Cannot get rid of soft poops

[dannif_piggies]

Sorry in advance for the long post..

So for anyone that has been following Honey's experience of having a Spay, they will know that two days before her spay she got very soft poops, and this has continued still to this day (since the 15th September), various things along the way could have caused these soft poops, inclusion antibiotics, other medications and general stress, but after now a month of these soft poops I feel these shouldn't still be the case and they should've cleared up... sometimes they are softer than others, they are never runny, just very soft, with some kind of form but as soon as Honey stands on them they clog all into her paws, obviously I wipe her paws but I can only do this so often (before and after work and then again before bed)
a few things Ive tried are:
fibre plex (given by the vet),
pro-c probiotic,
withdrawal of veggies for 72 hours!
And they fluctuate in softness but she now hasn't had a normal poo in the time I mentioned above. If this is the way she is going to stay obviously I will continue to care for her, but I'm finding it very difficult keeping her as clean as possible and I'm changing out her and willows cage liners every 2 days.

She's visited the vets various times and they are not concerned but I just feel like considering her fast recovery, she should be almost back to normal now?

Basically I'm pleeing if anyone else has had an experience like this!? How did they get their piggies poops back to normal? Am I missing something that could solve everything?

Please help

 

[Eriathwen]

My Bramble is quite prone to soft poops, we have *touch wood* gotten on top of things that set it off now, but the last time she had an upset stomach she was off veggies for 2 weeks..which was very hard as I felt so bad for her. But ultimately, a strict hay, pellet and critical care diet (the critical care helped boost the fibre she was eating and replaced the vitamin C lost from lack of veg) with fibreplex, bio lapis and dried raspberry leaves seemed to do the trick. If you have a healthy piggy then doing a poop soup with a fresh, healthy poop would also be worth a try. You basically put a fresh poop in a little bit of water and syringe it to your poorly piggy.

I do have ranitadine/zantac on hand should Bramble ever need it, which is a motility drug that helps increase their appetite, in case their hay consumption is less than what it needs to be. It might be worth discussing trying that with your vet if they feel it might help. They may not be concerned but with soft poops in the long term I would be a little worried about dehydration over time. It might be worth getting a second opinion from a different vet maybe?

 

[Wiebke]

It can be frustrating, can't it?

Some more things you could try that have helped other people with delicate tummies:
- a second course of fibreplex (my 6 year Hafren needed two after a couple of courses of a very strong antibiotic that wiped out her guts but saved her eye)
- REALLY fresh poo soup, which can be more effective than probiotics if done right. Collect really freshly laid poos from a healthy piggy that you have taken out and encouraged to poo with a treat (munching seems to stimulate the output), soak it in a little fresh water and syringe the water immediately. It is a bit gross, but it mimics natural behaviour and it can really help re-seeding the guts with the 'right' stuff, as long as you do it totally freshly for effectiveness.
- grain-free pellets; this has been successful for mostly older piggies with a story of minor poo upsets. Also stay off any root vet and sweet corn.
- gut motility drugs from the vet. Ideally a combination of emeprid and zantac (ranitidine), which work on different parts of the body.

@Jaycey @helen105281 @Freela

 

[dannif_piggies]

My Bramble is quite prone to soft poops, we have *touch wood* gotten on top of things that set it off now, but the last time she had an upset stomach she was off veggies for 2 weeks..which was very hard as I felt so bad for her. But ultimately, a strict hay, pellet and critical care diet (the critical care helped boost the fibre she was eating and replaced the vitamin C lost from lack of veg) with fibreplex, bio lapis and dried raspberry leaves seemed to do the trick. If you have a healthy piggy then doing a poop soup with a fresh, healthy poop would also be worth a try. You basically put a fresh poop in a little bit of water and syringe it to your poorly piggy.

I do have ranitadine/zantac on hand should Bramble ever need it, which is a motility drug that helps increase their appetite, in case their hay consumption is less than what it needs to be. It might be worth discussing trying that with your vet if they feel it might help. They may not be concerned but with soft poops in the long term I would be a little worried about dehydration over time. It might be worth getting a second opinion from a different vet maybe?

Thank you for your experience, maybe I just need to be cruel to be kind and remove veggies until it is back to normal. Basically I put her back on the veggies as she was having slow but steady weight loss after her op, and it was a way of me easily monitoring her food consumption. But now I'm happy with her weight stability this is more of an option to remove veggies once again. I have some critical care still left over from her op so maybe I need to go back to this. How much would you recommended to give her each day? And what do the dried raspberry leaves do for the gut? In terms of poop soup, Honey has actually been volunteering to eat Willows poos, quite often I see honey with her face at Willows bum waiting for the poops to release (Willow doesn't seem to mind )

In terms of my vet, I trust her greatly, and she is the one that carried out the initial spay, maybe if this doesn't clear up in the next week or so I will return and just say I'm not happy is there anything else that can be done

 

[dannif_piggies]

It can be frustrating, can't it?

