• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Strange droppings/consistency

Status
Not open for further replies.
mikulinek

mikulinek

Teenage Guinea Pig
Joined
Jul 27, 2010
Messages
976
Reaction score
1
Points
310
Location
Salford, Greater Manchester, UK
Hi everyone :)

Another Biscuit-related question, it never ends...

I don't want to go into another long explanation of Biscuit's health/illness history but suffice to say, for those of you who don't know, it's been a saga!

Any way, since recovering from one episode involving a reaction to an anti-biotic (remember that one?) nearly a year ago, his droppings have never been quite right and I wondered what you might make of it.

Now, Caramel does normal dropping kind of like a dark brown cashew nut, no problem. And when they're dry, they're still solid. Biscuit's are about 65% the size of Caramel's but he is of course a smaller pigggy by nearly as much (in terms of weight at least). However, when Biscuit's droppings are dry, they go kind of crumbly, there's no better way to describe it really, so that when I do a spot clean, there's almost like a poo-based dust covering the whole floor of his cage. Does anyone know why this is and what it is? Is it a problem?

He eats perfectly normally, plenty of hay, fresh veggies and pellets. I don't know what to make of it to be honest.

Thanks

Stefan x
 
It could suggest that his gut is absorbing more water from his poos before expellling them than is normally the case

Thinking very speculatively... this could be due to either
a) the fact he needs to absorb more water in which case is he drinking enough/getting slightly dehydrated?...and could this be down to some slight interference with normal kidney function owing to the reaction to the antibiotic (which one was it please and what were the sympmtoms?)
b) it is staying in his gut overlong which would suggest slight gut motility problems

However if he is well in himself it;s probably nothing to worry about - just keep an eye on it ad if it gets worse then consult the vet...(might be worth mentiong to them anyway on his next check up and see what they say?)

HTH
x
 
Thanks Pebble,

Actually your scenario B makes sense. He had a serious gut motility issue just after the anti-biotic issue. What happened was that he emptied himself shall we say after taking this anti-biotic and then his guts shut down. He was on Zantac etc. and it was touch and go for a while but he recovered. He's had this issue ever since so that makes sense.

Generally speaking, he's a sickly pig or has been on and off for most of his life (he's only 13 months old and he's been sick for about 7 of those). His behaviour though, whether sick or not is always fantastic so it's hard to tell. Like I say though, he's eating fine and is on a nicely balanced diet so I'm hopeful it's nothing :)

Thanks
 
Might be worth contacting the vet and asking to keep him on zantac for a bit longer? And feed more "wet" veggies to see if this makes a difference.

Can you name the antibiotic please (just that we have another case I am helping with where a piggie had a bad reaction and would be helpful to know if it was the same one)

x
 
Sorry i can't help, but it looks like Pebble is doing a fab job x)

whee would just like to send some loving wheeeeeeeeeeeks for Biscuit XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top