[Gpdd] [HEALTH] RE: Help for Piggie with Diarrhea

[Bradley, Stephen G]

Pat-
 
I'm no expert, but I'm wondering; our pigs don't get diarrhea from antibiotics
-- usually the opposite.  And you say she took this med before, and other
antibiotics, and didn't have this reaction.  Could it be the syringe feed
combination you're using?  
 
When our pigs need it, we give them Critical Care, which basically is ground up
pellets plus supplements.  It's from Oxbow, but you have to get it through a
vet; you mix it with water and syringe it to them.  Some pigs pretty much hate
it, but we have one who loves it, and it's got everything they need --
including, I'd guess, most of the fiber material they'd get from hay, since hay
is basically the main ingredient (as it is to Oxbow Cavy Cuisine also).  
 
If you're pretty confident of your mix, then I'm probably wrong, but if this is
a new thing you're trying, consider switching to Critical Care.
 
As far as probiotics go, we've used Bene-Bac, acidophilous, and the "secret
ingedient".... a healthier pig's poos.
 
Bene-Bac we've gotten as a kind of goo or gel; dosing is difficult, since it's
sized for bigger animals ("1 gram per 10 pounds of body weight"!) but we kind of
used about an 1/8" ribbon from the end of the tube, and just squirted it into
the syringe we were going to put the Critical Care into.  (Ginger says she
sometimes wraps it up in a lettuce leaf.)
 
If you have other pigs, you can use their poos.  If not, your vet might be able
to provide you with some, but they have to be really fresh.  Our vet gave us
some rabbit poos one time when we didn't have access to anything else.  You can
just crumble a bit up and mix it with whatever you're feeding.  I know, "Ick!",
right?  But we know they eat them anyway.
 
As I said, I've never seen a pig get diarrhea from antibiotics; usually, ours
have their poos get all dry and hard and kind of light brown instead of
dark-brown-to-black.  When that happens, I start loading on the probiotics until
I see the them start to go back to the right color and consistency.
 
As far as otherwise comforting her and keeping her calm, I don't know quite what
else to suggest, except:
 
1.  Sometimes they like to have their tummies massaged a little, as though to
help things rearrange themselves.
 
2.  I always sing to our pigs when they're sick - quietly, of course.  The rest
of the time they pretty much hate my singing, but when they're sick, sometimes I
think it helps calm them down.
 
Best of luck to Guinevere and to you, and we'll be keeping a good thought for
you,
 
Steve and Ginger,
Butterscotch and Mike T. Pig
 
 




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