fibre and gut

[cococookie]

just got back from the vet and turns out coco has a gut problem vet said it may be because of cookie passing and she’s upset. but she doesn’t know. coco also has lost weight (1.5 kg to 1.3) and she told me to give her meds and lots of fibre. any advice? how much veg? should i feed her mashed pellets?

 

[Piggies&buns]

What medication has she been given?

Please ensure she has lots of hay available. Also step in and syringe feed her a fibre rich recovery feed such as Oxbow critical care. In the absence of recovery feed you can use mushed pellets, but I'd advise you get a proper recovery feed and use that when you can get it. This will stop her from losing any more weight. Please weigh her daily so you can ensure she is getting enough

Not Eating, Weight Loss And The Importance Of Syringe Feeding Fibre
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide

 

[Wiebke]

just got back from the vet and turns out coco has a gut problem vet said it may be because of cookie passing and she’s upset. but she doesn’t know. coco also has lost weight (1.5 kg to 1.3) and she told me to give her meds and lots of fibre. any advice? how much veg? should i feed her mashed pellets?

Hi

I am very sorry.

Please follow the advice in our gut problems information thread link. You should find it very helpful. Please accept that we cannot give the complete information in all details in every single threat - seeing that it takes me days to write a guide, make sure that it is clear, complete and that any medical advice is checked and sound. We can give you a few tips, but the actual step-by-step details are in the guide links. Please take the time to read the information so you can judge better what you are up against and what you need to do.
Here is the link: Digestive Disorders: Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement) And Not Eating

No veg, as much hay or recovery formula as possible (mushed up pellets are an emergency bridging measure since their fibr content is a lot lower than that of hay). Supplement with probiotic support; fibreplex for single piggies, poo soup for piggies with healthy companions to help the healthy gut microbiome grow back and the wrong kind of bacteria that has taken to die down again (dysbiosis).
Guinea digestion is laid out for hay, so feeding as much of it whether by itself or by feeding top up is crucial. Don't worry about vitamin C; hay contains, any recovery formula and probiotic products are all enriched with vitamin C.
Probiotics, Recovery Foods And Vitamin C: Overview With Product Links

You control any necessary fibrous syringe feeding support (timothy based recovery formula) by weighing daily in order to control the independent food intake and to know whether or how much you need to supplement during the acute crisis and recovery phase. You cannot judge the independent food intake by eye, so the scales are your best friend.
Weight - Monitoring and Management
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide

 

[cococookie]

Hi

I am very sorry.

Please follow the advice in our gut problems information thread link. You should find it very helpful. Please accept that we cannot give the complete information in all details in every single threat - seeing that it takes me days to write a guide, make sure that it is clear, complete and that any medical advice is checked and sound. We can give you a few tips, but the actual step-by-step details are in the guide links. Please take the time to read the information so you can judge better what you are up against and what you need to do.
Here is the link: Digestive Disorders: Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement) And Not Eating

No veg, as much hay or recovery formula as possible (mushed up pellets are an emergency bridging measure since their fibr content is a lot lower than that of hay). Supplement with probiotic support; fibreplex for single piggies, poo soup for piggies with healthy companions to help the healthy gut microbiome grow back and the wrong kind of bacteria that has taken to die down again (dysbiosis).
Guinea digestion is laid out for hay, so feeding as much of it whether by itself or by feeding top up is crucial. Don't worry about vitamin C; hay contains, any recovery formula and probiotic products are all enriched with vitamin C.
Probiotics, Recovery Foods And Vitamin C: Overview With Product Links

You control any necessary fibrous syringe feeding support (timothy based recovery formula) by weighing daily in order to control the independent food intake and to know whether or how much you need to supplement during the acute crisis and recovery phase. You cannot judge the independent food intake by eye, so the scales are your best friend.
Weight - Monitoring and Management
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide

What medication has she been given?

