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URI

meadowgirl

New Born Pup
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My piggy Jewel is having Baytril for an URI, and while waiting for probiotics to arrive, I would like to try her with some of her healthy companion's poops. I read in the pinned post that poop soup is made by soaking healthy poops in water then giving the water to the ill piggy. Can anyone advise how many poops to use? How much water to use? And how long to soak them for? And does it taste ok to the piggy? She really hates the Baytril and I'm hoping she won't hate this too. I have tried dropping some healthy poos into her pellets and mashing into cucumber etc but she hasn't really gone for it.
 
I think from poo collecting picking to syringing the water should be 5 minutes or less. Soi guess it’s within a minute of soaking. She should be okay with it. How long has she been on the bay trail? And are you weighing daily to keep an eye on her eating?
 
Thank you! Will try this. I haven't been doing daily weights yet as her appetite is good and plenty of poops but will start today.

She had a week of lower dose Baytril a couple of weeks ago for an eye infection which returned this week (or maybe hadn't properly gone away) and developed the URI on Wednesday when she restarted the Baytril on a higher dose. So she is day 4 of this course. The vet saw her again on Friday and thinks she is slightly improved but I am still very concerned as her breathing is noisy and she has nasal discharge. Her nose was swabbed so we will find out next week whether the antibiotics need to be changed.
 
Thank you :) I am so worried about her, especially as she fights the syringe and it makes her breathing worse. I suppose it's good that she has the energy to fight it. So we are giving her lots of rest in the meantime so that she can hopefully relax and feel safe between doses. She has her favourite green oats as well as Timothy and a bit of meadow hay. The vet said to switch her from meadow hay to all Timothy in case the meadow hay caused the eye infection in the first place but I've just reduced the meadow hay as I don't think it's the moment to be trying to change her diet when we just want to make sure she keeps eating. She has always liked both. She has grain free pellets as well and is still eating those too. I'll let you know how the poop soup goes!
 
Try to keep the time between dropping a poo and syringing the water in which the poos have been soaked as short as possible, ideally between 5-10 minutes. It is a balance act to get as much live gut microbiome into the water and then straight into the ill gut.
You can syringe once the water is discoloring.

What recovering guinea pigs are after themselves is the redigested poos (caecotrophs) that contain the not yet fully broken down grass/hay fibre for the second run through the gut, which are also rich in gut microbiome. These are unfortunately usually picked straight from the anus and you usually can't get at them.
Normal waste poos still contain some gut microbiome to do the trick, if not quite as efficiently as caecotrophs but more effectively than probiotic powder.
 
Thank you! I did this and she took just under a ml over a few minutes. How much should be given?
 
I used to give a couple of poops, (haven’t done in a little while) mixed/mashed into a couple of mls of water, always find it mixes in nicely! Fresher better as said above! (I tend to get the poorly pig out with a cagemate on the sofa etc, a little bit of grass or munch and there’s lots of poo not long after that you can pinch from the healthy pig!)
Never really had a pig that was a fan of the taste (watch out when they do a doggy shake too, I’ve eaten poo soup myself! 🤢) but it helps a lot!
Hope she feels better soon x
 
Thank you! I did this and she took just under a ml over a few minutes. How much should be given?

Do it again tonight as much as she will take. Little but more often works just as well as a lot in one go. :)
 
She has had 0.8mls of poo water with a bit of pellet dissolved in it but was very distressed taking it. Her weight today is 965g. Her usual weight is around 1150g which is what she was at the vet's about a month ago (he didn't say what she weighed this week). I left some of the mush on a plate for her in case she might eat it herself overnight (she wouldn't take it from a spoon).
 
She has had 0.8mls of poo water with a bit of pellet dissolved in it but was very distressed taking it. Her weight today is 965g. Her usual weight is around 1150g which is what she was at the vet's about a month ago (he didn't say what she weighed this week). I left some of the mush on a plate for her in case she might eat it herself overnight (she wouldn't take it from a spoon).

