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

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sun Sep 25, 2011 11:01 pm


Have you tried clean fresh grass? I would clear him up and try introducing it very slowly. I would also supplement with vitamin C too.

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Sun Sep 25, 2011 11:03 pm


Ditto Lynx. Get him straight and then try reintroducing greens very slowly, *one green at a time*. There may only be one or two trigger foods in whatever you are feeding. If you can find those, he can have the rest; just don't give him any of the trigger foods. Supplement with a little extra C in the meantime.

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gvstate01

Post   » Mon Sep 26, 2011 12:28 am


This may sound weird, but my vet called me last year asking to bring one of my males in to do a fecal transplant because she had a pair of pigs that wouldn't stop producing stones. So she gave the 2 girls with stones Tagamet (acid reducer) and then about an hour later gave them both poop soup from my male (using a ceacal). It was hard because he eats those like candy :) Anyway, the girls have not had any problems with stones since! I think a good idea is to talk to your vet about the same thing and if they have any healthy guinea pig clients that would be willing to give up some poo :) It just seems like he needs his gut restored and there's no hurt in trying

Momof4littlepigs

Post   » Mon Sep 26, 2011 9:23 am


Trust me when I tell you I will try anything and nothing sounds weird at this point!

I give him liquid C with a syringe, so I have been doing that and is there a cap on bio sponge, I know for dogs and cats it is generally not given for more than 7 days, is that rule still the same for Guinea Pigs? I give him very small amounts of it, I also must admit it is no walk in the park to give that stuff to him....because it is so pasty I feel like I am torturing the poor thing. I have done the poop soup from my other healthy guys in the past.

At the moment his diet consists of: pellets ( sprinkled with a little critical care-he loves that stuff and also a little probiotic)
Timothy hay and orchard grass, I will try the fresh grass too. Is it a possibility that there gut never goes right? Overall he is totally healthy energetic and has an appetite.

We have a little joke in our house now that he gets his belly from his mommy (me) since I have a lot of stomach troubles, but I am hoping we can just get this right.

Can Guinea Pigs thrive well with the absence of greens and veggies?

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gvstate01

Post   » Mon Sep 26, 2011 1:37 pm


The main point is to give an antacid first to stop their gut and then introduce the poop soup. The antacid is key. Only use Tagamet pills. Crush one pill up, add 1ml of water and give .04ml for a smaller pig (under 1000g) and .06ml for larger. Wait an hour an give a special poop, not just a normal poop. It has to be the kind they lean down to eat. Steal that from him/her and mix it with 1ml of water and give it :)

I don't believe piggies can survive well without greens and/or veggies. If they have fresh grass daily, then you can give less veg, but I don't think they'd survive without both the greens and veg.

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:35 pm


"Is it a possibility that there gut never goes right?"

There's a big possibility (read: probability) that his gut will always be sensitive, and easily upset. Not quite the same thing, though.

They can survive without vegetables and greens if 1) they have a good-quality pellet and 2) you give vitamin C regularly. They need this vitamin from an external source regularly, without fail and if it's not coming from greens, it's gotta come from you.

That said, it's a pretty boring diet. We've had others on here in a situation similar to yours. Usually what ends up happening is that there's one or two greens they can tolerate, so you give them those and *no* others.

Josephine
Little Jo Wheek

Post   » Tue Sep 27, 2011 1:39 am


I think you should really be doing an elimination diet to get your cavy back on track.

Also not sure about the Tagamet compounding with water... and dosing. Gosh, haven't heard that name for years! Famotidine!

I would start with hay/pellets only, get normal stool, then SLOWLY!!! add veggies ONE AT A TIME, a week or two by a week or two (e.g. never more than one veggie being given for a week or two at a time, then moving to the next one). I think grass is easiest to tolerate and would start with that!!! Wheatgrass is a superfood for cavies and most really like it. Only if you do it this way will you really find out what are the problem foods!

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gvstate01

Post   » Tue Sep 27, 2011 1:51 am


It's worked very well for my vet with a lot of her piggies with stones :) It's definitely not the easiest to find, our local pharmacist said only tagamet had cimetidine (sp?) in it and nothing else. But we went ahead and tried it. Better than bladder stone surgery :) She gives us pills all the time (cheaper) to compound, I guess she trusts us. I'd hope :D

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Tue Sep 27, 2011 1:57 am


"I would start with hay/pellets only, get normal stool, then SLOWLY!!! add veggies ONE AT A TIME, a week or two by a week or two (e.g. never more than one veggie being given for a week or two at a time, then moving to the next one). I think grass is easiest to tolerate and would start with that!!! Wheatgrass is a superfood for cavies and most really like it. Only if you do it this way will you really find out what are the problem foods!"

Enormous huge ditto to this.

Josephine
Little Jo Wheek

Post   » Tue Sep 27, 2011 2:29 am


Oops! Yeah, Tagamet is cimetidine. All the "idine" H-2 antagonists sometimes get jumbled. Pepcid is famotidine and Zantac is ranitidine... and there are others.

Just not sure how stable it is and for how long in water. Gonna have to look it up later.

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gvstate01

Post   » Tue Sep 27, 2011 2:38 am


That'd be interesting to know. I toss it right after, but still would be good info

Momof4littlepigs

Post   » Fri Oct 28, 2011 9:39 pm


Thank you all so much for your responses,I haven't been back on in a bit to report my progress, but we are still not right........

I was giving Sonic Orchard Grass, along with his hay & pellets and that seemed to make it a little worse and his stool started turning a very pale green. He has been eating nothing but Oxbow Timothy Hay & Oxbow pellets for a while now. He also gets liquid vitamin c every day, wit ha syringe, which he loves!!!

His stool is still very loose, some days its loose but a form of sorts, but not like a hard bean like my others. Other days its more like a chocolate pudding but a bit firmer.

Bio sponge worked for a day or so, then it didn't seem to work very well. I stopped that because I had read that it is not good to give on a continual basis. My vet gave me additional flagyl....that is no longer working either.

To date I stopped the meds because he was getting them every day and it was not working.

I have to let him sit in warm water every day because he gets poop caked on his feet by the time I get home from work.

I am so concerned and baffled. Concerned because he has not gotten any veggies or greens or anything for a while now. baffled beacuse he was totally fine and I never had an issue with him at all until I took him for pneumonia...it has been a battle since.

Overall he is full of energy ( I never see him sleeping,it's rare) he is eating, drinking he has all the clinical signs of a normal healthy pig, just his stool is not normal and messy.

Even in his last trip to the vet he got a clean bill of health, blood fine, fecal fine, he is not losing weight, I weigh all my guys regularly.

I just don't get it and I feel so awful for him that he has to live seperate from his buddies, he gets dirty every day, he gets so excited when I feed the others so I have to take him out of their room.

The only other thing I can think of that I was considering having him tested for is diabetes?? Any thoughts on that??

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