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Bloat. Again.

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Coco&Luna

Coco&Luna

Adult Guinea Pig
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I'm honestly over the believe that abx don't cause bloat.
This is the 4th time Luna has had bloat. All while being treated with abx.

She is currently 2 days away from finishing her septrin course.
Is on ranitidine 3ml x2 daily, fibreplex 3x daily and gripe water occassionally. Stomach massage and been chasing her about to keep her moving. She is pooping and eating well.
Though, is lethargic and has a definite loud hollow tap on her left hand side.

Any help would be appreciated. X
 
Are you meaning you think the antibiotics are causing the bloat? Can you put this down to any particular one or have they tried all the antibiotics? My piggy Petal gets bloat from Zithromax, we can't give her it anymore & also sometimes Septrin upsets her, so now we use Marbocyl which she seems to tolerate pretty well. It might be a combination of the antibiotic & veggies or grass, I tend not to give veggies to her now whilst she is on abs or I restrict them to one small piece every day of something non bloaty like a small piece of green pepper x
 
Coco&Luna said:
I'm honestly over the believe that abx don't cause bloat.
This is the 4th time Luna has had bloat. All while being treated with abx.

She is currently 2 days away from finishing her septrin course.
Is on ranitidine 3ml x2 daily, fibreplex 3x daily and gripe water occassionally. Stomach massage and been chasing her about to keep her moving. She is pooping and eating well.
Though, is lethargic and has a definite loud hollow tap on her left hand side.

Any help would be appreciated. X
Click to expand...

Have you spoken to your vet? Is it the same antibiotic or is it different ones? Some guinea pigs can be susceptible and can have adverse reactions to antibiotics. Once you have had a serious case of bloat, a piggy is more likely to get it again. :(

I am keeping my fingers firmly crossed! You are doing all you can do at home, but I would definitely talk to the vets, especially in view that she is lethargic as well.
 
Hey guys. Yeah
Yeah, it's happened on both baytril and now septrin.
I'm about to put a wash on and stick her in a basket ontop when it reaches a spin cycle.

She's also on metacam 0.25ml daily too.
The only veg I've given her is a chunk of cucumber daily for the past few days.
I've put toilet roll tubes stuffed with hay literally all over her cage. Lol
I've been giving her readigrass too and leaving bunches of Timothy hay all over the cage.
I'll phone the vet tomorrow first thing
X
 
Best of luck! I am so sorry that you are going through it again.
 
Well she was given her ranitidine last night and put on 3 spins in a row which stopped the hollow tap. But it seems to reappear the next day. I gave her ranitidine this morning and I'll see how she is when I get home. I'm heading home just now.
The vet advised over the phone a good few days ago to continue with what I'm doing for now
She's pooping fine, a little less than normal though. Eating and drinking well still. But still slightly lethargic.
Is there anything else the vets can do for her that I could request?


@Wiebke @VickiA @helen105281
 
Coco&Luna said:
Well she was given her ranitidine last night and put on 3 spins in a row which stopped the hollow tap. But it seems to reappear the next day. I gave her ranitidine this morning and I'll see how she is when I get home. I'm heading home just now.
The vet advised over the phone a good few days ago to continue with what I'm doing for now
She's pooping fine, a little less than normal though. Eating and drinking well still. But still slightly lethargic.
Is there anything else the vets can do for her that I could request?


@Wiebke @VickiA @helen105281
Click to expand...

You could ask for a gut stimulant like emeprid if you wish to. It acts through stimulation the guts musculature.

Keep on with half hour vibrating sessions and keep up the zantac. Ask your vet what he thinks about using gripe water additionally; it helps to disperse gas bubbles. You could also ask whether metacam would be OK or not, to help with any discomfort, but the more meds you throw at it, the more they can interact not necessarily to the best of the piggy, so it is for your vet weigh up.

Stay off any fresh veg and try to supplement with hay, recovery food (which you can serve in a bowl if a piggy is still eating) and if possible some fibreplex.

Sadly, you are up against it with severe bloat. It can wax and wane and can take days to get on top of. You also have to be aware that it can come back and kill. Bloat is still an issue that is very difficult to control, as many of our long term owners have found, including myself.

The good news is that she is still eating and drinking on her own, so there is still hope! :tu:
 
poor girlie. As @Wiebke has said emeprid and gripe water are both in my treatment regime when Connie has been bad. Plenty of roughage including cardboard and paper in the cage and stay off veggies. When reintroducing the veg herbs are quite healing so I've just given small amounts of herbs when we've reached that stage. I've also been told to give decent amounts of metacam as bloat is painful. Good news that she's eating and pooping again.
 
I've been giving twice a day (every 12 hours) longest she can cope with is 15 hours. You could go for three times a day - be prepared for a argument as it's not the tastiest liquid, you might want to sweeten it, but I wouldn't dilute it, I think it works best straight, just give her something nice afterwards.
 
She got her 3ml before work. You were right, there was a lot of protesting and refusing to swallow, but I got nearly all of it down her lol

I feel like flooding her with so many meds might be harming her. Is it ok to give her gripe water and ranitidine together?

I'm gun a stop the Metacam for a couple of days to see if that improves anything.
 
I've also ran out of two syringes of fibreplex so ill t need to get more of.that.
I'm typing this from outside work and the Suniis shining on my screen and I can hardly see what I'm typing, so sorry for all the spelling errors lol
 
The gripe water also acts as a anti-inflammatory so she should feel a lot more comfortable as it works through her system, I found the first signs of improvement, was finding BonBon completely flat out relaxed the next morning, first time in ages! and I could see the difference in her eyes, she no longer looked like she'd been weeping (she lost all the fur from around her eyes due to being wet all the time), and her eyes looked large and bright again.
 
I'm so bloody stressed with it. Because she's pooping and active and eating and drinking since this started over a week ago, is it really that serious? Is it likely it will just pass?
How important is it I get more fibreplex? I've already went through two syringes which didn't shift it.


I have Stanley on the bed just now crunching away on his veg and poor Luna is running in and out of her cage going nuts wondering where hers is. She's away under the bed trying to follow the source of the crunching lol. :(
IMG_20150807_224849.webp
In his selfish element lol
 
Perseverance is the key, you may even see an improvement tomorrow morning, you know her well enough, and will pick up on a change in her behaviour. Sounds like she's feeling a bit better already though, if she's enjoying floor time. x
 
Thank you :)
Literally the only issue is that loud hollow tap on her left side.
Fingers crossed she passes it.
She's had her gripe water and ranitidine and is munching a hand full of readigrass now for bedtime lol
 
Keep rubbing her back and sides gently and talk to her, I find my girly responds well to it, and it'll help the gripe do it's job x
As for bloat, she does seem to get a bit that way, but I'm very limited into how I treat her issue. I'd rather she ate something than not at all, so atm if she likes it, and it's not acidic, she can have it. x
 
@Wiebke @helen105281 and whoever else can help.
Does anyone know what sites i can get fibreplex next day delivery if any? or whoever delivers the fastest
 
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