Bite Wound, Hole in Face
Ok! I gave her another one tonight. I've only tried syringing it, there's no way I could get her to get it down otherwise. She's a feisty thing.
I've got her back on the Oxbow Simple Harvest Adult Guinea Pig food right now. I first had her on the Oxbow Essentials Cavy Cuisine Adult food, but they all seem to like the Simple Harvest better. It is slightly lower in protein and fiber, about 2% and 2-3% lower than the Essentials, respectively. It also is a little higher in calcium (0.05% more), and there's 0.05% more phosphorus in Simple Harvest as well. Other than that, all the vitamins have identical amounts in the guaranteed analysis.
Other than changing to the Simple Harvest, I've only tried one other pellet, the Mazuri. I actually started transitioning her over to it because I was out of Oxbow and it would take a while for any to either ship to me or my store to restock. I began transitioning her over to the Mazuri on September 15 (half-and-half), and they were eating just Mazuri by September 21st. Maggie started having loud, high-pitched flatulence by late Sunday the 23rd-early Monday the 24th.
She started refusing to eat the Mazuri pellets on October 1st, but would continue eating hay. She did fine on hay and a daily Oxbow vitamin C tab. Im not claiming the Mazuri pellets caused it, but just as a precaution, I switched her back over to Oxbow Simple Harvest on October 11, and after I replaced the Mazuri with Oxbow, she started eating pellets again. She's been eating anything you put in front of her ever since.
Other than that, she hasn't had any pellet changes since I got her. The people who previously had her were giving her the Wal-mart, cheap, awful pellets, but she has not had any of that since I adopted her.
I've got her back on the Oxbow Simple Harvest Adult Guinea Pig food right now. I first had her on the Oxbow Essentials Cavy Cuisine Adult food, but they all seem to like the Simple Harvest better. It is slightly lower in protein and fiber, about 2% and 2-3% lower than the Essentials, respectively. It also is a little higher in calcium (0.05% more), and there's 0.05% more phosphorus in Simple Harvest as well. Other than that, all the vitamins have identical amounts in the guaranteed analysis.
Other than changing to the Simple Harvest, I've only tried one other pellet, the Mazuri. I actually started transitioning her over to it because I was out of Oxbow and it would take a while for any to either ship to me or my store to restock. I began transitioning her over to the Mazuri on September 15 (half-and-half), and they were eating just Mazuri by September 21st. Maggie started having loud, high-pitched flatulence by late Sunday the 23rd-early Monday the 24th.
She started refusing to eat the Mazuri pellets on October 1st, but would continue eating hay. She did fine on hay and a daily Oxbow vitamin C tab. Im not claiming the Mazuri pellets caused it, but just as a precaution, I switched her back over to Oxbow Simple Harvest on October 11, and after I replaced the Mazuri with Oxbow, she started eating pellets again. She's been eating anything you put in front of her ever since.
Other than that, she hasn't had any pellet changes since I got her. The people who previously had her were giving her the Wal-mart, cheap, awful pellets, but she has not had any of that since I adopted her.
I have noted the bloat and lethargy were greatly reduced after switching back from Mazuri to Oxbow. However, she was also started on metoclopramide on the 6th and I changed her to Oxbow on the 11th, so it may have simply been the metoclopramide and the pellets had nothing to do with it. But her refusing the Mazuri pellets after getting sick and gladly accepting the Oxbow pellets makes me think they were causing her discomfort or something. While the bloat still occurs minorly without vegetables in her diet, I have noticed any time I have tried to give her any kind of vegetables the bloat seems to be worse after about 6-12 hours following and stays that way for up to 24 hours following. I've tried cucumber, green leaf, romaine, green bell pepper, and red bell pepper, all individually at different times. The vet said hopefully once all the gas in her system has been expelled, vegetables will no longer affect her like this. I've been keeping a detailed food journal for her, although until we can add veggies again, there isn't much to put down.
Over the past couple of days I have sectioned off a larger piggy-proofed area of my living room (about 35-40 sq feet), and have noted if I keep her in there for 2 hours or more each day (typically closer to 4), it is keeping the bloat down fairly significantly...if she will actually move around while she's in there. Some days she just doesn't feel like exploring or exercising when she has floor time, and then I'll put her back in her cage and try again later. While the bloat is still occurring, the discontinuation of vegetables and more floor time has significantly decreased the severity. I also 100% believe the poop soup, which I've been giving her 1-2 times daily, is helping.