Please ensure she has lots of hay available. Also step in and syringe feed her a fibre rich recovery feed such as Oxbow critical care. In the absence of recovery feed you can use mushed pellets, but I'd advise you get a proper recovery feed and use that when you can get it. This will stop her from losing any more weight. Please weigh her daily so you can ensure she is getting enough

Not Eating, Weight Loss And The Importance Of Syringe Feeding Fibre
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide

hi,
she has been given enrocare oral sol and fibreplex, twice a day
i have critical care vit c that i can give her, but do you think that would be too much for her on top of the meds?
also how much veg should i feed her? normal amounts?(I'm not going to give her anything watery like cucumber or lettuce)

 

[Wiebke]

hi,
she has been given enrocare oral sol and fibreplex, twice a day
i have critical care vit c that i can give her, but do you think that would be too much for her on top of the meds?
also how much veg should i feed her? normal amounts?(I'm not going to give her anything watery like cucumber or lettuce)

There is vitamin C in fibreplex, so she doesn't need any extra vitamin C supplement. What she may need is recovery formula for syringe feeding. Please have a look at the links.

And - as I have stated in my first post - NO veg whatsoever. Please take the time to read my first post again.

 

[cococookie]

There is vitamin C in fibreplex, so she doesn't need any extra vitamin C supplement. What she may need is recovery formula for syringe feeding. Please have a look at the links.

And - as I have stated in my first post - NO veg whatsoever. Please take the time to read my first post again.

ah i see that veg is not necessary as all the vitamin c is in the fibreplex and hay. however the vet said to give ying bits of veg such as broccoli and carrots just in case so maybe i’ll just give her a very very small amount?

 

[Wiebke]

ah i see that veg is not necessary as all the vitamin c is in the fibreplex and hay. however the vet said to give ying bits of veg such as broccoli and carrots just in case so maybe i’ll just give her a very very small amount?

From my own ample experience with all sorts of tummy issues, please simply and utterly DO NOT FEED VEG!

ESPECIALLY NOT broccoli (one of the veg with a higher risk of causing bloat) and carrot - too high in sugar, which is promoting the bacteria that cause dysbiosis. Feeding carrot to a guinea pig is like feeding a bar of chocolate. I wouldn't think that this is the kind of food your gp would recommend you to eat when you have a bad tummy upset?

Your vet is obviously not all that familiar with guinea pigs if they recommend some of the most unsuitable veg when no veg whatsoever is the way forward...

Hay is the food a guinea pig gut works on. All other foods are optional and can be left out for a little while without causing harm, especially when giving enriched supplements.

 

[cococookie]

From my own ample experience with all sorts of tummy issues, please simply and utterly DO NOT FEED VEG!

ESPECIALLY NOT broccoli (one of the veg with a higher risk of causing bloat) and carrot - too high in sugar, which is promoting the bacteria that cause dysbiosis. Feeding carrot to a guinea pig is like feeding a bar of chocolate. I wouldn't think that this is the kind of food your gp would recommend you to eat when you have a bad tummy upset?

Your vet is obviously not all that familiar with guinea pigs if they recommend some of the most unsuitable veg when no veg whatsoever is the way forward...

Hay is the food a guinea pig gut works on. All other foods are optional and can be left out for a little while without causing harm, especially when giving enriched supplements.

ok i won’t give her any veg, thank you so much <3

 

[cococookie]

just given coco her fibreplex and antibiotic. i’ve been trying to give her max 0.5 mls at a time as in scared of it going into her lungs. she has to have 1ml of fibreplex twice a day and she hates it! can i roll it up in some veg? i know she isn’t meNt to be having veg but surely a tiny but won’t hurt? i just don’t want to syringe feed her the fibreplex because my dad doesn’t understand the whole thing that she needs to only have a tiny bit at a time and he gets mad :/ maybe veg is a safer option? or will she eventually accept it more? i have also read the syringe feeding guide and i am going to try and hold her down more, just carefully because she has ovarian cysts

 

[cococookie]

she buried her head away from me after

 

[Piggies&buns]

I would just be tough and syringe the fibreplex as it is. Don’t put it onto veg. If she has a gut problem and imbalance then giving her any veg isn’t going to help at all. She needs just plenty of fibre to get things to rebalance and settle down.

 

[cococookie]

I would just be tough and syringe the fibreplex as it is. Don’t put it onto veg. If she has a gut problem and imbalance then giving her any veg isn’t going to help at all. She needs just plenty of fibre to get things to rebalance and settle down.

ok thanks, ill try and be a bit firmer with her

 

[Wiebke]

just given coco her fibreplex and antibiotic. i’ve been trying to give her max 0.5 mls at a time as in scared of it going into her lungs. she has to have 1ml of fibreplex twice a day and she hates it! can i roll it up in some veg? i know she isn’t meNt to be having veg but surely a tiny but won’t hurt? i just don’t want to syringe feed her the fibreplex because my dad doesn’t understand the whole thing that she needs to only have a tiny bit at a time and he gets mad :/ maybe veg is a safer option? or will she eventually accept it more? i have also read the syringe feeding guide and i am going to try and hold her down more, just carefully because she has ovarian cysts

You can mix the fibreplex in a little luke warm mushed pellets and serve those on a spoon or in a bowl; that usually goes down much better. Tell your dad that fibreplex is a medication for the gut. You can't give a bottle of antibiotics in one go, can you? NO VEG.

