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Diarrhea Can intrducing hay cause loose poop?

Julietsmom

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From what I understand, Juliet has never had hay before now. She's had a little a few days this week but now, with her C&C cage, she has a hay rack with 24 hour readily available hay. Today she has loose poop. She is mostly pooping in her PVC tunnel, and its all soft as well. Can introducing hay for the first time cause this? Or the strawberries (she's had one a day the last three days)? Should I take her to the vet or wait a day or two to see if it clears up?
 

lissie

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She could have peed in the PVC tunnel causing the poop to look wet. Can you remove the tunnel and see if she still has loose poop?

Hay will not make her have loose poop. It's more likely caused by the strawberries. Please limit fruit to once a week.
Are you giving any leafy greens? Please see the food chart in the diet section.
 

Julietsmom

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I will stop the strawberries. I noticed the loose poop at first when I picked her up, it was all over my hand and her hiney. I'll give more greens.
 

Ly&Pigs

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Increase the hay, decrease the veggies for a couple of days.

Fruits should not be fed daily, at most twice a week in small amounts due to high sugar contents.

What all veggies have you been feeding and in what amounts?
 

Julietsmom

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Well, I just got her on Saturday. Got her from a yard sale for $10...I wrote about it in my Intro post. Pet store fella where they got her from said to give her pellets, baby carrots every day and 1/3 orange every three days.

I was told that was wrong so I have been introducing other things slowly. The strawberry just happened because I was making my hubby some crepes and when I sliced the strawberries she starting with that hungry wheek. I gave her a small piece and she immediately stood on her back legs begging for more. So I have been giving her small pieces.

She has hay in her rack and since I read on here somewhere that carrots can cause calcium deposits, I haven't been giving her so many. I introduced some kale last night.

I was just reading your sample menus, but since she has never been introduced to veggies (she's only about 8 weeks old) how should I go about it? One at a time?
 

Julietsmom

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I just found your post at "Re: What methods are there to introduce vegetables and fruit to a guinea pig's diet?" and I will start the way you suggested with lettuce, bell pepper and cilantro only until she eats those three things consistently.
 

Ly&Pigs

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For now, ditch the strawberries, kale and carrots.

Start her on lettuces (no iceburg, spring mixes without spinach or chard are fine), bell pepper and cilantro. Feed ONLY these three things until she eats them all very well. You want to feed at least twice a day. At first offer her 1/2 large leaf of lettuce, if she eats that, give her the other half. You want to work on getting her up to a couple large leaves per feeding. With the pepper, cut it into thin strips and offer her a couple, if she eats those, give her about 1/8 of the pepper a day. Any color is fine but red is sugary so it's best substituted for other colors a couple times a week. Cilantro- offer a few sprigs per feeding.

Once she's eating all these things daily, then start adding in a small bit of kale a couple times a week and other veggies per my charts and the sample menu's thread. You will want to work on getting her to eat a very varied diet. Variety is the key to a balanced diet.

You may also want to consider adopting her a buddy from a rescue or shelter as they are social creatures and like company of their own species.
 

Ly&Pigs

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I just found your post at "Re: What methods are there to introduce vegetables and fruit to a guinea pig's diet?" and I will start the way you suggested with lettuce, bell pepper and cilantro only until she eats those three things consistently.
I was typing my reply and didn't see this until I submitted it.
 

Julietsmom

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She is getting a friend in June. We don't have a rescue around here and the shelters won't take small animals. I've watched Craigslist forever in the closest town to me with no luck...someone rude even told me to buy a snake and feed my baby to it.

However my ex-husband will be coming from Dallas in June to bring home our daughter and there are several a day on there for free because their people don't want them any more, so he said if I find one, he would pick her up and transport her for me. So by the end of June with the quarantine period, Juliet will have a friend.
 

Julietsmom

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Good news! Introduced green bell pepper, red leaf lettuce and cilantro when I got home and she munched down!!!
 

Julietsmom

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Okay, so in observing, she is staying in the same place all night long. Pooping and peeing without moving, so in the morning, she's lying in a pile of nasty. Its caked on her feet and bottom. Is there anything I can do to try and change this behavior?
 

lissie

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What are you using for bedding?

Edit to add: if she is peeing and pooping in the PVC pipe, give her other hidey that has open bottom so she doesn't get dirty.

Pigs like to pee and poop where they sleep and eat. You can't really potty train them. They will train you to put litter boxes in the location they use most.
 
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Julietsmom

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I just switched from shavings to fleece. Before I switched she was pooping in her snuggle bag, so I switched to fleece. She starting pooping in the PVC when she started sleeping in it, when I placed it in her cage. I have removed it for the moment. Last night she just slept in a corner of her cage, not in her snuggle bag, not in her box, just in the corner under the ramp and still did the same thing.
 

lissie

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Did you test if the fleece is wicking? What do you have under fleece?
Does her poop look like normal poop that was wet by her pee or look like diarhea?
 

Julietsmom

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I have shavings under the fleece. Yes it is wicking. I will be switching to towels as soon as I can. I thought it was diarrhea at first, but I'm thinking that maybe she's just peeing on it and squishing it with her body & feet. It wasn't AS bad this morning since I removed the PVC tube.

I think tonight I will lay a washrag where she slept last night and see if she will sleep on it.

I've seen many piggies who sleep laying down with their back legs out or to the side. She sleeps standing up, just kinda curled up, is this normal?
 

lissie

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It's normal for her to sleep curled up.
You should try to determine if it's a diarhea or just wet poop. It's been going on for days. If it's diarhea, you need to take her to the vet.
Is she loosing any weight? Try to weigh her everyday.
 

Julietsmom

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I meant to say, in my last post, I don't think its diarrhea because when she poops other places in the cage, its normal.
 

Julietsmom

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Okay,So I talked to the vet last night, (we live an hour away from the only Cavy vet so we call first to see if she thinks she needs to be seen) and she said its most likely the cilantro. She said that since she's such a baby, that cilantro can cause loose stools, but since she's drinking plenty and has some formed stools too, then its probably dietary. She told me to stop feeding the pet store pellets that guy got from a bin because they're probably not fresh and feed the Kaytee pellets that I bought at Petstupid for when I ran out of those. She said to keep feeding the spring mix and peppers but stop the cilantro for a few days to see what happens. Then reintroduce the cilantro in a couple of months when she's bigger.

This morning there was no pile of runny poop! Yay!

New question, when does their umbilicus fall off?? The people I got her from and the pet store guy they got her from said she was 8 weeks old (a week & a half ago) but when I was washing the poop off of her yesterday, I noticed she still has her umbilicus. Its hard and dry and not inflamed at all, but if she's almost ten weeks, shouldn't it be gone by now?
 

Ly&Pigs

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She told me to stop feeding the pet store pellets that guy got from a bin because they're probably not fresh and feed the Kaytee pellets that I bought at Petstupid for when I ran out of those.
I hate it when vets tell people to feed low quality garbage pellets. Kaytee is one of the worst. Neither of these pellets are good. You need to get some Oxbow if you can find it locally. Kaytee is poor because it contains a lot of low quality ingredients, fillers and an ingredient called ethoxyquin which is a known carcinogenic in many animal foods.

The umbilical cord should have fallen off weeks ago. Normally it will fall off within a week/week and a half of being born. You've had her for a week and a half? Something doesn't sound quite right here and I think the guy lied to you. How big was she when you got her? Compare her size to your hand when you first got her and now.
 

Julietsmom

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My husband is in Amarillo, I will have him look for Oxbow.

I can hold her in the palm of my hand. She can sit inside the bottom of a small coffee can.
 
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