Clumpy, clay-like poops and constant milky white discharge from boar penis.

[Alamerona]

Hi there,

Our eldest boar, Bluebear (Nearly 5yrs old) has recently started to have clay-like poos, either very wet or very crumbly & dusty; a bit like cowpats? He’s also excreting some sort of milky white discharge from his penis - Not smegma as this is far wetter, and not sperm as it wasn’t gluey.

Asides from this, he’s eating hay fine, drinking water fine and is still high-energy; we’ve removed vegetables from his diet for now (Day 2 today), and asides from the dirt caused from the feces, is keeping himself clean and grooming. No lethargy or change there.

What’s going on? Could it be impaction? Does it warrant a vet trip? What is the penile discharge?

 

[Alamerona]

On the topic of the discharge, we’ve just noticed it seems to leave an almost chalky stain on his pee pads

 

[Piggies&buns]

Do get him checked by a vet.

The poops can mean his digestion is off.

The chalky stain on the pee pads is most likely calcium deposits - these can be normal as it is the way the body excretes excess calcium but if it is happening a lot it can mean there is a problem with his diet and sludge is beginning to build up in his bladder. This does need to be checked by a vet.

Wiebke's Guide to Pees and Stones
Wiebke's Guide to Poops

 

[Wiebke]

Hi there,

Our eldest boar, Bluebear (Nearly 5yrs old) has recently started to have clay-like poos, either very wet or very crumbly & dusty; a bit like cowpats? He’s also excreting some sort of milky white discharge from his penis - Not smegma as this is far wetter, and not sperm as it wasn’t gluey.

Asides from this, he’s eating hay fine, drinking water fine and is still high-energy; we’ve removed vegetables from his diet for now (Day 2 today), and asides from the dirt caused from the feces, is keeping himself clean and grooming. No lethargy or change there.

What’s going on? Could it be impaction? Does it warrant a vet trip? What is the penile discharge?

Hi

It could be a semen rod in the penis shaft causing an infection in there with the pain impacting on the poo formation. The urinary tract, the reproductive tract and the lower gut are all very closely packed and wrapped around each other in that area, so what happens in one of them can have a knock-on effect on the others.

However, we can only guess. It would be good if you saw a vet for a hands-on examination.

 

[Alamerona]

Hi

It could be a semen rod in the penis shaft causing an infection in there with the pain impacting on the poo formation. The urinary tract, the reproductive tract and the lower gut are all very closely packed and wrapped around each other in that area, so what happens in one of them can have a knock-on effect on the others.

However, we can only guess. It would be good if you saw a vet for a hands-on examination.

Thanks Wiebke & Piggies; odd thing was we checked his genitals and he wasn’t in discomfort; perhaps it might be lodged a bit deeper than we’d normally expect? We’re hoping to get him seen by a vet today, but if we can’t:

1. What can we do in the meanwhile to alleviate this?
2. We had pre-planned travel tomorrow and would have left the pigs at home for approx. 24hrs; would you recommend we cancel this travel tomorrow keep an eye on Bluebear?

 

[Wiebke]

Thanks Wiebke & Piggies; odd thing was we checked his genitals and he wasn’t in discomfort; perhaps it might be lodged a bit deeper than we’d normally expect? We’re hoping to get him seen by a vet today, but if we can’t:

1. What can we do in the meanwhile to alleviate this?
2. We had pre-planned travel tomorrow and would have left the pigs at home for approx. 24hrs; would you recommend we cancel this travel tomorrow keep an eye on Bluebear?

Please switch to weighing on your kitchen scales first thing in the morning for best day to day comparison and step in feeding top up support if he loses 50g in a day. The one thing you cannot control by eye is hay, which makes over three quarters of the daily food intake. Also offer water from a syringe in between feeds but do not force any down.

This guide here explains what the various health monitoring methods do and don't, how you put any weight loss into the correct individual perspective and what the different levels of feeding support are.
Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support

This guide here contains all the how-to feeding and medicating tips, information on support feeding and other support products (including a link on how to improvise in an emergency) etc.:
All about syringe feeding and medicating guinea pigs with videos and pictures

As to your planned travel, please discuss with your vet clinic. They are professionally trained to make an assessment as to whether your boy can wait or not; we are not.

All the best. These things always happen at the most inconvenient of times. Mostly, you want to find out whether it is impacting on his food intake/weight or not.

 

[Alamerona]

Please switch to weighing on your kitchen scales first thing in the morning for best day to day comparison and step in feeding top up support if he loses 50g in a day. The one thing you cannot control by eye is hay, which makes over three quarters of the daily food intake. Also offer water from a syringe in between feeds but do not force any down.

