Hi, I've never posted before, hope someone will have some advice. We rescued two baby brother guinea pigs for my twin daughters two and a half years ago. On Friday we noticed Tuck had a rather large lump, which seemed to have appeared from nowhere and took him to the vet. He had a big abscess under his chin, was admitted to vet hospital and kept overnight. They lanced it and said probably from a bite. We got him home the next lunchtime, they kept him longer as he didn't eat much. Went back for another check on Sunday lunchtime, the vet said not as much sound in his tummy as she would like, try to get him eating more. We gave him all his antibiotics and something to get his gut moving as directed, and liquid food. On Sunday night and all of today he was eating pretty normally again, loads of parsley, celery, some carrot, lots of hay and drinking plenty water. I'm a bit worried though, we had them out for about an hour tonight and although he peed a few times, no sign of any poo. Its impossible to tell if any of the pellets in the cage are his. Is this a bad sign or could it just take a wee while for him to get fully back to normal? Is there anything else we can do? Going back for yet another check tomorrow but grateful for any advice.
-
Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement
Help, guts not working?
- Thread starter GillyB
- Start date
- Status
cheeky-charlie
Junior Guinea Pig
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2011
- Messages
- 238
- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 0
maybe the poos are suck and my need to run aroud a lot!! hope he get better soon give him a kiss from mexoxoxoxo
Amanda1801
Senior Guinea Pig
Is he eating on his own yet? Did the vet send you home with any medication to keep his guts moving?
You need to keep getting food into him, so continue the syringe feeding. Ideally he needs around 120ml of food in 24 hours if he's not eating by himself. You can give him 20-30ml every couple of hours.
You should probably separate them (either let them have floor time but have Tuck on your lap so you can see what he's producing, or put a divider in their cage so that they can still see/talk to each other, but you can monitor whos doing what poos.
Certainly sounds like he needs another check up tomorrow if you're concerned.
You need to keep getting food into him, so continue the syringe feeding. Ideally he needs around 120ml of food in 24 hours if he's not eating by himself. You can give him 20-30ml every couple of hours.
You should probably separate them (either let them have floor time but have Tuck on your lap so you can see what he's producing, or put a divider in their cage so that they can still see/talk to each other, but you can monitor whos doing what poos.
Certainly sounds like he needs another check up tomorrow if you're concerned.
If he is active and behaving as normal, then I would not worry too much; it can take a bit for poos to normalise. Please make sure that he has plenty of hay (it should be up to 80% of a normal diet) and add some probiotic to his veg to help stabilising his guts.
If you have other piggies, "poo soup" (made from watered fresh poo from healthy piggies) is also good to help introduce good bacteria into the guts again. It is rather yucky, though, but usually a firm favourite with recovering guinea pigs.
Weigh your boy daily to check his food intake and health. Normally, a weekly weigh is a good way of keeping an eye on his health.
http://www.guinealynx.info/weigh.html
If you have other piggies, "poo soup" (made from watered fresh poo from healthy piggies) is also good to help introduce good bacteria into the guts again. It is rather yucky, though, but usually a firm favourite with recovering guinea pigs.
Weigh your boy daily to check his food intake and health. Normally, a weekly weigh is a good way of keeping an eye on his health.
http://www.guinealynx.info/weigh.html
Suzygpr
Senior Guinea Pig
As long as he is actively eating, and is not showing signs of discomfort I would expect him to poo again within a couple of hours. If you clean the cage then at least you will know if there are poos being produced.
If he gets fluffed up, stops eating or grunts while trying to poo and still not producing I would get on the phone to the emergency vet. Try not to worry too much, a couple of hours with no poo is quite normal.
HTH
Suzy x
If he gets fluffed up, stops eating or grunts while trying to poo and still not producing I would get on the phone to the emergency vet. Try not to worry too much, a couple of hours with no poo is quite normal.
HTH
Suzy x
- Status