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Infacol

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Polypea

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Hi,

I've been away from the forum for a while after one of my piggies died back in June this year. :(

Anyway I'm looking for some advise on Infacol.
One of my piggies, Speedy, had been suffering from chronic diahorea following the death of her sister Scruffy back in June and although she was eating and drinking fine and had not lost any weight I couldn't get it under control.
I tried eliminating different types of fruit and veg, I completely exhausted that with no improvement.
I tried worming and I also tried using Avipro Plus in their water, still no improvement.
Speedy lives with 2 other piggies and they have never had any of her symptoms.
Anyway I took her to vet as I felt I had tried everything, just incase you are all thinking why didn't I take her sooner, I held off because she was so well in herself and I believed I could maybe sort the problem out myself! @)

Anyway the vet gave her some infacol as she said her tummy was slightly bloated and some fibreplex paste - well after 3 days she was back to normal I am absolutely amazed and so is the vet as she said piggies who suffer diahorea don't usually have it for so long, it usually clears up or they have something seriously wrong with them and they pass away, as in Scruffy's case 8...8...

That was over a week ago now and Speedy is doing fine, although she may be a little bloated again and after all my waffling on my question/query is..... would it be ok to give Speedy some infacol myself and how much should I give her? :red

Thanks in advance and I'm sorry for all the waffling!:red
 
Yes you can give Infacol yourself the dose is normally 1ml once a day, you can give more in cases with bigger build up of gas I have heard of people giving 1ml 3 times a day.

The other important thing with gas/bloat is to keep them moving and running around this helps the body to naturally move the gas around and get rid of it, tummy massages can also help.

Fibreplex is great and my piggy loves it, he has been suffering with severe bloat but touchwood he is on the mend now.

Hope your piggy is better now
 
I have infacol in my medicine cabinet - but ony to use as an emergency treatment for bloat - certainly not for more than a couple of days.....and certainly not for persisitent diarrhoea.....

Infacol is purely just meant to "coalesce" gas bubbles.....and would normally only be intended for short term treatment of bloat.

Fibreplex contains a probioitic and has fibre to firm up the motions...and again should only be given for 2-3 days only as per the instructions.

Another treatment is zantac - 4mg/kg twice (or even only once) daily for a week......works great on my boy Beechie and has been prescribed by my exotics vet in preference to anything else for digestive disorder...Beechie gets squishy poops every couple of momths, (coupled with lots of gut pain) but after a couple of days of zantac he is back to normal...


However any of these short term regimes might reduce the symptoms for a while but do nothing to identify the cause.

Persistent diarrhoea with no obvious pathogenic microbial content would indicate either a gut flora imbalance - hence probioitics and fibre.....or irritable bowel/possible ulceration/allergy to particular food........or a combination.

So first things first..as I am currently doing for Beechie......take out all veggies and feed pellets and hay only for a week..(no other treatments) ..then each week introduce one type of veggie (grass first, then dandelions, then cucumber, then carrots, then lettuce, then spring greens...=6 weeks.....and monitor poops. If still no problems then add some of the other more "potentially irritating" veggies such as peppers, brassicas etc

NB - veggies more than a day old (ie cut grass put in the firdge or spinach one day after purchase) or that may have a slightly "whiffy" alocholic smell - this is what seems to aggravate Beechie's tummy ....even thought the rest of my herd are able to munch away quite happily with no ill effects.......


BTW....Zantac too can be got over the counter - but please do discuss this treatment with your vet before administering...and if your vet wishes to speak to mine I am happy to provide details.......



HTH
x
 
Hi

Thanks for all the info, I wish I had thought to come here a while ago!

I have had to take Speedy back to vets today as the bloated'ness got much much worse:(

The vet has given her some pain relief, I have been given some Critical Care to give her and the fibreplex again.

She has also suggested that I seperate her from the other 2 as she would like to know what her poo's are like, I wasn't able to give her that answer at the vets because I didn't know who's poo's were who's :{
I have partitioned their house up so they can still see each other but Speedy seems so much more miserable now and Nugget, my boar, is chewing the bars, he has never done that! :{

The vet said I should give her some veggies just to see if she will eat, which she has, although she is not eating the hay!

I think I will just have to see how this one pan's out, it feels a little like 'de ja vouz' with Scruffy :(

I'll keep you posted:)
 
Hi -

I do apologise - I might have misunderstood. I thought the problem was diarrhoea. For the benefit of other forum users, my prevous post refers specifically to diarrhoea/gut irritation and NOT bloat.


So could you please clarify - is she suffering from bloat (which would normally indicate little or no poos) or diarrhoea?

