Eating Poo

[Keymatic]

Hello I have two female guinea pigs (nipper and rascal) nipper is about two and rascal about 3 they share a cage when indoors and a run when outdoors, they get on.

Nipper recently had a respiratory infection and was treated with septrin from the vet, this worked and she has recovered.
However she is now obsessed with eating rascals poo to the point that rascal is getting upset by her constantly sniffing and trying to eat any poos.

At present I am keeping them separate in the cage to give rascal some peace.

Can anyone here advise me please.
Thanks
Gary

 

[VickiA]

When the flora in a piggy's gut is upset they are unable to eat their poos as they need to, so a good substitute is another pig's good poos (caecotrophs). It may be that Nipper needs a probiotic to help get the gut get back to normal. (You can get some from p@h). If they aren't having a full blown fight I'd be tempted to leave them together. Is nipper eating plenty of hay and veg?

 

[Veggies Galore]

to the forum.

I'm pleased to hear Nipper has recovered from her infection.

 

[Keymatic]

Hello Vicki
thanks for your reply it does make sense about a pro-biotic, I can understand that.
She is off some of her foods but does eat hay, peppers and tomatoe oh and a bit of grass.
But none of these are are as she did eat them.
They do not get to fighting, but rascal squeeks a lot and then pecks nipper.

Thanks
Gary

 

[VickiA]

Hi Gary. It's probably because her digestion isn't back to normal if she's not eating well. You could top her up with a syringe feed of critical care if she's not eating well. But in all honesty when mine have been like this ive made a poo soup,with the caecotrophs of a healthy pig and syringe fed them to one of them , so Nipper is cutting out the middle man and eating them direct from rascal's bum. Antibiotics can upset piggies but septrin is one of the better (kinder)ones on the gut. I'd probably put the girls back together and add a pinch of probiotic to Nippers food. If you are worried you can speak to the vets when they re-open.
On a separate note Can you please add your location to your details on here as it helps people know whether you are in England/abroad and that helps to give relevant information for where you are.

Hope Nipper carries on doing well. You obviously got her to a cavy savvy vet in good time.

 

[sport_billy]

Hiya, welcome to the forum Gary.

Agree with Vicki

What I am going to suggest sounds gross but works.... Take one of Rascals poo's much it with around 3 ml of water so it turns to liquid then carefully syringe feed this to Nipper. It is called poo soup, you need a 1ml syringe for ease of use with the end cut off and filled smooth making sure the plunger can't come out the end. Poo soup is a great probiotic.
How long has this been going on for? One of our first piggies had this behaviour for 48 hours once during a really strong season, it drove us and her cagemate round the bend...

 

[PiggyOinkOink]

I've heard of humans having poo soup (faecal transplant) but even piggies need it too for the same reasons lol You can try the Probiotic in P&H though I stopped using it as it would stain the water bottles and I wasn't really convinced they needed it as a regular thing. I use it when a piggy has to be on antibiotics.

You can also try Verm-X but I don't think it has Probiotics in it and some don't like it as it's got a strong smell (as well as me for being expensive!).

 

[Keymatic]

Hello Every one
Thanks very much for your thoughts and advise on this subject, I went to P@H and got some pro-biotic.
I have given her some in a syringe mixed with water (1ml) for the time being and shall do this twice a day for now.

Gary

 

[AmyP&M]

It was a good idea to get the probiotic! I was in the same situation about a month ago when my piggie was put on baytril. It was awful for my other guinea pig being constanly harrased for poos. I wish your piggie a speedy recovery!

 

[Keymatic]

Hello All
Nipper is getting better slowly, she still has a go from time to time to get rascals poo but nothing like before.
She has decided she likes the taste of the probiotic and takes it from the syringe now.
Her eating is improving aswell
Gary

 

[gizzy]

Glad that Nipper is getting better
Regarding caecotroph soup . lt can actualy some times be dificult to actualy identifie a c troph , and if you pig is pooly even more dificult !
som say use cea popps from other pigs , but the quetion !,! is the tummy bacterea in the poop compaterbal?
It may, or it may not be? I would like to see definertive proof before l took a chance with a pooly pig
As without proof l could be feeding my pig ,wast matter with litte to ,no nutitional value

 

[VickiA]

@Keymatic thanks for the update -always good to hear of improvement. Hope Nipper continues to do well.

 

[Keymatic]

Hello All
Well it took a while but nipper has now returned to normal, she no longer has any interest in eating rascals poo and is eating her own and is her lively happy self.
Thanks every one who gave advice and thoughts on this problem.
Having had guinea pigs for a bout 5years now I realise that they need a lot of care and attention, they are wonderful pets but they are not hardy as such, two of ours and a rabbit came from a neighbour whos daughter wasn't looking after them, which really upsets me in some ways I think they are not suitable young children unless the parents are involved in looking after them aswell.

Anyway thanks again
Gary
Nipper