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Pointy poos

Aisling

Aisling

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Apr 28, 2023
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Location
ireland
Hello everyone,
I have recently noticed my girls has been producing pointy poos,
I also notice she has been eating more of her poos than normal.
Is this something to worry about?

Any advice or indication as to what this might be would be great,


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There might be a mild digestive upset.
I would recommend you remove veg for a few days and see if things settle. Often only feeding hay for a little while will often help settle an upset tummy and you can then start to reintroduce veg slowly a few days after poops normalise.
It’s a good idea to switch from the weekly weight checks and instead weigh daily during an episode like this just to ensure they are definitely eating enough hay.
If weight is being lost and/or poops don’t normalise, step in with syringe feeding and see a vet.
 
Piggies&buns said:
There might be a mild digestive upset.
I would recommend you remove veg for a few days and see if things settle. Often only feeding hay for a little while will often help settle an upset tummy and you can then start to reintroduce veg slowly a few days after poops normalise.
It’s a good idea to switch from the weekly weight checks and instead weigh daily during an episode like this just to ensure they are definitely eating enough hay.
If weight is being lost and/or poops don’t normalise, step in with syringe feeding and see a vet.
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Ok I'll try that.

Thanks,
 
Some of her poos are very small.
Is this normal with this kind of thing?
 
Aisling said:
Some of her poos are very small.
Is this normal with this kind of thing?
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Smaller poops can indicate that she is not eating enough hay. As poop output is 1-2 days behind food intake it can be that she dropped her hay intake 1-2 days ago. This is where the daily weight checks are important to monitor hay intake in real time to enable you to step in with sufficient syringe feeding if necessary
 
How long should this go on for before I start syringe feeding?
 
It depends what the daily weight checks are telling you.
Have you weighed her today?
When did you last weigh her before today?

If she has lost 50g or more then she needs to be syringe fed.
100g weight loss within 1-2 days requires an emergency vet visit.
Weight Monitoring and Management
 
I last weighed her around a week ago and I weighed her again today. She was around 850g which is slightly up from her last weight check.
 
A bit of a silly question,
but is it ok to give her forage and timothy hay or would she be better with just plain meadow hay?
 
Aisling said:
A bit of a silly question,
but is it ok to give her forage and timothy hay or would she be better with just plain meadow hay?
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Not a silly question.
Any type of grass hay is absolutely fine. I feed a mixture of meadow and Timothy hay. (I use forage instead of pellets)
 
She is down about 15g from yesterday,
she's not pooing as much
and her poos are still pointed but the few poos she has done are longer than they were yesterday.
 
Her weight is gone back up but she's hardly pooing at all.
Do I need to worry about her not pooing?
 
Ok I'll bring her as soon as possible.
Thank you for all your help,
 
While poop output is 1-2 days behind food intake, the weight reduction you reported on that day of 15g should not be enough to stop poop being produced. That amount is nothing more than a minor fluctuation. Weight loss is only considered weight loss at 50g. An emergency situation is 100g weight loss in 24 hours.
There may be something else going on and a vet check would be a good idea.

I hope she is ok
 
She seems to be pooing more today.
I'm going to see how she's doing in a day or 2 and if there's no improvement I'll see a vet.
 
She's pooing more now and her poos are all around the same size,
but her poo is still as pointed as it was when I started the thread.
How long would this type of thing usually take to clear up?
 
Aisling said:
She's pooing more now and her poos are all around the same size,
but her poo is still as pointed as it was when I started the thread.
How long would this type of thing usually take to clear up?
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A mild digestive upset usually resolves with 24-48 hours off vegetables. You should have your piggy seen by a vet to check for any concern given it has been going on for almost a week
 
Piggies&buns said:
A mild digestive upset usually resolves with 24-48 hours off vegetables. You should have your piggy seen by a vet to check for any concern given it has been going on for almost a week
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I don't think it's an issue with her specifically because I have recently started to think my other girl has the same issue.
I will try to get a vet appointment as soon as I can though.

Thank you so much for all of your help,
 
I brought them to the vet yesterday.
The vet gave them a health check and said as long as their poos were formed and their weight wasn't going down they should be fine.
Should I start to reintroduce veg to their diet now or should I wait a bit?
 
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