Eryan
Junior Guinea Pig
Hi everyone,
As some of you may know, my dear Clover passed away December 19th, almost a month ago, due to extreme bloat and what seemed to be an inner ear infection. After 3 months of trying to convince our old vet that she was regularly bloated, when we finally switched clinics and found out that she truly was - it was too late.
Now I'm afraid we're experiencing this all over again with Pixie. It started with a grumbly tummy about a week ago and now it has gotten to the point where her sides are swelling and she cries when I massage her, she's very sensitive and uncomfortable, the poor dear. She's been off veggies for 48 hours now but I think red bell pepper is to blame. We took her to the vet today and got her a physical and an x-ray, luckily no tumors or obstructions and the swelling was found not to be due to any liquid/blood, just gas.
Her x-ray was examined by a specialist and she believes Pixie's bloat is due to the bacteria present in her gut, so it was suggested her diet is changed. We were told to continue to stay off the veggies, pull back on the pellets, and increase her Timothy. We weren't given any medication to help with pain or gas relief, which makes me feel like they think it isn't too serious, but I'm still so nervous. After our experience with Clover I'm worried that Pixie will pass too.
Is there anything I can do to help her? I normally massage her sides with an electric toothbrush or gently with my hands, but recently she started to cry when I'd do it so I have stopped. The vet didn't encourage me to do it either, so should I just leave her be? Also, we have a three hour ride home tomorrow with her and I'm hoping the bumps and everything along the way will help to work some gas out of her, but Clover became very very weak during this same ride last month and had to be put down the next day, so I'm anxious. We have to make this drive to get back to our home, but I don't want history to repeat itself. Is there anything more I can do for her?
She eats, poops, drinks, and sleeps (a lot), nothing much has changed with her besides the appearance of the bloat itself. I'm not sure if there's something clearly wrong with her diet that explains her bloat but her normal feeding schedule is something like this:
7 am: 1/2 an Oxbow vitamin C cookie
10 am, 12 pm, 3 pm: 1/3 or 1/2 of a cranberry/peppermint Oxbow cookie
7 pm: 1/2 an Oxbow vitamin C cookie + new pellets (1 tablespoon of an Oxbow and ZuPreem pellet mix - She's never loved her pellets much, usually hardly touching them at all, Clover was the same. They were originally fed one of those dried fruit mixes before we rescued them and so far, she's never came around to the new food)
7:30 pm: 1 cup of veggies and fruit - this week the veggies were red lettuce (1 decently sized leaf), radicchio (1 leaf every two days), and red bell pepper (1 ring of it). She had 1 blueberry this week as well.
She'd have a mix of Timothy, Meadow, and Orchard all day too.
I had always heard guinea pigs could have bell pepper every day, but had no idea how high in sugar red bell pepper was. She'd normally have green or yellow each day without issue but now that she's started on red she's bloated all of the sudden. The introduction of Meadow hay and more Timothy was new this week too, but I have never heard of a guinea pig reacting poorly to new hays.
Is there something I'm doing wrong or any other way I can try to help her?
As some of you may know, my dear Clover passed away December 19th, almost a month ago, due to extreme bloat and what seemed to be an inner ear infection. After 3 months of trying to convince our old vet that she was regularly bloated, when we finally switched clinics and found out that she truly was - it was too late.
Now I'm afraid we're experiencing this all over again with Pixie. It started with a grumbly tummy about a week ago and now it has gotten to the point where her sides are swelling and she cries when I massage her, she's very sensitive and uncomfortable, the poor dear. She's been off veggies for 48 hours now but I think red bell pepper is to blame. We took her to the vet today and got her a physical and an x-ray, luckily no tumors or obstructions and the swelling was found not to be due to any liquid/blood, just gas.
Her x-ray was examined by a specialist and she believes Pixie's bloat is due to the bacteria present in her gut, so it was suggested her diet is changed. We were told to continue to stay off the veggies, pull back on the pellets, and increase her Timothy. We weren't given any medication to help with pain or gas relief, which makes me feel like they think it isn't too serious, but I'm still so nervous. After our experience with Clover I'm worried that Pixie will pass too.
Is there anything I can do to help her? I normally massage her sides with an electric toothbrush or gently with my hands, but recently she started to cry when I'd do it so I have stopped. The vet didn't encourage me to do it either, so should I just leave her be? Also, we have a three hour ride home tomorrow with her and I'm hoping the bumps and everything along the way will help to work some gas out of her, but Clover became very very weak during this same ride last month and had to be put down the next day, so I'm anxious. We have to make this drive to get back to our home, but I don't want history to repeat itself. Is there anything more I can do for her?
She eats, poops, drinks, and sleeps (a lot), nothing much has changed with her besides the appearance of the bloat itself. I'm not sure if there's something clearly wrong with her diet that explains her bloat but her normal feeding schedule is something like this:
7 am: 1/2 an Oxbow vitamin C cookie
10 am, 12 pm, 3 pm: 1/3 or 1/2 of a cranberry/peppermint Oxbow cookie
7 pm: 1/2 an Oxbow vitamin C cookie + new pellets (1 tablespoon of an Oxbow and ZuPreem pellet mix - She's never loved her pellets much, usually hardly touching them at all, Clover was the same. They were originally fed one of those dried fruit mixes before we rescued them and so far, she's never came around to the new food)
7:30 pm: 1 cup of veggies and fruit - this week the veggies were red lettuce (1 decently sized leaf), radicchio (1 leaf every two days), and red bell pepper (1 ring of it). She had 1 blueberry this week as well.
She'd have a mix of Timothy, Meadow, and Orchard all day too.
I had always heard guinea pigs could have bell pepper every day, but had no idea how high in sugar red bell pepper was. She'd normally have green or yellow each day without issue but now that she's started on red she's bloated all of the sudden. The introduction of Meadow hay and more Timothy was new this week too, but I have never heard of a guinea pig reacting poorly to new hays.
Is there something I'm doing wrong or any other way I can try to help her?