Please give her gut microbiome time to settle down again. The antibiotic is another whammy for the invisible workers in the gut that do all the breaking down and processing of the nutrients.

 

[cococookie]

You can mix the fibreplex in a little luke warm mushed pellets and serve those on a spoon or in a bowl; that usually goes down much better. Tell your dad that fibreplex is a medication for the gut. You can't give a bottle of antibiotics in one go, can you? NO VEG.

Please give her gut microbiome time to settle down again. The antibiotic is another whammy for the invisible workers in the gut that do all the breaking down and processing of the nutrients.

ok thank you so much, i am not going to give her any veg as i understand she doesn’t need it at the moment. i’ll continue to give her lots of hay and pellets and her meds
thanks so much for your help

 

[cococookie]

heyy, like many of you guys have said, i have not been giving coco andy beg, just her meds, hay and pellets. i’ve noticed she’s been drinking more water than before, should i be worried? also, we are trying to get her to put on weight, but i can’t give her any veg so will the gut meds help her? or shall i be doing something else?

 

[Wiebke]

heyy, like many of you guys have said, i have not been giving coco andy beg, just her meds, hay and pellets. i’ve noticed she’s been drinking more water than before, should i be worried? also, we are trying to get her to put on weight, but i can’t give her any veg so will the gut meds help her? or shall i be doing something else?

Hi!

Since Coco is not getting any fluid from veg, she will be drinking more water; the need for fluid remains the same and is nothing to worry about. Things will balance out again once she is past her tummy trouble. The need to drink is the second strongest reflexive need after breathing and before eating.

With all due respect, during an illness and medical treatment your aim is to minimise any weight loss and ideally keep the weight stable. Regaining weight has to wait until afterwards when your piggy is feeling well again and eating fully; right now weight gain is not a realistic expectation. The weight will come back on its own in its own time. You are not putting on weight while you are feeling ill and having diarrhea do you? You do that once your appetite is back. It is the same for guinea pigs.

As long as the weight is stable, you do not need to support feed, but that comes into play if your piggy is steadily losing weight. Just be patient and persist. You will get there. But not in just one or two days; you have to wait until the antibiotic has built up to full efficiency by the end of the course and then slowly wears off. Again, that will take several days.

 

[cococookie]

Hi!

Since Coco is not getting any fluid from veg, she will be drinking more water; the need for fluid remains the same and is nothing to worry about. Things will balance out again once she is past her tummy trouble. The need to drink is the second strongest reflexive need after breathing and before eating.

With all due respect, during an illness and medical treatment your aim is to minimise any weight loss and ideally keep the weight stable. Regaining weight has to wait until afterwards when your piggy is feeling well again and eating fully; right now weight gain is not a realistic expectation. The weight will come back on its own in its own time. You are not putting on weight while you are feeling ill and having diarrhea do you? You do that once your appetite is back. It is the same for guinea pigs.

As long as the weight is stable, you do not need to support feed, but that comes into play if your piggy is steadily losing weight. Just be patient and persist. You will get there. But not in just one or two days; you have to wait until the antibiotic has built up to full efficiency by the end of the course and then slowly wears off. Again, that will take several days.

ah ok, i understand
thank you

 

[Wiebke]

PS for @cococookie : I have merged your threads on the same case. Please follow the forum rule for 1 ongoing case = 1 thread. You will get much better support as we can refer back to what has been said, how is the piggy treated and what is going on than if you just get a general answer or the same basic advice repeatedly or - not knowing the background - contradictory recommendations.

You can always pick up your ongoing support thread via the Find Thread/Your Threads or via the Search option by the top bar. Unlike social media we can provide longer term personalised support but as none of us can be around all the time and as we are jumping between lots of different threads in a day, not to mention any longer periods and are all holding down a job, our own piggies and a personal life, this allows us to refresh our memory at any time. Thank you.