This guide here explains what the various health monitoring methods do and don't, how you put any weight loss into the correct individual perspective and what the different levels of feeding support are.
Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support

This guide here contains all the how-to feeding and medicating tips, information on support feeding and other support products (including a link on how to improvise in an emergency) etc.:
All about syringe feeding and medicating guinea pigs with videos and pictures

As to your planned travel, please discuss with your vet clinic. They are professionally trained to make an assessment as to whether your boy can wait or not; we are not.

All the best. These things always happen at the most inconvenient of times. Mostly, you want to find out whether it is impacting on his food intake/weight or not.

So we managed to take him to the vets on Wednesday and they confirmed that he doesn't have any additional complications or pains; he was able to both poop and excrete urine perfectly fine, but this mystery issue is still ongoing - We've been weighing him daily and not noticed any significant swing down or up, and he's still eating & drinking fine. We had to give him a bum bath as he's getting very mucky every few days, but asides from that and the constant pooping / clumpy poops, everything else seems fine..?

It's an odd situation. He is nearly 5 years old so impaction is expected, but it's where his anus is looking rather inflamed and sore (Not weeping or leaking, just a bit red). He's not had vegetables for 5 days now, and has purely been on hay & morning pellets - Should we give him a small amount of veg? Or keep him still on pure hay?

 

[Alamerona]

So we managed to take him to the vets on Wednesday and they confirmed that he doesn't have any additional complications or pains; he was able to both poop and excrete urine perfectly fine, but this mystery issue is still ongoing - We've been weighing him daily and not noticed any significant swing down or up, and he's still eating & drinking fine. We had to give him a bum bath as he's getting very mucky every few days, but asides from that and the constant pooping / clumpy poops, everything else seems fine..?

It's an odd situation. He is nearly 5 years old so impaction is expected, but it's where his anus is looking rather inflamed and sore (Not weeping or leaking, just a bit red). He's not had vegetables for 5 days now, and has purely been on hay & morning pellets - Should we give him a small amount of veg? Or keep him still on pure hay?

The only other thing of note is that he is squeaking a lot now, almost like he's straining to get poos out? Again, I feel that may be due to the inflammation of his anus - Maybe warrants another vet trip?

 

[Wheekallweek]

Sounds like he might need a bit of pain relief if he's sore, so I'd pop him back to the vets. Perhaps they could test his poo for something?

 

[Apples]

How is Bluebear doing now? Did the vet check his bladder, since you also mention the white discharge (perhaps calcium deposits)?

Weird poops can be caused by something in the GI tract, but also a secondary effect of something else in the body going wrong. One of my piggies is a bladder patient and I would describe her poos when she has a bladder stone as clay like, clumped, and later turning softer and eventually developing to cowpats as she is straining to get a stone out.

 

[Alamerona]

How is Bluebear doing now? Did the vet check his bladder, since you also mention the white discharge (perhaps calcium deposits)?

Weird poops can be caused by something in the GI tract, but also a secondary effect of something else in the body going wrong. One of my piggies is a bladder patient and I would describe her poos when she has a bladder stone as clay like, clumped, and later turning softer and eventually developing to cowpats as she is straining to get a stone out.

Unfortunately we haven’t been able to take him to the vets as our local is only open Mon-Fri, so we’re gonna get him checked out tomorrow; he’s still got clumped poops, but the strained squeaking has stopped - Must’ve had a bit of a spicy bumhole!

Jokes aside, he’s still ‘normal’ - Eating fine, drinking fine, eating pellets and popcorning / wheeking. Just constant clumpy poos and endless pooping when we clean his perianal sac out (Moreso than usual). This is now Day 5 of just having pure morning pellets and hay, although we did give a small amount of cucumber yesterday. His cage mate Walker isn’t exhibiting any of these symptoms.

 

[Alamerona]

Unfortunately we haven’t been able to take him to the vets as our local is only open Mon-Fri, so we’re gonna get him checked out tomorrow; he’s still got clumped poops, but the strained squeaking has stopped - Must’ve had a bit of a spicy bumhole!

Jokes aside, he’s still ‘normal’ - Eating fine, drinking fine, eating pellets and popcorning / wheeking. Just constant clumpy poos and endless pooping when we clean his perianal sac out (Moreso than usual). This is now Day 5 of just having pure morning pellets and hay, although we did give a small amount of cucumber yesterday. His cage mate Walker isn’t exhibiting any of these symptoms.

And to just say about the bladder, the vet did feel around and managed to get him to excrete urine absolutely fine - No discomfort or pain in doing so.

 

[Wiebke]

And to just say about the bladder, the vet did feel around and managed to get him to excrete urine absolutely fine - No discomfort or pain in doing so.

It can be something pressing on the urethra and the anus/lowest part of the gut?

Wishing you all the best.

 

[Alamerona]

As an aside, here’s Bluebears weight chart in grams - We’ve been a bit lackadaisical with weigh-ins recently as they’ve had en extended bill of good health, but just wanted to check if this was also fine and expected.