Giving probiotics is absolutely fine, it isn’t the same as giving ‘home treatment’.
Fibreplex is a commonly used probiotic.
Fibreplex is a commonly used probiotic.
-
Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement
Still soft poops after 5-6 days of no veg.
- Thread starter KHBz
- Start date
They all had time out separately lolWe're all obsessed! How do you know so exactly whose poops were whose, though ... Did you sit waiting and watching ...
I second probiotics, fibreplex or 'poo soup' to help restore the gut microbiome. That is not home treatment but comes under support treatment in conjunction with any necessary medical treatment and a vet trip.
DIY home treatment happens in lieu of any veterinary treatment - there is a clear difference between the two.
If things don't rebalance with the help of probiotics or live healthy microbiome transfer, then please speak to your vet again, as we recommended with any persistent mild digestive issues. Since probiotics and recovery formulas are not classed as medication, they are often not prescribed by vets altough some will do so. They are however a crucial tool in supportive home care to ensure your piggy stays alive until medical treatment can kick in and that a recovery is as good and quick as possible and your piggy in the best shape during medical treatment that it can be.
Here are links to our first aid guide and our support care products guide, which you may find useful:
First Aid Kit: Easily available non-medication support products for an emergency
Probiotics, Recovery Foods And Vitamin C: Overview With Product Links
Digestive Disorders: Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement) And Not Eating
PS: You want to bookmark this link here so you don't have to scramble for information in an emergency because it is all in one place: Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
All the best!
DIY home treatment happens in lieu of any veterinary treatment - there is a clear difference between the two.
If things don't rebalance with the help of probiotics or live healthy microbiome transfer, then please speak to your vet again, as we recommended with any persistent mild digestive issues. Since probiotics and recovery formulas are not classed as medication, they are often not prescribed by vets altough some will do so. They are however a crucial tool in supportive home care to ensure your piggy stays alive until medical treatment can kick in and that a recovery is as good and quick as possible and your piggy in the best shape during medical treatment that it can be.
Here are links to our first aid guide and our support care products guide, which you may find useful:
First Aid Kit: Easily available non-medication support products for an emergency
Probiotics, Recovery Foods And Vitamin C: Overview With Product Links
Digestive Disorders: Diarrhea - Bloat - GI Stasis (No Gut Movement) And Not Eating
PS: You want to bookmark this link here so you don't have to scramble for information in an emergency because it is all in one place: Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
All the best!
Thank you very much for that and for the link.
Thank you very much for all this information. I'll go through the links. That's very helpful.
chezzab0
New Born Pup
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2018
- Messages
- 41
- Reaction score
- 49
- Points
- 175
Probiotic is great for helping with soft poops and I give mine so crisis support mix it up in a glass pop in syringe and feed it’s great for the rabbits with soft poop to One of mine sufffers after her heat day normally has a gassy belly and soft poop so I’ve learned that with holding Vega sometimes not enough
chezzab0
New Born Pup
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2018
- Messages
- 41
- Reaction score
- 49
- Points
- 175
If you ha e a vet they will possibly let you buy some crisis support from them to save waiting
Here are a few of the squishy, stalked, long stools (although not as long and as squishy as those that prompted the second vet visit) next to a couple of Bianca's small, hard ones. I think I'll keep it as a thumbnail image! Thank you again for all your help.
Attachments
Were they freshly produced because new one are usually squishy. If they had only just been produced, then they don’t look too bad really
I don't know how fresh they are (probably not very). I'm really relieved if they're ok, despite length and stalk. I was just about to buy some Fibreplex online, but perhaps it's not necessary?
Personally I would still try the fibreplex and see whether that helps to normalise the situation especially as it is an ongoing issue. The poos are not so bad that you need to worry but they are still not quite fully right, either, if you see what I mean.
I'll go ahead and order it, then. That's so good that they're not too bad but, yes, this has been going on so long and she needs to get back to how she was and have some vegetables again. They have had a single stalk of coriander each today and yesterday, so can I continue doing that for a while (before attempting to add in anything else), even before the fibreplex?
I would continue but you can see how a whole stalk of coriander is going down.
The poos still look like there is a bit of a tummy upset going on. You are mostly there but not quite yet. It is frustrating when you are so close but rushing in now can cause the next upset...
I hope the Fibreplex can make it all settle down. I will be going very, very, very slowly with re-introducing veg. As for grass ... not this year. Thank you again for all your help.I would continue but you can see how a whole stalk of coriander is going down.
