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New baby not eating

I am so sorry for your losses and it's ok to feel sad, it's heartbreaking when we lose any of our beloved guineas no mater how long they are in our lives or how long ago it is since they crossed The Rainbow Bridge 🌈
 
So today he has really perked up. Hes really enjoyed his critical care now its a bit thicker,and is eating hay regularly, but not in big quantities.
We stopped the emeprid after the last dose at 8am(we have more here)

The only concern I have this evening..for the 1st week,his poops were tiny and dry..then he went downhill and had hardly any and a couple squishy ones.
Then we saw the vet
And up until this evening, he has been passing much more normal guinea pig poos

This evening he did seem to squeak in discomfort and pooped an a massive poop on me. It was around the length of 3 poops,all in one go.
He then squeaked and did another poop in similar size. I put him back in his bed,and he sat a bit hunched,little squeak and did another big one and ate it.

My theory is...hes now getting proper care with us,hay and cc ...so maybe his little belly is trying to adjust and settle ?
 
pumpkinandpeanut said:
My theory is...hes now getting proper care with us,hay and cc ...so maybe his little belly is trying to adjust and settle ?
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Yes.
Small and dry poops indicate lack of food intake, lack of fluid.
No or reduced poops indicate a period when he wasnt eating enough.
Now his gut is adjusting and he is starting ti get enough food, poops should become more frequent and normalise.
Poop output is 1-2 days behind food intake
 
Piggies&buns said:
Yes.
Small and dry poops indicate lack of food intake, lack of fluid.
No or reduced poops indicate a period when he wasnt eating enough.
Now his gut is adjusting and he is starting ti get enough food, poops should become more frequent and normalise.
Poop output is 1-2 days behind food intake
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Thank you,bless him. He did find the long ones uncomfortable to pass 😞. If it continues, we will go back to the vet. I wont give up on this little sweetheart
 
Sorry for the poop pic.
This is one(which came out in one go,not in 2 parts)that made him squeak with discomfort.
 

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Piggies&buns said:
Offer him as much critical care as he wants but obviously hay is the important bit.
As long as he isn’t losing weight then anything upwards is a bonus at this stage and until he gets better at following what your older piggy is doing.

Remember kale is very high in calcium so make sure he doesn’t get much. Try him with some herbs - coriander is a safe daily herb
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Perhaps you can mix a tiny bit of juice from veg like cucumber, lettuce, pepper etc. into his feed, just so it is in the background but he is learning to accept the taste as 'safe to eat' - piggies have double the amount of taste buds compared to us, so it only needs a trace.
It is this learning from his elders that he lacks. Babies normally get those traces in their mother's milk so they don't have any tummy upsets when they learn to eat solids, first by nibbling and sniffing mouths and snatching food from their elders' mouths. It looks like he has had not much in the way of socialisation and of course no chance of learning what it is proper food.

As long as you can keep his weight stable, then you are doing fine. Baby will hopefully with every day find his feet in his new home a little more and discover more edible things. If he is starting to watch his mate and starting to mimic, then you know you are onto a winner. Please also make sure that he learns to lick water from a syringe tip to encourage him drinking from a bottle.

If you can, try other herbs like coriander/cilantro, parsley and a few blades of grass. Small amounts of greens often go down best and first.
 
pumpkinandpeanut said:
Sorry for the poop pic.
This is one(which came out in one go,not in 2 parts)that made him squeak with discomfort.
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It looks like a minor tummy upset because his gut microbiome is not geared up for fresh food. Always start with any new food in very small quantities and then gradually build them up so the gut microbiome can grow the specialist microbiome.

I wonder whether giving him some fresh 'poo soup' (water in which very freshly dropped healthy poos from a companion have been shortly soaked so that it contains live healthy guinea pig microbiome) for a few days could help to kickstart his digestion with exactly the digestive specialist bacteria that he needs? The shorter the time between dropping a poo and the water reaching the gut, the greater the chance of microbiome reaching their destination while still alive.
Probiotics & Live Gut Microbiome Transfer ('Poo Soup'); Recovery Formula Foods And Vitamin C: Overview With Product Links and Transfer Recipe

Adding some extra formula herbivore probiotic to his syringe feed is more generic but it can also help his bolster his poorly gut.
 
