[Gpdd] HEALTH: Baby Truffles has soft poo

[corrine sakumoto]

Hello!  Well, we're not sure what is going on!  We just noticed from late last night that Baby Truffles is having runny poos.  She hadn't been eating much fresh food the last couple of days so I was watching her more carefully.  She still eats hays and pellets.  She shares a pen with her mompig, Blossom.  I've always been especially concerned about her because when we 'rescued' her mommy from the pet store while her mommy was 'with pig', we feared that because they seemed to feed them all rabbit pellets, that she may have health problems.  She's always been a bit on the 'gentle' side.  Baby Truffles was born two and a half days after we got her mommy, Blossom.  So that wasn't enough time for us to feed Blossom all the nutritious foods that she needed.  (Baby Truffles just celebrated her fourth bday a month ago.)

Michael noticed her soft poo last night but didn't say anything, I noticed it late morning today.  So the vet was closing in half an hour so I called and asked if the vet would provide us with something or squeeze us in.  They spoke with the vet and he offered us Panacur and also Sulfatrim.  He had already said that he doesn't know what to do about our piggies' soft poos.  So far, we've given Baby Truffles one dose of Panacur.

Before, the three girls were all treated with Panacur because Sparkles, who socializes with them, had guardia.  The last time the vet checked Sparkles, the guardia was gone.

Baby Truffles had a slight respiratory problem about three weeks ago and was treated with sulfatrim.  She seemed to recover nicely.  And yes, we always followed the antibiotic with the probiotic BeneBac about two hours after the antibiotic.

On a side note, Sparkles still has soft poo, although here and there, she has pellet shaped ones, so it's a head scratcher for us.  All three have been treated with ivermectin, sulfatrim, and panacur (at various times).

Again, our vets don't know that much here so we usually depend on the expertise of the GPDD people.  And so do the vets.  We print out any info we find that might be helpful and the vets seem to follow them.  

Does anyone have any tests besides the floater test, looking under the microscope, analyzing the hair shafts?  

Because Baby Truffles wasn't eating much fresh foods, we worried about her getting enough nutrients so I've been scouring the market for foods to give them.  I also, out of precaution, took away the nine pound bag of hay I had been using. I don't remember when I started using it, but I know it was 'around' the time this started.  Plus, I was shocked to find a huge, over a foot long, feather in with the hay!  We recently had some roach problems and I found a roach in their pen and around their pen (caught and killed them).  We hardly see anymore, and we're working on keeping their areas as clean as is possible.  Yes, we know that roaches carry a lot of germs!  I also changed laundry detergents, thinking that perhaps the one I was using disagreed with them.  (They're on baby blankets which are on paper towels which are on newspapers which are on aspen.)

ANY ideas that we could use?  The vet gave us the sulfatrim in case we wanted to use it.  Do you think that's a good idea?  Any input would be most appreciated!!

Many thanks,

Corrine and Michael