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I am in great pain! Help me please !

Ethan__Vi

Ethan__Vi

New Born Pup
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Hello everyone, I am ViVi, a two year old guinea pig. I have been suffer from pain during the process of defecation for nearly a year and couldn't help but whimper and moan. My mom and dad are so worried about my condition, they took me to make lots of inspections including X-ray, but still cannot find the reason of my pain. In fact, I hate drink water and even got bladder stone when I was 1 year old. My parents took me to took the surgery and the stones were successfully removed. In order to prevent my recurrence, they insisted on feeding me urinary health powder and vegetable juice every day.I particularly enjoy eating Oxbow feed while drinking the vegetable juice with powder they made for me. Over the past year, I went to the hospital for two re-examination, and no recurrence of the stones was detected. However, Every time after I finish my meal and drink the vegetable juice at night, I would feel extremely painful during defecation. Throughout the whole night, I couldn't help making grunting noises. I have been taken to the hospital and visited lots of doctors, since both the consistency of my stool and the results of the X-ray examination were relatively normal, none of them could explain the reason of my illness. Most of the doctors believed that I had constipation. One doctor even suggested that it might be because there were always hairs in my anus, causing poor bowel movement. My parents gave me probiotics and simethicone, but there was no obvious improvement. For now, I am still in great pain and my parents are so worried about me, they even can not sleep when hearing my groan at night. We would be really grateful, if anyone with experiences could help and tell us what we should do to help me getting better. Thanks a lot!66bf51e33e5ffccfaffa0c7ba459c0af.webp
 
Welcome to the forum. :)
Is ViVi on any pain relief at the moment?
 
I’m sorry to hear this.

First thing to note is that guinea pigs do not get constipation. If a piggy is not pooping then it is because they are not eating enough fibre.
Simethicone can make gas more painful so isn’t really recommended to be used.

Feeding vegetable juice will not prevent stone formation.
Stones are formed because piggies have very naturally alkaline urine. A piggy who is a poor drinker can be more at risk of stones. The stones occur due to a problem in the calcium balance in the diet or due to a genetic predisposition to them.
Her main food intake each day needs to be hay. She can eat one cup of low calcium veggies per day (lettuce, cucumber, bell pepper and coriander/cilantro). Most calcium comes into the diet via guinea pigs pellets and in drinking water is your drinking water is hard.

Does she have any other symptoms such as blood or porphyrine in the urine?
Is she on pain relief and if so, what painkiller and at what dosage?
Is the painkiller given twice a day?
If your piggy is female has her reproductive system been checked?
Are you making sure to weigh her every day to ensure she is eating enough hay?

Wiebke's Guide to Pees and Stones
 
If she is in pain, which your post specifically states that she has been for a year, then she needs to be on twice a day painkiller.
Grunting while pooping is a sign of considerable pain
 
Hello and welcome to the forum. Once your piggy is on pain medication they will feel much better. Good luck at the vets.
 
Piggies&buns said:
I’m sorry to hear this.

First thing to note is that guinea pigs do not get constipation. If a piggy is not pooping then it is because they are not eating enough fibre.
Simethicone can make gas more painful so isn’t really recommended to be used.

Feeding vegetable juice will not prevent stone formation.
Stones are formed because piggies have very naturally alkaline urine. A piggy who is a poor drinker can be more at risk of stones. The stones occur due to a problem in the calcium balance in the diet or due to a genetic predisposition to them.
Her main food intake each day needs to be hay. She can eat one cup of low calcium veggies per day (lettuce, cucumber, bell pepper and coriander/cilantro). Most calcium comes into the diet via guinea pigs pellets and in drinking water is your drinking water is hard.

Does she have any other symptoms such as blood or porphyrine in the urine?
Is she on pain relief and if so, what painkiller and at what dosage?
Is the painkiller given twice a day?
Has her reproductive system been checked?
Are you making sure to weigh her every day to ensure she is eating enough hay?

Wiebke's Guide to Pees and Stones
Click to expand...
Thanks a lot for your reply. We have not give him any pain killer medicine yet. Vivi has consistently maintained a good appetite and his weight has remained stable around 1200g. His current diet mainly consists of Canadian premium timothy hay (which contains more stems and has a firmer texture), along with about half a cucumber, a quarter of a green pepper, 1 to 2 small cherry tomatoes and about 20g Oxbow feed each day. As Vivi is a boy, we haven’t conducted any specific examinations on his reproductive system. However, based on the X-ray results, the veterinarian thought that there are no obvious problems in his boddy. We have also observed that he has frequent estrus periods and there is always discharge and hair in his buttocks.
 
If he is in pain then he needs pain meds.

As he is a boy, he does not have estrus periods. Only female piggies have that.
The discharge in his hair is most likely semen. Male piggies will ejaculate regularly. It is perfectly normal and not of concern.

If he has a sperm rod or smegma in his penis then that will cause pain while toileting.
Has his penis been checked?

He should not be given cherry tomatoes every day. They are too acidic and should not be in the guinea pig diet.
Half a cucumber at a time is far too much. He can have one thin slice per day.

Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
 
Thanks for your professional advise! We will reduce the amount of vegetables he is fed each day, and also give him some painkillers.

Should we checked his penis at hospital? Which reason do you think caused his pain? Thanks again!
 
I'm afraid I can’t know what is causing his pain - none of us on here are vets so you will not get a professional opinion from any of us - we can only make suggestions of things to check although it sounds like your vet has probably checked a lot of things already.

Any issue in the back end can cause pain when toileting - things such as arthritis (although your piggy is a bit young for it), problems with the bladder (such as an infection, sterile cystitis, sludge etc), along with any gut issue.
 
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