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Not Eating/no Bowel Movement.

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Trotter95

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hiya,

Before we start I don't want to jumping to any conclusion but advice would be great.

I have read so many posts but still not sure what is wrong with my 1 year 2 months old Guinea pig. Name Curly Wurly. Last week she had diarrhea and it does gives out awful smell. She stopped eating and drinking. She also stopped making bowel movements (over the weekend). She lost weight as you can feel her bones. Took her to the vets on Monday and they reckon it's infection in bowel. She was prescribed with baytril. We returned to the vets on Wednesday for a check up she lost more weight and no change has been made so they decided to continue with baytril and prescribed her with fibreoplex, recovery food and cisapride. They said that's all they can do. They preferred that we spend our money somewhere else as they don't want wasting our money. We (myself and my partner) had to hand feed her the food and medicine also water every now and then.

She has that crackling breathing sound. We was told that her poos is lining up in her bowel but don't know why it wouldn't come out.

I am willing to grab every opportunity to help her. We have specialist booked next Wednesday in Northampton but until then how can we keep her going.
 
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She needs to be force fed food and water to survive. If she's not pooping or peeing then she is not getting enough food. Please read the handfeeding pages for advice. Critical care is the common food that is handfed, or you can mix some of their food pellets with water and syringe them that. 60cc for a 1kg pig per day is the standard amount.

I don't want to scare you but they can pass away very quickly if they don't eat. Your pig won't survive until next Wednesday unless she is fed and starts to pee and poop.

If you add your location to your profile then we might be able to suggest another vet to try. There are many reasons why they don't eat. Not eating can be a secondary problem to something else, so you really need a good vet to find out the problem
 
Jaycey said:
She needs to be force fed food and water to survive. If she's not pooping or peeing then she is not getting enough food. Please read the handfeeding pages for advice. Critical care is the common food that is handfed, or you can mix some of their food pellets with water and syringe them that. 60cc for a 1kg pig per day is the standard amount.

I don't want to scare you but they can pass away very quickly if they don't eat. Your pig won't survive until next Wednesday unless she is fed and starts to pee and poop.

If you add your location to your profile then we might be able to suggest another vet to try. There are many reasons why they don't eat. Not eating can be a secondary problem to something else, so you really need a good vet to find out the problem
Click to expand...

I did mention that we do hand feed her but she just won't eat it. Some do go down inside her and some just come out of her mouth.
If I'm honest I am surprised that she is still with us after one week of no bowel movements as I am aware situation like this is pretty serious.
I have just added my location.
She is producing poo, it just inside her bowel that is ready to come out.
 
Is she gaining weight, or at least not losing any? If you are handfeeding her and she's not pooping then she must have a blockage somewhere. A vet will need to perform an x-ray to confirm it. If that is the case then an experienced vet will be able to decide if they could operate on her or if there was anything else they can do

If she's losing weight, then it could be that she's not eating enough. 60cc is a lot of food to get into them each day, so it's recommended to split it over 6 sittings, giving 10cc at at time, and whatever water they will take. It is a very hard job to syringe feed. You need a good syringe, like a 1cc syringe with the end chopped off. Don't feed more than 0.3cc at a time or else they can choke. Also, take it slow and steady, feeding a pig that's not eating at all is practically a full time job. Last time I had to do I had a wonderful friend on hand who took over for me for a day when I was too exhausted to continue myself.
 
The vets coming up closest to Luton on the Vet Locator are:

The Veterinary Centre
Norton Way North
Letchworth
Hertfordshire SG6 1BS
01462 685882

Vets & Pets LTD
Amir Kashiv
Unit 11 Nazeing Industrial Estate
Nazeing New Road
Borxbourne, EN10 6SU
01992 478657

Beaumont Sainsbury Animal Hospital
Nadene Stapleton
Royal College Street
Camden
London, London NW1 0TU
020 7387 8134
 
Jaycey said:
Is she gaining weight, or at least not losing any? If you are handfeeding her and she's not pooping then she must have a blockage somewhere. A vet will need to perform an x-ray to confirm it. If that is the case then an experienced vet will be able to decide if they could operate on her or if there was anything else they can do

If she's losing weight, then it could be that she's not eating enough. 60cc is a lot of food to get into them each day, so it's recommended to split it over 6 sittings, giving 10cc at at time, and whatever water they will take. It is a very hard job to syringe feed. You need a good syringe, like a 1cc syringe with the end chopped off. Don't feed more than 0.3cc at a time or else they can choke. Also, take it slow and steady, feeding a pig that's not eating at all is practically a full time job. Last time I had to do I had a wonderful friend on hand who took over for me for a day when I was too exhausted to continue myself.
Click to expand...

