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Impaction? (tmi)

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Magician

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So my two pigs are currently in my room right now having their play time but the younger of the two, Lenny, kept trying to hump his friend so I picked Aladdin* up for a cuddle to give him a break. However it seems he's got an impaction? It looks like there's a lump of faeces caught in his rectum, he's passed a little bit of it but there's still some there. He never drinks when he's running about but I've syringed a bit of water into him.
What should I do? Put him away? Feed him? His brother, Lenny, is fine. Also he's not behaving any differently from normal. I wouldn't have noticed at all if I hadn't picked up him and noticed the smell.
Also I read that it's usually older boars who get this ? He's only about a year old and not neutered, and has eaten today - he had some hay earlier, but was dozing until Lenny started mucking about.

* The fellow on the right in my profile picture.

EDIT: Okay, I know this probably isn't what you're supposed to do, but I found a video on youtube showing how to remove an impaction and I think I got most of it out. He's back in his hutch now with his brother, last time I checked he was eating pellets. I gave him another drink before getting him out and he passed 1 hard drooping and I topped up his water bowl again. The impaction was a huge mass of soft cecal faeces and a few small hard droppings. It was massive and I know I said he was still acting normally but shortly after posting this he went very quiet and listless and was just sitting hunched up ignoring everything. He perked up as soon as it came out, bless him, and ran off when I left him for 2 seconds to get right of the impaction I'd got out. :) Which is much more like the Aladdin I'm familiar with! :) Will monitor him often today to make sure he's still passing droppings.
 
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Please can someone respond. Will he be okay? Did I do the right thing?
 
Hi there Magician, If he never drinks there is probabaly sothing wrong,
I would surgest you dont try and remove it your self , but make an appointment to see your vet asap
He will be able to asses the situation and remove if nessesary
 
Hi @Magician

Welcome to the forum. :wel:

By the sounds of it you have done the right thing and cleared and cleaned it for him.

I believe there are some good videos on youtube showing you how to do this. It is an idea to check boars bottoms each day just to clean away any hay or hair that may be stuck.

If you feel that you are not 100% sure that you did get it all and whether you did it correctly then you may want to consider booking an appointment with your vet to ask them to check and show you the correct way to do it for the future.

At some point or another it may happen again and then at least you will know how to deal with it confidently.

I think there some threads on the forum discussing how to keep a boars 'bits' clean if you have a look or google it and it will probably show up the threads for you.

Hope this helps :D
 
Hi,

I'm not trying to scare you or anything, I just want to explain what happened in our case with impaction.

We had a lovely boar called Sheamus, I was very close to him and had a bond, Sheamus started to lose weight and this was mentioned when he was taken in to a vet for an health check, but they shrugged it off, around 2 - 3 weeks later he began to get impaction several times a day, we were clearing it ourselves, he was taken to a vet where they thought he had a blockage and was put on meds for that, he got no better, was taken back to the same surgery but to a different vet who was clueless and useless and said it was his head... the next day he fell over while coming out of his hidey to see me, so I called the PDSA and got him in, it turned out to be bladder stones.. sad thing about it is, the PDSA then wanted to wait six days to do the op... Sheamus sadly didn't last and lost too much weight plus crying in pain, so he went back to the PDSA who said it was kinder to put him to sleep...

So please do keep an eye on your guinea pig and if your in doubt, take him to the vets asap. Piggies can go down hill so fast, I still feel a bit lost without him now to be honest.

I hope your piggie is ok.
 
Hi @Magician

Welcome to the forum. :wel:

By the sounds of it you have done the right thing and cleared and cleaned it for him.

I believe there are some good videos on youtube showing you how to do this. It is an idea to check boars bottoms each day just to clean away any hay or hair that may be stuck.

If you feel that you are not 100% sure that you did get it all and whether you did it correctly then you may want to consider booking an appointment with your vet to ask them to check and show you the correct way to do it for the future.

At some point or another it may happen again and then at least you will know how to deal with it confidently.

I think there some threads on the forum discussing how to keep a boars 'bits' clean if you have a look or google it and it will probably show up the threads for you.

Hope this helps :D

Yeah, I watched a video before hand and as I was doing to make sure I did it right. Didn't want to hurt him. Also had to clear him again just now, but the impaction this time was so much smaller. And he looks bright and bubbly as ever - chattering away. :)

Hi,

I'm not trying to scare you or anything, I just want to explain what happened in our case with impaction.

We had a lovely boar called Sheamus, I was very close to him and had a bond, Sheamus started to lose weight and this was mentioned when he was taken in to a vet for an health check, but they shrugged it off, around 2 - 3 weeks later he began to get impaction several times a day, we were clearing it ourselves, he was taken to a vet where they thought he had a blockage and was put on meds for that, he got no better, was taken back to the same surgery but to a different vet who was clueless and useless and said it was his head... the next day he fell over while coming out of his hidey to see me, so I called the PDSA and got him in, it turned out to be bladder stones.. sad thing about it is, the PDSA then wanted to wait six days to do the op... Sheamus sadly didn't last and lost too much weight plus crying in pain, so he went back to the PDSA who said it was kinder to put him to sleep...

So please do keep an eye on your guinea pig and if your in doubt, take him to the vets asap. Piggies can go down hill so fast, I still feel a bit lost without him now to be honest.

I hope your piggie is ok.

Yeah, I've had a pig with bladder stones before - strangely enough the first symptom he presented with however was immobility and low body temperature. Spent a fortnight getting up at 6 am to syringe feed him, then one day the stones moved and he couldn't even swallow. :( Traumatic, to say the least. I still feel robbed - he was only five. But at least I know what to look out for should it ever occur again in either of my darling guineas. <3

Thank you both for your assistance. :)
 
It seems to me you did just the right thing, especially as he is now happier and more comfortable. I have a boar (aged around 3, I believe) whom I adopted in May and I found he had impaction - the first couple of times it was a big lot to clear out, but there's much less now and I don't even need to do it every day. With my boy, he seems able to pass the "normal" proper shaped droppings, it's just the other stuff that gets impacted.

Just check him regularly.
 
It seems to me you did just the right thing, especially as he is now happier and more comfortable. I have a boar (aged around 3, I believe) whom I adopted in May and I found he had impaction - the first couple of times it was a big lot to clear out, but there's much less now and I don't even need to do it every day. With my boy, he seems able to pass the "normal" proper shaped droppings, it's just the other stuff that gets impacted.

Just check him regularly.

Have you found any way to prevent it ? Is it caused by diet ? sorry. I just freak out about things going wrong 'down there' thanks to my experience with cavies and bladder stones. Never wanna go through again :soz:
 

Don't worry. He's okay now. :) I cleared him up twice more myself, then just in case got our friend (who's a veterinary surgeon, and a very very good one too) to come and see if he could feel for bladder stones (only very small stones need x-rays and because Aladdin was still behaving normally I didn't want to traumatise him with a vet visit). He said he couldn't find anything and my boy's back to normal today - no impaction :D Very happy.
 
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