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Fibreplex administration

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Hamandsammich

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Hi all,

Our 2 year old Ham was neutered a week and a half ago. He's seemed absolutely unbothered until the last couple of days but now has soft poops, is eating but going off his normal favourites. We've been to the vet, no sign of anything awful after an ultrasound. She's prescribed fibreplex, but he's really not keen. The syringe is very stiff so I'm struggling to administer straight from the syringe. He leaves any I've put it in. It seems to solid to put into a smaller syringe. In the end I mixed with a little water and put in a small syringe, but I'm not convinced he got the full dose. Any suggestion on how to get it into a small syringe in a better way?

Thanks!
 
Hamandsammich said:
Hi all,

Our 2 year old Ham was neutered a week and a half ago. He's seemed absolutely unbothered until the last couple of days but now has soft poops, is eating but going off his normal favourites. We've been to the vet, no sign of anything awful after an ultrasound. She's prescribed fibreplex, but he's really not keen. The syringe is very stiff so I'm struggling to administer straight from the syringe. He leaves any I've put it in. It seems to solid to put into a smaller syringe. In the end I mixed with a little water and put in a small syringe, but I'm not convinced he got the full dose. Any suggestion on how to get it into a small syringe in a better way?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Hi!

I am very sorry about the tummy upset.
Please switch to weighing daily at the same time. Keep an eye out for potential infection/abscesses developing; this is about the most common time for them to make an appearance. Picky eating and loss of appetite are often the earliest symptoms of pain in the body.
Neutering operations: Considerations, post-op care and a successful recovery example

Many piggies don't like fibreplex directly from the syringe. I usually mix it with a small portion of cooled mushed up pellets and serve in a bowl if the piggy is eating on its own - that tends to down a treat!
Here is a little video of my Carwyn with his own top up feed cum fibreplex a year ago.
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=317425452394625
 
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I found fibreplex difficult to administer from the syringe it's supplied with too.

Hopefully @Wiebke's nice self-feeding solution will be all you need :)

I've added my own workings out below in case they are of any help. I had to use it over a long period so I got through quite a bit of the stuff and did some experimenting.

I discovered that how easy or not it was to administer seemed related to the individual tubes. I'm guessing it's something to do with storage (e.g. stored on side - good - or stored on end - not good) as the carrier seems to be oil and I think this must separate out in certain conditions (even when well within expiry date). (It seemed to happen with different suppliers too so possibly even the specific postal process makes a difference). Some tubes were well mixed and easy to administer safely (i.e. a relatively normal push on the plunger delivered the dose in a controlled manner over more than one mouthful) and others seemed pretty unsafe (either didn't give anything or I was worried about having to push so hard that a dose would squirt out and be delivered with unexpected force). The separated out tubes (I discovered I could tell because when I initially pushed the plunger the mixture was very runny) I completely emptied into a container, mixed and then gave with the syringe top-up feeds my pig needed at the time. I found this worked best in a kind of "sandwich" so that the syringe tube didn't get horribly oily. The better mixed tubes I ended up doing something similar with but I didn't need to extract and mix the whole lot beforehand.

I don't know if this helps at all. I think it's definitely preferable if you don't need to a syringe a piggy but sometimes it is necessary and helpful to do so. And although it was a bit of a pain to give, I'm very glad Fibreplex exists; it definitely helped my sick pig.

Good luck!
 
Thanks both, I'll give your suggestions a go. I've already been super vigilant about everything because I was so worried about getting him neutered on the first place, so hopefully he'll be on the mend soon as we visited the vet straight away.
 
Fibreplex is very easy to administer once you get the hang of it. I find the best way is to syringe the graduation into the mouth and then twist the syringe round and round in the mouth, to distribute all the paste. If you pull it straight out, it tends to come back out attached to the syringe.
 
furryfriends (TEAS) said:
Fibreplex is very easy to administer once you get the hang of it. I find the best way is to syringe the graduation into the mouth and then twist the syringe round and round in the mouth, to distribute all the paste. If you pull it straight out, it tends to come back out attached to the syringe.
Click to expand...

I'm very used to syringe feeding from our last guinea pig's illness, but the syringe on the fibreplex is so stiff I'm needing to use 2 hands to move it!
 
When the mix was as I imagine it was supposed to be (i.e. the contents were mixed correctly and the plunger moved relatively easily) I found it fine to administer. It was when the carrier oil separated out it became impossible give from the syringe safely (or sometimes at all - the plunger just wouldn't budge). When I took these sort of tubes apart I discovered that the granular part of the paste would appear jammed, forming a sort of solid plug which stopped anything coming out. I ended up extracting the jammed paste using the handle of a desert spoon in order to deliver in a slightly different form (e.g. with supplement). I'm wondering if you have a tube in which that's happened @Hamandsammich
 
Whortleberry said:
When the mix was as I imagine it was supposed to be (i.e. the contents were mixed correctly and the plunger moved relatively easily) I found it fine to administer. It was when the carrier oil separated out it became impossible give from the syringe safely (or sometimes at all - the plunger just wouldn't budge). When I took these sort of tubes apart I discovered that the granular part of the paste would appear jammed, forming a sort of solid plug which stopped anything coming out. I ended up extracting the jammed paste using the handle of a desert spoon in order to deliver in a slightly different form (e.g. with supplement). I'm wondering if you have a tube in which that's happened @Hamandsammich
Click to expand...


Yes sounds like it! I'm going to try the mixing into biscuits and water tomorrow and see how we get on.
 
I've used Fibreplex a few times in the past with no problems but the last two syringes I've had have been impossible. I threw away most of one syringe this summer, when the next one wouldn't work either I took the syringe apart as it's far too expensive to keep throwing away. The fibreplex was completely dried out. I fished little bits out of the syringe and mixed it in with the recovery food I was feeding. I can only assume the Fibreplex did not like the hot weather we have been having as it was well within use by date. I hope Ham gets well very soon.
 
piggieminder said:
I've used Fibreplex a few times in the past with no problems but the last two syringes I've had have been impossible. I threw away most of one syringe this summer, when the next one wouldn't work either I took the syringe apart as it's far too expensive to keep throwing away. The fibreplex was completely dried out. I fished little bits out of the syringe and mixed it in with the recovery food I was feeding. I can only assume the Fibreplex did not like the hot weather we have been having as it was well within use by date. I hope Ham gets well very soon.
Click to expand...

Thank you. It just seems very stiff rather than the solution being dried out but hopefully we can figure it out. Not nice to see him under the weather!
 
I've just ordered some of this for my girls - never used it before, so how do you make sure you only get one single dose out and not more at the same time?
 
Janey said:
I've just ordered some of this for my girls - never used it before, so how do you make sure you only get one single dose out and not more at the same time?
Click to expand...

The large fibresplex syringe has notches; you twist it one notch further with every day. It is very obvious when you see it!
 
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