Hi. Our 5 1/2 year old Guinea Pig Daisy has had diarrhea for around 6 weeks now. This is after having bloat for the first time. Through this time the stools have varried in softness and she had twice made a brief recovery to nearly normal poos for just a day or so and once had a period of about a week of normal poos. Over the weeks we have taken a number of steps to try and resolve her illness. Its hard to give a timeline but in short we have; introduced biolapsis and fiberplex and continue to give daily seperate doses of each. We have had multiple visits to 2 vets and the second is very experienced with GP's. She has looked over Daisy 3 times and has tested her poos and scanned her and can find nothing wrong. We have removed veggies from her diet and only occasionally will allow some peppers as were scared it could make her worst. Prior to this she never had any stomach problems and absolutely loved her veggies so its heartbreaking to not give her any. We recently have read about how older pigs can get upset stomach from nuggies with soy and grains so we have taken her off the dual care nuggies and replaced that with the new ones which so far she has turned her nose up to as well as the other piggies we own. Its only been a couple of days so we are waiting it out to see if this helps. Her appetite has always remained and she has lost some weight at the very start after the bloat and first week of diarrhea she lost around 100g but in the time since she has remained at a steady weight. At present her daily diet is 3 fresh hay sources (meadow, timothy and longstrand) 2-3mls of fiberplex, biolapsis with critical care, soy and grain free nuggies, fresh water and no veg. We have tried everything the vet has suggested and the amount of money we are spending on vet bills, critical care, fiberplex, biolapsis, duel care nugs and various other bits is piling up and we feel our options are running out. Were trying so much without much success and don't want to stop incase its actually helping more than we realise. Shes fine within herself and happy and eating well. We have looked at posts here and various other places and we can't find much about piggies with long term diarrhea like this. If any one has any advice or experience with this or anything we can try we would hugely appreciate your help and guidance. Thank you.
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Persistent diarrhea: Desperate - Any suggestions / advice welcome
- Thread starter Teapot21
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Claire W
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Hi, I’m afraid I can’t offer much advise but I didn’t want to read and run. Has she been given any antibiotics to rule out some sort of infection? Has she had a scan to rule out any problems in the GI tract? Our health experts should be along shortly but I hope that your piggy is back to normal soon x
Siikibam
Forum Donator 2022/23
I’m afraid I have no clue. Has there been any change to her diet aside from stopping veg and new pellets? Is she bloated (even if minor)? And is she on anything aside from the biolapsis and fibreplex? And are her stools runny or soft?
I’ll tag @Wiebke @PigglePuggle @Piggies&buns
I’ll tag @Wiebke @PigglePuggle @Piggies&buns
Hey, thank you for your replies.The vet has suggested that antibiotics could make her diharrhea worst so we have avoided this so far but we are thinking of pushing for it just to rule it out. She has been scanned and everything was normal but that was a couple of weeks ago. No changes to her diet just those changes over the last 6 weeks to try and counteract the symptoms but nothing prior to it starting. No signs of bloat but despite reading they don't, we are sure she she has been passing gas a couple of times. Just the biolapsis and fiberplex at present. The stools are constantly soft but occasionally runny it tends to constantly change. Thanks again.
Hi and welcome
Unfortunately there is no magic wand to swing or snapping of fingers for a 'That's it!'.
Can you please clarify - does your piggy have runny or just soft, mis-shapen poos? Has any gut medication or a course of antibiotics been taken into account at any stage?
I know that this sounds frustrating in view of what you have already spend but the best way forward to getting to the bottom of the problem would be a lab test of the poos to see what exactly is going on and why the gut is not settling down as expected. It is however not quite cheap and may not be able to give you the answer you crave.
You can try properly made 'poo soup' with just dropped absolutely fresh poos from a healthy companions. It may sound gross but is in effective live transfer of healthy gut microbiome. When done correctly, it is much more effective than any probiotic powder. You can try and see whether that can help - at least it is for free. If it doesn't, then the cause is not just lying in a disturbed gut microbiome that is failing to settle down. At least that is one avenue ruled out; the one that all vets seen so far seem to have taken.
