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Bloat home help

PiggyPack

PiggyPack

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Hi Guys!

Our lovely 4 year old sow Bea is having a bit of trouble at the moment with some pretty nasty bloat! We rushed her over to the vet last night and she’s had two injections, metacam and another antibiotic forgive me I’ve forgotten the name of and she’s on a course of Emeprid and Meloxidyl.

Just wondering if there’s anything else I can do to help, she’s eating, but not nearly as frequently and is doing squishy poops. I’m giving her water every so often but is also helping herself to water when she feels like it. I’ve also read the Bloat and Gi stasis thread :)

Thanks :))
 
piggy.pack said:
Hi Guys!

Our lovely 4 year old sow Bea is having a bit of trouble at the moment with some pretty nasty bloat! We rushed her over to the vet last night and she’s had two injections, metacam and another antibiotic forgive me I’ve forgotten the name of and she’s on a course of Emeprid and Meloxidyl.

Just wondering if there’s anything else I can do to help, she’s eating, but not nearly as frequently and is doing squishy poops. I’m giving her water every so often but is also helping herself to water when she feels like it. I’ve also read the Bloat and Gi stasis thread :)

Thanks :))
Click to expand...

Hi

I am very sorry. Major bloating is a serious illness.

Please supplement with fibrous food if you notice a piggy not eating as much, keeping in mind that hay makes at least three quarters of what a piggy eats in a day, so you can easily miss her eating much less than you think. It is important that you keep going with that.
The poos will reflect the amount of food about 1-2 days later than it going into the mouth so without any feeding support it is going to look worse before it gets better.
Digestive Disorders: Not Eating - Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement)
It is more difficult with bloating piggy, but please keep on weighing her daily at the same time of the day in order to keep an eye on the up to do date food intake.

What kind of metacam/meloxidyl strength (0.5mg cat or 1.5mg dog) and what dosage is she on?

You can try vibrating or massaging to help shift the gas as recommended in the guide. A guinea pig gut is very thin and very long compared to that of omnivores, which is why it is so tough to shift any gassing. Gripe water from a supermarket or pharmacy can help with dispersing gas in mild cases but it is not effective with severe bloating: Digestive Disorders: Not Eating - Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement)
 
Wiebke said:
Hi

I am very sorry. Major bloating is a serious illness.

Please supplement with fibrous food if you notice a piggy not eating as much, keeping in mind that hay makes at least three quarters of what a piggy eats in a day, so you can easily miss her eating much less than you think. It is important that you keep going with that.
The poos will reflect the amount of food about 1-2 days later than it going into the mouth so without any feeding support it is going to look worse before it gets better.
Digestive Disorders: Not Eating - Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement)
It is more difficult with bloating piggy, but please keep on weighing her daily at the same time of the day in order to keep an eye on the up to do date food intake.

What kind of metacam/meloxidyl strength (0.5mg cat or 1.5mg dog) and what dosage is she on?

You can try vibrating or massaging to help shift the gas as recommended in the guide. A guinea pig gut is very thin and very long compared to that of omnivores, which is why it is so tough to shift any gassing. Gripe water from a supermarket or pharmacy can help with dispersing gas in mild cases but it is not effective with severe bloating: Digestive Disorders: Not Eating - Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement)
Click to expand...
She’s eating quite a lot :)) I’m just not seeing much come out the other end unfortunately :(((
 
Wiebke said:
Hi

I am very sorry. Major bloating is a serious illness.

Please supplement with fibrous food if you notice a piggy not eating as much, keeping in mind that hay makes at least three quarters of what a piggy eats in a day, so you can easily miss her eating much less than you think. It is important that you keep going with that.
The poos will reflect the amount of food about 1-2 days later than it going into the mouth so without any feeding support it is going to look worse before it gets better.
Digestive Disorders: Not Eating - Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement)
It is more difficult with bloating piggy, but please keep on weighing her daily at the same time of the day in order to keep an eye on the up to do date food intake.

