Reintroducing veggies after tummy problems

[kuka90]

Hello All,

I have two rescue guinea pigs, Olive and Piglet. They're both coming up for 6 years old, so they're older ladies. They've had no health issues whatsoever so far, which I know is incredibly lucky, up until now
On Thursday Olive started getting tummy issues. We noticed she was behaving a bit less enthusiastically overall, and started pooping soft, wet stools.
After reading all the information on here, we cut off her veggies completely and started her off on Fibreplex - it made a massive difference very quickly which is great, and after initial weight loss of 30g, she now started putting it back on again slowly.
Her poops are starting to shape up nicely, but still a random softer stool will appear, but she's clearly improving and back to her lively self.
There are a few questions I have:

1. When can I start introducing veggies slowly? She's eager to have some, hard to keep her away when Piglet gets her portion
Also I'm worried about her wit C intake
2. How long can/shall I keep her on Fibreplex? So far she has one dose Thursday evening, 3 doses on Friday and Saturday, and two on Sunday
3. She seems to have stopped eating her nuggets. She eats a ton of hay and always has (luckily), and doesn't struggle chewing which I know is a sign of dental issue. I had a look inside her mouth and teeth look ok. Shall I be worried about this?

Thank you all in advance for your words of advice

 

[Piggies&buns]

Once her poops have normalised you can slowly reintroduce veg. Start with a sprig of a herb first as they tend to be milder on the tummy. See how she goes with that and then slowly add in another couple of sprigs and so on.

Don’t worry about vit c - few days without veg wont do any harm. There is some vit c in hay also.

Nuggets are the one thing they can do without. As long as her weight is stable on a good hay intake then it’s fine. My boys only get nuggets a few times a week, some piggies aren’t given any.

 

[Wiebke]

Hello All,

I have two rescue guinea pigs, Olive and Piglet. They're both coming up for 6 years old, so they're older ladies. They've had no health issues whatsoever so far, which I know is incredibly lucky, up until now
On Thursday Olive started getting tummy issues. We noticed she was behaving a bit less enthusiastically overall, and started pooping soft, wet stools.
After reading all the information on here, we cut off her veggies completely and started her off on Fibreplex - it made a massive difference very quickly which is great, and after initial weight loss of 30g, she now started putting it back on again slowly.
Her poops are starting to shape up nicely, but still a random softer stool will appear, but she's clearly improving and back to her lively self.
There are a few questions I have:

1. When can I start introducing veggies slowly? She's eager to have some, hard to keep her away when Piglet gets her portion
Also I'm worried about her wit C intake
2. How long can/shall I keep her on Fibreplex? So far she has one dose Thursday evening, 3 doses on Friday and Saturday, and two on Sunday
3. She seems to have stopped eating her nuggets. She eats a ton of hay and always has (luckily), and doesn't struggle chewing which I know is a sign of dental issue. I had a look inside her mouth and teeth look ok. Shall I be worried about this?

Thank you all in advance for your words of advice

Hi

Start with a little fresh herb - lots of goodness in a very small package and usually accepted very well by recovering piggies. Then start adding one more veg in a smaller quantity with each meal for about the next two days. Stop immediately if the tummy is playing up again.

Herbs are a good way of re-starting fresh food because there is vitamin C and other trace elements in them in a higher concentration but you need not worry about a gap of a few days. As long as your piggy is eating plenty of hay, they are fine; the silica in hay and fresh grass is actually what grinds down the all-important back teeth.
Please don't overdo the pellets; they are taking away from the hay intake. Guinea pigs have switched off their vitamin C producing gene because their main food source, fresh grass, is very high in it. Hay is a lot lower but it still contains a little that in quantity and in combination with some pellets and fresh veg is adding up. None of our long term forum owner's piggies have ever needed to be seen or treated for scurvy; the only cases we occasionally deal with are generally from owners who oversupply vitamin C on a long term basis and where the body has accustomed to those much higher levels and will react with scurvy symptoms if it does drop for some reason.

Pellets and fresh veg together only fill the supplementary role of wild forage and should not make more than 20-25% of the daily food intake.

 

[kuka90]

Hello there,

Thank you for your advice.

Olive is now slowly getting used to her veg, a bit of parsley, celery and cucumber added very carefully and in small amounts. Her droppings are nice and healthy and her weight is going up. Of course will keep monitoring her

Needless to say, she was over the moon with her first portion of fresh parsley, and begged for more! But will stick to once a day small portions as advised.

I'm very happy to see her improving so well