Canada Guinea Pig Not Eating

[Jajar]

My guinea pig has stopped eating and is now on antibiotics. She used to be kept in a cage with a male lop-ear rabbit and I wonder whether it is due to the stress as he has been "aggresive" towards her.

 

[pennick]

Guinea pigs and rabbits should never be kept together. A rabbit can injure or kill a guinea pig with their hind legs, either accidently or on purpose. Also they each need their own nutrients to grow and stay healthy.

You have not given us much information to go on. Like how long you have had this piggy and is it your rabbit or the piggy used to live with a rabbit.

Why is your piggy on antibiotics? What kind? What was the vet's diagnosis?

 

[C&K]

You need to move your butt over to Guinealynx.info now!

They have a great medical forum that can help you get to the bottom of this, but if you allow your pig to go without eating for much longer, the pig will die.

Please provide more info on your pig, and the treatment you have provided to date. (what antibiotic, when you went to the vet for example).

Read https://www.guinealynx.info/handfeeding.html
for information on how to Handfeed. This can't be put off, s/he may not last the night.

https://www.guinealynx.info/forums/viewtopic.php?t=27887
A sad tale that tells what happens to cavies that are housed with rabbits. In additon to the injuries sustained by "Gumbo", they have different dietary needs and rabbits can make piggies sick with parasites that they carry, so sick they often die.

 

[Jajar]

Guinea pigs and rabbits should never be kept together. A rabbit can injure or kill a guinea pig with their hind legs, either accidently or on purpose. Also they each need their own nutrients to grow and stay healthy.

You have not given us much information to go on. Like how long you have had this piggy and is it your rabbit or the piggy used to live with a rabbit.

Why is your piggy on antibiotics? What kind? What was the vet's diagnosis?

Ashley (Assibinian) is 15 months old. The vet is unable to diagnose anything wrong with her and has put her on broad antitibiotics. I don't know the name off hand. The rabbit and the guinea pig has been living together for 10 months and they get along most of the time. She sleeps on top of him every night. The guinea pig was put in another cage after the rabbit tried to breed her. After that she stopped eating and drinking and started to lose weight. She was brought to the vet on Monday and was given antibiotics for 5 days. The vet said if she doesn't get better he wants to do an x-ray and blood count on her but since yesterday she is labouring for breath and is making a croaking sound.

 

[daftscotslass]

Sounds like an upper respiratory infection (get over to GL for advice as suggested). You need to make sure the antibiotics are the correct ones for guinea pigs - which one is it?

 

[VoodooJoint]

I'm thinking it could possibly be internal injuries. You did say she stopped eating after the rabbit tried to breed with her right?

It is likely that the force of the rabbit caused internal injuries. X-rays are a must! Rabbits are not gentle when they breed. The males are forceful and very rough. They bite, squeeze and the pumping action is extremely forceful. All of those things cold have caused serious injury to organs, blood vessels and bones in a GP.

Your GP could also have been infected with Pasturella. Pasturella lies dormant in many rabbits but GPs cannot handle the disease and it is usually fatal.

You absolutely MUST get your GP back to a vet as soon as possible for a full work-up including x-rays. Meanwhile you need to force feed and feed poop-soup.

 

[Jajar]

Hi VoodooJoint

What is poop-soup? My guinea pig is being hand fed but still not eating on her own.

 

[WEAVER]

If you are still hand feeding your guinea pig and it is showing no improvement you maybe should get another opinion from a different vet.

Poop Soup is when you mash the guinea pig poop and mix it to handfeed it to your piggy. A well piggy always "recycles" their poop to get the vitamins out of it that were left behind.

 

[C&K]

What is poop-soup?

Often when a pig is on Antibiotics, it kills off the flora and fauna in the digestive system, all the "good bacteria". So you take the poop of a healthy guinea pig, and mash it up and feed it to the sick one to re introduce this "healthy bacteria".

It is the best and cheepest probiotic out there. However, I am not sure if you have another Guinea Pig, do NOT feed rabbit poo, rabbits carry bacteria that can kill guinea pigs, but not make themselves very sick, or sick at all. It may be what is wrong with the pigger right now. I strongly recommend another vet visit to try and get to the bottom of what is wrong, I really think you need that x ray and the blood tests, ask if he can do a test for common rabbit bacteria / viruses like Pasturella, or bordetella .

I found this an interesting link:
https://www.guinealynx.info/forums/viewtopic.php?t=23398&highlight=rabbit+bacteria

Maybe you could find a healthy cavy near you who would not mind um, making a "donation", or look into other types of probiotics, like acidophilus gel

https://www.guinealynx.info/probiotics.html

 

[Jajar]

My GP is improving every day since Saturday. She is still being hand fed. She is now able to move around a bit and not breathing hard. Her poop is more solid, smaller than regular but a bit improvement from few days ago where it is long and thin, more like gold fish poop. Last night she was fed poop soup and she appears more alert this morning. Thanks for everyone help on this forum. I couldn't express my appreciation. My GP is not out of the woods yet and I know she is getting better when she starts eating on her own.

 

[nonamian_girl]

So are you going to keep her separated from the rabbit now?

 

[Jajar]

Yes, she's been separated from the rabbit two weeks ago.

 

[C&K]

All I can say is I wish both you and her luck. Do you own any other guinea pigs? Where did you get the poop for poop soup from?