Hello, everyone! I am new to this forum, and this is my first post here. I am currently residing in Hong Kong, China, with seven guinea pigs. One of them, Gogo, a 2-and-a-half-year-old female, has been experiencing bloat and intermittent soft poop for the past three months. This condition arose after she took Bactrim (we also provided her with probiotics after the antibiotic ) due to a URI, leading to diarrhea (mushy poop but not watery). It took her almost a month to return to normal.
Probiotics like Fibreplex and Bio Lapis don't seem to help much. However, one thing we found effective is using poop from another healthy guinea pig to create a "poop soup" for her every day.
She is now in a cycle of having normal and healthy poop for 1-2 weeks, followed by sudden episodes of soft poop and bloat lasting around 1-3 days. Her weight fluctuates between 950g and 1040g. She was prescribed metoclopramide and meloxicam during her flare-ups. Bloat and soft poop can be triggered by switching hay brands (the original brand became suddenly out of stock, and after switching, she started having soft poop after 3 days), giving her a very small piece of strawberry (which she loved and had no negative reaction to before), and discontinuing her metoclopramide (her poop was perfect at that time, but once we stopped, soft poop returned after a week).
The vet mentioned that it's unusual for gut disorders to be so reflective and does not recommend long-term use of metoclopramide for Gogo. After reading several posts here, I suspect Gogo may have developed IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) after diarrhea caused by antibiotics.
What can I do to help stabilize her gut? It's disheartening to see her feeling unwell.
Probiotics like Fibreplex and Bio Lapis don't seem to help much. However, one thing we found effective is using poop from another healthy guinea pig to create a "poop soup" for her every day.
She is now in a cycle of having normal and healthy poop for 1-2 weeks, followed by sudden episodes of soft poop and bloat lasting around 1-3 days. Her weight fluctuates between 950g and 1040g. She was prescribed metoclopramide and meloxicam during her flare-ups. Bloat and soft poop can be triggered by switching hay brands (the original brand became suddenly out of stock, and after switching, she started having soft poop after 3 days), giving her a very small piece of strawberry (which she loved and had no negative reaction to before), and discontinuing her metoclopramide (her poop was perfect at that time, but once we stopped, soft poop returned after a week).
The vet mentioned that it's unusual for gut disorders to be so reflective and does not recommend long-term use of metoclopramide for Gogo. After reading several posts here, I suspect Gogo may have developed IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) after diarrhea caused by antibiotics.
What can I do to help stabilize her gut? It's disheartening to see her feeling unwell.
