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My piggie isn't drinking :(

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pigglelover

pigglelover

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So I posted a couple of weeks ago about my guinea pig Mibbs. She had a very badly swollen foot and had to go for surgery to get the puss removed.

Since then my vet has prescribed Metacam, septrin, baytril and emprid. We took her off the emprid after a week as her eating it normal.

Anyway, the reason I'm posting this thread is because she isn't drinking at all! I am dipping her veggies into water before giving her them so that she is getting additional water from that!

I did speak to my vet about this but she didn't seem to be overly concerned about it?

Mibbs' bowel movements are also very irregular, some days she only does about 4 poos whereas today she has down so many - almost like diarrhoea they are very very soft. She is also eating a lot more of her poos than what she normally did before the surgery.

Does anyone have any advice or any ideas what is causing this?

Thanks,
Abigail x
 
Some guinea pigs drink quite a bit and others won't; they get their fluid through the water in the fresh veg and grass.

Baytril is an antibiotic that is well known for causing problems with the guts. With so many antibiotics, it would be advisable to give her probitiotics to help steady her digestion, unless your vet has already prescribed any? Or, if you have other piggies, you can feed her mushed up fresh poos from other healthy piggies that contain all the good bacteria she needs. Probiotics you can get from your vets or from the internet, or in an urgent case, even from p@h. It would be good to always have some at home.
Here is a list of what probiotics are on the market: http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=46964

Guinea pigs eat some of their poos. they can't make their own vitamin C and need to conserve any they have by eating a special sort of poo that contains all the vitamin C that would otherwise be lost. Please make sure that you always feed one veg high in vitamin C daily, be a slice or two of pepper of any colour, a floret or bit of stem of broccoli or some parsley. If necessary, top up an ill piggy by dissolving 1/8 of a normal vitamin C table in a little bit of water and syringe that for best results.

It would be good to weigh your girl daily instead of weekly to see how much she really is eating; just watching can be deceptive. Make sure that she has plenty of hay (up to 80% of the daily food intake). If she continues to lose weight, you may have to consider topping up her weight by hand feeding either recovery food or mushed up good quality pellets.
http://www.guinealynx.info/weigh.html
http://www.guinealynx.info/handfeeding.html
 
The medication is most likely causing her tummy to be upset. You need to get her on some probitics ASAP. Have you got some? If not there is a PAH in cumbernauld that sell a probiotic (in a yellow tub) and if her stool is still loose after giving her this reduce her veggies. You will have to syringe feed the probtioc in water though, little and often is the key. Are you comfortable doing this?
 
Wiebke said:
Some guinea pigs drink quite a bit and others won't; they get their fluid through the water in the fresh veg and grass.

Baytril is an antibiotic that is well known for causing problems with the guts. With so many antibiotics, it would be advisable to give her probitiotics to help steady her digestion, unless your vet has already prescribed any? Or, if you have other piggies, you can feed her mushed up fresh poos from other healthy piggies that contain all the good bacteria she needs. Probiotics you can get from your vets or from the internet, or in an urgent case, even from p@h. It would be good to always have some at home.
Here is a list of what probiotics are on the market: http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=46964

Guinea pigs eat some of their poos. they can't make their own vitamin C and need to conserve any they have by eating a special sort of poo that contains all the vitamin C that would otherwise be lost. Please make sure that you always feed one veg high in vitamin C daily, be a slice or two of pepper of any colour, a floret or bit of stem of broccoli or some parsley. If necessary, top up an ill piggy by dissolving 1/8 of a normal vitamin C table in a little bit of water and syringe that for best results.

It would be good to weigh your girl daily instead of weekly to see how much she really is eating; just watching can be deceptive. Make sure that she has plenty of hay (up to 80% of the daily food intake). If she continues to lose weight, you may have to consider topping up her weight by hand feeding either recovery food or mushed up good quality pellets.
http://www.guinealynx.info/weigh.html
http://www.guinealynx.info/handfeeding.html
Click to expand...


Ok brilliant your advice is really good!

I am doing daily weights on her, she did take a slight dip earlier on in the week (60g) but it's back up to what it was. Her weight at the moment is 1130g.

I'll go and get some probiotics just now (sadly from p@h :().

Another thing I had noticed is that her appetite has totally changed, although she is still eating her hay she won't take half of the veggies she used to love! No brocolli, carrots,spinach or anything. The only veg she seems to be taking is lettuce leaves :(
 
hazeyg said:
The medication is most likely causing her tummy to be upset. You need to get her on some probitics ASAP. Have you got some? If not there is a PAH in cumbernauld that sell a probiotic (in a yellow tub) and if her stool is still loose after giving her this reduce her veggies. You will have to syringe feed the probtioc in water though, little and often is the key. Are you comfortable doing this?
Click to expand...

I live in cumbernauld so I'm on my way to the P@H now! Thank you very much for your advice. And yeah I'm a lot more comfortable with syringe feeding than what I was previously so should be ok (touch wood!)
 
If your tummy is upset, your appetite is usually not great. Timothy hay is the best thing to steady the guts; stay off fresh veg until the poos have firmed up again. Once her guts are working better, she will have more of an appetite. Fresh herbs like parsley and coriander are usully quite good for piggies that are feeling off, as they contain a range of vitamins and minerals; coriander is the one herb that you can feed daily.

Great that you are keeping a close eye on her weight!
 
pigglelover said:
Yeah that's what the vet prescribed me... 0.67mls twice a day for septrin and 0.44ml twice a day baytril. Is this bad?x
Click to expand...

