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Impaction question

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sjpm

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One of our guinea pigs, Milo, has been pretty ill recently with a horrific case of bloat. He was treated at the vets with a steroid injection (I'm not sure exactly what because I was away at the time) and Fibreplex, plus keeping him off the veg for a few days. The bloat has completely gone and he's eating perfectly, seems quite a happy pig, but he's getting impacted daily. Some poops are managing to get through and they're a good size/colour, but others are just building up and cleaning it out is awful because of the smell! Most of the poops are solid as well so it's not like he's got diarrhea

He's only about a year and a half old so he shouldn't be having problems with impaction, so does anyone know if this is likely to be a temporary thing? I'm going to start him on the probiotic I got today and reduce the veg to see if that helps. I feel so bad for him though because his back end is a bit of a mess and our vets our a bit clueless when it comes to guinea pigs, so I think we're going to end up taking him to a different vets.
 
I hope that you can get his digestive system going properly again! Poor chap! Hopefully, the probiotic will help to stabilise him and lessen the impaction.

Sorry, I can't help you any more, apart from sending my best wishes.
 
I had some luck with one of mine putting some mineral oil (the proper medical kind, that's used as a laxative) into his anal sac. I'm no sure whether that's actually what helped, but it should be safe to try, since mineral oil is advised for other problems with guinea pigs (orally, that is). Although I would ask a vet before using it long term.
 
Usually, impaction is a long term problem. It is not uncommon at his age. He may need cleaning out once or twice a day or less frequently, experience will tell you when to clean him out.
The procedure should only take a few seconds. There is no need to apply cream, ointment or whatever to the sac. Just get in there, get your hands dirty, no fuss, no drama, job done!
 
^ That's what we've been doing, just churning them out, cos there's usually only a few in there. It's just the smell! I had to get up and leave the room. I'm sure he thinks I'm the evil aunty now! We've got another one with a stomach upset and I've been syringing science recovery into him all day so he probably thinks I'm evil too rolleyes
 
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