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Advice Needed! Piggy Doing Excessive Amount Of Poos.

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Stewybus

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Minky has been suffering from numerous illness & tonight she just started pooing excessively. It started after 6pm when she was pushing them out almost continually & crying a little too. She seemed to have settled settle down by 9pm but I've just checked her again at 10pm & laid her on her back and massaged her tummy & she did over 50 normal size poos in less than 15 minutes & done a lot more since I've turned my laptop on to type this thread. I've just given her 1ml of baby gripe water because I used this before when she had tummy problems.

Can anyone offer any advice. She eating ravenously lots of hay.Her head tilt has got a lot worse in last couple of days & went back to the vets for her fortnightly check-up. She's had a steroid & B12 injection, could any of these be responsible?
 
I can't think of any reason why either of these injections would be responsible but other than that I can't offer much help. She's obviously uncomfortable but I am pretty sure she is already on pain relief?

I don't know what else to suggest although the fact hay is going in and poo is coming out, all be it rapidly is a sign things are clear and moving....
 
Because of her loss of weight & because it's been very mild round here & the grass is still growing I've' been giving her fresh grass but no more that usual & it's never affected her before so I'm hesitant to think it is the grass. She been steadily gaining weight since her low of 1089 grams on December 7th to today's weight of 1234 grams. That 145 grams (approx. 5 ounces). She's also eating her veggies, mainly lettuce, cucumber, melon & a little tomato. It's hay she's eating mostly though she has the short Oxbow as well as the long hay we buy in a bale from a local farm. She's been eating constantly for over 30 minutes now & the poos have eased off but what goes in one end has to come out the other.

Nearly forgot to mention, because of her pain earlier I gave her 0.3ml of Baytril (for dogs). That's the dose her vet has prescribed to be taken twice a day as necessary. I'll phone the vet first thing in the morning to see if I'm doing everything that should be done.
 
I found that when Esme was poorly, when I was syringe feeding her and getting her back to eating properly, she would go through phases of pooing like a machine gun, and she would be uncomfortable but would then be okay.
I have been doing a little bit of reading, guinealynx says that vitB12 injections can be used to replace the nutrients a boar with impaction would lose, which suggests to me that would encourage the gastrointestinal system to pick up pace a little bit. Like when piggies eat their poops to replace the gut flora.
I may be wrong in my thinking but that is what it sounds like to me.
 
Probably not relevant in the slightest but when Eliza was on Baytril (0.4ml once a day) along with Fibreplex, she would go for a while without pooing and then do a huge pile.

She wasn't uncomfortable though.
 
She's still eating after over an hour & now cleared most of her veggies apart from kale & carrot. The poos have just about stopped so I'm going to put her back in her run with Minnie & Rex. I think it may be just a one-off. She's done similar things before like grabbing the 1ml syringe in her mouth with water in it. She emptied it about 20 times in 30 minutes. That was 2 weeks ago & has never done anything like it again.
 
She's still eating after over an hour & now cleared most of her veggies apart from kale & carrot. The poos have just about stopped so I'm going to put her back in her run with Minnie & Rex. I think it may be just a one-off. She's done similar things before like grabbing the 1ml syringe in her mouth with water in it. She emptied it about 20 times in 30 minutes. That was 2 weeks ago & has never done anything like it again.

It sounds like a one off to me, but keep an eye on it. I know in humans steroids can increase the appetite but whether or not this would occur so quickly in pigs I wouldn't know- I would have thought it would have been after a longer course of steroids instead of just an injection.
 
My Phoebe has been on a 2 week course of steroids for a mite problem and her appetite does not seem to have been affected. It has drastically helped her pain levels though.

I think this does sound like a one-off, is she still on any antibiotics?
 
She's been on Zithromax for 4 weeks but her head tilt has got worse over last 2 days so she's gone back onto 0.5ml of Baytril twice a day. Just had her 1st dose at 8pm tonight. She's also on 1ml Fibreplex twice a day & 1/3 of a sachet of Bio-Lapis mixed with 16ml of water given between 8am & 8pm. Her injections today at 3:15pm were 0.20 x Vitbee B12 250mgc 50ml & 0.12 x Colvasone 50ml. As mentione earlier I gave her 0.3ml of Metacam for the pain.

She's now back with the others & I've put in lots of extra hay so she's not going to be short overnight.
 
Hi Stewy, poor Minky.

Can I just ask you to check one thing, please speak to your vet regarding using metacam as it is a NSAID, I am pretty sure it shouldn't be given while Minky is on steroids.
For pain relief while she is on steroids you would need something like an opiate, Treacle was on Buprenorphine (Buprecare) Our vet gave us a supply in a syringe and we gave her one drop by mouth every 12 hours. There are other pain killers out there such as Tramadol etc.. But your vet will know more, if you go down the opiate route it's wise to be giving metachlopromide as they slow the gut down.

Steroids will increase Minky's appetite so expect her to be hungry and eating a lot.

Love to Minky x
 
Hi Stewy, poor Minky.

Can I just ask you to check one thing, please speak to your vet regarding using metacam as it is a NSAID, I am pretty sure it shouldn't be given while Minky is on steroids.
For pain relief while she is on steroids you would need something like an opiate, Treacle was on Buprenorphine (Buprecare) Our vet gave us a supply in a syringe and we gave her one drop by mouth every 12 hours. There are other pain killers out there such as Tramadol etc.. But your vet will know more, if you go down the opiate route it's wise to be giving metachlopromide as they slow the gut down.

Steroids will increase Minky's appetite so expect her to be hungry and eating a lot.

Love to Minky x

Hi Lee, Thanks for that info. I haven't rang the vet yet but Minky seems OK this morning. I'll check with vet regarding painkillers if Minky needs them especially out of hours.
 
Just rang the vets & yes, I shouldn't be using Metacam. Vet said to give Minky 0.3ml of Zantac twice a day for 5 days to protect her stomach. Just goes to show that it's really good to be on the forum for the advice that's been given by people more experienced than me. I'm learning all the time and as well as learning I also now have more knowledge which can be passed to others in need.

Minky's OK at present she's been eating veggies & hay plus I've just given her some fresh grass. I weighed her & she's lost 26 grams (1 ounce) since yesterday but not really surprised as she did more poos in 10 minutes last night than she would normally do in a day.
 
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