Charlottibiscot
New Born Pup
My 4.5 year old sow, Mabel, has had diarrhea on and off for the last two weeks and is also limping a bit on her back legs (possibly from having poop stuck to them?).
Scroll down to the bottom for my plan of action and let me know if you think I'm doing the right things or if there's anything else you'd like to add, if you don't want the full deets.
Background:
I first took her to the emergency guinea pig vet two or three weeks ago because she was screaming and limping + with diarrhea (at the time I and the vet assumed the diarrhea was from the stress of the vet visit), who said she was fine and healthy, but gave her some metacam.
I administered the metacam with food which only resulted in further diarrhea so I gave up on that front. Her limp then went away and she seemed to get better on her own.
---
Two weeks later, every time I feed her fresh veg (romaine lettuce, with small amounts of kale, parsley, bell pepper and sometimes carrot or tomato, one cereal bowl of veg between 3 sows) she has diarrhea the next day and is reluctant to move around but still eats and drinks okay. I can hear her tummy gurgling but it is still nice and soft, not bloated.
She gets very thirsty after these episodes so I've been syringing her water as she hates softened pellets.
She's also started a high pitched scream at the other guinea pigs when they get too close to her, especially when they're too close to her rear half - I think they can either tell something is wrong and are trying to clean her bum and her eyes (she gets crusty eyes which I clean every day) or they're antagonising her, can't quite tell but their behaviour definitely isn't hostile at least. Mabel's tummy must feel so upset
Apart from the diarrhea and screaming at the others, she seems in bright spirits and is still squeaking for food, walking around (not running like she used to, mind) and thankfully eating nuggets/hay/veg just like normal, but at 750g she has definitely lost some weight over the last 3 months, where she used to be around 900g, but this might be because she's starting to become a senior.
My current plan of action:
- No more veggies for Mabel until she is better for at least 2 days, then slow introduction of veggies
- Make sure she's eating hay and pellets
- Wiping her bum and her feet when they get soiled (I think she's limping because the poop is stuck to the soles of her feet? Would it be burning her feet? Insight would be mega appreciated on this front)
- Ordered probiotic from Amazon plus a proper feeding syringe, arriving on Tuesday (mine is too small for anything except water).
- When that arrives I will feed the piggy probiotic plus poo soup from one of her very chonky, healthy younger cagemates.
- If she is still getting diarrhea after a few days of this and/or screaming I will take her back to the vet.
- I don't want to risk antibiotics for a gut infection unless the above methods haven't worked, if they have the potential of doing more harm than good.
Scroll down to the bottom for my plan of action and let me know if you think I'm doing the right things or if there's anything else you'd like to add, if you don't want the full deets.Background:
I first took her to the emergency guinea pig vet two or three weeks ago because she was screaming and limping + with diarrhea (at the time I and the vet assumed the diarrhea was from the stress of the vet visit), who said she was fine and healthy, but gave her some metacam.
I administered the metacam with food which only resulted in further diarrhea so I gave up on that front. Her limp then went away and she seemed to get better on her own.
---
Two weeks later, every time I feed her fresh veg (romaine lettuce, with small amounts of kale, parsley, bell pepper and sometimes carrot or tomato, one cereal bowl of veg between 3 sows) she has diarrhea the next day and is reluctant to move around but still eats and drinks okay. I can hear her tummy gurgling but it is still nice and soft, not bloated.
She gets very thirsty after these episodes so I've been syringing her water as she hates softened pellets.
She's also started a high pitched scream at the other guinea pigs when they get too close to her, especially when they're too close to her rear half - I think they can either tell something is wrong and are trying to clean her bum and her eyes (she gets crusty eyes which I clean every day) or they're antagonising her, can't quite tell but their behaviour definitely isn't hostile at least. Mabel's tummy must feel so upset
Apart from the diarrhea and screaming at the others, she seems in bright spirits and is still squeaking for food, walking around (not running like she used to, mind) and thankfully eating nuggets/hay/veg just like normal, but at 750g she has definitely lost some weight over the last 3 months, where she used to be around 900g, but this might be because she's starting to become a senior.
My current plan of action:
- No more veggies for Mabel until she is better for at least 2 days, then slow introduction of veggies
- Make sure she's eating hay and pellets
- Wiping her bum and her feet when they get soiled (I think she's limping because the poop is stuck to the soles of her feet? Would it be burning her feet? Insight would be mega appreciated on this front)
- Ordered probiotic from Amazon plus a proper feeding syringe, arriving on Tuesday (mine is too small for anything except water).
- When that arrives I will feed the piggy probiotic plus poo soup from one of her very chonky, healthy younger cagemates.
- If she is still getting diarrhea after a few days of this and/or screaming I will take her back to the vet.
- I don't want to risk antibiotics for a gut infection unless the above methods haven't worked, if they have the potential of doing more harm than good.
I have a 1ml syringe, I was just having trouble getting anything into it but I suppose if i make a runnier mixture i might have some luck! 
Yes I thought it was a low dose, I remember I used to give that much to my old hamster when he got sick! And he weighed about 80g!