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Diarrhea HELP - SEVERE DIARRHEA mushys poops

ech90

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Thanks for all the comments, guys. I too feel like this has been a roller coaster ride, and I am ready for the ride to be over! The mushy poos are back in full force, and I really hope that this course of Flagyl will work. I feel so stupid for ending it early last time, but that is definitely a lesson learned. The KMS pellets did not arrive yesterday as I had expected, but they should be arriving today. Buttercup's weight is down to 604 g, and I am very worried. Also, I ordered some Bene-bac because I figured it can only help. Again, I have been feeling really down about this all so thanks for your support.
 

Delaine

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Sending hugs to you and Buttercup.
 

Delaine

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Good idea to start replenishing the good bacteria. Are you still giving the liquid Vit. C? That is something new you started and maybe it has too many other things in it. If it is high in sugar or artificial sweeter it may also irritate the bowel. It is all so confusing. Did your Oxbow Vit C come yet? If all else fails you could research "Fecal transfusion" or "Fecal Bacteriotherapy" and see if a vet would be able to perform it. It is pretty simple on humans, but I don't know the risk for guinea pigs. My girl friend is a nurse and she did it on herself and she was cured instantly. Her clostridium difficile could have killed her otherwise. The simple explanation is you basically get an enema to get rid of the old contents of the bowel and replace the contents with a poop soup from a healthy donor. I know it sounds kind of out there for guinea pigs, but you never know.

Guinea pigs do have a much different digestive system from humans though.
 

SurfingPigs

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Feeding a fresh poop from a healthy pig is another good way to help replenish the gut bacteria. If things don't clear up with the poop you should really have a fecal float and culture done, as they can determine what organisms (if any) are out of whack and can select the proper antibiotic/antiparasitic to combat the culprit. Flagyl is a good internal antibiotic for some bugs, but there are other things out there (like C. diff) that it doesn't work so well on.

Best of luck. The flagyl should help her poops firm up.
 

Delaine

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The problem with clostridium difficile (C-diff) and clostridium perfringens is they produce spores, so you can clear up the problem but if you don't replenish the good bacteria or remove what triggers the spore production you are back to square one.

My standard poodle had several bouts of clostridium perfringens and was on and off Flagyl. He was great when on the Flagyl, but was back to square one and diarrhea in two or three weeks after stopping the antibiotics. It wasn't until I figured out it was the corn and other grains in the dog food from the Vets and removed it from his diet that I broke the cycle. Once grain free he never had a problem. It was the grains that changed the environment in his colon that encouraged the spores to proliferate. So for me it was an easy fix but took some detective work.

It would be interesting to know what bacteria (if it is a bacteria) is present in Buttercup's stool or if a sensitivity to a certain food is the culprit. So many questions, so few answers.
 

ech90

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They did a fecal float on Buttercup's stool to test for parasites but never did a fecal culture to see what bacteria is present. If things are not cleared up after this round of Flagyl, that is going to be the first thing I ask them to do. In the meantime, I am going to continue to give her the "poo sandwiches" kindly supplied by Piggy and as well as the Bene-bac as soon as it gets here.

It is very annoying - I can see from the USPS tracking website that the KMS package arrived in Philadelphia at 7:22 am and has been signed for, but my guess is that it is still being processed through the university mail system. Since at this point I won't be getting the pellets until sometime tomorrow, I ended up putting the oxbow ones back into their cage because I don't want Buttercup's weight to dip below 600 g. She has gotten so bony, and it is really horrible to see the way her whole body curves in at the place where her back legs meet her body.

On the plus side, the oxbow vitamin c tablets arrived today so I will give that to them tonight. Thanks for the hugs!
 

kananaka

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I am sorry if I am missing it, but did you ever find out what is wrong with your pig?

My pig has been squeaking while pooping, having mushy poops, and farting sometimes. We have had an x-ray, ultrasound, urinalysis and a course of antibiotics, and a fecal float. I would love to know what it could be!

She took them off oxbow pellets and has seen improvement also a vit c supplement, go to page 5 and read there for exactly what she did.
 

ech90

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Besides giving her more pellets, is there anything else I could give her to fatten her up? Someone earlier mentioned peas and I was also thinking about avocado. Does anyone know anything about this? I don't want to overload her system with too many fats and give additional GI distress on that end and I logically know it's not good to start introducing new things right now anyway, but I just don't like seeing her with such a bony looking butt.


photo-61.jpg
 

Delaine

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She is so sweet but so thin. I wish you could get some nice green grass for her. My girls did so well on grass this past summer and got a little too chubby. I fed them mostly things I foraged. Last year I planted them a piggy patch of mixed grasses to harvest for them. I can't wait for it to come up this Spring. Grass is their very favourite. It just makes me happy talking about it.

