Mr. Bubbles and Scruffy

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Renonvsparky

Post   » Wed Oct 07, 2020 5:10 am


It has been a while since I posted about Mr Bubbles. He just turned 4 and is doing well. He did give me a little bit of a scare yesterday. I went in to see him and discovered that he didn't touch his red bell pepper from the night before. I thought that maybe something was wrong with it, so I gave him a green one for his morning veggie feeding. He didn't eat that either.

I had a terrible flashback to the ordeal with Scruffy and got a sick feeling in my stomach. I was thinking the worst and I started really hating 2020 more than I already do. I know that Mr Bubbles is starting to get up there in age and that he's not going to live forever, but he still has plenty of time and life to live. I'm not ready to lose him and definitely not the same way I lost Scruffy. 2020 has been bad enough without losing my best piggy and little buddy.

Once I started looking into this, I realized that he had made short work of the lettuce he gets to go with the bell pepper. I gave him a bit of cilantro and he ate that right away. Same with every other veggie and his grass. Man, does that little guy love his grass. His water, hay and pellet intake is normal. His urine and feces output hasn't changed either. He's not showing any physical signs of illness; no tenderness in his abdomen, no discharge from his eyes or nose. His activity level hasn't declined at all. He still runs up to greet me with a squeak and a cage nibble. He also jumps into my arms when I reach for him and once I pick him up, he still nestles under my chin and purrs for me.

So I guess it turns out that he's just tired of bell pepper. That's understandable considering he's had them virtually every day for the last 4 years. I'm giving him a couple of days break from them and giving him carrots and cucumber on alternating days to go with his lettuce.

Bookfan
For the Love of Pigs

Post   » Wed Oct 07, 2020 3:31 pm


It does sound like he's otherwise fine/eating normally.

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Renonvsparky

Post   » Wed Oct 07, 2020 10:27 pm


This may be more serious than I thought. Mr. Bubbles didn't want anything to do with lettuce today. He did eat his cucumber, along with some hay and fresh grass though. He not very active this evening and he's squeaking like he's in pain when I hold him. Same thing Scruffy did the night he died. I'm really upset here. I can't get him to the vet until morning. If he doesn't eat his night veggies, I'm going to try hand feeding him critical care. He doesn't have any discharge from his eyes or nose. Haven't seen a lot of feces output so it looks to be a digestive issue. I'll try to keep posted.

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ItsaZoo
Supporter in 2023

Post   » Thu Oct 08, 2020 12:08 am


Good luck with Mr. Bubbles, I hope it's just a minor digestive issue and he'll start feeling better soon.

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Renonvsparky

Post   » Thu Oct 08, 2020 4:00 am


I'm relatively sure he has impaction. He isn't pooping. His belly is a little distended and he can barely walk with his hind legs. He's dragging them a little. I'm stopping his food intake for the night and administering water with a few vitamin drops. I'm going to give him as much as I can get into him every hour. He'll drink a little bit and nibble hay, but he needs a lot more than he'll drink on his own.

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Renonvsparky

Post   » Thu Oct 08, 2020 4:27 am


The reason I think he has impaction is because of his age and symptoms. No discharges from any of his "openings", distended and tender belly and no feces despite him eating. After I posted the above, I got Mr Bubbles to drink 3-4 ml of water from the syringe. I also came across the article on impaction in the medical portion of this site. I followed the directions and got one very small ball of hard feces and a regular sized cecal feces out of him. I'm sure there's more a little further up there, but I couldn't get anything else to squeeze out.

I've traumatized him enough for now, so I'm going to let the water I got down his gullet cycle through and repeat the process in an hour or so. I don't think what I'm doing until I get him to the vet is going to hurt him and it may help even if I'm wrong about the impaction. I've never heard anything about a guinea pig getting too much water. More to come later.

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Renonvsparky

Post   » Thu Oct 08, 2020 6:27 am


Second and third hours got at least 2 mL of water into Mr Bubbles. He's starting to pass some feces and it's looking a little moist. Also noticed that he passed two of them together. Not full size, but that could be because he didn't eat as much over the last 24 hours as he usually does. I've seen him nibbling his hay too. I'm not sure I'm opening his anus enough to get all of the impaction out, so there's that. I'll have the vet look at that and maybe she can get more out if it's in there. In the meantime, I'd like to think that every little bit I can get him to pass has got to be helping.

Bookfan
For the Love of Pigs

Post   » Thu Oct 08, 2020 10:57 am


Keep us posted.

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Thu Oct 08, 2020 11:11 am


Don't squeeze the stuff out! If it's been in there a long time, it will be very hard.

You can soak his bottom in warm water and gently manipulate the sac to loosen it up. The take a q-tip dipped in oil or water and scoop the rest of it out. There can be quite a bit packed in, and it may take a while to remove it. You can flip the sac open with your fingers to make it easier to see and get to the poop.

Also, if you dig out some of the cecal poop (soft, green, smelly), offer it to him to eat. It helps with digestion, and the longer he goes without the stuff the worse his pooping situation will be.

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Renonvsparky

Post   » Thu Oct 08, 2020 12:57 pm


I called the vet and they are going to see Mr Bubbles on space available. I went to get him out and found him dragging a strung together chain of small poop behind him. It fell out when I picked him up, so I took a picture of it to show the vet. Other than the initial dry and hard ball I got out of him, I'm not squeezing anything out of him per say. It's more like it comes out when I flipped his sac open. I'm sure I'm not doing that part right, largely because he's struggling.

In the middle of writing this post, the vet called and said that his anal area is pretty gnarly but they couldn't find large amounts of impacted feces in there. She couldn't feel any masses in his belly either. It looks like he has bowel irritation going on. It could be something he ate. There's no way to tell really. They're going to clean out his anal area and we're going to do critical care and mineral oil for now and see how he does. They'll reevaluate him next week after this dietary treatment.

The good thing is that he is eating some and passing poop on his own. His eyes, nose and ears are clear. His weight is good for now but it's only been a day and a half since his decline in eating. The critical care and mineral oil should keep his weight up and make it easier to get his bowels moving properly again.

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Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Thu Oct 08, 2020 7:04 pm


The string of poops does likely indicate gastric upset of some sort, and could well be something he ate. Does it look like mucous stringing them together? I'd be inclined to try a good probiotic to help get his gut back into balance.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Thu Oct 08, 2020 10:25 pm


Poor guy! I hope this is something that resolves - at least you will see the vet tomorrow.

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