Fresh Vegetables

Fred&HarryPigs

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Hi
I have two 12 week old sows who I’ve had for nearly 3 weeks. The lady I got them from told me that they had been given a variety of fresh veg and fruit.

1 week after getting the girls, Winnie developed liquid diarrhoea. I stopped all veg, started critical care mixed with probiotics, fibreplex, poop soup and gave a diet of reduced pellets and lots of timothy hay. We went to the vet who advised that I was doing everything right.

After 5 days the poo returned to normal. After 7 days I introduced a very tiny amount of veg back into their diet. Starting with a slice of pepper and carrot as I didn’t want to give anything with a large water content and they don’t like herbs.

Day 3 of introducing very tiny amounts of veg and introducing a new variety at a time, their poo has gone soft again. Still formed but soft. I will stop all veg again but would like some advice.

Is this common? Do I just persevere and take the veg away as soon as I notice soft poo? I’m worried that they will be missing important vitamin C if I continue to keep them off veg.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thank you
Laura
 
Can you clarify - is it both of them having soft pops or just Winnie?
If both of them have soft poops then you cannot use poop soup and would need to use a bought probiotic. What probiotic are you using?

It’s a bit of a pain that they don’t like herbs! Herbs are milder on the digestion and are the item suggested to start with and they also contain a good amount of nutrients.
When reintroducing, stick to just one type of veg for several days and see if you can identify if it is a particular veg causing it. I personally would not put carrot into the mix and would stick with leafy veg if they don’t like herbs.

Their digestion should be able to handle fresh food if they have always had it. If one of them/both of them repeatedly cannot tolerate any veg without it causing these problems then I would ask the vet to run some tests and find out if there is an underlying medical cause.
 
Can you clarify - is it both of them having soft pops or just Winnie?
If both of them have soft poops then you cannot use poop soup and would need to use a bought probiotic. What probiotic are you using?

It’s a bit of a pain that they don’t like herbs! Herbs are milder on the digestion and are the item suggested to start with and they also contain a good amount of nutrients.
When reintroducing, stick to just one type of veg for several days and see if you can identify if it is a particular veg causing it. I personally would not put carrot into the mix and would stick with leafy veg if they don’t like herbs.

Their digestion should be able to handle fresh food if they have always had it. If one of them/both of them repeatedly cannot tolerate any veg without it causing these problems then I would ask the vet to run some tests and find out if there is an underlying medical cause.
Hi
Yes sorry I should have been clearer. Winnie is suffering the most but her sister Honey also has slightly soft tear shaped poo. The poop soup was used from my other healthy guinea pig Fred who is 18 months old. I’ve been using Pro C probiotic and Fibreplex. I had mixed the probiotic into Oxbow Critical Care. I haven’t had to do anything of this for quite a few days now, but as I’ve noticed the poo changing again I thought I would raise the question. It’s still a fully formed poo currently just a little bit softer than I would like it to be.

It is a shame about the herbs, I always have lots of different ones in the house as my other guinea pigs have always loved them. Thank you, I’ll l remove the carrot and stick with pepper for now and maybe something leafy. I try to avoid high in calcium foods such and spinach and kale and even cabbage as I know that can make them bloated. I’m worried about giving lettuce due to the water content.
 
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