Chicory greens and escarole seem to really agree with my girls and they both have a good calcium:phosphorus ratio (better than romaine letter). I feed them often. They might agree with Buttercup.
 

bpatters

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You can give her Critical Care or Critter Be Better. If you can find a flavor she likes mixed with it, she might eat it off a spoon or a plate. Some Odwalla pure fruit juices are ok to use, as well as some strong-flavored veggie she likes, such as cilantro. You wouldn't have to put much cilantro in it to flavor it. Critical Care comes in different flavors, I believe, but I don't know about CBB.
 

ech90

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Great news! The KMS pellets have arrived and they absolutely love it! Bcup's weight has increased up to 612 g, so I am going to see how her weight does on the pellets and hold off on the Critical Care or Critter Be Better for now. Also, her poos are looking very good today, but now I realize that one day's poos don't mean that much of anything. It is going to take at least a week of normal looking poos for me to get my hopes up again!

photo-63.jpg
 

Catahoula

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This may not be helpful at all, but from the sounds of it I would say that your Buttercup has some sort of allergy to the Oxbow pellets. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you and for her that this is the case and the KMS pellets she will be more tolerent of. However, I did want to say that you should give the KMS pellets ample time to determine if they are helping the situation.

My dog has food and environmental allergies that took me months to get under control. I was advised by my vet that I needed to have her on her new diet for at least 3 months before we could determine whether it helped at all.

It really does sound crazy that a guinea pig would be allergice to it's pellets, but I promise, it is completely possible. I had an allergy panel run on my dog and you're never going to believe this...My dogs breed is raised for being hog hunting dogs (Catahoulas) and believe it or not, she's allergic to pork. How can a hog dog be allergice to pork (and carrots, peas, corn, soy, flies, timothy, tea, oatmeal, cats, etc...)?

Ultimately you need to keep the faith and I'm sure everyone here will continue to send piggy hugs and prayers and healing thoughts your way.

PS - I know it's hard not to want to revamp everything, but you really need to only make one change at a time or you will never figure out the problem. I know that from first hand experience.
 

Delaine

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It really does sound crazy that a guinea pig would be allergice to it's pellets, but I promise, it is completely possible. I had an allergy panel run on my dog and you're never going to believe this...My dogs breed is raised for being hog hunting dogs (Catahoulas) and believe it or not, she's allergic to pork. How can a hog dog be allergice to pork (and carrots, peas, corn, soy, flies, timothy, tea, oatmeal, cats, etc...)?

It doesn't sound crazy at all. Anyone that has had an animal with allergies knows the frustration of trying to figure out the cause. I have been there. I used to cook roasts with potatoes, carrots and beans to keep my standard poodle healthy because of his grain allergy. Thank goodness we have so many more choices in food for our pets now. In the late 80's I used to have food bused in for my Golden Retriever because of her skin conditions due to her dog food. That is when they just started offering lamb and rice formulas for dogs. It is good to see that we even have choices of pellets for our guinea pigs.
 

Delaine

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I have my fingers AND toes crossed (even my legs) hoping this turn for the better will continue.
 

ech90

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All signs are pointed towards a sensitivity/allergy to Oxbow pellets. I had given them back to her all of Thursday and a little bit of Friday morning to help her keep on weight until the KMS pellets arrived and today, about day later, her poos are extremely large and mushy again. Thankfully they have really taken to the KMS pellets, so we will see how that goes. I really like how the KMS pellets are actually green instead of brown, and seem much less dusty than the cavy cuisine. Also, they were milled on 2/22/2012, and you really can't get much fresher than that!

I am torn as to whether or not I should start her on the Bene-bac, now that it has arrived. I don't want to make too many changes at once, and I'm also a bit confused by the instructions on the packaging.

Delaine - you are really too kind!
 

Delaine

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How is the new food working out?
 

ech90

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The new food is working out really well and Piggy and Buttercup absolutely love it. The best news is that Buttercup is up to 648 g! The not so good news is that her poos have continued to be large and mushy, and she has started to fight back against taking the Flagyl. It's really strange because she used to love taking it - when I just put the oral syringe near her face she would grab it into her mouth and not want to let it go, even when all of the medication had already been pushed out - so I'm not quite sure what all of this newly found resistance is about.
 

ech90

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The latest poo - things are not looking good :-(

photo-6.jpg
 
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