The poos still look like there is a bit of a tummy upset going on. You are mostly there but not quite yet. It is frustrating when you are so close but rushing in now can cause the next upset...
I have posted a few times (sorry!) about an ongoing situation with slightly upset tummies ... Fibreplex was advised. Things seemed better, so I held off, but with a worsening of the poops again, it is time to give it. I started yesterday. Ophelia loves it: she will lick blobs off our fingers and off nuggets, then wants more. Bianca also licked it from our fingers. Once. Now, at any hint of Fibreplex, any whiff, glimpse or just plain suspicious behaviour on our part, and she immediately makes off in the opposite direction. A couple of times we have managed to get it into her mouth with the syringe ... and she has promptly spat it out again. We just cannot get any down her! What can I do -- other than give up?!
Siikibam
Forum Donator 2022/23
Please can you ask for this to be moved to your previous thread. It’s difficult if we have to look for history and also makes it difficult not seeing the background when advising.
I think you’ll just have to persevere and also look at your technique perhaps. I don’t know really. Or an alternative to fibreplex...
I think you’ll just have to persevere and also look at your technique perhaps. I don’t know really. Or an alternative to fibreplex...
Press ‘report’ and ask in the text box that comes up
Claire W
Forum Donator 2024/25
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2008
- Messages
- 37,176
- Reaction score
- 29,843
- Points
- 2,915
I probably don't put the syringe in far enough but with metacam they would lap it up from the same point in their mouth. I don't want to distress her further so I think I leave off trying. Now when she sees me offer any single, innocent nugget (free from Fibreplex), she will run off and then sit at some safe distance, staring (glaring?!) at me. It was Ophelia with the long-term problem, but this time, I think it is Bianca who has the problem.
I had been reintroducing minimal veg. I gave them just a single stalk of coriander, and then 2 stalks, over a period of weeks, before adding a truly minute amount of red pepper. After about 4 days, I increased that by a tiny amount -- then dodgy poops. Bianca can't tolerate 'wet' vegetables, I think. They have been off veg for about 4 days now.
Hi!
I am very sorry about the ongoing issues. Try mixing the fibreplex into mushed up pellets (pellets soaked in hot water and then stirred into a slushy paste) and monitor the daily food intake by weighing daily at the same time in the feeding process, so you know how much to top up feed. You can trial a mix of recovery feed, mushed pellets and fibreplex and serve it in a bowl - the scales will tell you whether that is enough or whether you need to syringe feed.
Syringe feeding and medicating unwilling piggies is never a pleasant job; especially when it is your first time and you don't have the practice and confidencence yet, which your piggies inevitably pick up on. You have to push through that but you can use our piggy whispering tips to assert yourself more. That usually does help somewhat.
Understanding Prey Animal Instincts, Guinea Pig Whispering And Cuddling Tips
If problems with a new persist for more than a couple of days, you need to see a vet. It is likely that she has caught it from her companion.
Has your vet checked for a thickened, doughy lower bowel and potential short bloating/cramping issues or considered a lab test since the issue is persisting?
Thank you very much for this.
We have just offered them a bowl each of mushed pellets (8-10) with around 1ml of Fibreplex thoroughly mixed in (Bianca weighs around 1080g and Ophelia 900g). Bianca wouldn't touch it. She has decided she doesn't like it and she's not going to have it. My younger daughter has been piggy whispering since the beginning and she and Bianca have a relationship of mutual adoration, with Bianca being quite compliant with her (that little piggy doesn't think much of the rest of us!) However, I am too worried about making her gag to put the syringe further into her mouth whilst my daughter is holding her. (It doesn't help that I've never seen anyone do this, and I am probably more cautious than I was with my daughters when they were younger.) At this point, with Bianca so wary and so set against the Fibreplex, I don't think we're going to get anywhere.
I took them to the vets (with stool samples) soon after all this began and they were given a thorough examination. (This is from what the vet said -- we couldn't be in there with them.) They were pronounced very healthy and I was told to keep them off veg for the summer and thereafter to give it only occasionally. Many weeks later, when their stools were still not right even though they were off all veg, I took some samples back to be looked at. This is when I posted again as the vet said that the stools were totally normal, showed that the piggies were well hydrated, and didn't need to be sent to the lab. From the photo I uploaded here, you all agreed that it showed a mild tummy upset and advised Fibreplex. So, this vet doesn't think there is anything wrong. But Bianca's stools have a distinct stalk and are truncated at the other end. Before the red pepper, both piggies' poops had finally become exemplary.
