Hazel's medical thread

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Zaphy

Post   » Tue Sep 15, 2015 9:22 pm


Soooooooo Hazel is my young guinea pig (~2 months, maybe 3) that I've recently introduced to my other two. She's recently recovered from a URI with a ~3 week long course of Baytril that finished this week, and she's been in the cage with my other two since Saturday. She seems to have developed some diarrhea since then. Saturday night I noticed some of her poops were a bit soft, but chalked it up to antibiotics. Most of her other poops were normal as far as I could tell, but that's when I started paying attention to it. She's been eating pretty well afaik, I've seen her eating hay, pellets, and drinking water, and have never noticed the other girls bullying her away from that (though they have squabbled with her quite a bit, and a few hair tufts have been lost from poor Hazel's rump :( ). She's probably still pretty stressed with the new environment, I imagine.

Sunday some poops were still soft, seemed like, but I noticed she had a mucus plug (you can look at the picture in the other thread I made on Cavy Chat) so I thought maybe the soft stool had to do with her being in heat. Yesterday was also about the same, but today when I came home from class she had a bit of dried poop caked around her bottom and on her feet, so I made a vet appointment.

I noticed a few poops that were long (shaped like two regular-sized poops stuck together, like with a seam in the middle) and somewhere between shiny and slimy- not exactly mucus-covered, but more shiny than usual fresh poop- plus, upon poking it with some stiff hay, I found that they were fairly soft and easy to squish. It does look like she is also still producing normal poops- either that or they've dried/hardened before being stepped on.

I've been weighing her twice daily since Saturday when I introduced her to the other two girls, her weight's remained fairly steady. Sunday morning she was 240 grams but the rest of her weighings have been between 270 and 280 grams.

Vet's closed tomorrow so the earliest they could fit her in was Thursday morning. They said as long as she's still active, eating and drinking it should be fine to wait till then.

Would it be a good idea to feed her some poop soup from one of my healthy pigs in the meantime? At the very least it wouldn't hurt her, right? I have some Critical Care I can mix it with, which also shouldn't hurt even if it doesn't necessarily help, yes? I'm going to also be monitoring her water intake, syringe feeding water, and probably hand-feeding hay. Is alfalfa hay okay to feed her, or should I only feed timothy with her upset gut?

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Tue Sep 15, 2015 9:29 pm


First, here's a good thread to read if you've got poop questions/problems: https://www.guinealynx.info/forums/viewtopic.php?t=68360

Second, poop soup certainly won't hurt, and may help.

Third, I wouldn't change anything that she's being fed. That will only muddy the waters as far as trying to diagnose what's wrong with her.

Good luck with her. Let us know what happens.

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Zaphy

Post   » Tue Sep 15, 2015 9:38 pm


Thanks for the quick response, and that link! I forgot to mention, her poop is a bit more fragrant than guinea pig poop usually is, too. Now to see if I can get one of my other ladies to poop on me...

I was also considering giving Hazel a bath to get the caked on stuff off, I can't imagine that being too comfortable. Do you think the additional stress of bathing and drying her would overpower any relief having a clean bottom (maybe temporarily) might bring?

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Tue Sep 15, 2015 9:45 pm


I'd probably bathe her if she were mine. Put her in some shallow water and let her sit. She might eat veggies for you while she's sitting there.

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Zaphy

Post   » Tue Sep 15, 2015 9:49 pm


Sounds like a plan. Thank you so much for your help!

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Tue Sep 15, 2015 10:20 pm


Have you read www.guinealynx.info/.html ? The baytril may have contributed to the problem.

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Wed Sep 16, 2015 3:05 pm


Ditto on the probiotics.

Where did you get her? If she didn't get fresh greens wherever she was before you, this could be a combination of new foods plus the antibiotic course.

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Zaphy

Post   » Wed Sep 23, 2015 2:04 pm


I thought I typed this up and replied the other day, but apparently I never did. Anyway, long story short I had gotten her from a pet store so, since she's new, I was able to give her to them for treatment (they use the same vet I do, and I trust him). They decided to hold her for a little bit to see if it was just the dietary change as Talishan speculated, since she was still pretty active and everything. She got better, so they opted not to take her to the vet.

I had previously been using Kaytee Forti-Diet alfalfa pellets (they just changed it, the kind I've been giving them has only the occasional orange treat piece rather than all the blue and green junk they seem to have added in the last month) so I switched to Oxbow alfalfa pellets, since that's what the pet store had been giving her (and I wanted to switch to a plain pellet anyway). I got her back on Saturday the 19th, and she had the occasional teardrop poop, but mostly they were good and normal. She started gaining weight too, last night she was at 310 grams, up from 270 grams last week. Woohoo!

I poop souped her twice more for good measure, once on Saturday and once on Sunday, and her poops were great, her bottom was clean, everyone was happy, until this morning. I picked her up and she'd been sitting on a massive (relative to her size) pile of diarrhea overnight. Mushy rather than liquidy. Thinking that maybe she'd been scared by my other pigs and hadn't moved from her corner (they are separated by a cage divider from her), maybe she just pooped, peed, and then shifted around and mashed it into a sticky mess, I changed her bedding to observe. About an hour later I checked back and she had produced 2 small piles of long, thick, soft poo.

Her weight is 315 grams this morning, and she is still active and otherwise healthy. She's been separated from my other pigs so I know she for sure has had a steady supply of only Oxbow alfalfa pellets, timothy grass hay, and water. Yesterday I decided to try introducing fresh veggies to her diet again, so I gave her a single piece about 1 inch in diameter of green leaf lettuce, the outer leaf part, not the big vein with lots of water. That's the only thing that's changed, so my husband is speculating that was the thing that caused it. But that doesn't make sense to me, since she's had lettuce before and not reacted this severely to it. I am.... fairly baffled.

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Wed Sep 23, 2015 2:11 pm


Reintroducing the lettuce could definitely have caused the problem. If their digestive tract has been upset, it can be sensitive, and the addition of raw fiber can cause loose stools even if the pig has been able to eat that particular vegetable before.

I'd cut out all vegetables and feed only hay and pellets for 48 hours and see if the poop firms up. If it does, add one vegetable back, in small amounts, and wait 48 hours before adding another one. That way, you'll be able to determine whether a particular veggie is causing the problem.

If the stool doesn't firm up after 48 hours with no vegetables, something else is the problem. Possibly a course of flagyl would settle things down.

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Zaphy

Post   » Wed Sep 23, 2015 2:22 pm


All right. I'll count that as the trial for lettuce then, haha. Thanks for the help! Hopefully things go back to normal over the next couple days. Poor piggie, she's had a rough month D:

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Fri Sep 25, 2015 2:54 pm


Ditto bpatters.

We've had a few pigs that as they aged, could not handle "full servings" of greens, and needed smaller servings more frequently. Usually those pigs are a lot older than Hazel, though.

My gut hunch is you may need some Flagyl (metronidazole), but follow bpatters' suggestions first.

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Zaphy

Post   » Sun Sep 27, 2015 9:22 pm


Well, cutting out veggies seemed to do the trick, her poops are clean again. Tonight I fed her a tiny little piece of yellow pepper, so we'll see if that upsets her gut again.

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