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Piggy Not Pooping, Any Advice?

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skip_rat

skip_rat

Junior Guinea Pig
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One of our female piggies is struggling to poop. She is passing the odd one, but not the usual amount and she is now loosing interest in food.

She has been to the vets twice for this now, once on Saturday and again today. Because she's not eating by herself now we've been given some 'supreme recovery' to feed her and some metacalm as she now seems to be in pain.

The vet is doing their best, but I'm concerned that they are not really a Guinea specialist and wondered if there is something else that can be done.

She seems to be going downhill fast and I'm really very worried about her. She has had problems with her stomach in the past (bleeding) but the treatment we got from the vet then sorted things out. She came to us as a rescue a few years ago very underweight and it took weeks of feeding on critical care to get her back to health. I'm wondering if she has some underlying issue.
 
Thanks for that advice. We have been weighing her and so far there has been no significant change.

She will take water, I've been offering her the bottle as I wasn't sure she was going over to it any more. She seems happy to drink this way so I'm making it part of our regular checks on her.

Although she's not interested in food she will take the supreme recovery we were given. This looks alot like the oxbow critical care we have had in the past. My main worry is there is more going in than coming out........

According to the vet locator our nearest savvy vet is nearly 70 miles away in Cockermouth. I'm not sure it would be fair to transport her a 130 mile round trip. The local vet did give her a thourough check but just couldn't find any obvious cause. There are 3 vets locally, one is terrible (botched op. in the past) one has become unreliable so that leaves us with the one we are using who does actually seem to care.
 
If you can't get to a piggy savvy vet, the next best option is to ask a decent general vet (who cares) whether he would be prepared to contact a piggy specialist on behalf of your piggy.
Simon Maddock from the Cat&Rabbit Clinic in Northampton has offered to help any vets that do not yet have a piggy savvy contact of their own. http://www.catandrabbit.co.uk/
Has your vet checked her bladder for stones and her tummy for partial gassing up/bloating? \

The good news for the time being that if she is still eating and drinking and there are some poos, then she must still process food; a piggy (or human) that can't is usually completely off food. You may find our hand feeding guide helpful in judging how much food is actually going into her and being converted into poos in relation to the amounts you are feeding her.
 
Thanks for that. I'll see how receptive they are to the idea tomorrow.

She seems a litte more active at the moment, fingers crossed the treatment is helping.
 
Oh dear :( she's got worse again today. Took her back to the vets today, and they have agreed to do an x-ray tomorrow first thing to see if they can see anything as she still has no lumps or bumps that can be felt.

She is now much more lethargic and is swaying from side to side which I have not seen before. She will no longer take food or water readily and has stopped moving about the cage (obviously I separated her from the others the moment she became ill)

Sadly none of the 'guinea savvy' vets were available today.

I'm concerned that I'm making her suffer unnecessarily and feel a bit helpless here. I'm not sure what to do for the best.
 
At least she still has enough energy to fight the feeding. I just hope they can find a solution for little minty.

Here she is just last week:

minty.webp

Her poor feet are a little deformed as she had dreadful bumblefoot when she arrived, but she's normally so full of mischief.
 
Sorry i have no real advice to give, just wondering if you could have a chat to the vet & ask if its possible to increase the dose of metacam a little? if she's swaying it sounds like she may be still in pain?

good luck at the vets tomorrow. she looks such a sweet little cutie :wub:

is she having a conscious xray, or with a whiff of gas just to relax her a little, without putting her right out as it could cause more complications to be completely unconscious.

fingers & paws crossed for a speedy recovery & hopefully its something that can easily be sorted.

the girls & i.
xx
 
Sadly she is much worse this morning, laboured breathing and almost no movement, plus I think she is in alot of pain. I think the best thing now is to have her put to sleep. I've managed to get a little Metacam and some water to her but she is very distressed and her jaws are almost clamped shut.

I have decided that seeing as there are no decent vets in the area I am going to rehome the remaining guinea pigs I have. It is not fair to keep them when I have no way of getting them decent vetinary care should they become ill. I can't go through this again having lost two piggies now through not been able to be diagnosed by the vets.
 
I'm so sorry. I hope there is something the vet can do today.

I know how upset you are and what an emotional time this is, but please dont be too hasty in rehoming your other piggies as you may regret it. Hugs
 
She was put to sleep this morning, the vet thought there was no more that could be done.....

RIP little Minty

:bye:
 
skip_rat said:
Sadly she is much worse this morning, laboured breathing and almost no movement, plus I think she is in alot of pain. I think the best thing now is to have her put to sleep. I've managed to get a little Metacam and some water to her but she is very distressed and her jaws are almost clamped shut.

I have decided that seeing as there are no decent vets in the area I am going to rehome the remaining guinea pigs I have. It is not fair to keep them when I have no way of getting them decent vetinary care should they become ill. I can't go through this again having lost two piggies now through not been able to be diagnosed by the vets.
Click to expand...

HUGS!

I am very sorry, but it sounds like her body was closing down anyway, so you have done absolutely the right thing! You are very welcome to post a tribute to your lovely girl whenever you feel that it is right for you.

Could you contact Becklen Guinea Pig Rescue? They cover Annan and are the safest place for your piggies to find a good, home checked home if you really don't want to keep them. Please sleep over that one before you are making any knee-jerk decisions that you may rue later on. Becklen are not on our list of recommended rescues because of breeding links, but they run to a good standard and are keeping the breeding and rescuing side well apart. I have rehomed from there when they were still active on the forum. The only good rescue we can recommend in Scotland is on the far side of Stirling. :(
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Becklen-Guinea-Pig-Rescue/399821413388569
 
We will take a few days to think about it and if it comes to it we will be making VERY sure that they go to a good home.

Most of our piggies have come from Becklen and it has always been on the understanding that they go back there if it comes to rehoming. Several of them have special care needs which means they wouldn't be good as a pet for someone unfamiliar with guinea pigs.

Sadly the vet we saw this morning has been the best so far and did say perhaps he would have done an x-ray sooner. However it's easy say this in hindsight as she was still fairly good up to yesterday evening and it's difficult sometimes to gauge how long to give a particular treatment before trying something else. There is no guarantee an x-ray would have shown anything helpful anyway. It seems there are 4 vets in the surgery we are now with and he has agreed to treat our piggies should we decide to continue.
 
I hope that you will decide to hang onto your special piggies. It is very tough to find the courage after losing a piggy the way you haved one. Finding out what is really going on without any clear symptoms is always very difficult, even for a specialist. :(
 
Hi skip_rat, I feel so sorry about what happened to your pigs. I live in Caithness and the nearest pig savvy vet in in Aberdeen a four and half hour journey. I took on my daughters 2 guinea's as she became allergic to them. I did not realise that they are classed as exotic. After joining the forum and reading the stickies I now dread anything happening to my two . I wish more vets would realise that people have a wide number of different specie's as pets not just dog's and cat's. My heart goes out to you, keep your chin up. Jenny x
 
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