Advice for pig gaining weight with gut stasis

[BlueChromis]

Hello, we have a guinea pig named Pepper who's been having some medical issues lately. She was on antibiotics, TMS, cosequin/glucosamine, for 2 weeks because of blood in her pee. When it didn't go away, the vets switched her antibiotics to baytril and metronidazole, and after a couple days of that, her rates of eating, drinking, pooping, and peeing all plummetted. She's at the vet ER right now getting some diagnostics done and more medications (she was on metacam but getting more pain killers), but I wanted to ask advice on care for this kind of gut stasis. (Oh also they took her off baytril and she's back on TMS).

When her stasis started kicking in, she started gaining weight instead of losing it. She's up ~50-60g from her pre illness average. The most alarming symptom she had, and why she's at the vet now, were because she stopped pooping. What are the guidelines for taking care of this kind of stasis? We were feeding her some amount of critical care, but weren't sure how much for a pig that's partially eating, gaining weight, and not pooping. We also gave her 4 massage sessions yesterday (2 30 min vibrating pad sessions, 2 30 min car trips to and back from the vet). She was/is on meloxicam, but we're requesting more painkillers from the vet. We're also making sure she gets about 75mg of vitamin C daily and pulled her fresh veggies.

 

[Wiebke]

Hello, we have a guinea pig named Pepper who's been having some medical issues lately. She was on antibiotics, TMS, cosequin/glucosamine, for 2 weeks because of blood in her pee. When it didn't go away, the vets switched her antibiotics to baytril and metronidazole, and after a couple days of that, her rates of eating, drinking, pooping, and peeing all plummetted. She's at the vet ER right now getting some diagnostics done and more medications (she was on metacam but getting more pain killers), but I wanted to ask advice on care for this kind of gut stasis. (Oh also they took her off baytril and she's back on TMS).

When her stasis started kicking in, she started gaining weight instead of losing it. She's up ~50-60g from her pre illness average. The most alarming symptom she had, and why she's at the vet now, were because she stopped pooping. What are the guidelines for taking care of this kind of stasis? We were feeding her some amount of critical care, but weren't sure how much for a pig that's partially eating, gaining weight, and not pooping. We also gave her 4 massage sessions yesterday (2 30 min vibrating pad sessions, 2 30 min car trips to and back from the vet). She was/is on meloxicam, but we're requesting more painkillers from the vet. We're also making sure she gets about 75mg of vitamin C daily and pulled her fresh veggies.

Hi and welcome

You may find the links below helpful in understanding what could be going on. 'GI stasis' is now used for any kind of upset in the digestive system, whether that describes the gut going into overdrive (bloat) or stopping altogether (full stasis) or any shade in between, with only parts of the gut stopping to work or gassing up.
Treatment is the same for all since effective gut medication for guinea pigs is very limited (oral steroids are fatal for rodents).

Stepping in with syringe feeding and water support is crucial, so you are doing the right thing.

The weight gain points at either some massive gassing up or a build up of fluid in the body cavity, which can also look like bloating. The latter is much rarer and generally caused by the heart struggling, either because it is failing or because an internal mass is pushing on it and the gut (secondary bloating).

The lack of poos reflect what has happened a day or two before, so if you are dealing with a stasis event where the gut stops working altogether, then the internal conveyor belt will stop moving and stop processing food. You still need to keep on feeding. In the case of bloating or secondary bloating (i.e the source lies outside of the gut), it signifies a period where your piggy suddenly stopped eating for a while before you stepped in with feeding support.

Without access to your piggy (not that we can replace any veterinary examinations and diagnoses) this is about as far as I can take it but it will hopefully represent about the breadth of possibilities you are faced with, going by the symptoms and by our collective owner experience on here.

Please take the time to read the information in these links here. You may find it helpful:
- Wiebke's Guide to Poops
- Wiebke's Guide to Tummy Trouble

- Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support Levels
- All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures

Unfortunately, with a serious event like yours, you are very much up against it. Keep on doing what you are doing and ride the tiger wherever it takes you. Successful medical options are unfortunately still very limited in this area, whatever you are dealing with.

I am keeping my fingers very firmly crossed.

 

[BlueChromis]

Hello,

Thank you for the welcome! Sorry I didn't join to post about something happy first.

