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Poorly Puggle- acute bloat :(

PigglePuggle

PigglePuggle

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Oh dear Puggle is very poorly... she was fine last night but this morning she was shivering and whimpering and when we lifted her out of the cage she hunched her back and started squealing in pain and her tummy felt really hard.
So straight off to the vets (they were very good and said bring her in immediately as an emergency) and the first thing they did was give her a big injection of opiate pain relief, then an xray confirmed big gas bubbles in her poor little tummy, she's had subcutaneous fluids, zantac to get her guts moving, and we have to syringe feed and also try feed mushed up pellets with grated carrot (because thats her favorite food) then watch out for poops happening.
Got another vets appointment for tomorrow to see how she's doing.
Poor little Puggle! I think there was something dodgy about the coriander we ate yesterday, I've had an upset tummy too and the other piggies have very smelly poops...
 
PigglePuggle said:
Oh dear Puggle is very poorly... she was fine last night but this morning she was shivering and whimpering and when we lifted her out of the cage she hunched her back and started squealing in pain and her tummy felt really hard.
So straight off to the vets (they were very good and said bring her in immediately as an emergency) and the first thing they did was give her a big injection of opiate pain relief, then an xray confirmed big gas bubbles in her poor little tummy, she's had subcutaneous fluids, zantac to get her guts moving, and we have to syringe feed and also try feed mushed up pellets with grated carrot (because thats her favorite food) then watch out for poops happening.
Got another vets appointment for tomorrow to see how she's doing.
Poor little Puggle! I think there was something dodgy about the coriander we ate yesterday, I've had an upset tummy too and the other piggies have very smelly poops...
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Hi! I am ever so sorry!

Please take time to read this detailed guide here that I have written about bloat care and in which I have also listed all the things you can do at home. The guide has been proof-read by an experienced piggy savvy exotics vet nurse.
Bloat, Gi Stasis ( No Gut Movement) And Not Eating

All the best!
 
Poor Puggle - hope she’s feeling better soon.
Hope you are feeling better too.
That’s a good reason not to eat coriander!
 
Thank you! She has eaten 2mls of cr
Wiebke said:
Hi! I am ever so sorry!

Please take time to read this detailed guide here that I have written about bloat care and in which I have also listed all the things you can do at home. The guide has been proof-read by an experienced piggy savvy exotics vet nurse.
Bloat, Gi Stasis ( No Gut Movement) And Not Eating

All the best!
Click to expand...

Thank you! She seems more comfortable after the pain relief injection and she just let me pick her up for a feed and licked 2mls of critical care feed off a spoon for me.
Havent seen any poops yet today, but she's in a hospital cage with fleece and towels so we can monitor everything she eats, wees or poops.
Its scary how suddenly that can happen, so glad the vet could see her straight away, she was in so much pain...
 
Oh poor Puggle! Glad you noticed it quickly and were able to get to the vet straight away.
Lovely Puggle, get well soon for your little Theo xx
 
Thanks everyone! I'm quite scared how extreme it was so suddely but I'm going to feed her a little bit of critical care every 2 or 3 hours and we have Zantac and Metacam to give tonight and we are back at the vets tomorrow and at least we got an immediate diagnosis- the vet thought initially from the pain she was in it could be a kidney stone blockage or a serious back injury but she helpfully peed all down the vet so the vet could do urine tests with a dipstick thing and the only thing wrong on the xray was 2 huge bubbles of gut gas, and her gut sounds were really extreme and her tummy like a big hard balloon, so we just have to support her digestion and give her the meds and hope for the best... so reassured with the way the vet saw us within half an hour of me first noticing something badly wrong and phoning up, and the way she had a big pain relief injection prepped ready for when we arrived... poor Puggle!
 
Jezebel looks sad and is looking for Puggle whereas Theo (being a bloke) was flirting with Piggle and now he's taking an unconcerned chooken-nap...
Might try another small critical care feed now, there's a poor little Puggle nose sticking out of her fleecy tube...
 
