First, I want to say if your guinea pig has diarrhoea, you must get both a POO AND A THROAT SWAB DONE! (Per Vedra Stanley at the CCT) This is to rule out serious conditions. Ours came back positive for both coccidiosis and Candida (throat). We are so glad we had the tests. Our piggy had a system upset from too much medication.
She has had SOOO many antibiotics for different things (URI, UTI twice) within the last four months. On top of which, she also had coccidiosis/ coccidia AND the Candida infection!
After ALL tests came back clear, her diarrhoea continued for weeks. She also had mushy poos and clumped together groups of poos. "Poop soup" did not help! Fibreplex did not help! So we got in touch with Vedra Stanley from the Cambridge Cavy Trust (CCT) as we were desperate! She told us to give one half a level teaspoon of activated charcoal powder to 1/2 cup of pellets (or we could use Critical Care) and give with a little water in a syringe at mealtimes for 7-10 days.
We used 2 TB of Critical Care and the rest pellets (grinded for like ten minutes in a food processor) with the 1/2 level teaspoon of activated charcoal powder. We fed 2-3 1ml syringes of the stuff twice a day (you have to cut off the tip of the syringe) . IN TWO DAYS SHE WAS BACK TO NORMAL!! Normal poos for the first time in 4 months! What a godsend! The charcoal apparently kills bad toxins in the gut. We got some in capsule form from Holland & Barrett and broke them open and emptied them to go with the pellet mix, kept the mix in our cupboard with paper towels over and brought a little out to mix with water at mealtimes. Now that she's better, we are going to finish out the week but only give 1.5ml at mealtimes. (Vedra never did say how many ml to give at mealtimes; I should've asked specifically...)
i wanted to leave this here in case anyone else was struggling with chronic diarrhoea from an upset system. I don't know what I would've done without this information! It really turned her around!
She has had SOOO many antibiotics for different things (URI, UTI twice) within the last four months. On top of which, she also had coccidiosis/ coccidia AND the Candida infection!
After ALL tests came back clear, her diarrhoea continued for weeks. She also had mushy poos and clumped together groups of poos. "Poop soup" did not help! Fibreplex did not help! So we got in touch with Vedra Stanley from the Cambridge Cavy Trust (CCT) as we were desperate! She told us to give one half a level teaspoon of activated charcoal powder to 1/2 cup of pellets (or we could use Critical Care) and give with a little water in a syringe at mealtimes for 7-10 days.
We used 2 TB of Critical Care and the rest pellets (grinded for like ten minutes in a food processor) with the 1/2 level teaspoon of activated charcoal powder. We fed 2-3 1ml syringes of the stuff twice a day (you have to cut off the tip of the syringe) . IN TWO DAYS SHE WAS BACK TO NORMAL!! Normal poos for the first time in 4 months! What a godsend! The charcoal apparently kills bad toxins in the gut. We got some in capsule form from Holland & Barrett and broke them open and emptied them to go with the pellet mix, kept the mix in our cupboard with paper towels over and brought a little out to mix with water at mealtimes. Now that she's better, we are going to finish out the week but only give 1.5ml at mealtimes. (Vedra never did say how many ml to give at mealtimes; I should've asked specifically...)
i wanted to leave this here in case anyone else was struggling with chronic diarrhoea from an upset system. I don't know what I would've done without this information! It really turned her around!