cochondinde
Junior Guinea Pig
Hi everyone, I am new on this site but any help would be appreciated. I live in France so it is harder for me to get help.
Basically, my guinea pig has chronic bloat. I didn’t realise it was bloat at first because he has diarrhoea. It first started a few weeks after he had surgery for a testicular tumour last December. The first thing I noticed was that his anal sac was impacted. I bought a very large cage and placed his food and water at opposite ends so that he would have to move around a lot more. His poo became very soft and so the vet told me to give him Smecta. He didn’t seem to improve and I became worried about his breathing and so he was put on Baytril which firmed up his poo. When stopping this though the diarrhoea came back.
Within the first year of his life he developed bloat twice; the first being a mild episode but the second was very bad. As my vet didn’t know what else to do then he told me to go see a colleague of his some two hours drive away. He gave us some Gastro-gel (which is no longer available) which turned his condition around almost instantly.
With his current situation, I have been advised to change his diet. I was initially giving him Oxbow Essentials Adult pellets and Timothy hay and had stopped all veggies but was told to change this to Cunipic hay and Vetcare plus food. Unfortunately my guinea pig Teddy won’t eat this food so continued with the Oxbow pellets. Last Monday I took him for an X-ray to my local vet on the advice of the specialist vet It showed some gas and a lot of food in his caecum. The vet gave him an injection of Emeprid and said he would send the X-ray to his colleague for his advice. My vet phoned me the following day and said he had been advised that I should change his food again to Fibafirst and add in some Cobagreen which is a pro-biotic and pre-biotic with added vitamins. I am sceptical about changing his food as when looking on You Tube it looks exactly the same athe one he won’t eat. He doesn’t seem to eat much of the Oxbow pellets anyway so I just offer him 10g at a time (recommended amount is 20g) which usually takes him 24 hours to eat (my other guinea pig eats 10g in around half an hour).
I have been trying to find out why the Gastro-gel has been discontinued but as yet can’t see why so I will phone Virbac next week. I have found another product which contains the same ingredient but is for human consumption. It is called Silicea Gastro-Intestinal Gel and seems to do the same thing which is puts a protective lining on the intestines and draws out any bad bacteria.
I have asked my vet to order in some of the Cobagreen as I had a problem getting it online. I did buy some Avipro Plus which seems to be the same thing but my vet seems to think the ratio of the ingredients may be different.
I am giving Teddy Emeprid 0.3ml three times a day. It gets his gut moving but pushes out loads of diarrhoea. I have hold him when it starts coming out as otherwise he is covered in it and so is his cage. I feel so sorry for him.
I can only think that the operation itself has upset his system as he had been OK for the past four years without any problems with his gut at all. Throughout his current state he has continued to eat and not shown signs of illness. When he had bloat in his first year though he just stopped eating and pooping.
Basically, my guinea pig has chronic bloat. I didn’t realise it was bloat at first because he has diarrhoea. It first started a few weeks after he had surgery for a testicular tumour last December. The first thing I noticed was that his anal sac was impacted. I bought a very large cage and placed his food and water at opposite ends so that he would have to move around a lot more. His poo became very soft and so the vet told me to give him Smecta. He didn’t seem to improve and I became worried about his breathing and so he was put on Baytril which firmed up his poo. When stopping this though the diarrhoea came back.
Within the first year of his life he developed bloat twice; the first being a mild episode but the second was very bad. As my vet didn’t know what else to do then he told me to go see a colleague of his some two hours drive away. He gave us some Gastro-gel (which is no longer available) which turned his condition around almost instantly.
With his current situation, I have been advised to change his diet. I was initially giving him Oxbow Essentials Adult pellets and Timothy hay and had stopped all veggies but was told to change this to Cunipic hay and Vetcare plus food. Unfortunately my guinea pig Teddy won’t eat this food so continued with the Oxbow pellets. Last Monday I took him for an X-ray to my local vet on the advice of the specialist vet It showed some gas and a lot of food in his caecum. The vet gave him an injection of Emeprid and said he would send the X-ray to his colleague for his advice. My vet phoned me the following day and said he had been advised that I should change his food again to Fibafirst and add in some Cobagreen which is a pro-biotic and pre-biotic with added vitamins. I am sceptical about changing his food as when looking on You Tube it looks exactly the same athe one he won’t eat. He doesn’t seem to eat much of the Oxbow pellets anyway so I just offer him 10g at a time (recommended amount is 20g) which usually takes him 24 hours to eat (my other guinea pig eats 10g in around half an hour).
I have been trying to find out why the Gastro-gel has been discontinued but as yet can’t see why so I will phone Virbac next week. I have found another product which contains the same ingredient but is for human consumption. It is called Silicea Gastro-Intestinal Gel and seems to do the same thing which is puts a protective lining on the intestines and draws out any bad bacteria.
I have asked my vet to order in some of the Cobagreen as I had a problem getting it online. I did buy some Avipro Plus which seems to be the same thing but my vet seems to think the ratio of the ingredients may be different.
I am giving Teddy Emeprid 0.3ml three times a day. It gets his gut moving but pushes out loads of diarrhoea. I have hold him when it starts coming out as otherwise he is covered in it and so is his cage. I feel so sorry for him.
I can only think that the operation itself has upset his system as he had been OK for the past four years without any problems with his gut at all. Throughout his current state he has continued to eat and not shown signs of illness. When he had bloat in his first year though he just stopped eating and pooping.
