2 Care for freshly operated guinea pigs
General tips
- Bring your piggy inside, so you can check on it and the operation wound at least once during the first night after the operation. Many exotics clinics are now increasingly keeping animals in overnight if the recovery is not optimal until they have stabilised, but a pigy may still struggle with the appetite when they come home.
- Keep your guinea pig warm (but not hot) and comfy on light coloured vetbed, fleece or towels that you can change daily for the first 2-3 days; it helps you spot any potential bleeding quickly. Cutting vet bed into smaller squares for the sleeping area allows you to quick change.
You can half-heat a microwaveable pad (snugglesafe) so it is just warm but not hot but always make sure that a piggy can move away when they are overheating.
If the operation wound has reopened or been gnawed open (the latter is usually a sign of major pain or the healing process not happening/necrotic tissue), please see a vet ASAP as an emergency.
- If your guinea pig is not in a good way and is not eating, have them next to your bed at night, so it is easier for you to check up on them and to syringe feed if that is necessary.
Supportive home care and syringe feeding
- If possible with a planned operation, please have everything ready to step in with syringe feeding if necessary (i.e. if your guinea pig has lost more than 50g/2 oz) or if they are not eating normally. The best of medical care cannot help if your guinea pig's guts and then body are closing down from lack of nourishment.
If you are dealing with an emergency operation, then the tips in this guide here will hopefully help you cope with any loss of appetite:
How to Improvise Feeding Support in an Emergency
- Pain, the anaesthetics used in the operation or the antibiotic that you need to give post-op can all dampen or kill the appetite. Any antibiotic is an appetite dampener/killer, as it does not just targeting the bacteria that cause infection, but also the bacteria in the gut that are vital for digesting food.
You can try to bolster this by giving a pinch of probiotic (best 1-2 hours after the antibiotic, either with some veg, syringed or as part of your syringe feed mix) and/or give “poo soup. The latter is made by soaking fresh poos from a healthy guinea pig in a little bit of boiled, cooled water and then syringe it. It is rather gross, but contains all the right stuff to re-stock the guts!
Please speak to your vet if there is no improvement within 2-3 days; you may also want to ask your vet whether a gut stimulant would be helpful.
1 Overview of recovery formula foods
- Recommended brands
- Emergency alternatives
2 Probiotics
- Standard brands
- Enhanced probiotics
- Live gut microbiome transfer (poo soup)
3 Vitamin C
- Recommended brand
- Alternatives
- Booster vs. long term supplementation
These chapters have been copied from the complete...
- You can find tips for how often/how much to feed in our comprehensive illustrated guide below, as well as what you can do with what you have at home if you are faced with an emergency operation that you haven't been able to prepare for.
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures
- If your guinea pig does not like the taste of recovery food, you can mix it or replace it with its usual mushed up pellets; feeding them freshly made with boiled, hand-warm water generally goes down best.
If your guinea pig is just nibbling on food but is not eating properly, then a bit of syringe feed can stimulate the appetite; finish off with syringe feed again, as much as needed (and as the scales tell you!).
Please don't hesitate to step in! Your prompt care is every bit as vital as the medical treatment! Guinea pig guts can start going into stasis (i.e. they stop working) after 24 hours without any food at all; don't wait for too long, or it can be an uphill battle to get the guts going again, on top of the healing process!
- Make sure that your guinea pig is not dehydrated; that is as important as feeding. Our syringe guide wil tell you how much at the minimum, but basically as much as your guinea pig will take willingly - the more often the less is going in in each session.
Please be aware that just giving your guinea pig lukewarm water is not addressing any lack of appetite or the vital intake of fibre to keep the guts going. Warmer water is just going down a little bit better than cold water when a piggy is not feeling well.
Dry fresh poos signal minor dehydration, mucus covered poos severe dehydration; in the latter case, you need to see a vet quickly! The size of the poos will give you hints as to the food intake of the last day or two; if they are smaller and thinner, it means that not enough food has gone in during that time.
Usually, poos tend to look funny in the first couple of days after an operation and it may take some time until they are cycled through, but they should normalise as food gets processed and passed through the digestive system again.
