Why NOW?!

[schatzi]

Jay's been dealing with an abscess on his neck for the past month or so. We had it lanced and treated him with antibiotics - 2 different kinds including baytril - so I expected some tummy trouble and have been giving him probiotics the only way I can: with poop from my two healthy pigs.

We JUST gave him his last dose of Baytril this morning (he finished off the other one, "Apo Metronidazole - also referred to as "Flagyl" on guinealynx?- a few days ago.) My boyfriend administered it to him while I was at work, and put off giving him the probiotic poo until I got home about 4 hours later darn computer games!!!

Jay's still active as ever and hasn't stopped eating since I came home. He has admittedly been having a lot of lettuce lately (his favorite) and my BF loves to give him butter lettuce. We've put an end to that and I also took away the pellets. All he's got is the water bottle, a big pile of good quality timothy hay, and (as soon as I finish typing, I've been researching like a madman) a slice of orange.

We'll run down to the pharmacy to pick up some pedialyte (electrolyte fluid for children), and see if there's a kaolin based medication that looks safe (I've never heard of diarrhea medication by that name or any of the other ones mentioned on here). He had to pick the worst time as I cannot get him to the vet today due to car insurance issues (it's already been quite a bad day for me ) But will certainly get him out there on sunday if at all possible if I don't see improvement. I wish the vet was accessible during off hours; the clinic doesn't stay open late at all - I'm at their mercy

Shoot I am living in the wrong country. There is nothing for small animals on the west coast of Canada! All I have are the bare basics.

Anyways, right now the poops basically range from very very soft like dough to mud. Since he's doing well otherwise I'm trying to stay optimistic...I was very upset when I discovered this and my poor boyfriend feels so awful for waiting to give him the probiotic

[schatzi]

Well something compelled me to check his mouth. I discovered that his darned incisors are growing at an angle! he must have chipped one at one point and I've been so worried about the abscess and his reaction to the antibiotics...no wonder he's been losing condition - that must not be comfortable at all.

*sigh* it's out of my league again, so off we go to the vet's before his diarrhea get's worse...at least he's taking the pedialyte alright, could never find anything with kaolin up here though I did find an old article from the 90s about some group trying to get the FDA to ban it up here...great

Off to yet another board I go...

::EDIT:: I must however add that I am VERY relieved that this is probably not antibiotic related or worse...I will barely be able to afford this tooth trimming, hopefully the vet will be kind about the bill...

[Orlaith]

Poor little guy! Have his teeth always grown that way or is this just recent?

[Dawn - Admin]

Oh I hope you can find a good vets to get his teeth trimmed. I don't know what meds you have there but I think you will have arrowroot which you should be able to get from a health shop. This can be mixed with water and syringed into his mouth to stop the diarrhea. Let su know how you go on wont you?

[delukem]

Ask your vet if he can provide you with some Avi-pro. This is what we use along with Dioralyte, which is a human remedy which puts electrolytes back into the sytem. It is important to remember that you will need to give anything which puts the flora and forna back into the gut for a good week after the antibiotics have finished.

[schatzi]

Well no sign of diarrhea so far today...it's been quite cold today so he spent a fair bit of time in his hut but he's nice and active on our laps. He spent the night on timothy hay only and we introduced the pellets back this morning - the only fresh food he's getting right now is orange slices to boost the vitamin C - we'll switch to a vitamin C veggie once things stabilize a bit so that he doesn't get a sore mouth.

He's still getting the pedialyte twice a day, thank goodness he seems to like it. I've seen him munching on the pellets and am trying to keep an eye on the poops (we have him locked on the top level so we can monitor him and we put Cosmo up there for company so he didn't stress even more).

I looked at his teeth again today and they don't look too bad, there is some uneven wear but he may be working it out himself (this is a new develpment, he had a small nick on one of his top incisors when I got him but I didn't think much of it), he certainly doesn't seem to have any trouble eating with it. If it doesn't seem to be correcting itself within a week or so (or sooner if he does develop difficulty eating) I'll take him into the vet to get it filed down....I want to give it a chance to fix itself as I don't know how the vet is with teeth and he's the best exotic vet I could find, which unfortunately doesn't say much out here.

If the diarrhea comes back I'll be calling the vet and looking into that arrowroot. We are abundant in natural health stores out here so hopefully it won't be hard to find.

He's still getting the probiotics (Seth poop) daily, hopefully he pulls through

[schatzi]

Well it's a few days later and Jay has been stable. His diarrhea has not come up in 2 days and he's still getting pedialyte/healthy probiotic poop via syringe twice daily. We're going to continue with this until I'm sure he's in the clear.

He's doing fine and munching on hay/pellets without any trouble from those teeth. I'm going to try to add some harder surfaces to chew on to help with tooth wear - right now they mostly get cardboard and softwood toys (that they aren't making much use of, of course ). I checked inside his mouth and there doesn't appear to be any sign of his molars growing strangely, his tongue is perfectly mobile and his jaw doesn't have any strange lumps. I'll have the vet take a look at them when I take him in to have the incisors filed down.

His poops are still small and soft, is this just a sign that his stomach is still recovering or something else? They have been like this since the antibiotics and I assumed it was a result of the antibiotics. He harrasses Seth for his poop constantly which suggests to me that it is indeed just an upset tummy from the antibiotics. He's giving himself his own probiotic treatment

[Orlaith]

Wow, he's so clever!

[schatzi]

Well I figured I'd give a final update for Mr. Jay...

We got through the diarrhea just fine, and kept him on a strict pellet + hay + vitamin C diet. He's started gaining weight again, about 70g in one week! He's filled out nicely, his spine and ribs don't stick out anymore.

We've finally stopped the "probiotics" (Seth is glad to no longer be harvested for his poo) and the electrolytes. He's still doing fine and gaining weight

Now here's the kicker - we recently tried to reintroduce him to veggies. I wanted to do this slowly of course, but my boyfriend -bless his heart- went and gave them another bowl this morning (Jay had just had one last night). I came home and voila, the mudbutt is back. Jay drinks a ton of water and will hork down anything green and leafy (the darker it is, the less he enjoys it. He LOVED leaf and butter lettuce). At this point I don't think it's a medical issue, rather just an issue of him being a pig!

Off to the nutrition forum I go...