Oxbow Urinary And Digestion Support Tablet Feeding Issue!

[Misslizd13]

hello I have just started feeding my cavys the oxbow urinary support and digestion support tabs daily. I give 1/2 of each to each of my guinea pigs daily..well try to. Little foot my youngster piggy will eat part of the tab but the boss piggy mocha won't touch them at all. She sniffs them then scampers away. Littlefoot will eat part of 1/2 of one but that's about it. I've put them broken into smaller pieces in their food and they will eat around them... not sure what to do.
They get vitamin c in their water daily which they love, they get Timothy hay 24/7, 1/8 cup of pellets Each per day as they are a bit too chubby, and they get fresh veggies daily. Peppers, green or red leaf lettuce, small piece of carrot, zucchini, yellow squash. They eat those like crazy. They get fruit treats once in a while.

Any advice on what to do about tabs would be very much appreciated. Vet told me I should feed them half of each daily but not even she knows what to do now.

 

[Swissgreys]

Hello and welcome to the Forum.


Your piggies general diet sounds good, so I am unclear as to why your vet has recommended supplements?
Does one or both of them have issues with digestion or urinary problems?
Diet wise the only suggestion i would make would be to reduce the carrot from daily to once a week as it is quite high in sugar and you mentioned your piggies are overweight.
I would also be wary of overdoing the Vitamin C.
If you add it to their water then you have no control over what dose each piggy will be getting.
If they are fed a quality pellet, unlimited good quality hay and daily fresh, then I don't see any reason to use supplements at all to be honest.

 

[Misslizd13]

Thanks for your response. My younger cavy has had issues with vitamin c deficiency so the vitamin c is added to their water daily which has helped tons since I started doing it. Hasn't had issues with that since I started. She had upper respiratory infection when I first adopted her and I almost lost her. The previous owner took her back because of the issue starting and claimed she took her to the vet for medicine and when I got her back she looked worse than when i adopted her so I took her in myself and the previous owner covered the bill and she got better. Was quarantined of course from other piggy. I was told to start these two supplements due to soft stools and issues with urine and their urinary tract at times. I've seen good reviews of these and only give each half of each hand fed. I tried breaking into their food but they won't eat them.. littlefoot eats part of one half but won't finish and mocha my more dominant older piggy won't eat either at all. She sniffs them then runs away. She loves loves loves her veggies and treats and probably thinks that is what I'm bringing her..so when she sniffs the tabs and realizes they aren't fresh veggies she scampers away.

 

[rome_italy]

hello and welcome from me, too!
I see that your diet does not include the only food which is really appropriated for their gut... that is GRASS. Fresh grass is rich of nutrients and vitamins (also vit C) and the gut develops the right bacteria when grass and hay are eaten. Vegs are a different food... they are important but their nitrates and ph are different... they might have high levels of sugars, calcium, etc. They are important but cannot replace hay and grass. My piggies eat 90% fresh grass (and hay), only a little piece of veg, no pellets and are growing up amazingly without any bladder issue (consider that one of them came home with a bladder alert).
About the vit C, I also give a little supplement (I don't use fortified pellets, only as a treat), it would not be necessary but a little supplement of vit C is not dangerous (here in Italy all the vets suggest some vit C and piggies don't develop any weird trouble), but no doctor here suggests the vit C into the water bottle, because it would lose the effect after some hour (or less) due to the light, the temperature of the room, etc.
The supplement recommended here is only the one for children, in drops, easy to be dosed (each drop has 6mg vit C), prepared and diluited and immediately given to the piggie using a syringe (into its mouth).
My advice for you is to go to the lawns with bag and knife to cut some very good natural food. You will see great differences in quality of poo and wee.
Mine have unlimited grass, spend the day eating and eating and are "slim"...

 

[rome_italy]

PS: the only supplement suggested here is Cebion drops. No Oxbow. And yes, I agree that vit C might boost immunitary system... and it might be low when the diet is based on vegs stored into fridges from the harvest...
Just yesterday talking with my vet he said that he has never seen any bladder issue in piggies fed with fresh grass and hay. I am talking of one of the two savvy cavy vets in Rome who see piggies from all over the country...

 

[Misslizd13]

I do feed grass but can't do that year round here because of winter. 3-4 months of warm weather each year.
I am not sure how to grow it successfully indoors yet. Need to do some research on that but have to get a big enough container to make sure I have enough for piggies in winter. Also I haven't found a grass seed in stores that doesn't have fertilizer in it. . Very cautious about grass outside due to me renting my house and I am not sure if previous tenants used fertilizers on lawn.. water know they seeded the lawn to make it more lush but had fertilizer in seed mix. Italy must be more guinea pig oriented.. we don't have the option to go without pellets... I like pellets because it's Timothy hay and it wears their teeth down so they don't get overgrown which piggies are prone to here. See it all the time. My piggies don't chew on other things besides hay pellets and veggies. Never been chewers.