It is hard to perform handfeeding as myself and my other half do work full time so we do try to feed her as much as possible when we are available.
I read a post somewhere that hay do help Guinea pig bowel movements. It is quite stressful but we are trying to be patience with her. I have already booked an appointment with Northampton cat and rabbit sanctuary as they do have plenty of experience with Guinea pig. I'm just concerned about keeping her alive from now til Wednesday.
 
Pigs should have access to hay at all times. It might be worth offering her a few different types to see if it tempts her, and I've even cut it into smaller pieces to see if that helps. When I have a pig who's not eating and I can't take time off to feed them I make sure I leave them lots of different things to try to eat when I'm not there. The veg they like chopped up into small pieces, their food pellets, some of them wet so they're softer. A good portion of critical care, or recovery food too. It might all end up being thrown away but I like to leave them with options just in case.

Just continue feeding her as much as you can, and if you see her getting worse it'll be worth seeing if you can get her seen by a guinea pig vet sooner. It'll be a tough weekend but see if you can get the full 60cc into her each day. Two days with a full portion of food will hopefully perk her up a bit.

The cat and rabbit care clinic is my vet, and hopefully it's good to hear that they'll definitely be able to help her somehow next Wednesday.

Is she okay in herself otherwise? Is she still wandering around her cage?
 
We do leave all sort of foods in "hospital cage" so we can monitor her closely (to see if she ate or made any bowel movements) but so far nothing. She is a very nervous one and always been like that since the day we got her so she usually hide somewhere. We did leave her with hay but she just lay on top.
 
Hmmm, I really can't think of anything else to try, other than trying to feed her more, or finding another vet to see sooner.

Please keep us updated if there any any changes, and I'm looking forward to hearing what the Cat and Rabbit Clinic confirm the problem to be.

Good Luck! :)
 
Jaycey has given you good advice. The most important thing is to keep her eating as much as you possibly can. If food stops going through her gut it will shut down and that is fatal for a guinea pig. Can you get to see the vet sooner? This is an emergency situation.
 
She has already seen the vets twice as mentioned before. We are currently handfeeding her as much as we can. I just wanted to see if anyone who experienced similar or same situation as mine. I read another post saying it could take a week possibly more for Guinea pig to open their bowel again.
 
Would it be possible to get her to the cat &rabbit clinic before Wednesday?-if u telephoned to tell them the situation, she's struggling to eat &not pooping they might be able to fit you in as an emergency.

Some guineas are a nightmare to syringe feed, I have had a couple!

I see u put she has crackly breathing, she may have a slight respiratory infection, if she's having difficulty breathing then its possible she's concentrating on that instead of eating.
In turn if she's not eating enough then her gut will go into stasis & then the missing or runny poops will increase, not eating enough can quickly become life threatening as the digestive system won't kick start itself quickly enough.

A blockage will need to be ruled out too though, &scan will confirm if there is one &what steps need to be taken from there.

Sounds like you're doing a good job so far, these piggies are exhausting when poorly &you work full time too :( :zzz:

I've never been to the cat &rabbit clinic but from all the info on here it sounds like they are the "gold plated number 1" guinea pig vets in the country.

Keep us updated &fingers crossed for your little furball friend :nod:
Xx
 
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I know you are handfeeding as much as she will eat- this isnt going to be enough. You have to make up the recovery food with water, draw it up into a syringe and then put it in her mouth. She will need a good 10-15ml every couple of hours. If you cant manage this due to work commitments (which i fully understand), she will need to stay with the vet or someone during the day that can do this. If not, her gut will shut down and she wont survive.

She sounds like she is now also developing a chest infection, so continue with the antibiotics. Since this is a new symptom, and her current situation isnt improving, she will need to see a vet today.

Wednesday is too far away, and they are a very piggy savvy vet- so please enquire about having her seen sooner, or taking her to one of the recommended vets listed above.

Feeding with a syringe is vital for her survival, and getting her to a vet sooner rather than later is very important.
 
We did try get her in this week but we couldn't because the staff is on the course and will return next week. I see if we can get her in on Monday instead of Wednesday and it will depend if they have space for Curly.
 
UPDATE: had to rush curly to the vets as soon as I came home from work and finding her lack of energy to move. Just when the vets is giving us (myself and my partner) options what to do with curly.
Curly made a decision for herself... She passed away in front of us. RIP Curly Wurly.
 
So Sorry - if they refuse food they can pass within a matter of hours - it really is frightening how quickly they can go - the body just shuts down - I have had a piggy go this way.
 
I am ever so sorry; you did what you could, but you were really up against it. Please don't feel guilty or like you have failed your girl - it sounded very serious and one of those situations where more has been going on than meets the eye. It also sounded to me like she had started to go into organ failure.

BIG HUGS
 
So sorry for your loss, its so hard when your Guinea pig decides not to eat, you feel so helpless, you did everything you could!
 
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