So she ate another 3mls of critical care from a spoon quite happily, then she stopped eating and started shivering and I could hear her poor tummy noises... I have seen 2 very small hard black poops though so something is moving... but she's just peeing where she's sitting which isnt like her at all, her fur is soaked with pee and I've changed the fleece hidey twice since we got back from the vets... and she smells funny, like poorly children smell :(
 
Poor Puggle. Get well soon. You're doing a great job looking after her. x
 
Try hand massaging Puggle's tummy. I did this with Betsy when she had mild bloat a couple of weeks ago. At first she complained bitterly
and was kicking her back legs and stuff but I persisted and after about 3 days her tummy just deflated suddenly like a balloon.
 
Betsy said:
Try hand massaging Puggle's tummy. I did this with Betsy when she had mild bloat a couple of weeks ago. At first she complained bitterly
and was kicking her back legs and stuff but I persisted and after about 3 days her tummy just deflated suddenly like a balloon.
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I asked the vet about that but she said there was so much gas collected in just 2 places she was worried her intestines might literally pop if we massaged them... her tummy didnt feel so hard at the last critical care feed though so I will ask the vet about that again tomorrow if she's less bloated. Poor Puggle! I suffer from IBS so I totally feel what she's going through poor girl, slightest bit of dodgy food and I bloat up for days :(
 
I know how you feel! I have ulcerative proctitis and that's not pleasant either especially if I forgot to take my pills!
 
Maybe Puggle is a bit the same, prone to bowel problems, that might be why she never eats much and is smaller than all the other piggies... going to be very careful with the veggies from now on, we were all comparing notes and 3 of us deliberately fed her "a bit extra" coriander yesterday because she's so much smaller and gets her food stolen, so if the coriander was a bit off somehow and she's particularly susceptible to tummy upsets that probably explains things! I feel so guilty if I accidentally gave her bad food but the coriander looked fine and was fresh yesterday... its hard to wash and isnt wrapped up though so I suppose it could have anything on it...
 
We have a probiotic ready for when she's stabilised a bit, but at the moment its meds twice a day and very small amounts of critical care every 2 hours until she's deflated a bit. A probiotic now without proper food might make extra gas we were told? But yes she might just be a "gut piggy" who needs probiotics regularly and no gassy green veg... if she ever deflates and starts eating hay again!
Its only been a few hours since we noticed she was so poorly but it seems so long already waiting for her to be a bit better...
 
Oh dear lord, poor Puggle. Your prompt action will really have helped her. I’m sure I’m teaching you to suck eggs but please give her no fresh food other than hay and pellets until at least 24 hours after her guts have returned to normal.
Then reintroduce veg one veg at a time in minuscule amounts to see whether there is a trigger food.
My late Connie was a pig who suffered with bloat. After nursing Connie through the acute phase the first time we had to establish by a process of elimination what had caused it. Trigger foods were found to be any brassica in any amount and grass - meaning we had to limit her time in the run on grass to a few minutes only.
Here’s hoping that Puggle soon feels better.
 
Well Puggle completely rejected a 3.30pm critical care spoon feed but it smells awful so maybe that's a sign she's feeling better! I was about to fill a syringe and force the issue but then I tried hand feed her some pellets and hay and she ate 4 pellets and 12 strands of the burgess excel hay from my hand and t-shirt then fell asleep without any shivering or pain noises. So I put her back in her hospital cage with another clean fleecy snuggle sack (she's peeing everywhere but 10mls of subcutaneous fluids when she was eating and drinking fine 20 hours ago did seem a bit much liquid) and she also sniffed at the hay in her cage and ate a couple of pieces before going back to sleep. And we have poops! 10 large and fairly normal and 6 small and black and hard. I'm counting them and saving them in a tupperware box in case the vet wants to see them :) she seems sleepy and smelly but more like her usual self, no pain reactions and her tummy feels softer and she doesnt mind me touching it...
 
That's great news! Onwards and upwards, little Puggle, we're all rooting for you. :nod::luv:

I think you may be right about probiotics at this stage. When my poor Zebedee had his gassy tummy back in Jan/Feb, I thought about giving him probiotics. However I looked at the ingredients in them and most include yeast (Saccharomycin Cerivisiae) and as one of the possible causes of his gas was yeast overgrowth, it didn't seem to make sense to be giving him more of it. ( I think yeast was the cause of his gas as when he was given Metronidazole by the vet it cleared very quickly.)
 
