On and off diarrhea for my one year old-please help!! please

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Momof4littlepigs

Post   » Fri Sep 02, 2011 11:00 pm


My little guys Sonic just turned a year old yesterday, but in June he had a very loud clicking breathing sound, I rushed him to emergency right away, didn’t wait and it turned out he had bacterial pneumonia, The vet put him on Baytril and told me to come back for a check-up in 2 weeks. When I went back the pneumonia had not cleared up as much as they would have liked, he told me to keep him on the Baytril and also gave me doxycycline.

Shortly after that he developed really loose stools. I brought him back to emergency because I was afraid of it turning into diarrhea. They referred me to a place in NYC that specialized in exotics. I took him there and they felt he had an antibiotic intolerance . They told me not to give him anymore of the baytril and doxycycline, they gave him an antibiotic shot for the pneumonia and gave me a probiotic and metacam ( he seemed to whine when he was making-hence them metacam).

I brought him home and gave him the pro biotic and metacam and gave him just the pellets and hay. He seemed to be doing better, his poops were turning into forms and hardening up. Once they got harder I gave him a very small amount of greens back into his diet and all was well. I then did it again and he was fine.
Then all of a sudden he had this onset of diarrhea it was the consistency of baby food and seemed to just be oozing out of him. It also had a really bad odor to it. I brought him back to the place in NYC. They gave me Flagyl and told me to use that with the metacam and they also did blood work to see if there was maybe another underlying cause. His blood work came back perfect!
After giving him the flagyl and metacam his poop was next to perfect. To this point I had not introduced and veggies or fruits back into his diet. For a little while he seemed to be doing ok. Now all of a sudden we are back to diarrhea again!

I had tried .1cc of Childrens Imodium AD, poop soup made of his brothers poop, some critical care and a little probiotic, he is eating hay and pellets regularly. I don’t get it! I am so frustrated, I feel like I am failing him. I give him a bath every day to keep him clean and prevent a possible UTI (he gets the stools stuck to his feet and behind). Does anyone have any advice? This baby has been going to drs and has had syringes in his mouth and medicines for nearly 3 months now. I would move mountains for him if I had to……I am desperate for answers and how I can help stop this.
Side note: All 4 of my piggies get syringe liquid vitamin c, they eat fresh organic (whenever possible) fruits & veggies. I also give them Oxbow Organic Pellets along with Oxbow Timothy hay and sometimes orchard grass mixed in.
Is this a food related diarrhea? Something else? Thank you for any and all help!

He is otherwise seemingly healthy, running around, has an appetite, when I feed his older brothers their greens and veggies he wants them too, he has all the signs of a normal perfectly healthy pig aside from this diarrhea issue. ...oh and he drinks a lot of water some times...a lot..

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PinkRufus
Contributor in 2020

Post   » Fri Sep 02, 2011 11:52 pm


"...they gave him an antibiotic shot for the pneumonia..."

Do you know which antibiotic was in the shot?

I would continue to give the probiotics daily. Also hold off on veggies until he gets better, then introduce them one at a time and very slowly to see if anything in particular is bothering him. I have used the Oxbow organic guinea pig pellets before (for one year). No diarrhea in my guys , but there are some unusual ingredients, so you may want to experiment with switching to a different pellet to see if that makes any difference.

Did your vet do a culture on a stool sample?

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gvstate01

Post   » Sat Sep 03, 2011 12:06 am


What veggies are you giving him specifically? Are you giving fruit everyday? Some fruits and veggies can cause diarrhea. And do you give him a full bath with shampoo, or just a shallow water bath to clean his tummy/butt (without shampoo)? I would go with the latter since a full bath everyday can leave his skin dry. If the veggies you're giving him are fine, I have no clue why the diarrhea :( Ditto with PR to stay on hay and pellets and feed one veggie a day to see if he develops any diarrhea.

Stool sample is a good idea too. Good luck with Sonic :)

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sat Sep 03, 2011 9:29 am


I'm so sorry about your little guy. Have you read www.guinealynx.info/.html ? It has some extra tips.

Some pigs have problems with particular vegetables. This sounds like an extreme reaction though so it only may help when you start reintroducing vegs when he is hopefully better.