Some more things you could try that have helped other people with delicate tummies:
- a second course of fibreplex (my 6 year Hafren needed two after a couple of courses of a very strong antibiotic that wiped out her guts but saved her eye)
- REALLY fresh poo soup, which can be more effective than probiotics if done right. Collect really freshly laid poos from a healthy piggy that you have taken out and encouraged to poo with a treat (munching seems to stimulate the output), soak it in a little fresh water and syringe the water immediately. It is a bit gross, but it mimics natural behaviour and it can really help re-seeding the guts with the 'right' stuff, as long as you do it totally freshly for effectiveness.
- grain-free pellets; this has been successful for mostly older piggies with a story of minor poo upsets. Also stay off any root vet and sweet corn.
- gut motility drugs from the vet. Ideally a combination of emeprid and zantac (ranitidine), which work on different parts of the body.

@Jaycey @helen105281 @Freela

Thank you as always for your advice. Honey quite often has her face near willows bum to volunteer herself to eat willows poops as they are freshly laid would it still be necessary to make the poop soup? I'll definitely give it a go though, thank you

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you as always for your advice. Honey quite often has her face near willows bum to volunteer herself to eat willows poops as they are freshly laid would it still be necessary to make the poop soup? I'll definitely give it a go though, thank you

Yes, I would strongly recommend helping her with it. The poos the piggies are really after are of course the caecotrophs (the redigested poos for the second run through the guts), but even waste poos still contain enough gut microbes etc. to help.

 

[dannif_piggies]

Yes, I would strongly recommend helping her with it. The poos the piggies are really after are of course the caecotrophs (the redigested poos for the second run through the guts), but even waste poos still contain enough gut microbes etc. to help.

Okay I will collect some later from Willow to give to her. Thank you

 

[Eriathwen]

Thank you for your experience, maybe I just need to be cruel to be kind and remove veggies until it is back to normal. Basically I put her back on the veggies as she was having slow but steady weight loss after her op, and it was a way of me easily monitoring her food consumption. But now I'm happy with her weight stability this is more of an option to remove veggies once again. I have some critical care still left over from her op so maybe I need to go back to this. How much would you recommended to give her each day? And what do the dried raspberry leaves do for the gut? In terms of poop soup, Honey has actually been volunteering to eat Willows poos, quite often I see honey with her face at Willows bum waiting for the poops to release (Willow doesn't seem to mind )

In terms of my vet, I trust her greatly, and she is the one that carried out the initial spay, maybe if this doesn't clear up in the next week or so I will return and just say I'm not happy is there anything else that can be done

I usually do 10-15ml depending on how hungry she is, the trick is to give enough of a boost but not enough to make them full and not want to eat hay
Raspberry leaf helps stop diarrhoea..the technical term is it 'arrests discharges' but in simple terms it just helps dry things up and reduce irritation. I hope that makes sense I've only just woken up from a nap lol

 

[DMS260820]

Sorry in advance for the long post..

So for anyone that has been following Honey's experience of having a Spay, they will know that two days before her spay she got very soft poops, and this has continued still to this day (since the 15th September), various things along the way could have caused these soft poops, inclusion antibiotics, other medications and general stress, but after now a month of these soft poops I feel these shouldn't still be the case and they should've cleared up... sometimes they are softer than others, they are never runny, just very soft, with some kind of form but as soon as Honey stands on them they clog all into her paws, obviously I wipe her paws but I can only do this so often (before and after work and then again before bed)
a few things Ive tried are:
fibre plex (given by the vet),
pro-c probiotic,
withdrawal of veggies for 72 hours!
And they fluctuate in softness but she now hasn't had a normal poo in the time I mentioned above. If this is the way she is going to stay obviously I will continue to care for her, but I'm finding it very difficult keeping her as clean as possible and I'm changing out her and willows cage liners every 2 days.

She's visited the vets various times and they are not concerned but I just feel like considering her fast recovery, she should be almost back to normal now?

Basically I'm pleeing if anyone else has had an experience like this!? How did they get their piggies poops back to normal? Am I missing something that could solve everything?

Please help

I had a old boar who had soft poos, i never got to the bottom of it even after 2 years. Probably about 5 vet visits.

 

[dannif_piggies]

I usually do 10-15ml depending on how hungry she is, the trick is to give enough of a boost but not enough to make them full and not want to eat hay
Raspberry leaf helps stop diarrhoea..the technical term is it 'arrests discharges' but in simple terms it just helps dry things up and reduce irritation. I hope that makes sense I've only just woken up from a nap lol

Okay brilliant, I'll try to spread this out throughout the day, as she hates syringe feeding And oh brilliant! Can I just get these in a supermarket and how much do I give? Sorry for all the questions I just wanna try and get this sorted and not make things worse

 

[Eriathwen]

Okay brilliant, I'll try to spread this out throughout the day, as she hates syringe feeding And oh brilliant! Can I just get these in a supermarket and how much do I give? Sorry for all the questions I just wanna try and get this sorted and not make things worse

I've not seen them at a supermarket unfortunately, I get mine from here, they do whole leaves too in a different section but I find the chopped ones are easier to mix into their pellets which encourages them to give them a try if they're reluctant!
Cut Dried Herbs » Galens Garden

 

[dannif_piggies]

I've not seen them at a supermarket unfortunately, I get mine from here, they do whole leaves too in a different section but I find the chopped ones are easier to mix into their pellets which encourages them to give them a try if they're reluctant!
Cut Dried Herbs » Galens Garden

Oh brilliant! Thank you so much, I'll order some

 

[dannif_piggies]

Ive recently heard Honey "farting" quite a lot, would this relate to the soft poops? Am I missing something that could be more serious in terms of health rather than "just soft poops"?

