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Jon Snow - Digestive Issues

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Jon Snow has had digestive issues his whole life and a few of you may remember that I decided to have his poop tested a few weeks ago. I got the results a couple of days ago and so we went to the vet.

Since sending the poop for testing he has been slowly losing weight, despite eating lots, and being healthy and active otherwise.

The test results were:
++ Saccharaomyces guttulatus
++ Fungal elements
Which to me seem very vague, but I'm no vet so I had them sent their also.

Until now we've not done anything about his digestive issues as he's been happy and healthy and we didn't want to throw medicines into the mix unless they will definitely help him.

But, now he's losing weight we need to do something.

I won't go into the full details but on physical exam it is clear to the vet that his digestive system is far from normal. And his body in not absorbing the nutrients from his food efficiently (which is what was diagnosed year ago). He has always been a small pig, with odd shaped poops and a rumbling stomach.

As he has fungal showing in the results our first course of action is Itrafungol for 2 weeks. If it works then we'll continue for a while longer, if not we go back and try something else.

This isn't something we can cure unfortunately, but we can try to control or help his symptoms. As long as he stays happy and bright, that's what I want. It's not a death sentence either, he can easily still live for many more years.

He made a friend in the waiting room. A lady asked his name when he was standing up at the front of the carrier waiting for food (he's a small starving pig you see!). She opened the door for us and said "Goodbye Jon" and waved.

Oh, and on a side note Podrick tagged along for a health check. We laugh at him as he is the most liquid pig I've ever seen. How flat and wide he can make himself is so unbelievable that we think that he might not have any bones. I laughed when the vet struggled to get a pee sample out of him. She said that he was so fluid that it was almost impossible to get any purchase on him to manipulate. She's never felt a pig like him. I always get the weird pigs!
 
Hopefully the anti fungal meds may help sort he fungal side of things out. Fungal seems to cause all manner of issues. Be interested to see how he gets on sending Jon and Liquid pig Podrick lots of love x
 
Poor Jon Snow, I hope the anti fungal helps.
I had to smile at your description of Podrick bless him. My OH says we should have called Peanut Slinky because of the way he elongates himself when he moves around. It's as if he thinks if he's long and thin he's invisable.
 
Thank you both x

I've been very lucky to have never had a pig with fungal issues so it'll be interesting to see if the Itrafungal does anything.

They're both having a well deserved snooze at the moment. Sleeping in car and having extra veg is very stressful!

Podrick is so strange. He can get himself into the plastic pigloo by only lifting it up about an inch (doors are for losers), he's so flat!

I'm going to have a bit of a research around med's that can make pigs absorb more nutrients, just in case we need to try something.

My Anselmo was a "guinea pig" for the bladder sludge diuretic, so if the worst case scenario happens I'll try anything with Jon.

Fingers crossed he can get his weight back up with the Itrafungal and eating more.
 
Oh poor Jon, hopefully the intrafungol will help him out a bit and help keep some weight on him
 
Ok so this was what my Petal had @Jaycey. Unfortunately if he lives with another pig the chances are they will have it as well, so any fungal treatment will need to be given to both as far as I'm aware. My vet was going to treat her with Nystatin, in the end we didn't because she had so many other health problems & the Saccharomyces didn't seem to be the most important one.
 
@Poppy'sMum I'll mention treating Pod when he goes back in a few weeks. She didn't say anything at the time about treating them both and Jon has been ill his whole life (4 years). But if it helps him I'll treat Pod too.

What was the treatment used for Petal?
 
We didn't treat her in the end as she was a bladder pig as well, she had terrible gut issues after being spayed at 4 1/2 & my vet thought the Nystatin could tip things over the edge as her health was so fragile. She had a good year after her op, she always had a dodgy tummy though & so did her daughter, so it was likely she was also affected. Petal was sadly pts at 5 1/2 as she had pneumonia & bloat x
 
@Lady Kelly Thank you! I think I need to get him eating pasta or something, haha. Or protein shakes!

If it were possible I could give him and endless supply of hay and veg, he's always eating. He had both his and Podricks "packed lunch" on the way home from tbe vet!
 
You're welcome :) It's trial & error really to see what sets his issues off, it's a bit like irritable bowel in humans. Nystatin carries some risks to the liver/kidneys as far as I am aware which is why my vet was cautious in trying to use it. Had she been healthy other than the poop issues we would have done it but there was no point treating her companions either as they would have picked it up again from her x
 
I had a random thought over the weekend, and I wondered if one of you guys knew the answer? If not, I'll ask Kim next time we visit.

If the Itrafungol doesn't work, Kim wants to try Cisapride. I've never actually used it, but as far as I'm aware that's gut stimulant, to get the guys moving again? If so, why would you use it on a guinea pig who has guts that are moving too fast? Won't it make it worse? Any thoughts?

Jon is doing well. His weight has been stable over the weekend, and he's learned a new trick, which is to stand up against the sofa so you give him a treat. He hates the med's but we're giving him a teeny tiny bit of grass between mouthfuls, so it's not so bad.
 
I'm very tempted to get Jon to be booked in for a full dental. He's eating perfectly fine and enjoying eating, and his front teeth are fine, but he's still losing weight. He's down a total of 25g since last Thursday. Nothing major at but I wish it wasn't a drop. Podrick in comparison is stable. So I guess that at least shows the additional food I've been giving isn't having any effect at all seeing as Pod is stable. They're getting more pellets, and a variety of hay but I need to do more.

I'm going to spend all bank holiday weekend giving him extra food. I've been told not to give him Critical Care as he is eating fine, but I'm very tempted to add in a bit.

I wish that we knew what was wrong and we could fix it, but typically that's not the case. Grrr...
 
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