Sick Diarrhea and Sneezing

[Elizabeth123]

Hi, everyone!

I have one sweet guinea pig named Lacey (I plan on getting her a friend in the near future) and I have grown quite fond of the little girl. When I purchased her from Petco (I know, I know. Stupid mistake that I will never make again) she was around a month old, and i've had her for about a month so now she's roughly 2 months old. The sneezing has been going on for about 4 days, and it happens a lot. She's been energetic and happy until a few days ago when her poop started taking on this rancid odor, like (sorry, this is gross) but sour oranges almost, which is weird because she won't even try oranges. I haven't changed her diet at all and this just happened suddenly.Today her stool started looking blobish and is watery and that really got me worried. She is eating and drinking fine at least. Once my mom comes home i'll talk to her about taking her to the vet, but does it sound easily treatable to you, and what could be the causes?

P.S. I feed her carefresh pellets, timothy hay and she hates vegetables and fruit. Whenever I leave them for her in her cage they just end up rotting. What could i do about this if lack of nutrients is the cause for her being sick?

 

[SurfingPigs]

Really smelly poops tend to be caecal poops (the ones they injest that you don't normally see). These are usually softer than their poops that we are used to finding all over the cage. Are you finding a lot of really smelly, soft poops, or was it just a one-poop thing?

It sounds as though she is indeed ill if she is sneezing and has diarrhea. I would definitely get a vet appointment and get her on antibiotics ASAP, as a pig with URI can go downhill very quickly. Make sure none of the following meds are prescribed: https://www.guinealynx.info/dangerous_medications.html

 

[bpatters]

Since she won't eat veggies, you should supplement with vitamin C. Either get the Oxbow drops, or a child's chewable vitamin C and give her about one-fourth of it.

You need to teach her to eat veggies, which you can do by dicing them very finely and putting them on her pellets. Do one vegetable at a time, and feed it that way for about a week before trying her on larger pieces. When she'll eat that one in bigger chunks, then give it to her that way and start dicing another veggie. If you'll teach her to eat 10-12 veggies, then you've got a wider variety of choices when you go to the supermarket, and can get whatever looks best or is cheapest.

But ditto SurfingPigs about getting her to the vet. You should also be weighing her daily at the same time of day to keep up with what's going on with her. Loss of weight is often the first indication that something is wrong with a pig.

 

[Elizabeth123]

Her poop has gone back to normal and I haven't heard her sneeze yet, but could she just be hiding illness? Her breathing is barely audible, and soft. Is that a good sign? What causes a URI because she has a fleece cage and it is cleaned often.