I'm planning to get my hands on the Oxbow Papaya Support (Oxbow says they still sell it but I have had no luck finding it) or Oxbow Digestive Support tabs and see if that helps regulate her a little too. The vet said she had good results with the former Oxbow Papaya Plus in guinea pigs that were more sensitive to getting GI stasis or bloat, but they discontinued in 2014. Now they have Oxbow Papaya Support but I have yet to find anywhere that actually sells it.
Hopefully, another week or so of this new routine will keep her from creating new gas and give the existing gas time to work its way out of her body.
Over the past couple of days I have sectioned off a larger piggy-proofed area of my living room (about 35-40 sq feet), and have noted if I keep her in there for 2 hours or more each day (typically closer to 4), it is keeping the bloat down fairly significantly...if she will actually move around while she's in there. Some days she just doesn't feel like exploring or exercising when she has floor time, and then I'll put her back in her cage and try again later. While the bloat is still occurring, the discontinuation of vegetables and more floor time has significantly decreased the severity. I also 100% believe the poop soup, which I've been giving her 1-2 times daily, is helping.
I'm planning to get my hands on the Oxbow Papaya Support (Oxbow says they still sell it but I have had no luck finding it) or Oxbow Digestive Support tabs and see if that helps regulate her a little too. The vet said she had good results with the former Oxbow Papaya Plus in guinea pigs that were more sensitive to getting GI stasis or bloat, but they discontinued in 2014. Now they have Oxbow Papaya Support but I have yet to find anywhere that actually sells it.
Hopefully, another week or so of this new routine will keep her from creating new gas and give the existing gas time to work its way out of her body.
- Lynx
- Celebrate!!!
Thank you so much for your detailed information!
I don't know if you have read this page, but it mentions an imbalance of gram negative and gram positive bacteria in the gut. If I remember right, it is the gram negative bacteria that is more likely to cause diarrhea, and, I believe, gas as a byproduct. It may be that some bloat is caused by an imbalance of bacteria in the gut. Your giving poop soup (the best is using the cecal feces that are reingested by guinea pigs to extract more nutrients) may help get things back to normal.
www.guinealynx.info/diarrhea.html
I don't know if you have read this page, but it mentions an imbalance of gram negative and gram positive bacteria in the gut. If I remember right, it is the gram negative bacteria that is more likely to cause diarrhea, and, I believe, gas as a byproduct. It may be that some bloat is caused by an imbalance of bacteria in the gut. Your giving poop soup (the best is using the cecal feces that are reingested by guinea pigs to extract more nutrients) may help get things back to normal.
www.guinealynx.info/diarrhea.html
poor baby :( i hope she gets better soon. the only animal hospital near me is half an hour away, and last time i went there they said my dog had a broken hip, then emailed be three weeks later saying nothing was wrong with her hip and the foot was the problem. i hope you can see that vet asap!
Thanks, Lynx!
Hiraethth, I'm so sorry to hear about your dog! Finding a decent vet can be difficult. Maggie has seen the vet three times since this started in late September, but I finally found a decent one about 2.5 hours away that I've been taking her to!
Rjespicer, thanks! I'd seen the papaya support on there, with it being in a different language and no reviews on it, I was a little hesitant, although I'll probably end up doing that if I can't find it anywhere else. I actually just ordered some of the Oxbow Digestive Health ones from Amazon today; I'd looked on pet store websites for them but hadn't even thought to check Amazon!
Hiraethth, I'm so sorry to hear about your dog! Finding a decent vet can be difficult. Maggie has seen the vet three times since this started in late September, but I finally found a decent one about 2.5 hours away that I've been taking her to!
Rjespicer, thanks! I'd seen the papaya support on there, with it being in a different language and no reviews on it, I was a little hesitant, although I'll probably end up doing that if I can't find it anywhere else. I actually just ordered some of the Oxbow Digestive Health ones from Amazon today; I'd looked on pet store websites for them but hadn't even thought to check Amazon!
- Lynx
- Celebrate!!!
I do have to say I am somewhat skeptical about Oxbow's (and other company's) special products. Unless there is sound scientific research to back up some of the claims (digestive healthy, for example), it may be a case of throwing together some items that sound promising but don't actually deliver.