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My Poor Little Pop. Advice Please?

Emmamarie123

Emmamarie123

Junior Guinea Pig
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i don't know if you remember me but when I first got my popcorn he had a lot of chest infection and needed syringe feeding. I am extremely bonded to Pop after all the times I hand fed him and his active personality. Today I noticed he looked fluffed up and took him to the vets. They have diagnosed him with bloat. Sadly, this evening I noticed that his belly sounded like it was full of liquid when I lifted him up. At the vets he has had pain meds and he is on critical care. Tomorrow morning we are going back to give him a scan. My little guy is my best friend and I am so scared for tomorrow. At the moment he eats the tiniest bit of veg and I am giving him critical care every 2 hours. I have looked into liquid bloat and it has really scared me.

Some quick questions should I continue to massage if I suspect liquid bloat? Or will it make it worse? At the moment he is moving around a little but he id definitely not himself.
Hoping for him to continue allowing me to give him critical care.
 
Bloat is not a nice thing. There isn't really such thing a liquid bloat, bloating is just a cumulation of air within the stomach usually. Massage will help of your very gentle. Excercise is also good as it promotes the guts to move.

The best treatment for bloat is aggressive syringe feeding with critical care every four hours (10-15ml at a time ideally), and lots of pain relief and gut stimulants to get the air to move through.

Sometimes you never find the reason for bloat unfortunately but it can be treated with the above with some success. If he deteriorates at any time he may need to be taken to the vets during the night to have the air drained as if it becomes excessive it can be life threatening.

Hope he is on the mend soon. Thinking of you.
 
Thank you :) I have been giving critical care, I think I have more on me than him though. He doesn't like the critical care but I have been getting some into him. He does sometimes waddle off on the floor making his popcorn noise and I cried as I was so happy to hear it. I know he's not well as he is Obsessed with his veggies and now he will have maybe a nibble if we are lucky.
Alaska his friend is super shy so he follows popcorn everywhere. They are both in my thumbnail. Popcorn is on the left.
 
Hello all,
This morning Popcorn had some veggies with his friend Alaska. Not sure whether to bring him today as the vet did say if he started eating again give it a day. Going to see how he is in a couple of hours
 
My advice would be to take him for a checkup at the vets anyway. Just seeing Popcorn nibble on some veggies doesn't mean he is eating properly yet.
 
Hello took him back this morning. The vet was pleased as he was running around the table. The medication he gave him lasts two days so I will be bringing him back tomorrow for the X-ray scan. He is eating his spinach now and had some pellets. He hates the critical care and the vet agreed that as long as I can see him eating we can stay off it for now. The only thing I am worried about is that I haven’t seen him pee. Today I am going to put him in a box while I clean out the cage and see if he does. If he doesn’t I will of course report that to the vet tomorrow. He is coming up to the front of the cage for food again :)
 
So he peed a little tonight. But was making a noise when I tried to give critical care and seemed in pain again. Vet gave me Zantac to give 2 times daily from tomorrow. He also gave him another pain med .He seems a little sadder tonight. Having to give critical care by syringe. He is very up and down. Just want my happy little pop back. :(
 
So this morning Pop is making a wheezing sound when he breathes. Ringing the vets when it opens at 8:30. I managed to get some critical care into him this morning.
 
Don’t know if the Zantac is working too well as he is very watery diarrhoea. Got a vet appointment for 9:30
 
Aren't you meant to take your pigs off veg for a while if you have bloat? Especially something like spinach as they're what I call "gassy veg". I'd definitely take him off all veg if he's got diarrhoea.

Are you still syringe feeding? Just give him hay, nuggets and syringe food for now and pop him back to the vets. I'd imagine it should start to get a bit better without the veg as I believe Zantac is the best meds for the job. Is he still feeling bloated?

Might be worth asking for Fibreplex if you haven't got it already :)
 
He’s on no veggies now. Previously we were just trying to get him to eat something and the only thing he would nibble was spinach.
 
Is it still the bloating issue or is it something chesty now? Poor little guy, hope he starts to feel better soon :)
 
He is definitely still bloated so I think the chest issue could be on top of it :( just going to see what the vet says and hopefully get an X-ray
 
I'll tag @Wiebke as she'll be the best for this.

I'm sure he'll be sorted out soon, I guess it's still early days and I'm sure he'll be right as rain before you know it :)
 
Just got back from the vets. His chest is crackly. The vet is worried his bloating isn’t going down. He is staying their to have an X-ray and then he will phone with results in a few hours. Feel sick :(
 
I’m sending healing vibes your way. :wub:
He’s in the best place & it’s good they’re gonna do an X-ray to find out more. Try not to worry too much cos you don’t wanna make yourself poorly too. x
 
Hello everyone,
Had a phone call and there was nothing nasty on the xray which is good news :) He is really worried about his gut though as it is still not working properly. He could see a lot of bloating on the scan. At the moment he is on baytril because he heard crackling in the chest. He is also still on zantac. I give him hourly critical care which he actually seems to be taking a bit better now. He has about 2-5ml. Vet was worried about aspirating so using a small syringe and being very careful. Hoping that his gut starts working again and he continues to take his critical care. Included two photos. The one with me was last night when I was really afraid we were going to lose him. The one below is him when he got home from the vets.
 
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