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Sick Piggy Won't Poop Or Eat That Much!

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Ashaaleigh912

Ashaaleigh912

New Born Pup
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Hi everyone! My name is Ashleigh and my little guinea pig is a female who's almost 2 and she's a long hair guinea pig. She's my entire life and soul.

On Thursday night, I noticed that she was acting a little bit abnormal from how she normally acts. I cleaned her cage and gave her hay but she seemed uninterested and really antsy like she was bored. Then Friday morning I left for work and gave her her veggies (lettuce and green peppers). When I got home around noon, she hadn't eaten any green peppers (which is something that she normally LOVES!). I noticed that she hadn't pooped at all and she wasn't eating her pellets either. I rushed her to the vet and they took X-rays and said she had gas build up in her tummy but they said it wasn't at the serious stage of bloat yet and that it was a good thing that I took her to the vet right away. They have her on 3 different oral medications for it and she did finally take a little tiny poop yesterday but only went three times that day and they were a few tiny ones. Today she only pooped twice and it's one tiny poop. She is still refusing to eat peppers but she's eating hay and lettuce and drinking water. She just isn't pooping so much. She's only been on the meds for a day and a half so I'm not sure if its because i need to wait a little longer or if I should still be concerned. Plus, I know she needs vitamin c so I've been giving her parsley but I don't know if she's getting enough!

The three meds are metoclopramide, baytril, and metacam/meloxidyl. Ive heard that baytril can cause guinea pigs to lose interest in eating. I'm thinking about trying to hand feed her or giving her probiotics, but I live in the united states and I have no way of knowing what to get or where to get them. I heard you can pick up a small amount of powder from an acidophilus gel tablet and use that, but where would I even get that? I'm planning on calling my vet tomorrow, since they are closed today and find out. Like I said, she will eat lettuce and hay and some pellets but not the amount that she should be eating. I was also told to limit vegetables at this time. Any information or advice would be very helpful!
 
Hey, oh poor baby! :( all the experts are sleeping I'm gunna assume, I'll try help you best I can till someone is able to help you in the morning.

It's good that she's eating, even if it is small amounts and that she is able to poop and there's no blockage.
I've heard gripe water can be really helpful for bloat to break up the gas, you can get it in a pharmacy and give about 0.3 ml every 3-4 hours.

You should syringe feed your girl mushed up pellets and as much water as she will take every few hours.
I'd avoid veg, it might make things worse.
She needs as much fibre as she can get just now. So make sure hay is right on front of her and push with syringe feeding.
Give her some toilet roll tubes or cardboard too, this really helped when my girl had bloat along with using an electric toothbrush to vibrate her abdomen. If you dont have an electric toothbrush massage her stomach with your fingers. Do this ALOT.

I don't know if you get it in the U.S., but I gave my girl a gut stimulant called ranitidine. It worked amazingly well within a day along with a probiotic, which I really recommend you get hold of.

I can't think of anything else, I really hope you start seeing lots of poops soon!
 
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I'm also really wary that you've been given baytril. I don't understand why you would be given an antibiotic because it can really upset the stomach and I'm convinced it actually caused my girls bloat.

I wouldn't give her it until someone else answers here. I might be totally wrong but it seems counterproductive to me.
I'll tag some people who will know much better than me about it
@Wiebke @Pebble
 
Ashaaleigh912 said:
Hi everyone! My name is Ashleigh and my little guinea pig is a female who's almost 2 and she's a long hair guinea pig. She's my entire life and soul.

