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Upset Tummy

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Jeniva

Jeniva

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hey guys.
My boar, Han, has had an upset tummy for a very very long time now. I mean probably a year, possibly less. I did take him to the vets and they just gave him an injection and shrugged it off. He lives alone but next to another boar, and they can touch noses etc and the other one is fine.
He's a big eater, scoffs his face all the time and he's a real porker. I mean his butt is HUUUGE.
Anyway he gets veg in the morning. And he will cry for veg! He's on burgess food which he also scoffs up. I don't think he eats as much hay as my other piggie, but he gets fresh hay every day.
Ever since I had him from a baby he's always had the same kind of veg in the morning, and he used to do normal poos. But now theyre very soft and he's always pooey - it makes me not want to hold him so much as he just smears poo every where.
He doesn't seem ill at all, just literally loads of soft poos.
I tried removing his dry food for a day to see if it made any difference, and it seemed worse. I don't give him a lot of veg and have tried a few times cutting it down, I do think it helps a bit but I don't want to under feed him veg.
I'm really not sure what I can be doing here. I don't want to stop his veg completely because he cries for it and I feel like a right tyrant :(
Would you guys recommend pro-biotics perhaps? Any help is appreciated.
 
I had the same problem with my Beans. She used to eek and eek for veg and she'd look so cute that I'd usually give her a bit too much.. not on purpose but it's hard not to when she's so cute and squeeking away. She started to do very soft poos and I was quite worried.

Turns out I was giving too many veggies, although I did kind of already think that.

Now all she gets is a handful in the morning and gets loads of hay though out the day and aroind 30g of dry nuggets a day. She's much better now.

Piggies don't actually need much veg at all, they can survive mostly on hay. 80% of their diet should be hay.. hope this helps :roll:
 
he doesnt even get much though. He gets a couple of slices of things and maybe a little greens :/. i could try just giving him one slice but that seems very low.
 
Jeniva said:
he doesnt even get much though. He gets a couple of slices of things and maybe a little greens :/. i could try just giving him one slice but that seems very low.
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Hmm:hmm: how much hay does he eat? And what type? Mines get a mix of medow hay and timothy. They do eat quite a lot of it also.

Is it maybe the veggies he's getting aren't quite agreeing with him?
 
Definitely give him some probiotics. Did the vets test his poo at all? if not, that may be the way forward.

What type of hay does he have?

Could you list the veg he does have each day? just in case anything jumps out at me.
 
Hmm I'm not entirely sure on hay type, it's just from a local pet shop and doesn't have any info on it. I used to get some from pets at home as well sometimes though but haven't in a little while.
typical veg day may be: bit of lettuce, pepper, broccoli.
He really loves his pepper. He won't eat banana if I give it to him.
I think I have tried eliminating some veg but it hadn't seemed to make much difference.
What probiotics would you guys recommend?
 
Could he be impacted with poo? This is something boars suffer from, basically their droppings collect in there and form a huge poo lumpy mess. Since you said his bum is also huge? Heres a link for more info

Guinea Lynx :: Impaction
 
Just saw this on another thread- has more info and videos. Be warned it is gross but if your boy is suffering from impaction he will feel ALOT better once its cleaned out regularly. My boar, who is no longer with me sadly, (unrelated to the impaction btw), used to suffer from this after he was neutered. They adapt well and get used to the routine.

Impaction Recovery - How To Help Your Guinea Pig.
 
Hi guys. So I saw the specialist guinea pig vet, and he gave me some pellets that help with upset tummy and also contains pro-biotics to see how he gets on with that. He is doing a test on his poo to see if theres anything else there, but he said he'd call me if he found anything and he hasn't. I'm going to ring Tues anyway just to double check.
If his tests come back clear though, what else can i try?
He's not impacted. I started cleaning him and yes a lot of runny poo comes out when I pushed down sometimes, but nothing that is hard and impacting him.
I've ordered some nice english timothy hay.
I read some where that sometimes piggies can be a bit intolerant to wheat? Should I try some food which doesn't contain any?
Any more help would be great. Whilst I'm convinced this isn't affecting his health, it's just disgusting and I hate that he's very pooey a lot of the time.
 
Is your vet doing a fecal float test? As most vets only do a basic fecal test then I would suggest you ask your vet to send a fresh fecal sample off to Mary at Chester Zoo, she does full in depth analysis for parasites, bacteria etc.
 
Jeniva said:
Hi guys. So I saw the specialist guinea pig vet, and he gave me some pellets that help with upset tummy and also contains pro-biotics to see how he gets on with that. He is doing a test on his poo to see if theres anything else there, but he said he'd call me if he found anything and he hasn't. I'm going to ring Tues anyway just to double check.
If his tests come back clear though, what else can i try?
He's not impacted. I started cleaning him and yes a lot of runny poo comes out when I pushed down sometimes, but nothing that is hard and impacting him.
I've ordered some nice english timothy hay.
I read some where that sometimes piggies can be a bit intolerant to wheat? Should I try some food which doesn't contain any?
Any more help would be great. Whilst I'm convinced this isn't affecting his health, it's just disgusting and I hate that he's very pooey a lot of the time.
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I would try wheat-free pellets if your piggy is suffering from ongoing digestive problems. It is at least worth a try. Very sorry that your vet hasn't found anything. It is so difficult to get on top of it if you don;t know what is really at the bottom of it all.
 
Wiebke said:
I would try wheat-free pellets if your piggy is suffering from ongoing digestive problems. It is at least worth a try. Very sorry that your vet hasn't found anything. It is so difficult to get on top of it if you don;t know what is really at the bottom of it all.
Click to expand...

Any recommendations on wheat free pellets?
 
Good news. Today his poo's have been normal! Been the first time in a long time he's had normal poop. I'm putting it down to the hay he's been chomping. Fingers crossed he stays normal.
 
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