Beech has been suffering similarly now for the last year....Vet thinks he has an inflammation around the valve that permits food to enter the colon from the caecum...hence why he is in pain but eats normally (yet whimpers after food for ages) and has problems expressing his caceotrophs....however we will see what wednesday's results bring. I will post back on your thread as I think this is of interest to a lot of piggie owners.
Sorry to hear of another piggy suffering from the same/a similar thing.
Now that you mention it, my Yossi also sometimes makes a kind of whimpering noise after eating, but I've only ever noticed it after he's eaten his veg - his pellets/hay doesn't seem to trigger it. It seems to start around 30 mins after eating but doesn't last too long, maybe a few minutes on and off. As far as I can tell, it sounds more like mild-ish discomfort, rather than severe sharp pains, as he doesn't actually squeak, he just kind of grumbles for a while, if that makes any sense.
Because I've only heard it after eating veg, I'd always associated it with that and assumed that it was some kind of intolerance to certain veg. I've gone round in circles, trying to identify the offending food(s). Not sure if it was just a coincidence but I've noticed that romaine lettuce definitely seems to set off this pain, unless I cut out the hard stalky bits and ribs from the leaves, so I thought it may be to do with the lactucarium - the milky white fluid. Since I've been more strict with his veg diet (ca : ph ratio-wise) this pain has also occurred much less often but that could well be a fluke, I just don't know.
His pain after eating seems to have started around the same time that he started having difficulty expressing caecotrophs, so your Vet's theory certainly seems logical here too. Yossi doesn't seem to suffer every day and any pain does seem to be fairly fleeting but obviously I'd love to erradicate it as much as possible, so any tips would be fantastic!
I know you're hot on piggy health, Pebble. In your opinion, do you think glucosamine could be of any benefit at all, in cases like this? I know Metacam will always reduce inflammation but just wondered if Cystease might also be a viable long term option.
Thanks for the help. Good luck with Beech's op - hope all goes well x
Twopiggies - I'm really glad you started this thread as it seems that this problem could be much more common that I'd realised. Fingers crossed we can figure it all out