Is there an alternative to Fibreplex that I could try?
This guide details the others you could try
Probiotics, Recovery Foods And Vitamin C: Overview With Product Links
You can try normal probiotic powder. They are pretty much all the same so it doesn't matter where you get them from. some piggies like it via syringe or in their water bottle (I would however test before whether she actually likes it) as the water goes off rather quickly. It can also go into their syringe feed. There is no risk of you overdosing by the way.
Please watch this video as to how deep you need to stick a syringe in via the gap between the front and back teeth. There is no danger of gagging if you push very slowly and not push out more than half a syringe (0.5 ml), which is about what a piggy can hold safely in their mouth. You can stick a 1 ml syringe safely into the mouth to the 0.2 ml mark.
With very ill and weak piggies that struggle with swallowing you want to give less at any time but that is not the case here; bute the syringe still needs to go far in enough that the medication/feed cannot be spat out. Please also note that rodents don't vomit and don't have a gagging reflex, unlike us humans.
PS: If your daughter is less squeamish, would she be able to feed and medicate rather than you, with you holding her.
Here is the link: Syringe Training Before The Need For Medicating
Would your vet consider panacur as this a long term issue by now that is affecting both your sows in case it is some sort of bug?
You can try normal probiotic powder. They are pretty much all the same so it doesn't matter where you get them from. some piggies like it via syringe or in their water bottle (I would however test before whether she actually likes it) as the water goes off rather quickly. It can also go into their syringe feed. There is no risk of you overdosing by the way.
Please watch this video as to how deep you need to stick a syringe in via the gap between the front and back teeth. There is no danger of gagging if you push very slowly and not push out more than half a syringe (0.5 ml), which is about what a piggy can hold safely in their mouth. You can stick a 1 ml syringe safely into the mouth to the 0.2 ml mark.
With very ill and weak piggies that struggle with swallowing you want to give less at any time but that is not the case here; bute the syringe still needs to go far in enough that the medication/feed cannot be spat out. Please also note that rodents don't vomit and don't have a gagging reflex, unlike us humans.
PS: If your daughter is less squeamish, would she be able to feed and medicate rather than you, with you holding her.
Here is the link: Syringe Training Before The Need For Medicating
Would your vet consider panacur as this a long term issue by now that is affecting both your sows in case it is some sort of bug?
Thank you again for another detailed reply. I will look at the link re probiotics that Piggies&buns has sent. Thank you too for the link to syringe feeding and your precise instructions above. That's really helpful and we will try again. It is not that I am squeamish -- just worried about hurting Bianca -- but my daughter and I could try swapping around, as you suggest. I didn't know that they don't have a gagging reflex -- that was an automatic assumption on my part!
I don't think my vet would be too impressed with me coming back yet again regarding stools that she has pronounced as fine. I think I will see how it goes with renewed attempts at syringe-feeding Fibreplex/another probiotic and then consider taking them to an exotics specialist. (I haven't done so before because of the logistics of getting there, whilst this vet is nearby.)
Very many thanks again. I'm so glad that you have that video. I thought, as soon as I had posted my earlier message, that there probably was one on here somewhere ....
Just to add -- I had been trying to use the thick-ended syringe that the Fibreplex comes in (the tip must be rabbit-sized), which is why I haven't wanted to put it far into her mouth at all. I'll decant the correct amount into the one we used to administer Metcam. We'll probably manage it now. Thank you!
Just a question: I now have a big variety of dried forage foods to give them since fresh veg is, at best, sporadic. Even though these are all dried, and I am only giving small amounts of any one thing, can they also nevertheless provoke tummy upsets? It does say on the Piggie Parcels leaflet that the (dried) food should be introduced to the pet's diet slowly. I just don't understand the mechanics behind all of this.
Following on from the photo I posted yesterday, and having read what I could find both here and elsewhere on the web, could these smallish tailed poops indicate that she’s dehydrated? She drinks very little. She used to get the fluid from veg and her drinking initially increased when we stopped the fresh veg. - but v little fluid intake now.
if you know she now isn’t getting much water, then potentially yes. I’d speak to the vet.
Could you try putting in bowls of water instead of bottles and see if that helps? (They are all different - My piggies won’t drink from bowls, but one of my rabbits won’t drink from a bottle!)