Guine Pig with diarrhea after suspected bloat

[Piggiefamily]

Hi friends, just want to share what is going on with my beautiful girl Pippa (in the pic) and know if anyone has gone trought the same, and what sort of outcome you had, as well as any advice. She is currently in the vets receiving treatment and I am counting the hours to pick her up and see how she is doing.
So long story short: me and my husband suspect Pippa (she 5 yrs old and with me since a baby and she has never been sick) overindulged in coriander since we found she had eaten hers and Benny's portion (Benny is my other gp- they live side to side cages because he is a boy, but we leave them mingle with both cages open during playtime) . So she started with some symptoms of bloat which progressed to diarrhea on the following day (yesterday) , because we were both at work until late we only realised when we got home. I gave her water through a syringe and tried to give her some mushy pellets but she refused most of it. During the night we monitored her condition and noticed she was not eating anything, very sleepy and getting weak. This morning she was showing signs to be much much weaker, refused any food and seemed just very poorly, I was able to book an appointment at the vets.
As I said I left her there for a few hours and I was told the treatment will consist in fluids by IV (she was starting to get dehydrated, I did attempt to give her water through syringe but was not enough for what should be her normal intake and even less taking in account the diarrhea), pain medication, antibiotics, probiotic and fibre. The vet told that this is to make her system to work as normal and rebalance her gut. So it is expected that after I bring her home she will start to eat normally and no further follow up will be needed but if she doesn't then I should go back to do an x-ray.
So this where we're at the moment..anxiously waiting for our baby to get back home.

 

[Piggies&buns]

I hope she feels better when you get her home.
It is best that you weigh her daily while she isn’t well. This is the only way to know she is eating enough. you will have to see how she is, but I suspect you will need to continue to syringe feed a recovery feed/mushed up pellets to her for a while until her eating is truly back to normal and her gut settles. Again, weighing her is the only way to know - if she loses weight day after day then she isn’t eating and needs syringe feeding more. Bloat can come in waves so it may not be over immediately so you will need to keep an eye out.

Digestive Disorders: Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement) And Not Eating

I just wanted to also pick up on what youve said about them live in side by side cages but having free roam between the two during the day. If he is not neutered, then they must not ever have physical contact, they must be kept separate and never have time together - a mating will be over within seconds and you would not be able to stop it. If he is neutered and there is no risk of pregnancy, then why do you separate them? Piggies need to either be permanently living together or permanently separated - you can’t mix and match, this isn’t how piggies function.

 

[Piggiefamily]

Thank you for your reply and sorry for the delayed update. So Pippa was not doing so well this morning so I took her back to the vets, done an x-ray and our worst suspicious were confirmed - she has gut stasis. She was there the whole day to do more pain killers and medication to help start her guts working, I was suppose to bring her home with more medication but when I got there they informed me that they decided to give another injection since she is still constipated and they were afraid the tablets might not work. She is back home for the night and I will continue to syringe feed her (whatever amount she accepts- which is very little at the moment) every 2 hrs. Tomorrow morning I will take her back but if she is not better, they told I will have to make some tough decisions... :'( obviously now I am just trying to enjoy her company the best I can since I dunno if after tomorrow she is going to back home or not. I am just heartbroken and praying that she is able to overcome this.
Sorry but I am very sentimental and can't imagine my life without her...my baby.
To make things even worse, Benny (the boy) is not looking great. He made some small poos and I can see isn't himself (very quiet, doesn't try to run from us like usual and drinking more water than normal), so I am keeping an eye on him also. If he's not better tomorrow I will bring him to the vets with Pippa. I asked the nurse what she thought about this and she said it might be stress because he feels Pippa is not well...or something else but obviously without observing they can't say for sure... I can't even imagine if both of them go! I just can't cope with that.
Sorry for my rambling but I need to take out of my chest and most people I know wouldn't understand how attached we are to our little friends and how we think of them as a family members.

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m sorry to hear this. I hope she pulls through. As I say, keep weighing her as it’s the only way to know enough syringe feed is going into her. However, guinea pigs do not get constipation. A guinea pig who isn’t producing poops is not constipated, they are not producing poops because there hasn’t been enough food going in. Poop output is a couple of days behind food intake so after a period of not eating/stasis it can still take a few more days before poop output is restored.

Again, with Benny small poops indicate a reduced hay intake. As you say it could be because of stress but a medical issue would be the first thing to rule out, but I would also be weighing him daily and stepping in with syringe feeding him also if you see any sudden or continual downward trend in his weight.