 

[Misslizd13]

This is not a cavy oriented place. Vets here don't know much about cavies other than can't produce vitamin c, the basic uti issues, respiratory issues. They don't even know how to fix cavies in my area. Everything I've learned about cavies and care was by doing lots of online research. They don't much know about cage size requirements either. It's even hard to find much for hides and toys online that can be shipped here if at all. Most out of u.s. places don't ship specific hides and ramps and such here. We have very basic stuff for cavies here. When one of my cavies had bloat they didn't know how to treat it. I did research and treated my cavies and that worked.. when I had adopted my first cavies at little over month old one was pregnant and the vet didn't know what to do for it. People here breed cavies and hope they survive. They do same cares and routine for pregnant cavies as they do not pregnant cavies. I had to feed different hay and pellets and give extra vitamin c and keep careful watch for complications.i have no idea what cebion drops are.. also don't have a vitamin c drop I can give orally here. Has to be a powder mixed into food which my cavies don't like or vitamin c crystals or c tabs crushed in their water. They get 1/8 crushed tab daily in 32 oz water bottle.

 

[Swissgreys]

I am also a fan of a predominantly grass based diet for our piggies, but sadly my reality is the same as yours @Misslizd13 .
The grass here (Switzerland) has all but stopped growing now as the temperatures are dropping, and in a couple of months it will be gone (under snow).
So I also feed pellets and hay year round to make sure that the piggies will not get such a huge shock when the grass stops coming!
It doesn't stop them complaining of course

I am not sure what pellets you feed, but I use a grain free one which is supposed to be slightly easier on their stomachs, and can be useful for piggies who have bladder issues.
Is that a possibility for you?
And as for getting them to eat the tablets I am afraid I don't know what to suggest.
In my limited experience if a pig doesn't want to eat something then they won't.
Fabulous little creatures who know their own mind very well when it suits them

 

[Misslizd13]

What kind of cage set up do you have? I currently have 2x5 c&c cage with towel and fleece in. Folded towels under big piece of fleece which has to be clipped to sides of corroplast so they don't burrow. They love to burrow if given the chance. In new cage I won't be able to use towels or fleece liner. It will be a 4ft by 7ft wooden cage. Sob board bottom with pond liner over it to protect from piggy pee and poops. The walls will be wood that have waterproof sealer over them to protect from pee. Then in cracks between wood walls and pond liner on inside I will use silicone to make sure no piggy pee can get between wood and get on carpet/floor. I will next have non dusty fine wood shavings over that as bedding with corner litter boxes where they would pee most.

 

[Misslizd13]

Pellets here are either Timothy hay pellets (feed all the time) or alfalfa hay pellets mixed in (for 6 months and under as well as pregnant piggies).they also have pellets with dried fruit and veggie pieces in the blend but I don't buy that due to sugar and calcium content) not good for piggies. I keep my pellets very basic plus my piggies won't touch the fruit and veggie blend. Same with the fruit and veggy blended hay. Made that mistake within first week of having the cavies. I know better know. They get sweet treats once in a while. They get a small orange slice and small apple slice once a month for extra boost.

 

[rome_italy]

fertilizers and pesticides are used in agricolture... and all the samples of vegs checked result filled with chemical products (the inner of the vegs, I mean... I have read a report about the vegs in Europe and USA which scared me a lot, as I eat tons of vegs daily...). The grass in winter is not available, you are right... here in Rome the weather is different, we have no grass in summer! I had to go to private gardens for cutting some grass which wasn't nutricious for sure...
In Italy guinea pigs are not popular pets at all... here families have a dog or a cat or a rabbit (most families have no pets)... In fact there are only two good vets here for these pets. A great worry for me because if they don't see many piggies, they cannot be expert in difficult surgeries.
Unfortunately the pellets are not so good as the the firms say. You can just make a sum of the analytical components declared in the box and you will discover that the result you get is only a 50%. Another 50% is.. what? carbohydrates? and the piggie becomes fat.
The latest guide-lines of their diet are approved in USA, too; Guinea Lynx is a great website my vet suggested to me and it is american... and american researchers suggest to feed not more than few grams of (good grainfree) pellets.
The vit C here is suggested even for stressful periods... If you want to try that product (Cebion) I guess you can find it easily because it is for humans (and it is cheap and appreciated by piggies). At least you can be sure about the amount of vit C... and if the piggies will not like it, you can use it for you and your children
I am sure you are a perfect owner, because you can read and learn a lot... this makes the difference. Maybe my vet is exaggerated when he says that the more the owner studies the less the piggie goes to his clinic...
Of course we need also a great luck with our pets... but a good diet is the key for a good health, for us and for them

 

[rome_italy]

I also have a bag of pellets at home, I buy it online... there is a great choice online

 

[Misslizd13]

I will look for cebion here. How much do I give my cavies if I find it? One piggy is little over a pond and the other is a little over 2 pounds. They might like it. A lot of people I've talked to say have a regular vet and then have an emergency vet for after hrs but we don't have that here. I have to drive 2 hrs one way just to take my cavies to a vet. What kind of pellets do you buy rome_italy? I have noticed if they eat too much grass they get really soft poos..