Care for freshly operated guinea pigs:
- 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. If the operation wound has reopened or been gnawed open (the latter is usually a sign of major pain), please see a vet ASAP as an emergency!
- If the guinea pig is not in a good way and not eating, have it next to your bed at night, so it is easier for you to check up on it and to syringe feed if that is necessary.
Supportive home care and syringe feeding:
- VERY IMPORTANT: 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) and is 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!
- 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.
- 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.
Complete Syringe Feeding Guide
- 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 - 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!
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.
- 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.
Cheap kitchen scales from the supermarket 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
Pain relief, gut stimulants and when to see a vet as an emergency:
- Ask how soon your guinea pig can have painkillers again when you pick her up 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.
- If your vet access is limited and you haven't got a check-up appointment within a day or two, please ask for these suppotive 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 them.
- 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.
- See/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 within the first 2-3 days.
- If your guinea pig is very apathetic when you syringe feed, please do not force any more food down. It is sadly very likely that its body is not able to process it and that it is already closing down.
- 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.
