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persistent digestive issues

Wizzy

Wizzy

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Feb 19, 2018
Messages
391
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Location
Tunbridge Wells, Kent
Hi everyone!
So a month ago my 6.5 year old piggy rexy had awful gas bloat, she went from 870g to 801g in less than 2 days and was barely moving.
we took her to the vet on wednesday 6th of Jan, who gave her an emperid (or something similar?) injection, and said thanks to my constant massaging it had mostly passed. The vet also gave us supreme science recovery food and said to give lots of fibre and no veg.
By the sunday 10th she was eating on her own again and was mostly fine. She was up and down over the course of the next week, but was staying at around 820g and pooping fine.
And then on Sunday 17th i noticed diarrhoea. it was never very watery but it was rather like cow pads. After ringing the vet, we Got Pro-C probiotics from p@h on monday 18th, and started syringing that with water to her. her poops got a lot better. By Wednesday 20th her weight was up to 850g.
I finally got a negative covid test result on Thursday 21st, so we took her to the vet then. By that point her poops had mostly gotten better, so the vet gave us more recovery food and said to carry on feeding fibre and probiotics.
However, the day after(!) i noticed her poops were still soft. Her weight the sunday before last (24th) was up to 876g!
Since then she remained at about 860g. the poops however mostly continued to be softer than usual until last thursday (28th jan) where i was given the advice to give her less water and make the recovery food more solid and mix them with the probiotics. After doing this, her poops have gotten quite a bit better.
They are solid and fine, although some are still a bit smaller than they would usually be.
Today she weighed at 835g. is a little bit more lethargic but nothing worrying and there is nothing obviously wrong. Her poops have been fine today. I put her in a newspaper box to watch her, and she did about 9 normal poops in about 40 minutes. is this usual? should i be worried about the drop in weight today even though it’s only 30g?
Does anyone else have any other advice? I’m thinking maybe to try Fibreplex.
here’s a photo of her, she loves the camera!
 

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Wizzy said:
Hi everyone!
So a month ago my 6.5 year old piggy rexy had awful gas bloat, she went from 870g to 801g in less than 2 days and was barely moving.
we took her to the vet on wednesday 6th of Jan, who gave her an emperid (or something similar?) injection, and said thanks to my constant massaging it had mostly passed. The vet also gave us supreme science recovery food and said to give lots of fibre and no veg.
By the sunday 10th she was eating on her own again and was mostly fine. She was up and down over the course of the next week, but was staying at around 820g and pooping fine.
And then on Sunday 17th i noticed diarrhoea. it was never very watery but it was rather like cow pads. After ringing the vet, we Got Pro-C probiotics from p@h on monday 18th, and started syringing that with water to her. her poops got a lot better. By Wednesday 20th her weight was up to 850g.
I finally got a negative covid test result on Thursday 21st, so we took her to the vet then. By that point her poops had mostly gotten better, so the vet gave us more recovery food and said to carry on feeding fibre and probiotics.
However, the day after(!) i noticed her poops were still soft. Her weight the sunday before last (24th) was up to 876g!
Since then she remained at about 860g. the poops however mostly continued to be softer than usual until last thursday (28th jan) where i was given the advice to give her less water and make the recovery food more solid and mix them with the probiotics. After doing this, her poops have gotten quite a bit better.
They are solid and fine, although some are still a bit smaller than they would usually be.
Today she weighed at 835g. is a little bit more lethargic but nothing worrying and there is nothing obviously wrong. Her poops have been fine today. I put her in a newspaper box to watch her, and she did about 9 normal poops in about 40 minutes. is this usual? should i be worried about the drop in weight today even though it’s only 30g?
Does anyone else have any other advice? I’m thinking maybe to try Fibreplex.
here’s a photo of her, she loves the camera!
Click to expand...

Hi

Please take the time to carefully read these links here. If your girl has a healthy companion, you can also try 'poo soup', i.e. live healthy guinea pig gut microbiome transfer in addition to the fibreplex. Ask your vet for gut stimulants to help with settling it down.
Tips For Post-operative Care
Probiotics, Recovery Foods And Vitamin C: Overview With Product Links (includes the poo soup 'recipe')
Not Eating, Weight Loss And The Importance Of Syringe Feeding Fibre

The normal poo output is not quite as regular as you seem to expect and it also reflects the reduced food/hay fibre intake of the last days; the poos are usually running 1-2 days behind the intake.