Probiotics, Recovery Foods And Vitamin C: Overview With Product Links (Link contains the 'poo soup' recipe)
The good news is that whatever it is, since the weight is stable and there are no other problems the issue is very much on the mild side but its persistence is frustrating.
Hi, thank you for your response. Its really hard to say one type as the poos change not just day to day but over a few hours. They sometimes are really long, sometimes thicker and in clumps, sometimes totally runny, sometimes normalish shapes but soft to touch. We have had the poos tested and got the lab results back last week and there was no sign of anything, no disease or infection etc. The piggies shes housed with haven't been effected so were sure its not a bad batch of something or anything like that.Hi and welcome
Unfortunately there is no magic wand to swing or snapping of fingers for a 'That's it!'.
Can you please clarify - does your piggy have runny or just soft, mis-shapen poos? Has any gut medication or a course of antibiotics been taken into account at any stage?
I know that this sounds frustrating in view of what you have already spend but the best way forward to getting to the bottom of the problem would be a lab test of the poos to see what exactly is going on and why the gut is not settling down as expected. It is however not quite cheap and may not be able to give you the answer you crave.
You can try properly made 'poo soup' with just dropped absolutely fresh poos from a healthy companions. It may sound gross but is in effective live transfer of healthy gut microbiome. When done correctly, it is much more effective than any probiotic powder. You can try and see whether that can help - at least it is for free. If it doesn't, then the cause is not just lying in a disturbed gut microbiome that is failing to settle down. At least that is one avenue ruled out; the one that all vets seen so far seem to have taken.
Probiotics, Recovery Foods And Vitamin C: Overview With Product Links (Link contains the 'poo soup' recipe)
The good news is that whatever it is, since the weight is stable and there are no other problems the issue is very much on the mild side but its persistence is frustrating.
We tried the poo soup weeks ago but haven't for a while we will give that a go! Thanks again
Thank you for providing more background information so we know what has been done and excluded already.
That is very puzzling indeed. Would your vet consider trying panacur? It is a worming medication but can sometimes help with cases of persistent gut issues where there is no obvious cause as doesn't only affect worms.
I am linking in @PigglePuggle who may have more ideas.
PigglePuggle
Senior Guinea Pig
Oh dear, I'm afraid I dont have much to add here except maybe you could clarify with the vet exactly what they tested the poop for? It is possible (however very rare) that piggy may have picked up an unusual gut parasite from somewhere, do they forage outdoors or get grass brought in from outdoors? Or do you have any rabbits or rats that might have passed something on?
Unsettled guts unfortunately can take a long time to settle down, and possibly piggy has some type of gut condition that will just flare up a bit like IBS... there may be trigger foods that set this off... I would see exactly what the vet has tested for, and keep up the poop soup, maybe you could cut right back on veggies then reintroduce them one at a time over a few weeks to see if there is one veggie type triggering a reaction- I know when our little Puggle had 6 months of recurring bloat, coriander was a trigger food- even eating a poop from a friend who had eaten coriander triggered awful digestive symptoms- it took about 8 months for this to settle completely, I had to comoletely ban coriander for a while, and then just as suddenly as it started it stopped happening and she was fine, and 2 years later she is ok eating coriander again too, but we are always watching very closely just in case it happens again!
Unsettled guts unfortunately can take a long time to settle down, and possibly piggy has some type of gut condition that will just flare up a bit like IBS... there may be trigger foods that set this off... I would see exactly what the vet has tested for, and keep up the poop soup, maybe you could cut right back on veggies then reintroduce them one at a time over a few weeks to see if there is one veggie type triggering a reaction- I know when our little Puggle had 6 months of recurring bloat, coriander was a trigger food- even eating a poop from a friend who had eaten coriander triggered awful digestive symptoms- it took about 8 months for this to settle completely, I had to comoletely ban coriander for a while, and then just as suddenly as it started it stopped happening and she was fine, and 2 years later she is ok eating coriander again too, but we are always watching very closely just in case it happens again!