Hang on, I'm a bit concerned you are giving 2 different antibiotic here.
Need to check this out, no wonder her tummy is upset
 
pigglelover said:
Oh god now i'm so worried! I'm only giving here these antibiotics because that is what the vet has told me to give her :(
Click to expand...

Just re-checked, Suzy has had experience that some vets do combine the two.
So Sorry for worrying you!

I have used both of this antibiotics seperately and I have changed from one to the other but never used them at the same time so it did concern me at first.

Amanda might confirm this too, Amanda?
 
Salt n Peppers mum said:
Just re-checked, Suzy has had experience that some vets do combine the two.
So Sorry for worrying you!

I have used both of this antibiotics seperately and I have changed from one to the other but never used them at the same time so it did concern me at first.
Click to expand...

phewwwww! gosh i was in a mad panic there! it is good that you picked up on it though as I never thought to question it.

Off to P@H now for some timothy hay and probiotics! Then off to tesco for some parsley and corriander!
Thank you everyone I will let you know how Mibbs and I get on x
 
My piggie have been on two different antibiotics at the same time. It will be causing the upset but if the vet has prescribed both there will be a reason for it. Please dont stop the treatment without speaking to your vet this coudl make things much worse.

The probiotic is about £5 pounds and it has vitamins and electrolytes in it also for dehydrated piggies. I know we dont condone PAH but that stuff really is very good.

Mix about a quarter to half of a scoop into about 50mls and syringe the water little and often. Rememebr to make it up fresh every time you give it.

PAH also have Alfalfa kind oxbow hay- its an excellent hay, and brilliant quality. This will be sure to get her guts on the right track as well.

How is the weight doing?
 
I know many people who have given two antibiotics, so don't worry. It's due to the nature of the infection.

It's not unusual for Baytril and Septrin to be given together, she would benefit from a pro-biotic you can get fiberplex from vetuk.
 
Abigail you could ty your vets for probiotic's they will probably have fiberplex and it's sold over the counter.

How is Mibbs weight doing now?

Is she still eating well?
 
hazeyg said:
My piggie have been on two different antibiotics at the same time. It will be causing the upset but if the vet has prescribed both there will be a reason for it. Please dont stop the treatment without speaking to your vet this coudl make things much worse.

The probiotic is about £5 pounds and it has vitamins and electrolytes in it also for dehydrated piggies. I know we dont condone PAH but that stuff really is very good.

Mix about a quarter to half of a scoop into about 50mls and syringe the water little and often. Rememebr to make it up fresh every time you give it.

PAH also have Alfalfa kind oxbow hay- its an excellent hay, and brilliant quality. This will be sure to get her guts on the right track as well.

How is the weight doing?
Click to expand...

At the moment she weighs 1130g, she took a slight dip earlier on in the week where she went down to 1060g but I managed to bring it back up by hand feeding her quite a bit and it seems to have stayed quite steady over the past 3 days.

Weibke had recommended Timothy Hay, is this better than Alfafa for the gut?
 
Salt n Peppers mum said:
Just re-checked, Suzy has had experience that some vets do combine the two.
So Sorry for worrying you!

I have used both of this antibiotics seperately and I have changed from one to the other but never used them at the same time so it did concern me at first.

Amanda might confirm this too, Amanda?
Click to expand...

Yes, they work in different ways, so it's fine. Also a sign that the vet is willing to try different things which is always good!

flintstones said:
I know many people who have given two antibiotics, so don't worry. It's due to the nature of the infection.

It's not unusual for Baytril and Septrin to be given together, she would benefit from a pro-biotic you can get fiberplex from vetuk.
Click to expand...

Fibreplex is also good for bulking up their poos a bit if they're a bit soft! If she has diarrhoea though, she needs to go back to the vet.
 
Amanda, Abigial uses a very good guinea pig vet - it's not mine but it is another who comes highly recommended.

Well done Abigail, she's more than what she weighed when i was there!

Xx
 
flintstones said:
Abigail you could ty your vets for probiotic's they will probably have fiberplex and it's sold over the counter.

How is Mibbs weight doing now?

Is she still eating well?
Click to expand...


Joanne,
she eats all her hay really well and will take some veggies but not all.
I'll go to my vets first to see if they've got it - anything but P@H. I know they definitely have loads of hays at my vets so off i go!
 
hazeyg said:
FYI- if you get bright orange pee- it will be the fibre plex- dont panic!
Click to expand...

Ok doke! It's already very dark yellow just now, but I'm guessing that's because she's not been drinking a lot of water so it's quite concentrated?

I bought timothy hay. Couldn't get fibreplex from my vet so had to go to P@H and get this stuff:
14208.jpg


Will this be ok? x
 
Thats the stuff I meant. Really this product is very good. Ive had better results with that than the fibre-plex. Remember not to put it in the water bottle as its instructs as she's not drinking syringe feed it as I said before.

Hmmmm I put the orange pee I had down to the fibre plex but thinking back now it could have been the antibiotics. Ive had it in two piggies on septrin and fibreplex. Dont be alarmed when shes better and off medication it will disappear.

Once she's finished her meds her tummy will return to normal but the probiotics and lots of hay will help in the meantime.
 
Just thinking ........ the lettuce even tho it's high in water which she needs, it could be that making her poops runny ?

SENDING HEALING WHEEEEEEEEKS AND LOVES FOR MIBBS XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 
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