. It doesn't usually work great for me, but he might prefer that.

 

[Sullivancourt]

Glad to hear it! :^) I'd give him as much as he's willing to drink. Critical care usually comes with a 15 or 20ml syringe with a long nozzle that's perfect for this stuff.

I tend to manage to give my pigs a full syringe every 2-4 hours depending on how much they want to drink. I don't know how tame he is but if he'll come up to the bars of his cage, you might be able to just poke the syringe through every so often and give him 1ml at a time so he doesn't have to be held. It might also be worth putting a bit in a spare drinking bottle if you have one (maybe 30 or 40ml), and seeing if he'll drink from that. It doesn't usually work great for me, but he might prefer that.

You’re awesome

 

[Piggies&buns]

We recommend using a much smaller syringe - use a 1ml syringe - so as to avoid accidentally pushing too much critical care into a piggy’s mouth.

 

[Sullivancourt]

We recommend using a much smaller syringe - use a 1ml syringe - so as to avoid accidentally pushing too much critical care into a piggy’s mouth.

I have been using a 1 ml syringe! I don’t have a really big one like that, thanks for the tip though!