What kind of metacam/meloxidyl strength (0.5mg cat or 1.5mg dog) and what dosage is she on?

You can try vibrating or massaging to help shift the gas as recommended in the guide. A guinea pig gut is very thin and very long compared to that of omnivores, which is why it is so tough to shift any gassing. Gripe water from a supermarket or pharmacy can help with dispersing gas in mild cases but it is not effective with severe bloating: Digestive Disorders: Not Eating - Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement)
Click to expand...
She’s on the cat one :)
 
piggy.pack said:
She’s on the cat one :)
Click to expand...

How much have you been told to give?
Guinea pigs tolerate much higher dosage than other pet species, which is why many vets not experienced with piggies often go for very low dosages. Unfortunately, three times weaker cat metacam is the one officially licensed for guinea pigs so you have to give a lot of it volume-wise.
 
piggy.pack said:
She’s on 0.2ml twice a day :) And had her very first dose this morning
Click to expand...

That is very much at the lowest end of the scale so you can go 3 times higher if needed and still only be at the bottom of the moderate range.
 
Wiebke said:
That is very much at the lowest end of the scale so you can go 3 times higher if needed and still only be at the bottom of the moderate range.
Click to expand...
It’s really bizarre she’s gone from not eating and making squishy pretty well formed poops, to eating pretty regularly and nothing at all coming out, could this be a reaction to the medicine?
 
There is a day or so delay between food intake and poop output so any disruption to eating will produce a gap in poop production. This is why poop is not a good way to gauge whether a piggy is eating and instead daily weight checks need to be used during a period of illness
 
Poo lags behind intake, so there is a delay from what goes in to what comes out. If she wasn't eating recently, that's why she isn't pooing now, and the squishy poos that she was producing when not eating were from digestive upset while she was eating prior to that.
If she's eating enough now, the poos will follow.
 
Can you encourage her to move around with floortime. Sometimes this can help get things moving too especially if they have been hunched up in pain for a while 🤞
 
Bill & Ted said:
Can you encourage her to move around with floortime. Sometimes this can help get things moving too especially if they have been hunched up in pain for a while 🤞
Click to expand...
Her guts seem to be doing a lot better now! She’s doing solid-ish poops and seems to have a pretty impressive appetite! I’ve been weighing her and she has lost a bit of weight, could that be the Emeprid?
 
That’s within normal fluctuation and not considered weight loss. Weight loss is only considered to be 50g or more.
Continue to weigh her daily while she is recovering to ensure she is still eating well.
 
piggy.pack said:
Even with the bloat? I’m just worried that would make it counterproductive :(
Click to expand...

Please do read the bloat guide and Wiebke’s advice earlier on this thread about the importance of syringe feeding - Digestive Disorders: Not Eating - Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement).
Syringe feeding is important if a piggy is not eating and is losing weight. Syringe feeding does not cause bloat. Not eating enough is, however, a huge problem.

As I say though, 30g at this point is not concerning.
 
I had a piggy with severe bloat several years back (bad enough that she had to go under GA and have gas drawn out with a needle and was given survival chances of "greater than 0"). During her recovery we were syringe feeding her around the clock per vet recommendation (a syringe full or two every 2-3 hours), as she wasn't expected to be eating enough (though was quicker to dig into the hay than they expected). She survived and lived another year and a half (to age 7). Your piggy can get through this, too! (And it's great if she's eating enough on her own not to need the syringe feeding.)
 
Hi everyone! Here’s a pic of Bea, the pig of the thread who a few days ago had to be injected at the vets and syringe fed with 0 appetite - now happily chowing down! She’s doing great and maintaining her weight! All that’s left now is to finish her medicine, get that bloat down and wait for her body to catch up with her eating and produce nice, round, non-squishy poops! Thanks everyone so much for all your help! I’ll be returning to this thread if I need any more help!
 
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