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Large Soft Poops

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lmarcin

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Hi all,

I acquired 2 guinea pigs recently- both 4-6 months old-and I have a question pertaining to poops. My one, Ernie, has been having large soft poops. I took them to the vet, and the vet thought it could be stress related since at the time I took them I'd only had them 1.5 weeks, and everything else besides the pooh looked good with him. I've had them now for almost a month, and Ernie is still having them on occasion. I was feeding them Oxbow Essentials for young guinea pigs, and giving them "Daily C" in addition to Oxbow Timothy Hay. I had also started giving them Romaine lettuce, which I thought may be giving Ernie the loose poops. (My other piggy, Oscar, has not had any poop problems). The vet told me to actually keep the greens coming, but I didn't want to upset their tummies because I know they weren't getting that many greens prior to coming to me. Anyway, I stopped the lettuce, and the C supplements and just kept them on the pellets and hay. I also switched to the Cavy Cuisine thinking that the Alfalfa Pellets was bothering him in the young piggy food. Ernie's poops got better, and looked more like Oscar's (normal). After about a week I slowly started introducing the lettuce back in, and while Oscar continues to be fine, Ernie's gone back to the large soft poops. :( I have started him on some probiotics (Lactobacillus acidophilus powder- he hates it), but I haven't seen huge improvement. He is still acting very normal- popcorning when new hay comes out, running around their cage, eating and drinking normally. Any thoughts or ideas? I have attached a picture, which is really zoomed in.

Thanks so much!

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Hi, Welcome to the forum.

Some piggies can't tolerate certain vegetables. We had a special needs piggie that in the end could only eat 4 different veg otherwise we would have wet poo's. It took months of trial and error to find out what she could and couldn't eat.

I would remove the lettuce from the diet and once poo's have firmed up start back reintroducing veg slowly and keeping a food diary. Separate at meal times to monitor what they are eating if necessary. Lots of hay too!
 
I agree with the above. You could also try some different probiotics to see whether he responds to them (one at a time - not all at the same time). I tend to have more luck with Fibreplex, than some of the others. Vetark Pro-C is also useful as it contains added vitamin C.
 
I agree with the above recommendations. You could also add Dioralyte into the mix too to replace any lost electrolytes, though this would be more necessary if the poos were runny. Even so I gave it to my sow who had soft poos recently and it helped. The probiotics I used were Avipro Plus from Vet UK. Are you in the UK?
 
Thanks for all of the replies. Although I'd love to be living in the UK, I'm in the US. I will try that and see if his poos firm up. i think my mistake was trying different things all at once, and now I can't narrow anything down. :eek: oops!
 
Hi! There are other veg you can try apart from lettuce that may not impact so badly on his guts. Only introduce veg slowly, in small quantities and only one variety at a time; wait until you are sure that the new veg is OK before introducing another one. That way, you can find out which veg he tolerates well and which he doesn't. You can try to feed fresh herbs like cilantro/coriander, parsley, dill or mint (one sprig) for minerals and vitamin C. Cilantro is the one that you can feed a sprig daily to each piggies. the others should not be fed daily in the long term.
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/forums/food.17/

I would recommend looking for suitable probiotic. You should be able to get bio-lapsis or fibreplex in the US.
 
lmarcin said:
Thanks for all of the replies. Although I'd love to be living in the UK, I'm in the US. I will try that and see if his poos firm up. i think my mistake was trying different things all at once, and now I can't narrow anything down. :eek: oops!
Click to expand...

Don't worry, we had to strip right back. We found Meg's safe foods were Pepper, Parsley, tiny bit of Cabbage and Green beans but each piggie will be different.
 
Just go right back to the beginning and test all veg you are feeding through. It is a very tedious and time consuming business, but as your boy has got a problem in that area, well worth it! ;)
 
Thanks again all. Poo's are still mushy today, but it's only been about 24 hours since his last piece of romaine. I'll keep you updated.
 
Good news! Ernie's poos are back to normal. I'm going to give his system a few days to rest before I start testing veggies out. Thanks again for the great advice. You all are wonderful! :D
 
lmarcin said:
Good news! Ernie's poos are back to normal. I'm going to give his system a few days to rest before I start testing veggies out. Thanks again for the great advice. You all are wonderful! :D
Click to expand...

Great news! Keep us updated.
 
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