Thank you for sharing the info! Your guides are extremely helpful and we had been referencing them already. I mainly asked cause there was less info on the unexpected weight gain.

I have some good news and some very bad news.

For the good news, Pepper is pooping again! I'm not sure what combination of the stopping baytril, starting critical care, the vets giving a lot of the subcutaneous water (apologies if my terminology is wrong), and starting heavier painkillers did it. Your advice helped confirm the necessity to mainly continue the critical care, but also the requesting more painkillers. I suspect the painkillers were essential, as she was complaining about her belly massages and the pooping started at the vet shortly after receiving strong pain killers. For if it's useful to reference for other stasis cases, when she wasn't pooping, the vets noted that her digestive track didn't seem gassy and her cecum was the most stuffed part, as oppose to a blockage farther down the track. They also noted that there had been less noise than there should've been.

For the really bad news, she was at the vet to also get a CT scan to investigate some swolen lymph nodes, and the pre-CT scan blood test revealed that her white blood cell count was so high it's pretty much certain that she has cancer. Based on the pathology review they believe it's leukemia. We called off the CT scan and are now providing care just to help her be comfortable as long as we can before we decide it's time to say goodbye. She's still fairly energetic right now and still fairly interested in food, so we're trying our best to spoil her. She's unfortunately on a lot of medication and still receiving critical care are the main hits to her quality of life right now (assuming the pain killers are doing their job). We elected against chemo because it seemed like a lot of discomfort for very little gain, but she does start steroids tomorrow morning to hopefully keep her more comfortable.

(I know/had read that steroids aren't recommended for guinea pigs and I did ask the vet about that, but it seems this is one of very few scenarios where it might be worth risking the potential side effects. Fingers crossed she gets the increased appetite side effect, because she's always loved eating everything).

 

[Wiebke]

Hello,

Thank you for the welcome! Sorry I didn't join to post about something happy first.

Thank you for sharing the info! Your guides are extremely helpful and we had been referencing them already. I mainly asked cause there was less info on the unexpected weight gain.

I have some good news and some very bad news.

For the good news, Pepper is pooping again! I'm not sure what combination of the stopping baytril, starting critical care, the vets giving a lot of the subcutaneous water (apologies if my terminology is wrong), and starting heavier painkillers did it. Your advice helped confirm the necessity to mainly continue the critical care, but also the requesting more painkillers. I suspect the painkillers were essential, as she was complaining about her belly massages and the pooping started at the vet shortly after receiving strong pain killers. For if it's useful to reference for other stasis cases, when she wasn't pooping, the vets noted that her digestive track didn't seem gassy and her cecum was the most stuffed part, as oppose to a blockage farther down the track. They also noted that there had been less noise than there should've been.

For the really bad news, she was at the vet to also get a CT scan to investigate some swolen lymph nodes, and the pre-CT scan blood test revealed that her white blood cell count was so high it's pretty much certain that she has cancer. Based on the pathology review they believe it's leukemia. We called off the CT scan and are now providing care just to help her be comfortable as long as we can before we decide it's time to say goodbye. She's still fairly energetic right now and still fairly interested in food, so we're trying our best to spoil her. She's unfortunately on a lot of medication and still receiving critical care are the main hits to her quality of life right now (assuming the pain killers are doing their job). We elected against chemo because it seemed like a lot of discomfort for very little gain, but she does start steroids tomorrow morning to hopefully keep her more comfortable.

(I know/had read that steroids aren't recommended for guinea pigs and I did ask the vet about that, but it seems this is one of very few scenarios where it might be worth risking the potential side effects. Fingers crossed she gets the increased appetite side effect, because she's always loved eating everything).

BIG HUGS

Cancer would also explain her other health struggles because it weakens/undermines the whole body. But it is great to see poos again and know that the inner conveyor belt is up and running.

Steroids for rodents can be used as end of life treatment for cancer in guinea pigs. I know that it can in some not too aggressive and advanced lymphoma cases prolong the lifetime by several weeks or even months. We have seen several cases of that on here. However, steroids should be used judiciously and only in certain ways. Not as a pick me up by an emergency vet, which is what our warning is about.
Chemotherapy for guinea pigs doesn't seem to work much yet to my knowledge.

@Piggies&buns

 

[weepweeps]

Oh no I’m so sorry you’ve had this diagnosis. I hope she has many more happy days with you. Sending healing vibes and hugs to you.