CTWC said:
How is baby doing this morning? 🤗
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A couple of big poops in the eve,but we didnt hear him squeak and hes running around well this morning and nibbling hay.
His base weight has risen to 388 this morning and hes trying to snatch our other boys lettuce out of his mouth. Hes also bottle drinking really well. And hes picking up and dropping his new pellets,which is a start,as he wouldn't even go near them until now. Hes also eating his own poop alot.
Hes definitely looking up to his big brother, who absolutely adores him,as do we. I think its going to be a long road ahead,with getting weight on him,off the cc etc,but we will do absolutely everything we can for him. And he really is attached to me,he will run over and climb up my arm to snuggle in my neck. I'm trying not to get too attached incase all this is to no avail,but he isnt making it easy . I mean,how could you not love that little face.
 

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Well it was going well,and now hes squeaked and passed this very long soft poop. It seems as soon as we stopped the emeprid ,within a few hours,he makes these long poops.

I think we need to ask our vet do we need to continue the emeprid for a few more days and I wonder if he needs a little pain relief as well

Still munching hay
IMG-20261013-WA0007.webp
 
pumpkinandpeanut said:
Well it was going well,and now hes squeaked and passed this very long soft poop. It seems as soon as we stopped the emeprid ,within a few hours,he makes these long poops.

I think we need to ask our vet do we need to continue the emeprid for a few more days and I wonder if he needs a little pain relief as well

Still munching hay
View attachment 289845
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Please contact your vet as to whether he has got something more going on than an upset gut and not eating.
 
Wiebke said:
Please contact your vet as to whether he has got something more going on than an upset gut and not eating.
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Vet is phoning us in a mo. Hes eating hay,hes spent most the morning continously eating hay and hes started eating his guinea pig pellets as well.
I think his belly is just not use to hay and proper food, so I wonder if that is why hes passing the occasional odd shape wet and long poop
 
pumpkinandpeanut said:
Vet is phoning us in a mo. Hes eating hay,hes spent most the morning continously eating hay and hes started eating his guinea pig pellets as well.
I think his belly is just not use to hay and proper food, so I wonder if that is why hes passing the occasional odd shape wet and long poop
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Please also keep in mind that it takes about a day for food to pass from one end of the body to the other. Those poos from this morning reflect what has eaten a day before. With a little luck his poos are getting firmer and fuller with every passing day.

Supporting the build of the gut microbiome will additionally help to improve the digestive process; I am sure your vet will agree.
 
pumpkinandpeanut said:
A couple of big poops in the eve,but we didnt hear him squeak and hes running around well this morning and nibbling hay.
His base weight has risen to 388 this morning and hes trying to snatch our other boys lettuce out of his mouth. Hes also bottle drinking really well. And hes picking up and dropping his new pellets,which is a start,as he wouldn't even go near them until now. Hes also eating his own poop alot.
Hes definitely looking up to his big brother, who absolutely adores him,as do we. I think its going to be a long road ahead,with getting weight on him,off the cc etc,but we will do absolutely everything we can for him. And he really is attached to me,he will run over and climb up my arm to snuggle in my neck. I'm trying not to get too attached incase all this is to no avail,but he isnt making it easy . I mean,how could you not love that little face.
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What a little cutie boy!

You will find that once he has found his feet and his body has adapted that his weight will just shoot up at 50g per week for several weeks and then stop again. But as long as he eats normally, he has time and your good normal care on his side to reach a perfectly normal adult weight and size and to live a happy life despite his bad start.

Keep in mind that adulthood is not until about 14 months of age and that piggies coming from a bad background have the ability to make up some lost ground in terms of size/weigh until they are about 2 years old, as I know from my own experiences of adopting piggies who were quite literally only skin and bones...

Please keep us updated. We are all rooting for you.
 
Had a little chat to vet and vet is calling again tomorrow and will be consulting with some if his colleagues. He feels its a gut motility issue,due to the horrendous diet he was on when he arrived,and then we changed him to hay and pellets. He wants to avoid pain relief at the mo,but wants to re start the emeprid to help support the poops and see if it settles over the coming days.
 
pumpkinandpeanut said:
Had a little chat to vet and vet is calling again tomorrow and will be consulting with some if his colleagues. He feels its a gut motility issue,due to the horrendous diet he was on when he arrived,and then we changed him to hay and pellets. He wants to avoid pain relief at the mo,but wants to re start the emeprid to help support the poops and see if it settles over the coming days.
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Have you tried poo soup or probiotics yet? It will hopefully also help to steady the digestive process.
It's the lack of hay (that he has obviously never had) that is most likely the problem, which has caused a bit of GI stasis. But it sounds like you are getting over it as he is starting to eat increasingly on his own.
 
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