Medications Tramadol causing wet slushy poo

[Comely Guineas]

Hi everyone,

My guinea pig was given metacam and tramadol for his arthritis. I'm supposed to give him tramadol twice a day until the vet tells me to stop. However he's been having terrible mushy poo which is such a pain it sticks to his feet, everything. I'm going to stop giving him veggies completely to see if it hardens up. Is this a normal reaction to tramadol? I'm considering stopping using this medication.

Also can i bath his underside/feet while he has revolution on his neck? or is that not recommended

 

[bpatters]

You can bathe his feet and undercarriage. The company that manufactures Revolution says the pet can be bathed two hours after it has been administered.

As far as I know, the tramadol would be more likely to cause constipation than mushy poop. That's true in humans, and I assume it's true of guinea pigs.

Was he taking the metacam before the tramadol was added, or did he start them both at the same time?

I'd be inclined to stop one or the other. For one thing, that's a lot of pain medication for a little guy. But they have similar, although not identical, actions, so using two of them seems like overkill.

 

[Comely Guineas]

The vet told me to start metacam + tramadol at the same time (metacam twice a day for only 5 days) and tramadol twice a day until otherwise advised. I have already stopped his metacam as the 5 days is over.

 

[bpatters]

Try cutting the dose of tramadol in half. Still give it twice a day, but only half as much. See if that helps.

 

[Comely Guineas]

Okay will do, thank you for the advice and replying. Also I'm so nervous about when the bottle runs out won't he have withdrawal symptoms? Do I need to tell the vet when it's about to run out or should I just slowly decrease the amount and wean him off

 

[bpatters]

I don't think he'll have withdrawal symptoms. He hasn't been on it that long.

But depending on how bad his arthritis is, he may need pain medication in a maintenance dose. How old is he? And how bad is his arthritis?

 

[Comely Guineas]

He is 5. His arthritis is not that bad, he can move around fine (hes lazy though) it's just that his back leg joints are stiff and cant bend them very well. The vet also prescribed those drugs to help with his red sore foot pads he got from laying down a lot.

 

[bpatters]

Then I'd stop them both.

The best thing for red footpads is silver sulfadiazene cream, applied sparingly with a q-tip and rubbed in well. And a clean cage, of course.

The cream is available here: https://www.mountainside-medical.com/collections/silver-sulfadiazine-cream

 

[Comely Guineas]

Thanks, I have stopped both meds and already after one day his poops are basically back to normal. I think I'll really clean his cage more and just give him foot soaks often & buy those Oxbow Joint support tabs.

I'll be honest that cream looks pretty daunting, not sure if I will do that

 

[bpatters]

It's absolutely the best stuff for foot problems, and any other scratches and scrapes they may get. I'm not sure what you mean by daunting. It's just a cream.

 

[Shieme]

The cream is the best for that. It's pretty much prescribed to all mammals. Even humans use it. Not sure why you are afraid of it?

I had a dog (she wasn't mine but I guess she loved my family more and would cross the highway and jump our fence. Well we found her in my destroyed sun room a bloody mess. Turns out she just had a lot of burn scrapes from being hit by a car. No broken bones. Doctor gave that to us and all her fur pretty much grew back. You could still see some damage and, no, I never got the money back from the owners from the vet but they did buy the medicine. We couldn't keep her because of her fence jumping. Long story and to be honest, she was never offered to us. We did keep her at my home because of her injuries. Once well, they took her back and couple years later she was killed by a car. Stupid owners.