On Thursday night, I noticed that she was acting a little bit abnormal from how she normally acts. I cleaned her cage and gave her hay but she seemed uninterested and really antsy like she was bored. Then Friday morning I left for work and gave her her veggies (lettuce and green peppers). When I got home around noon, she hadn't eaten any green peppers (which is something that she normally LOVES!). I noticed that she hadn't pooped at all and she wasn't eating her pellets either. I rushed her to the vet and they took X-rays and said she had gas build up in her tummy but they said it wasn't at the serious stage of bloat yet and that it was a good thing that I took her to the vet right away. They have her on 3 different oral medications for it and she did finally take a little tiny poop yesterday but only went three times that day and they were a few tiny ones. Today she only pooped twice and it's one tiny poop. She is still refusing to eat peppers but she's eating hay and lettuce and drinking water. She just isn't pooping so much. She's only been on the meds for a day and a half so I'm not sure if its because i need to wait a little longer or if I should still be concerned. Plus, I know she needs vitamin c so I've been giving her parsley but I don't know if she's getting enough!

The three meds are metoclopramide, baytril, and metacam/meloxidyl. Ive heard that baytril can cause guinea pigs to lose interest in eating. I'm thinking about trying to hand feed her or giving her probiotics, but I live in the united states and I have no way of knowing what to get or where to get them. I heard you can pick up a small amount of powder from an acidophilus gel tablet and use that, but where would I even get that? I'm planning on calling my vet tomorrow, since they are closed today and find out. Like I said, she will eat lettuce and hay and some pellets but not the amount that she should be eating. I was also told to limit vegetables at this time. Any information or advice would be very helpful!
Click to expand...

Hi!

Please syringe feed and water your guinea pig round the clock; the less you get in, the more often. That is VITAL to keep the guts going; they start closing down very quickly; much more quickly than most people and vets are aware!
As with any tummy upset, please stay off any fresh food and introduce it only little by little once your girl is well again. You can add a bit of rough fibre like brown cardboard or toilet/kitchen roll inners for her to nibble on to additionally help re-balancing the guts during recovery.
Please give a pinch of probiotics 1-2 hours after the antibiotic. If your girl has got a companion, syringing a bit of water that you have soaked healthy poos in can additionally help to restock the guts with good bacteria. It is a bit gross, but it mimics what piggies do naturally after an illness.

Here is our syringe feeding guide, which contains all the necessary information re supportive care; you feed the more often, the less appetite she has. Also make sure that she is not dehydrated. If you don't have recovery foods at home, use mushed pellets instead.
Ideally, I would additionally recommend to give some zantac (active ingredient is ranitidine) for the bloat - not sure in what form that is available where you are), but it is good that she's got the metoclopramide to keep the guts going. Your vet is likely just hedging his bets by adding the baytril into the mix, as bloat can be just a secondary issue that is caused by something else. Did he find any evidence of an infection?
If the loss of appetite is ongoing and bloat is not going down or coming back, please see a vet asap and if necessary, have a scan or x-ray done to see what is going on.
https://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/threads/complete-syringe-feeding-guide.115359/

As we have got members from all over the world, we find it very helpful if you please added your country, state or (for the UK) your county, so we can always tailor any advice to what is available and possible where you are straight away. Click on your username on the top bar, then go to personal details and scroll to location. Thank you!

@helen105281 @Pebble
 
I would also add in some kind of vibration or massage therapy as this, together with plenty of fluids can also help to get things moving, do you have anything like an electric toothbrush?
 
What do you guys think about her being given baytril for bloat? I'm interested. X
 
I don't think it is a good idea really and suspect the vet gave it in case there was an infection like Wiebke has said.
 
Hi everyone! Thank you all so much for your comments. This morning I noticed a lot more poops so that made me happy to see! Who thought anyone would be happy to see a poop? But I notice that she's been eating hay but still not a lot of pellets. She did get a little bit of lettuce this morning because she begged for it since she knows what time she normally gets her veggies. I did call the vets this morning and they told me that I shouldnt have to hand feed her the pellets since she is eating the hay but it still worries me! The only reason they gave me the antibiotics was because I said I noticed her pee looked mucusy but it could have been something else entirely so they told me to keep using it for the whole 14 days but that seems like a long time! She has a check up on Friday. I'm picking her up vitamin c supplements today to give to her since she isn't getting a lot from the veggies. But they never said anything about probiotics and I'm not even sure where to get any where I'm at. I'm going to update my location as well.
 
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