How can I help my poorly piggy with his poos? *warning: graphic descriptions!*

[Liane]

My five year old boar, Nelson has been rather poorly lately. The past few days he has had very gloopy poo - I wouldn't say runny, but more like...when you squeeze toothpaste out the tube? It is making a right mess of his bottom and because it is so soft, he keeps stepping on the poo lumps and they get stuck to his feet. It is a bit stinky, too.

He has been on 0.1ml metacam for a few weeks now, and he has just finished a course of strong antibiotics (beginning with z?). Simon and Kim said that loss of appetite and changes to his poo would not be unexpected with the antibiotics - they mentioned smaller poos, which we observed early on in his treatment, but not gloopy poos. His poos had been getting bigger and 'better' lately, but were still fairly soft. Now he has a very gross bum which needs cleaning daily, especially as he has had a couple of sores on his bottom. He was in a rather disgusting state this morning.

I've limited his nuggets are suggested on guinea lynx, and I make sure he has lots of fresh hay. I've also added some probiotic vitamin c powder to his water. Is there anything else I can do to try and help him? Are there certain foods he shouldn't be eating just now, or certain foods that could improve his poo? I gave him some cucumber last night which probably wasn't a good idea, and he's been eating a lot of grass the past few days.

 

[Wiebke]

It's probably from the grass; take him off fresh veg and grass until the poos have firmed up again and re-introduce slowly and carefully.

If you have healthy piggies, you can make "poo soup" from their (fresh) poos and syringe that. That will help restock his guts. Recovering piggies will eat the poos from healthy piggies for this reason.

 

[Liane]

Nelson is underweight at the moment and has only recently started to very slowly put on weight - should I still keep him off fresh veg? He was 958g when I weighed him this morning but he fluctuates throughout the day by about +10g and -20g.

'Poo soup' sounds..pleasant! I did wonder about that as he had been with his two girlies who could provide fresh poos, but he's been separated from them for a bit as he is poorly. How much should I try and syringe feed him a day?

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[Wiebke]

I would keep him off fresh veg and back onto recovery food until the poos solidify again; he should eat the equivalent of about 120ml or more in solids and recovery foods combined to keep up his weight.

Poo soup - as much as he likes... It usually goes down well with piggies! (I know... @))

A daily fluctuation of plus/minus 30g is normal depending on how full bladder and tummy are. I would just weigh him once daily at the same time of I were you.