[Gpdd] HEALTH <Bertie on the mend>

laura whiles ljwhiles at hotmail.com
Mon Oct 6 08:27:43 EDT 2003


Many, many most sincere thanks to all the people who have been thinking 
about Bertie or who have sent advise to me, i've been overwhelmed by 
everyone's support.
Update!
I took Bertie to a different vet on Saturday, who agreed that he was clearly 
in no real pain at the moment, at most a mild discomfort with diarrhoea etc. 
  He agreed with the other vet that Bertie probably has a congenital kidney 
problem which is making him drink lots of water, but that as long as he 
doesn't get an infection or start crying when he pees, is shouldn't cause 
him too many problems.

What he did say, though, was that i needed to seriously rethink the diet i 
feed him. He advised that i was feeding too many watery vegetables (lettuce, 
cucumber etc), and though none of my other pigs have ever suffered through 
this, he says that it would do Bertie a lot of good to have only dark leaf 
greens (cabbage, spring greens, grass, dandelion etc) as this would help 
ensure his body absorbed water better, and also to cut out carrots.  He also 
said that the dry mix i feed him is not nutritionally sound, as Bertie 
tended not to eat it all, only the bits he liked best.  Archie, my other 
piggie, eats all of his mix so gets a balanced diet, but as Bertie was being 
picky the vet suggested Supa Guinea, which i promptly bought, and which 
Bertie seems to love!  (Gave a few pellets to Archie along with his usual 
mix in the hope of getting them on the same diet, but he lovingly picked 
them all out and put them in disgust in the corner!!!!!!)  Very funny.

He also gave me some protein and fibre pellets to bulk out Bertie's 
digestive system in the short term and help stop the diarrhoea and help him 
digest more easily, and gave me a probiotic (rather like Yakult or probiotic 
yogurt for the human gut!) to help his tummy rebuild its natural flora, as 
the two courses of Baytril and one of the children's antibiotic left his 
system in a bit of a mess.

Just two days on, i am getting less splodge and more jelly beans! Yay! 
Hopefully within a week or so i should have a happy and contented squeaker 
(and cleaner sweaters.............!)

Much love and splendid squeaks to you all, 'phew' to Peanut's slave, and 
gentle mweeps to all the poorly guineas out there.

Laura, Nick, Archie and baby Bertie.

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