 

[xToNix]

I had a similar experience with one of my piggies. I tried stopping veggies but I was worried no veggies could potentially make him dehydrated and his poops were looking dry. The vet tested a sample and nothing came back and they were pretty happy with that but I wasn’t. Then I saw another vet who recommended an injection of vit B every 4 weeks for no other reason than it works with cats/dogs. I must mention that this particular piggy developed an issue absorbing vit C so he’d really gone through the wars. Touch wood it seems to work and we’ve just recently pushed the injection to every 5 weeks. It may be a coincidence as another vets said something about it being the wrong intestine but I don’t want to risk stopping them now. I hope you get it sorted.

 

[dannif_piggies]

I had a similar experience with one of my piggies. I tried stopping veggies but I was worried no veggies could potentially make him dehydrated and his poops were looking dry. The vet tested a sample and nothing came back and they were pretty happy with that but I wasn’t. Then I saw another vet who recommended an injection of vit B every 4 weeks for no other reason than it works with cats/dogs. I must mention that this particular piggy developed an issue absorbing vit C so he’d really gone through the wars. Touch wood it seems to work and we’ve just recently pushed the injection to every 5 weeks. It may be a coincidence as another vets said something about it being the wrong intestine but I don’t want to risk stopping them now. I hope you get it sorted.

Honeys poops are looking far from dry, the only way I can explain them is almost like a paste I have actually taken away her pellets today as I was reading the packaging (something I should've done sooner) and they are alfalfa based So a change of those will be being made over the next few days, she has a great hay appetite so I'm really not concerned about her hay consumption, particularly after getting a hay box she does nothing but sit it it and eat Will be purchasing some of the dried raspberry leaves that someone mentioned above. But thank you for your advice, I'll bare this in mind

 

[dannif_piggies]

POOP ALERT

I'm so happy with how these poops look! Still no where near normal or perfect but far better than they have been over the past weeks,

Ive stoped veggies apart from 3 slices of cucumber, and slice of red pepper each day, this enabled hydration from the cucumber and is much easier for me to continue to pro-c and today I picked up some different pellets that I'm going to introduce her to. Her hay appetite is great and he weight has stabilised at 810-820g so things are looking possitive. Thank you everyone for your advice

 

[Pinki]

We have a guinea very susceptible to this. She is allergic to almost all fresh food except broccoli and spring greens...red pepper, carrot, tomato and many others means instant soft poops.
We've had success with dried Shepherd's Purse put in her dried food bowl. It smells awful but she loves it and it definitely helps her recover.
I will also add that Fibreplex can have the opposite effect and make a guinea more runny...this I got from the resident Protexin manufacurers' doctor on the phone in the UK. Stopping Fibreplex, if it not working, can actually help dry up the poops.
Also Pro-C as mentioned above is really good because it contains the right type of fibre (Fibreplex contains both)
Also it's something guineas can live with and it is more upsetting for the owners in my opinion!

 

[dannif_piggies]

We have a guinea very susceptible to this. She is allergic to almost all fresh food except broccoli and spring greens...red pepper, carrot, tomato and many others means instant soft poops.
We've had success with dried Shepherd's Purse put in her dried food bowl. It smells awful but she loves it and it definitely helps her recover.
I will also add that Fibreplex can have the opposite effect and make a guinea more runny...this I got from the resident Protexin manufacurers' doctor on the phone in the UK. Stopping Fibreplex, if it not working, can actually help dry up the poops.
Also Pro-C as mentioned above is really good because it contains the right type of fibre (Fibreplex contains both)
Also it's something guineas can live with and it is more upsetting for the owners in my opinion!

Thank you so much for this information, surprisingly Honeys poops are looking a lot more normal tonight, even more improvement since the photo I posted above! Hopefully stopping the veg for as long as needed has done her the world of good, and I'll be sure to slowly introduce the veg back once I am completely happy with the poops. I may stop the fibre plex and see how things go, didn't want to stop it all at once as then I wouldn't know what helped when... and yes Honey doesn't seemed phased by it at all, it's just a nightmare trying to keep the fleece clean! I changed it today and it looks awful already Never mind though, these things have to be done... thanks again

 

[Pinki]

You are welcome Yes try stopping the fibreplex, that is what helped us in the end. Introduce greens again in the most gradual way and very very small portions at first.
We clean our guinea by submerging only her bottom in warm water in the sink..I think she likes it now!..and then wrap her in a towel before putting her back in to her clean cage. It all becomes a habit after a while...but hopefully Honey will get better.
However it will probably reoccur now and then.

 

[Merab's Slave]

Glad to hear Honey’s poops are almost normal now.
Poor girl - she has had quite a time of it.
Hope you’re bearing up ok