Persistent soft poops and running out of ideas

[morumotto]

Hey everyone! I've been dealing with a frustrating bout of soft poops with both of my guinea pigs (Lu, 3yo boy and Oreo, 5yo girl). It started up last Tuesday (so almost a week ago) with my girl, Oreo. She's prone to having some poor poops every now and then and has seen the vet multiple times for it, so at first I just waited to see if it would improve again as it usually does. Over the next two days it got worse, and by then Lu was also having soft poops. I made the decision on Thursday to cut out veggies completely until the poops improved. At this point they were only getting timothy hay, very small amount of pellets, and some Critical Care to supplement and some probiotic.

Since taking them off veggies I did see the poops start to improve, but they were not perfect. Around Monday they were doing pretty good and I felt confident I could put them back on veggies the next day, but then Tuesday comes and the poops got noticeably worse again. This morning I checked on them and both guinea pigs poops were almost as bad as what they started out with.

I'm really unsure of what to do at this point. I'm worried that they've gone too long without veggies at this point. I'm thinking a vet visit is in order, but I've taken Oreo to the vet twice in the past two months for soft poops and both times they did fecal tests and physical examinations and came up with nothing. They're already taking probiotics, and I can't do poop soup since they're both doing poorly. I've seen activated charcoal as a possible option, but I'm hesitant to try that since Oreo is on medication (did try to call and email my vet about this and struggling to get a response from them). I've also considered that maybe the Critical Care could be preventing the poops from being totally normal again, but I feed CC like little biscuits, not syringed / watery at all. I've also considered gas / bloating as possibility, but their tummies seem final when I examine them, no tight balloon-like feeling.

Are there any thoughts about how I should proceed?

 

[Piggies&buns]

You’ve done right by taking them off veg.
For a mild digestive upset a few days without veg is usually sufficient to cure the issue. If ir doesn’t then definitely see a vet.
They are absolutely fine not having the veg though so don’t worry about that.

Have you switched to daily weight checks? If not, then definitely do so

 

[morumotto]

You’ve done right by taking them off veg.
For a mild digestive upset a few days without veg is usually sufficient to cure the issue. If ir doesn’t then definitely see a vet.
They are absolutely fine not having the veg though so don’t worry about that.

Have you switched to daily weight checks? If not, then definitely do so

That's a relief to hear about the veggies. I was worried that keeping them off veggies for so long was doing more harm than good at this point.

I have not done daily weight checks. I did weigh them on Monday, which is about the halfway point in this timeline. Oreo was at about the same weight from the week before. Lu had dropped 30g, but the week before he was up 20g, so I just attributed it to normal weight fluctuations. By all accounts they both seem totally healthy otherwise. Lu in particular is still very bouncy and chatty. I see them both eating hay quite often. Only thing I've noticed is that Oreo has drunk a lot of water, but I assumed that was because she was losing some fluids from the soft poops.