Keep feeding every two hours throughout the day if you struggle to get food in and get up once during the night.
The good news is that her weight is not yet dangerously low.
 
Hi, I need to change the title of this thread, can anyone advise how?
It's regarding the same guinea pig's case so I will keep it here for now.
Her breathing, eating and pooping worsened a great deal over the weekend. She saw the on call vet yesterday who gave a Ventolin nebuliser which eased her breathing somewhat although she is still honking and making a lot of respiratory effort. Her swab results are back and it is a bacteria which is sensitive to baytril but takes many weeks to clear. The vet won't see us today (!) but said we could try saline nebulisers at home. I have seen on here people using nebulisers - can anyone kindly advise on the set up? What kind of nebulising machine? How to administer?
We also got some critical care powder but still can't give her more than 1-2 mls at a time as she won't take it and it worsens her breathing a lot. She will lick a little off my fingers but won't eat it from the spoon or a saucer. Her weight this morning was 1038 but I don't think it's a weight gain as I think she wasn't properly on the scales when I weighed her on Saturday, so that one was incorrectly low. She was 1055 yesterday.
 
Hi, I need to change the title of this thread, can anyone advise how?
It's regarding the same guinea pig's case so I will keep it here for now.
Her breathing, eating and pooping worsened a great deal over the weekend. She saw the on call vet yesterday who gave a Ventolin nebuliser which eased her breathing somewhat although she is still honking and making a lot of respiratory effort. Her swab results are back and it is a bacteria which is sensitive to baytril but takes many weeks to clear. The vet won't see us today (!) but said we could try saline nebulisers at home. I have seen on here people using nebulisers - can anyone kindly advise on the set up? What kind of nebulising machine? How to administer?
We also got some critical care powder but still can't give her more than 1-2 mls at a time as she won't take it and it worsens her breathing a lot. She will lick a little off my fingers but won't eat it from the spoon or a saucer. Her weight this morning was 1038 but I don't think it's a weight gain as I think she wasn't properly on the scales when I weighed her on Saturday, so that one was incorrectly low. She was 1055 yesterday.

The need to breathe comes before the need to eat so it’s not surprising if she is struggling to breathe that she cannot take a lot of food at one time. You will need to feed her little and often to take account of this. Keeping offering it to her in any way she will accept
 
Just caught up with this thread. Hope your girl is continuing to improve. My boys are sending lots of healing vibes ❤
 
Hi, I need to change the title of this thread, can anyone advise how?
It's regarding the same guinea pig's case so I will keep it here for now.
Her breathing, eating and pooping worsened a great deal over the weekend. She saw the on call vet yesterday who gave a Ventolin nebuliser which eased her breathing somewhat although she is still honking and making a lot of respiratory effort. Her swab results are back and it is a bacteria which is sensitive to baytril but takes many weeks to clear. The vet won't see us today (!) but said we could try saline nebulisers at home. I have seen on here people using nebulisers - can anyone kindly advise on the set up? What kind of nebulising machine? How to administer?
We also got some critical care powder but still can't give her more than 1-2 mls at a time as she won't take it and it worsens her breathing a lot. She will lick a little off my fingers but won't eat it from the spoon or a saucer. Her weight this morning was 1038 but I don't think it's a weight gain as I think she wasn't properly on the scales when I weighed her on Saturday, so that one was incorrectly low. She was 1055 yesterday.
Sorry your piggy is having difficulty breathing. I had a boar who I had to nebulise for several months. You can buy a basic nebuliser for human use at Boots or Lloyds (or online). You need to put the pig in a container to hold in the vapour; I used a lidded box, my vet suggested a big plastic bag, other people have used a pet carrier covered with cling film. Put the nozzle of the nebuliser through a hole in the container so it can fill the container with piggy in it for the allotted time.
My vet gave me a bag of sterile saline to use, either on its own or mixed with nebulisable F10 or Baytril, but if you can't see your vet yet, you will have to make up your own saline. (I don't know the appropriate quantities though).
Other people have also put their pig in a steam filled shower cubicle.

Hope this helps!
 
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