The post-op poo output will initially reflect the normal pre-op food intake, then the operation and post-op recovery gap and then the influence of the operation cocktail and a reduced food intake after the operation - this all happens with a delay of 1-2 days and is to be expected.
1 How the Digestive System Works
2 Poo Eating (Coprophagy)
3 Health Monitoring: Weighing vs. Poos Watching
- What does weighing do?
- What does the poop output tell you?
4 Minor Poop Issues
- How to deal with a minor tummy upset
- Funny poops: What do they mean?
- Caked on poops
5 Serious Diarrhoea
6 Impaction
7...
- Weigh daily at the same time in the feeding cycle to keep an eye on the food intake. Before their breakfast or dinner time is a good way of ensuring that guts and bladder are both empty.
Please don’t just go by looks; seeing a guinea pig nibble on a piece of hay or chewing on crud can be very deceptive as to the actual food intake, especially as up to 80% of the daily food intake should be hay, which you cannot control! Only the scales will you tell you the truth.
This guide here explains what the various methods of health monitoring do and how you can make best use of all of them. Many panic attacks happen because concerned owners are unable to interpret results properly because they lack the correct context and perspective.
1 Weight and Weight Loss
- Why regular weight monitoring matters
- How weight changes over a lifetime
- How to weigh on your kitchen scales (with video)
- The weight loss rules
- How critical is the weight loss for my piggy?
- Possible causes for weight loss
2 Body Mass Index (BMI) or 'Heft'
- Why is understanding your piggy's weight so important?
- 'Average' weight vs. individual weight - the big trip up
- How to check for the BMI...
Cheap kitchen scales from the supermarket or online (don't forget the batteries) will do to see whether the weight is stable from one day to the next, or from one week to the next in healthy guinea pigs.
Here is a little video on how you can weigh a guinea pig without having to chase it around:
How To Pick Up Your Guinea Pig
You can find lots of very simple but helpful practical care tips for guinea pigs with limited mobility (which can apply to freshly operated guinea pigs that do not move around much) in this link here:
Looking after guinea pigs with limited or no mobility
Pain relief, gut stimulants and when to see a vet as an emergency
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Plase always ask when you pick up your guinea pig how soon they can have painkillers again in case there is a deterioration/major discomfort or you need to see an out-of-hours vet as an emergency. Your guinea pig will have got an injection as part of the operation, so you won’t be able to give any painkiller straight away.
The first day after an operation is what I call 'hangover day': The operation cocktail is gradually worked out of the system via the kidneys and liver but the healing process has not yet kicked in. Your piggy will feel somewhat sore and a bit sorry for themselves but they should ideally be active (if a little subdued) and have an appetite.
- If your vet access is limited and you haven't got a check-up appointment within a day or two, please ask for these supportive medications when you bring your guinea pig home.
You will still need to make sure that you know how soon after the operation it is safe to give the meds.
- If your guinea pig is continuing to be off its food for longer than a day or two, you may want to ask your vet for gut stimulants to help with recovery, especially if your vet access is limited. Some vets prescribe them automatically.
- Contact a vet as an emergency if your guinea pig is suddenly deteriorating (lethargy, loss of appetite, puffed or hunched up, turning the head to the wall) and contact the vets promptly if your guinea pig is not picking up abit more within the first 2-3 days and remains lethargic.
Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
- If your guinea pig is very apathetic when you syringe feed, please do not force any more food down if they struggle to swallow. It is sadly very likely that its body is not able to process it and that it is already closing down.
See the last the chapter in:
Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
1 Your mental health, sensitivities and work commitments
- Mental health and support resources
- Sensitivity aspects
- When work and other commitments clash
2 Life or death emergency – Can my piggy be saved?
- Contacting a vet clinic at all times and link to life and death emergencies list
- What to do if I cannot access vet care instantly?
- The need to save up for emergency vet access
3 Is my...
- Please be aware that any
steroid injection may have an adverse effect. Ask your vet as to the nature of any injection they are giving a severely ill guinea pig. If you ask politely what the various injections are for, they will usually not take it amiss and explain the why and what for.
The Problems With Steroids And Why They Shouldn't Be Used.
Here is the link to our
emergency care information and resources collection:
Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
