Benebact question

[wheek by wheek]

Hello,
Our guinea pig, Pepper, needed antibiotics a few months ago and it seemed to cause some digestive issues. His poos became mushy and oddly shaped. We started giving him benebac plus probiotic and it really worked. He also seems to actually like the stuff and it's no issue to get him to eat it!
We feed him lots of Timothy hay, about a tablespoon of Oxbow adult guinea pig food, and about a cup of romaine lettuce everyday. On occasion he gets a small chunk of pepper or fruit.
We are wondering if it's okay to give him the probiotic everyday indefinitely. When we stop giving it to him for just two to three days his poos get weird again.

Thank you!

Pepper and Turnip

 

[Piggies&buns]

Benebac isn’t something commonly used in the UK so I can’t answer whether it is ok to use it indefinitely (I can’t see why it wouldn’t be though) but:

Have you tried cutting veg out entirely for a few days to allow the gut to settle, and then slowly reintroducing one veg at a time?

I would recommend you also try giving poop soup made from the very fresh poops from a healthy companion. This is live microbiome transfer and can really help alongside a commercial probiotic.
One cup of lettuce is rather a lot in one go. It has very little nutrition so if he doesn’t get any other veg every day then he may well just be getting too much watery veg and no other nutrients.
The four veg which can be given everyday diet are - one leaf of lettuce, one slice of bell pepper, a couple of sprigs of cilantro, and a slice of cucumber. The pepper, cilantro etc provides micronutrients and vit c.

Probiotics & Live Gut Microbiome Transfer ('Poo Soup'); Recovery Formula Foods And Vitamin C: Overview With Product Links and Transfer Recipe
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

 

[Wiebke]

Hi and welcome

If your piggy has a healthy companion not on antibiotics, then a correctly made live guinea pig microbiome transfer is the most effective way of getting exactly the right, tailor-made digestive bacteria across.

You can give benebac and other herbivore probiotics longer term but they only contain general digestive bacteria for several species and not necessarily the specialist ones for the specific foods that you feed your guinea pigs.

Please take the time read the green links in this thread. They contain all the practical how-to tips and in-depth information that we cannot type out in full every time, seeing that we are all doing this for free in our own free time. Coming up to 20 years with literally hundreds of thousands of questions make up our collective forum experience as well as up to half a century of personal member ownership; they have all gone into our guides. Unlike books, the guide format allows us to update our information resource from time to time.

 

[KK327]

I've done the poop soup as directed by our lovely Wiebke and it worked a treat!

 

[wheek by wheek]

Benebac isn’t something commonly used in the UK so I can’t answer whether it is ok to use it indefinitely (I can’t see why it wouldn’t be though) but:

Have you tried cutting veg out entirely for a few days to allow the gut to settle, and then slowly reintroducing one veg at a time?

I would recommend you also try giving poop soup made from the very fresh poops from a healthy companion. This is live microbiome transfer and can really help alongside a commercial probiotic.
One cup of lettuce is rather a lot in one go. It has very little nutrition so if he doesn’t get any other veg every day then he may well just be getting too much watery veg and no other nutrients.
The four veg which can be given everyday diet are - one leaf of lettuce, one slice of bell pepper, a couple of sprigs of cilantro, and a slice of cucumber. The pepper, cilantro etc provides micronutrients and vit c.

Probiotics & Live Gut Microbiome Transfer ('Poo Soup'); Recovery Formula Foods And Vitamin C: Overview With Product Links and Transfer Recipe
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

Hi and sorry for the late reply. Thank you so much for the information. We took your advice over the past few weeks and have been giving them these veggies and way less leafy greens. Pepper seems to be a lot better and doesn't seem to need the benebac as much! He didn't like the cucumber at first but the past few times we offered they seem to have grown on him His poos have been a lot better although sometimes they are still soft. Will have to look into making the poo soup as we haven't tried that yet. Thank you!

 

[wheek by wheek]

Hi and welcome

If your piggy has a healthy companion not on antibiotics, then a correctly made live guinea pig microbiome transfer is the most effective way of getting exactly the right, tailor-made digestive bacteria across.

You can give benebac and other herbivore probiotics longer term but they only contain general digestive bacteria for several species and not necessarily the specialist ones for the specific foods that you feed your guinea pigs.

Please take the time read the green links in this thread. They contain all the practical how-to tips and in-depth information that we cannot type out in full every time, seeing that we are all doing this for free in our own free time. Coming up to 20 years with literally hundreds of thousands of questions make up our collective forum experience as well as up to half a century of personal member ownership; they have all gone into our guides. Unlike books, the guide format allows us to update our information resource from time to time.

I'm sorry for the late reply. Thank you so much for the info. He stated doing a lot better with a diet change kindly suggested by piggiesandbuns. We even started giving benebac less frequently and he seems to be responding well. Will definitely try the poo soup to if he stops improving. also thank for the tip on the links and guides. they are much appreciated!

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you for your feedback. I am glad that your boy is a lot better.

Knowing how a balanced guinea pig diet and support products work can help you with stepping in with illness support more promptly and effectively.

You may also want to bookmark these links here in case you are confronted with an emergency during our UK downtime and can't get to a vet quickly. That way you can access crucial practical how-to information at any time.

This the general one-stop collection of emergency care with all the pertinent guide links with the detailed tips and information incorporated:
Emergency and Crisis Care as well as Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment

But these links here are usually the most helpful for stepping in with support care asap. You may want to have a look at them now when you bookmark them, ideally in a folder called Cavy Emergency so you have an idea what is in them. We are of course here for any questions and moral support during our UK day time hours, as and when we can since we are all doing this for free in our own free time:
First Aid: Immediate Care Measures and Non-medication Products
How to Improvise Feeding Support in an Emergency
Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures

I hope that this will help you.

We have got the most comprehensive information resource around on lots of different aspects. The guide format allows us to update and add more at need. It is an ongoing endeavour as we are learning more and more about our pets.
Here is our structured overview with links (another one for bookmarking, browing, reading and re-reading at need since you will pick up on different things at different levels of experience but the guides work at any level.
Comprehensive Owners' Practical and Supportive Information Collection