Diagnosed cases of mega-colon in guinea pigs?

wenton5

Post   » Thu Jun 20, 2013 3:39 pm


Talishan, thank you so much for posting, this is really great info. and I appreciate the knowledge being passed on. Thanks so much. RIP Sir Barnabas Jarome... L

User avatar
JamiesAnimal
Supporter in '15

Post   » Thu Jun 20, 2013 3:50 pm


Every male guinea pig that I have had except for Adam (successfully neutered) had the large clumps. It was the weirdest thing, but all of them had it except for the only neutered male. Samson, Elvis, Oscar, Cory, Ben, are names off the top of my head so that is five boys.

Laxatives? That sounds creepy.

Josephine
Little Jo Wheek

Post   » Thu Dec 12, 2013 12:44 pm


Just saw this and thought it would be NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE in a guinea pig. Usually, megacolon is a result of chronic constipation and occurs in omnivorous (or mostly carnivorous) mammals. Just bizarre that someone would diagnose it in a guinea pig. It is not stasis. I agree it could be a result of an impacted boar and resulting "pile up" of feces, but this would take some time to stretch out the colon to the point it is this damaged. So, aquired, maybe. Otherwise, I just don't see it as a hugely common thing to worry about. It can be a huge problem in domestic cats.

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Sun Mar 30, 2014 8:24 am


We have another with a much milder variant of the condition, and another who seemed to develop it during his last couple of weeks of life.

In all cases it seemed to develop or initiate from being overfed greens. Rather than the normal loose stool that firms up once greens are eliminated for a while or reduced, these animals seemed to retain a sensitivity to certain types of foods and when fed those foods, would pack up (for lack of a better way to put it), eliminate a smelly glob or globs of stuff, then normalize for a bit, then pack back up.

In our experience the best way to handle it was to severely limit, or eliminate, the trigger foods. The vet that initially explained this to us gave me the impression it compared somewhat to a balloon with a weak spot or spots, so in blowing it up you'd get a place where the balloon hyperexpanded and thus trapped the air blown in (if that makes any sense) until fully deflated. With digestive material, the trapped material will begin to go into ileus (soft, overfermented, smelly).

JamieNov -- "laxatives" is creepy to me too. If you substitute "judicious use of motility agent appropriate for a cavy" (i.e., Reglan), then okay IMO.

Post Reply