GusandPeanut
Junior Guinea Pig
Hi everyone,
I have posted about this pig in the past - sorry if you want me to roll it into the other thread from a while back, and I will do.
Peanut is one of our two pigs, 5 years 6 months old. He's had recurring issues of bloat over the past few months in addition to recurrent impaction that we clear regularly. His first instance of bloat in late November was quite serious but he recovered. He received injections of gut motility and painkiller medication and then a week or two course of syringe feeding and medicine at home. Since then he's had two more acute mild instances - end January, and end March. Each time he has had an injection of a gut motility drug and a painkiller, come home and been OK after a day. His most recent recovery looked very strong as he was getting up to higher weights than ever before We had been continuing to syringe feed him, but only a low amount, to help support him - about 30g/ml a day (before he started getting ill, Peanut was 1450g - he went all the way down to close to 1200, and before today had got back up to 1350 and was stabilising there with lowered and lowered syringe feeds). He has been very enthusiastic for syringe feeds - no need to wrap him up, and once going as far as getting too excited and biting the hand holding the syringe...
Given his consistent problems we have been daily weighing and Peanut lost a bit of weight last night. He seemed otherwise fine, subjectively eating his hay and not rejecting his syringe feed at all. His belly also seemed fine, not how we usually find it when bloated. However, we suspect he has some bloat again this morning - his belly is a bit firmer, he's rejecting his syringe feed and not interested in much. Vets open at 8.30 so we're going to ring and take him in.
We're worried about what this regular discomfort is doing, both for his overall happiness and life expectancy. He doesn't struggle with his impaction - we check regularly, and also know the signs of when he's experiencing it, and he is very happy when we sort that out. The bloat is, obviously, unavoidable, however, and we're struggling to deal.
I've read the resources on the forum already about gut problems and so on and am quite well briefed in giving care to the guinea pig when he has it. However, I'm struggling for long term care. We have asked the Vets for their opinion but due to an issue with phone numbers are still waiting on that - can anyone give any subjective advice on this forum about what to do? Since the March 20th incident he's not had any fresh vegetables while we monitor him - especially as he still has episodes of impaction. He's been on a diet of good quality feeding hay (Burgess Feeding Hay with Hedgerow Herbs, which is meadow, as well as Timothy hay) along with his regular syringe feeds of Science Selective Guinea Pig Food pellet mash.
Thanks as always,
Theo
I have posted about this pig in the past - sorry if you want me to roll it into the other thread from a while back, and I will do.
Peanut is one of our two pigs, 5 years 6 months old. He's had recurring issues of bloat over the past few months in addition to recurrent impaction that we clear regularly. His first instance of bloat in late November was quite serious but he recovered. He received injections of gut motility and painkiller medication and then a week or two course of syringe feeding and medicine at home. Since then he's had two more acute mild instances - end January, and end March. Each time he has had an injection of a gut motility drug and a painkiller, come home and been OK after a day. His most recent recovery looked very strong as he was getting up to higher weights than ever before We had been continuing to syringe feed him, but only a low amount, to help support him - about 30g/ml a day (before he started getting ill, Peanut was 1450g - he went all the way down to close to 1200, and before today had got back up to 1350 and was stabilising there with lowered and lowered syringe feeds). He has been very enthusiastic for syringe feeds - no need to wrap him up, and once going as far as getting too excited and biting the hand holding the syringe...
Given his consistent problems we have been daily weighing and Peanut lost a bit of weight last night. He seemed otherwise fine, subjectively eating his hay and not rejecting his syringe feed at all. His belly also seemed fine, not how we usually find it when bloated. However, we suspect he has some bloat again this morning - his belly is a bit firmer, he's rejecting his syringe feed and not interested in much. Vets open at 8.30 so we're going to ring and take him in.
We're worried about what this regular discomfort is doing, both for his overall happiness and life expectancy. He doesn't struggle with his impaction - we check regularly, and also know the signs of when he's experiencing it, and he is very happy when we sort that out. The bloat is, obviously, unavoidable, however, and we're struggling to deal.
I've read the resources on the forum already about gut problems and so on and am quite well briefed in giving care to the guinea pig when he has it. However, I'm struggling for long term care. We have asked the Vets for their opinion but due to an issue with phone numbers are still waiting on that - can anyone give any subjective advice on this forum about what to do? Since the March 20th incident he's not had any fresh vegetables while we monitor him - especially as he still has episodes of impaction. He's been on a diet of good quality feeding hay (Burgess Feeding Hay with Hedgerow Herbs, which is meadow, as well as Timothy hay) along with his regular syringe feeds of Science Selective Guinea Pig Food pellet mash.
Thanks as always,
Theo