Ultimately it very much depends on what is causing the problem.

PS: Please accept that we are doing this for free in our own free time and that we may be busy with our own jobs, piggies or private life.
 
Wiebke said:
Hi

Please take the time to carefully read these links here. If your girl has a healthy companion, you can also try 'poo soup', i.e. live healthy guinea pig gut microbiome transfer in addition to the fibreplex. Ask your vet for gut stimulants to help with settling it down.
Tips For Post-operative Care
Probiotics, Recovery Foods And Vitamin C: Overview With Product Links (includes the poo soup 'recipe')
Not Eating, Weight Loss And The Importance Of Syringe Feeding Fibre

The normal poo output is not quite as regular as you seem to expect and it also reflects the reduced food/hay fibre intake of the last days; the poos are usually running 1-2 days behind the intake.

Ultimately it very much depends on what is causing the problem.

PS: Please accept that we are doing this for free in our own free time and that we may be busy with our own jobs, piggies or private life.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for the reply!
i honestly have no idea what could be causing the problem. is it possible that the bloat that caused her to stop eating has messed up her digestive system a bit? we think the bloat was caused by lettuce initially. she’s eating hay and probiotics with recovery food, but some of her poops are still mishapen and softer than usual. because of the amount of water in the probiotics (pro-c) could that be causing that? i love her so much and she is nearly 7 so any time she is poorly it’s so stressful :no:
i’ve ordered fibreplex so i’m hoping she’ll be okay soon. honestly i’m not sure what else the vet could do. last time we took her we were told to just carry on syringing the recovery food and probiotics and not give any veg
 
I forgot to mention a few things!
- she seems to itch and tug at her back a bit more than usual, although that may just be me being paranoid!
- does anyone have any experience with the oxbow digestive support tablets? i’d love to try them and see if they help
- what else can i do other than recovery food, probiotics and fibreplex? i’ve been weighing everyday and she has lost about 15g today but nothing too worrying.
 
How much are you getting into her topup wise?
 
Siikibam said:
How much are you getting into her topup wise?
Click to expand...
she gets about 40ml a day, although she is eating by herself. i did stop syringe food for a few days last week because it seemed to make her poos worse and she was holding her weight but i’ve started again.
 
Is she on just hay and pellets? Syringe feeding shouldn’t have an affect on her poo as gas as I’m aware.
 
Siikibam said:
Is she on just hay and pellets? Syringe feeding shouldn’t have an affect on her poo as gas as I’m aware.
Click to expand...
yes she is, and has been for the past month. i was thinking maybe the grains weren’t helping her? or she was getting too much water? because as soon as i stopped feeding as much her poos got a little better. but of course she needs the fibre so i’m still syringe feeding. some of her poops are fine and others are very soft like cow pads and mishapen. i’m hoping the fibreplex does something as the vet has said to just give probiotics and fibre
 
Hi again everyone!
I’ve been giving fibreplex for almost a week, 0.7ml three times a day as she weighs less than a kg. Her weight is fine (fluctuates from 840-865g) and she runs around fine during the day and dozes in the hay from about 10pm onwards, although this is normal for her.
Her poos were fine for a few days, but have now gotten a bit worse again. Some are soft, some are longer than usual and some are very small and teardrop shaped. Although the odd poo is normal.
She does sometimes look rather fluffed up, but only when eating next to her sister (which she’s always done) and sleeping. She is a little bit more fluffed than she usually would be though.
I’m giving Fibreplex, probiotics and only hay and grain-free pellets and filtered water. She’s been to the vet more than a few times who can never find anything specifically wrong and just says to keep giving probiotics and recovery food.
I do find when i take her off the recovery food her poos seem to get a little bit better, so i only give her the supreme science when her weight drops more than 40g.
I’m honestly at a loss as to what to do. They spend the day with me so it’s so distressing having her poorly constantly. She has previously had some issues with bladder sludge, could this potentially be related to the digestive issues? Her gut doesn’t sound as massively active as my other piggies, although my other pig is much larger than her and a year younger.
For context, this came on just over a month ago when she developed bloat and gut statis, which i treated by massaging her every half an hour or so and syringe feeding every hour. she had an injection from the vet and more massaging and after a few days she was fine. The poos have never really gotten any better though.
Does anyone know what i could possibly do to help her? or what could be going on? i’m trying everything i can :(
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I’m sorry I can’t help but wanted to offer support. Hopefully someone with more experience will be able to help you.
 
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