Guinea pig soft poops help

[grotty]

Hi all!
So my older piggy (almost 6 years) has been having poop problems for the past month now. We've been going back and forth from the vet a few times and they can't figure out what is wrong. I have had her on benebac since this all started and my vet gave her antibiotics (orbax) which did not help. He then prescribed us with albon to help with the runny poops and they took a sample to ship off to a lab for further testing. This came back negative for bacteria or parasites. The albon did help with solidifying her poops more but once off them they go back to being very mushy and runny.

Her eating habits have not changed whatsoever except for taking her off veggies following vet recommendations. She is still eating her hay and pellets and drinking water as usual. She has lost a little weight and I give her critical care on days she is having it really bad.

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for what could be going on & what to ask my vet to look into?
Thank you!

 

[WobblyPiggy]

Hi, I'm unsure of what it could be however one of mine is currently having gut issues and one issue she has is small mushy poops (slowly getting better) we have been given emeprid oral solution to help her which has now slowly increased her appetite and her poops are slowly getting bigger and a little more solid even just after a day on it...also you could try asking for a probiotic if you haven't tried one yet...they help with good bacteria in their gut...alot of people use them when piggies are on various meds to help keep everything regular...these are just things vets have given us for our piggies in the past and could be something to discuss with your vet in the future if nothing improves...

 

[Lady Kelly]

@Piggies&buns any advice you can offer?

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m sorry to hear she is unwell. I can’t really think of anything other than what has already been done.

You say she has lost a little weight - how much has she lost?

I see youve got her on a probiotic, does she have a companion? Could you try making her some poop soup from the companion’s very fresh poops - that helps replace the bacteria which should help repopulate her gut

 

[grotty]

I’m sorry to hear she is unwell. I can’t really think of anything other than what has already been done.

You say she has lost a little weight - how much has she lost?

I see youve got her on a probiotic, does she have a companion? Could you try making her some poop soup from the companion’s very fresh poops - that helps replace the bacteria which should help repopulate her gut

Hi! Sorry for the late reply -
I have 5 piggies and she was initially with another girl. Since she has been sick she was getting very irritated with her no matter what she was doing and it was stressing both of them out. I ended up bonding the healthy one with my neutered boy and I have the sick girly by herself right now neighboring the other cages. Could I still use her old cagemate's poops even though they aren't technically together anymore?

And since this has all started she's gradually lost about 20 grams.

Thank you so much for the replies!

 

[Free Ranger]

Hi, it's still early here but folks will be online soon.
It's good that the loss is only about 20g over a month - keep an eye on this in case it goes down further but that's not much. You can use the healthy poops of any of your pigs to make the soup - maybe a cocktail! Some pigs seem to take well to this but mine have always looked horrified so I've made the soup and then 'spiked' some recovery food to try and get it down them. It did help my girl when she had an upset tum earlier this year.
She's an older girl - is she on any regular meds or supplements for older piggy issues like arthritis?
One final thing - I've seen posts where people talk about hormonal issues (like ovarian cysts) which seem to have been affecting the digestion. I don't know the mechanism or why it doesn't happen all the time, but did vet give her ovaries a little poke to check for these? Not every ovarian growth prompts hormonal changes but for our mature ladies it is something to check on.
Good luck x

 

[grotty]

Hi, it's still early here but folks will be online soon.
It's good that the loss is only about 20g over a month - keep an eye on this in case it goes down further but that's not much. You can use the healthy poops of any of your pigs to make the soup - maybe a cocktail! Some pigs seem to take well to this but mine have always looked horrified so I've made the soup and then 'spiked' some recovery food to try and get it down them. It did help my girl when she had an upset tum earlier this year.
She's an older girl - is she on any regular meds or supplements for older piggy issues like arthritis?
One final thing - I've seen posts where people talk about hormonal issues (like ovarian cysts) which seem to have been affecting the digestion. I don't know the mechanism or why it doesn't happen all the time, but did vet give her ovaries a little poke to check for these? Not every ovarian growth prompts hormonal changes but for our mature ladies it is something to check on.
Good luck x

Hey! Okay, I will try out the poop cocktail haha - fingers crossed. And her only supplement is a vitamin c tablet at the moment + cbd cream on the ears on the occasion.
As for ovarian cysts my old vet gave her an ultrasound (about 5 months ago) and she did not have anything thankfully. I will ask my new vet to check again though.
Thanks!

 

[Free Ranger]

So the only other thing to have a little think about is whether the vitC or the cream was introduced at about the same time as her poops started to go a bit funny. Sometimes it's really difficult to pinpoint what might have been the trigger. We can't always spot it - sometimes it's some sort of metabolic change. My girl who got bloat in April was the only bloat I've ever had in 10 years and it was triggered by... grass in the garden. I had laid some new turf and given it a week or so to bed in - the other 2 pigs had no problems at all - they'd all had fresh meadow grass through the winter (such that we could find!) but this was a bit richer and she's a greedy moo and thus we had a horribly worrying few days But she got through it - thanks to what hubs calls "George's Marvellous Medicine" although she didn't thank us for it!

 

[grotty]

Hey all,
I figured I'd update this post in case anyone else has a similar thing happen - she has toxoplasmosis! We have no idea how she got it since I don't own any other animals and the other pigs aren't sick but she's finally on the correct medication and she's doing good!

 

[Julie M]

Hey all,
I figured I'd update this post in case anyone else has a similar thing happen - she has toxoplasmosis! We have no idea how she got it since I don't own any other animals and the other pigs aren't sick but she's finally on the correct medication and she's doing good!

Glad to hear your little ones on the mend.

 

[Free Ranger]

Wow that's brilliant you were able to identify the problem! Your first post mentioned that the vet had tested for parasites... did they have to test again?
I think the organism that causes this can survive for a quite while in the ground but I know that some people who get it don't show any symptoms so maybe it's the same for pigs and she carried it all her life without a problem until she got older. I know my friend who has cats (lots of cats!) had to be very careful when she was pregnant but apart from that toxoplasmosis is not something we hear about much over here in the UK. But we've learnt something now for our US members.

Thanks so much for the feedback and it's great to hear she's doing well

 

[grotty]

Wow that's brilliant you were able to identify the problem! Your first post mentioned that the vet had tested for parasites... did they have to test again?
I think the organism that causes this can survive for a quite while in the ground but I know that some people who get it don't show any symptoms so maybe it's the same for pigs and she carried it all her life without a problem until she got older. I know my friend who has cats (lots of cats!) had to be very careful when she was pregnant but apart from that toxoplasmosis is not something we hear about much over here in the UK. But we've learnt something now for our US members.

Thanks so much for the feedback and it's great to hear she's doing well

I told them to just try anything because I was so frustrated at that point from not finding anything haha. They did a urinalysis and a fecal float but I'm not sure which one indicated to them that it was toxoplasmosis or if it was something else.

And thank you!