Not eating much and small poop after antibotics

[PrincessPiggies94]

Hello I recently posted about antibotics due to a URI and it has made a huge difference! There is no signs of cracking/hooting noises and general all rounded improvement although now I have noticed their poop is small and they are slightly lethagic and not eating as much or eating pellets at all which I am worried about! I did use a probotic which seems to not have helped. I am awaiting a call from my vet today and ordered critical care in which is due to arrive today. Has anyone else expierenced these problems with using antibotics such as zithromax?

 

[Piggies&buns]

I’m sorry to hear this.

Unfortunately antibiotics can knock their appetite. Zithromax is often well tolerated but when it does knock the appetite it can do so quite a lot.

Please urgently step in with syringe feeding. It is important that you also switch from the routine weekly weight checks and instead weigh daily (each morning before the first syringe feed of the day is best for accuracy). This enables you to more closely monitor hay and syringe feed intake. You are looking to keep their weight stable each day. This means you need to feed at least 60ml per day.

Small poops are due to lack of hay intake (poop output being 1-2 days behind food intake so it could mean your piggy has not been eating enough hay for a couple of days already).
Hay makes up 75-80% of daily food intake and it is that which the syringe feeding is replacing.
Mix their normal pellets with water to make a mush and use that to syringe feed as the emergency alternative in the absence of critical care.

I hope your piggy is ok

Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
How to Improvise Feeding Support in an Emergency

 

[andisafc]

Sending well wishes! We had a bad experience with zithromax, Bramble was prescribed it in April 2024 and it literally wiped his appetite within 45 minutes. Wasn't interested in hay or veggies! I had to syringe feed him for 4-6 weeks, the amount he needed over this time gradually decreased but it was a hard time BUT don't lose hope as it did turn around. We had metoclopromide and cisapride (probs spelt those wrong again!) to help with his gut movement during this time.

We used the Burgess Dual Care for syringe feeding.

Good luck!

 

[weepweeps]

Keep going with the syringe feed and also the probiotic mixed in. Once they have had their syringe feed offer some hay. I usually find a syringe feed kick starts the appetite for a while. Now they have finished the course I’m sure they will start to eat on their own soon.

 

[PrincessPiggies94]

Keep going with the syringe feed and also the probiotic mixed in. Once they have had their syringe feed offer some hay. I usually find a syringe feed kick starts the appetite for a while. Now they have finished the course I’m sure they will start to eat on their own soon.

Thankyou for your imput I'm doing that every 2 - 3 hours with as many syringes as they want per sitting. I'm ordering fibreplex as I think it will work alot better than the pro c as I feel like the dosing isn't the easiest with this one

 

[PrincessPiggies94]

Thankyou for the ressurance, I will admit it's scary to see them being less active and interested in veg or pellets. I had a feeling with the zithromax this would happen as it is a strong antibotic. Vet isn't in today so I will have to do the last dose and then when they call tommrow hopefully should be able to stop two of them on the antibotic aleast. I'm syringe feeding every 2 -3 hours and giving as many syringes as they want to have. So hopefully this should resolve soon enough.

Sending well wishes! We had a bad experience with zithromax, Bramble was prescribed it in April 2024 and it literally wiped his appetite within 45 minutes. Wasn't interested in hay or veggies! I had to syringe feed him for 4-6 weeks, the amount he needed over this time gradually decreased but it was a hard time BUT don't lose hope as it did turn around. We had metoclopromide and cisapride (probs spelt those wrong again!) to help with his gut movement during this time.

We used the Burgess Dual Care for syringe feeding.

Good luck!

Hank

 

[PrincessPiggies94]

I’m sorry to hear this.

Unfortunately antibiotics can knock their appetite. Zithromax is often well tolerated but when it does knock the appetite it can do so quite a lot.

Please urgently step in with syringe feeding. It is important that you also switch from the routine weekly weight checks and instead weigh daily (each morning before the first syringe feed of the day is best for accuracy). This enables you to more closely monitor hay and syringe feed intake. You are looking to keep their weight stable each day. This means you need to feed at least 60ml per day.

Small poops are due to lack of hay intake (poop output being 1-2 days behind food intake so it could mean your piggy has not been eating enough hay for a couple of days already).
Hay makes up 75-80% of daily food intake and it is that which the syringe feeding is replacing.
Mix their normal pellets with water to make a mush and use that to syringe feed as the emergency alternative in the absence of critical care.

I hope your piggy is ok

Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
How to Improvise Feeding Support in an Emergency

This all makes sense and I suspected it was down to the antibotics. They nibble at hay ocassionally but I have found its sort of not as much at the moment which explains the poops alot

 

[Ramia]

You could try some critical care in a bowl to make it easier on you.

 

[Merab]

I put critical care in a bowl in the cage anytime I’ve needed to boost a piggy appetite.
It complements the syringe feeding and encourages them to eat again.
I’ve found mine love their critical care with a small piece of mashed banana added in.