GirlFromMars
New Born Pup
One of my boys has been having poo-related issues for several weeks now and I'm at a bit of a loss what to do!
Just before Christmas, we noticed a couple of soft poos in the cage, so we eased off on the veggies and hoped it was just a one-off until on the Sunday night, I went to top up their hay and pellets to find several spots of full-on liquid faeces. I separated the one responsible in case it was anything contagious and syringe fed mashed up pellets and water until we could get him to a vet the next day.
He has seen two different vets at our normal practice who both gave us Supreme Recovery Plus to syringe feed and recommended supplementing vitamin C and probiotics. He's having at least a full sachet of recovery food a day and we've also tried both Pro-C and Protexin probiotic. His poos are ranging from cow pats to clumpy to big blobs to soft but formed to small and skinny to almost normal, but haven't been liquid again since that first time. In fact, on Saturday, I had him in a seperate cage for a few hours and his poos were practically perfect and he was steadily putting on weight and I got my hopes up that he was almost better but he went back to sloppy poos on Sunday and his weight dropped again.
On Wednesday, we took him to Holly House vets in Leeds on referral from our vet. She checked him over and couldn't find any obvious signs of anything wrong. She doesn't think it's dental because he can move his tongue freely and is eating fine, she couldn't feel any lumps or bumps, his heart sounded fine and he's not bloated. She didn't want to give him any antibiotics or anti-inflammatories in case they made his gut worse and didn't think he needed any gut stimulants as he had no problems pooing (he did one right on the table). She suspects it may be a metabolic issue but says we can't find out any more without blood tests which he'll need putting to sleep for. I was pretty wary of doing this so she sent us home with a high calorie supplement to add to his syringe feed to try and bulk him up but so far he's still not gaining weight and if anything, his poos are getting sloppier again.
I've ordered some fibreplex to try but it feels as if we're just guessing at things now and I'm really not sure what to do. It'll cost over £200 for blood tests (which I'm okay with) but given he's around six years old (he's a rescue so we're not 100% on the age) and he's now quite skinny (averaging around 820-830g), I'm not sure it's the right thing to do. I'd feel terrible if anything went wrong, especially considering we're not guaranteed to find anything out and, even if we do, it might not be anything we can do much about...
He seems okay in himself, he has his quieter moments but he's still running around and wheeking and jumping on his house. I just don't know what to do for the best - it's so frustrating when he starts doing really well and then goes backwards again!
the fibreplex and poop soup will go some way to improvement in his condition.