Qualcast&Flymo said:
That's great news! Onwards and upwards, little Puggle, we're all rooting for you. :nod::luv:

I think you may be right about probiotics at this stage. When my poor Zebedee had his gassy tummy back in Jan/Feb, I thought about giving him probiotics. However I looked at the ingredients in them and most include yeast (Saccharomycin Cerivisiae) and as one of the possible causes of his gas was yeast overgrowth, it didn't seem to make sense to be giving him more of it. ( I think yeast was the cause of his gas as when he was given Metronidazole by the vet it cleared very quickly.)
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Its really tricky to decide what to give, especially as everything is off label for piggies- the vet mentioned Infacol as a possibility but rather doubtfully, she said she wouldnt give it herself but some people found it helped, but as the gas is 2 big bubbles in the lower intestines that didnt seem right, and Wiebke sent me a helpful guide saying Infacol could make bloat worse by concentrating the gas in even bigger bubbles... I'm glad Puggle has had so much pain relief and fluids (even if the fluids are being peed out everywhere) and the Zantac seems to have got her guts moving. The vet said she always gives opiates and fluids to any emergency piggy in severe pain before even attempting a diagnosis because its so easy for them to die of shock.
If Puggle isnt better tomorrow I'll ask the vet about emperid and other meds I've heard mentioned on the forum, but so far she seems a bit better, still very poorly but not critical any more if she's eating and pooping a bit... my husband says he's never been so happy to see guinea pig poops, even though he does the daily poop scoop patrol!
 
You are right, it can be very difficult to know what is the best medicine, especially as we don't always know what's causing the symptoms. I did try Infacol briefly, but it wouldn't have helped as Zeb's tummy was simply full of gas, like a balloon rather than bubbles. If he hadn't responded to the Metronidazole, the next thing would have been to send off some poop for culturing, but he did. I just wish we had tried it earlier, as he might have survived :(
 
Please DON'T use Infacol. The way it works is to bring all the mini gas bubbles together in one big bubble and that can make things worse.
Gripe water is good and very safe (I can vouch for it). Woodwards Gripe Water (baby aisle in Tesco) is what I use. I have also used Dentinox when I couldn't get any gripe water. But please don't use Infacol.
 
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VickiA said:
Please DON'T use Infacol. The way it works is to bring all the mini gas bubbles together in one big bubble and that can make things worse.
Gripe water is good and very safe (I can vouch for it). Woodwards Gripe Water (baby isle in Tesco) is what I use. I have also used Dentinox when I couldn't get any gripe water. But please don't use Infacol.
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Thats what I thought, I remember using Infacol with my daughter as a baby because my mother-in-law insisted and it did no good, it might be good for burps but not lower bowel gas or proper gut problems. I think I trust what the vet said so far, she's a lovely lady who seems very aware how tiny and fragile piggies are compared to dogs and cats, and hopefully Puggle will improve with the Zantac and pain relief and critical care feeding, but the vet was happy for us to make an appointment every day until she is properly better to reassess if she needs extra fluids or pain relief or extra meds.
Which at £21 a consultation she should be happy with, but I think her doggy clients make more profit so I'm quite happy with offers of daily checks until Puggle is well (fingers crossed!).
Just need to tell my old mum now that I spent her birthday present money on a poorly guinea pig... the emergency consult and drugs and xray were £89 and then £21 every time after... guinea pig cuddles are a good 67th birthday present though, right?!?!
 
I'm sure your mum will understand. Mums always understand :D. Healing vibes from my little herd to Puggle. :luv:
 
So I just let Puggle meet Jezebel (who has been worried about her all day!) for sofa/hay/pellets time, and Jezebel clucked about like a mother hen trying to clean Puggle's soggy wee fur and snuggling her, then they ate hay and pellets together, plus Jezebel let Puggle eat one of her fresh probiotic magic poops which was very kind of her! Puggle seems much more relaxed knowing her friend is around and she had her evening Zantac and Metacam and is once again in a clean snuggle sac (4th today) in a clean hospital cage with fresh water, hay and pellets, right next to the other piggies.
Might try one more critical care feed/hand feed before bedtime then leave her in peace until morning in the hope she'll eat on her own... I've counted the pellets so I'll know if she's had any!
 
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