If she is suffering from both then that is a whole different scenario.Has the vet ruled out an obstruction in her gut? ( has she chewed a plastic bag or similar recently?)

Infacol treatment etc is indeed an aid for treating bloat....and if, as you now say, your piggie is "back to the vets with bloat" there are other interventions you can do also involving gentle massage of her tummy etc as AgentF has already posted to help her.


However, please do think about NOT giving veggies with bloat - it may make it worse....feed hay and dried food only and if she wont eat them be prepared to syringe feed her mushed up pellets or a liquid feed such as Oxbow Critical Care or Supreme Recovery with a msall (1ml syringe) with the end chopped off. (Try it on a spoon first as many pigs WILL actually eat off a spoon)


Good luck with Speedy
x
 
When my boy had bloat he was not eating for himself and therefore not pooping, when we syringe fed him he would poop but still wouldnt eat.

A dutch friend found a suggestion from their version of Peter Gurney, they thought that he wouldnt eat as the gas was present as foam in his intestine which was telling his brain he was full therefore he didnt eat.

The treatment was 1ml olive oil daily until he was eating normally within 24 hours of the first dose he was nibbling for himself and within 3 days he was eating normally.

The idea is the olive oil changes the surface tension of the foam causing bubbles to burst therefore curing the bloating.

PS my boy would eat fresh food when hand fed but not hay or pellets and he also refused to use his water bottle but would quiet happily take water in a syringe

For me it was a miracle cure may be worth giving it a try.

Do you know what caused the bloat, my boy had a bad reaction to Baytril which started the problem.
 
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Hi

Pebble your info was absolutely brilliant so no worries about the confusion.

Speedy did have diahorea, chronic diahorea, which I struggled to get rid of, she was always very well in herself, eating & drinking throughout but when I couldn't get the diahorea under control I had to take her to the vets, this was 2 weeks ago.
I was given some fibreplex to give her for 3 days and the vet gave her a dose of infacol whilst we were there. Within 4 days the diahorea stopped and she appeared completely back to normal.

Then yesterday I noticed her sides looked bulgy, like she was pregnant!
She was also not quite herself and was hunched up most of the time.
Straight back to the vets last night and that was when the vet diagnosed the bloat.
She gave Speedy another dose of infacol and said I could give it to her at home, 0.2mls twice a day.
I was also given some Oxbow Critical Care, the vet said she would like her to have 3 tbl spoons a day if possible but she would be happy if I could get Speedy to have 1.5 tbl spoons in a 24 hour period.
I have also been given some more fibreplex to give her for 3 days.

Well today she is still fed up, I have put her back in with the other 2 now as she seemed so depressed, vet said it should be ok now that I have seen her poop.
I am managing to get her to take the critical care but no more that 1.5 tbl spoons in a day, she starts spitting it out!
She is eating herself, not alot though, little munch of hay and a small amount of veg that the vet suggested.
Her tummy doesn't seem as bulgy and distended today and I have been massaging it for her, but she still isn't herself :(

Is there anything more I could do? Should I be giving her some form of pain relief?
 
Sorry I also forgot to mention, AgentF I think I may try the Olive Oil as it may help.
Also I too have noticed Speedy doesn't seem to be drinking from her water bottle, well not that I have seen anyway.
I will give her some water via syringe before I go to bed! rolleyes
 
Guinea pig transit time in the gut is about 20 hours so you won;t see any effects for at least a day once you administer a particular treatment.
Fibreplex contains a probioitc and this should help restore the gut flora - it might be helpful to get a probioitic such as BioLapis to conitnue with for a few days after stopping the fibreplex.


Normally a guinea in pain will have spikey fur and if Speedy is showing signs of this (the hunching is also a good indication) it might be worth giving a painkiller for a couple of days until the gut sorts itself out. I have given Beechie metacam (0.2ml of the dog strength once daily) for a couple of days to get him over the worst of any "episode"

Like AgnetF, Beechies problems started after baytril was given over 4 week period followed by septrin to shift a stubborn urine infection - he then developed gut stasis and didn;t poo for 24 hours which was shifted with metoclopromide but he subsequently has developed "irritable bowel" and impaction issues which seem to be triggered by veggies and I am just trying to determine which ones.

I had another guinea who did used to get bloat - triggered by brassicas and carbohydrate-rich veggies like sweet potato...and baby food. In his case it was just a question of administering infacol and gently massaging his tummy until it cleared..normally 2-3 days..and keeping him on a very strict diet.

I like AgentF's suggestion about olive oil....will file that for future reference:)

Hope you see some improvement by tomorrow

x
 
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