I am sure you know how devastating diarrhea can be. I would get some subcutaneous fluids too.

Momof4littlepigs

Post   » Sat Sep 03, 2011 9:43 am


Thank you for your responses! Very helpful. I have not been giving him any fruits or vegetables at all, but when I did reintroduce the veggies after the battle of diarrhea I gave him a little Kale. I feel so bad too because I can see he really wants to eat and when my other guys get their little assorted salad bowls he wheeks, and jumps around and seems to get down when he realizes its not for him :-(

I just went through his med records and the anitbiotic shot he was given is called Vibramycin injection 500g.

I am going to get the Oxbow adult pellets I was originally feeding them and start reintroducing those back in his diet and see what happens, because come to think of it all around the same time this has been going on is when I put them all on the organic. I switched them over from the regular to the organic, so I wonder if it is the pellets!! My vet did do stool culture and it came back fine, no parasites or anything. Just like the blood work, perfect.

As for bathing him, it depends, I usually try to just use a little warm or room temperature water, but if he seems to have have had a bad night, afternoon,morning and it is really bad, I will use a drop of gentle all natural soap to help remove it. My fear is him getting a UTI on top of all this if he is dirty.

Thanks so much for your suggestions and I will keep at it.

Momof4littlepigs

Post   » Sat Sep 03, 2011 7:45 pm


what about those wet tail drops they sell in stores? do those help?

Josephine
Little Jo Wheek

Post   » Sat Sep 03, 2011 8:43 pm


Please keep all comments about this pig to one thread. I'm closing the other one you made.

Here is what I posted on the other thread in regards to giving "Oasis Wet Tail Drops" to guinea pigs:

"Likely [they are harmful]. Most of them have neomycin, don't they? It's not a good antibiotic for cavies."

Additionally, it does sound like the antibiotics could be upsetting the GI flora. Also, doing a fecal to rule out intestinal parasites may be helpful, since those will wax and wane with diarrhea.

As far as supportive care, I feel the best product to give with any diarrhea is Bio-sponge that comes in a paste. The info is sure to be with the stuff on the diarrhea page. It is fairly easily obtained if you can find it (doesn't require a prescription as it is OTC supplement), is really benign (no problems with giving it and causing more problems), and is relatively inexpensive (you should pay $10-20 for a tube that will last a cavy quite some time). Additionally, it is often recommended in animals that have routine GI problems with diarrhea, so long-term use is also not a problem.

Momof4littlepigs

Post   » Sun Sep 04, 2011 2:59 pm


My apologies, I am new to this forum and didn't realize that rule until after the fact. Then didn't know how to delete it. I am a panic stricken mom.

I am waiting for my dr. in NYC (they specialize in exotics, that is all they see) to call me back, they may consider doing another round of the flagyl. However, the bio sponge sounds good and I will bring that up to my dr as well. Thank you for the help. I have just been so desperate and trying everything we have been back and forth to emergency as well. Everyone seems to be baffled by this.

He has had a stool culture and blood work all came back perfect. I have also taken him off all fruits and veggies for now and last night he tried to knock down the divider in between him and his cage mate to get at his greens. That was heartbreaking to see! But I know that I cannot give in because I feel bad because that will only make matters worse.

Josephine
Little Jo Wheek

Post   » Sun Sep 04, 2011 3:05 pm


You can do the Biosponge AND the Flagyl (metronidazole) at the same time.

The "one thread per pig" rule actually makes it much easier for people to follow what is going on. And keeping all the comments together does, too.

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gvstate01

Post   » Sun Sep 04, 2011 4:09 pm


You can find bio sponge here http://www.this-little-piggie-marketpla ... th_02.html . It'll take you to Amazon and is pretty cheap :)

Momof4littlepigs

Post   » Sun Sep 04, 2011 4:22 pm


Thank you all so much for the help. I am getting another course of the Flagyl today along with Metacam and I will get the bio sponge.

Interesting the doctor I spoke to today is not the normal one for Sonic but another one at the same place and she never heard of bio sponge.....

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PinkRufus
Contributor in 2020

Post   » Sun Sep 04, 2011 4:29 pm


Bio-Sponge is an equine product. Since guinea pigs have a digestive system similar to a horse it works for them too.

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