How to help impacted guinea pig

[Juanbablo]

Our male guinea pig, 5 years old, hasn't eaten for a day or two. I was clipping his nails today and noticed that I think he is impacted. How can I help him go? Or is it a vet job?

Not eating for a couple of days is worrying. Therefore, that a trip to the vet might be needed. Try mashing up Burgess Excel nuggets with warm water (just to help it dissolve) or veggie only baby food. In my experience never had a guinea who would eat Critical Care.

Impaction does not need the vet. But you will need a supply of latex gloves. Hold piggie over the toilet and manually help him poo. Warning the smell is indescribable! It comes out as a weird coloured mass and covered in a white mucus. Poor piggie will look very popeyed

I googled in the end and sat him in some warm water and then helped to evacuate what I could. When he began to protest I stopped and will see how he is in a bit. He is still active, doesn't seem lethargic. I'm going to see how he is tomorrow and will take him to the vets if he still hasn't eaten anything. And yeah, he stank!! Poor pig.

Its probably a combination of dehydration (only my sows use their water bottle , my boar shuns his) and Middle Aged Saggy Arse Boar Syndrome.

YY to warm water to soften a bit then you can expel it wearing gloves . You can rub a tiny bit of edible oil in his bum just to ease out the next lot.
Lots of fibre , lots of juicy veg (cucumber is favourite here) , watermelon maybe.
Are his teeth okay? Not eating is not a natural state for the Hoover on Legs that is your average piggie.

My little GP2 boar did massive firm droppings (Ferrero Rocher size) with no apparent effort. Pick him up, massive pooh in his bottom, by the time I got him to the house , it was out !
He did sometimes get a bit stuck with soft pooh , and yes, it STUNK.

If they had a day of eating grass we gave them hay pellets and water for supper to stop him being loose bowelled.

Our vet gave us something like Critical Care to syringe feed and a fibre supplement syringe when GP3 was ill.
Sloppy pellet mash is good if you don't have Critical Care .
Good Luck piggie

Well he's seeming ok this morning and I think I spied him eating some of his nuggets. I've put a frozen water bottle in his cage in the hope he will lick the condensation off the bottle. He doesn't drink loads but does drink and gets fresh water every day. I'm going to get him out in a bit and have another check over him and will look at his teeth. He is ds1's guinea pig and his fish just died so I really hope nothing happens to the guinea pig too.

The poor piggie is not doing well. He seemed pretty good for a week or so, was eating and lively. I checked his teeth and they are a bit long so got some things for him to chew on to help. But he's in a bad way again. I've been helping him to poop and he's been eating and drinking a bit but he seems lethargic and like he's got a snotty nose so he's going to the vets this afternoon but I'm not confident he will be coming home with us. It's so sad. I feel like I have failed him and I should have taken him at the first sign of trouble but he seemed to be doing better and has gone down hill so rapidly literally in the last few days.

how did things go with your piggie ? hope he's ok

He ended up having to be put to sleep last week. He was fine for a week or so but went downhill very rapidly over 24hrs. It was awful. I absolutely bawled my eyes out in the vets and afterwards. DC's were distraught. We buried him in the garden and chose a plant to remember him.

Oh to hear. They can and do go downhill quickly , sometimes there's really nothing you can do. They seem to turn a corner , you think , "Yes " then you notice they're sitting funny , or staring coat or dull eyed.

It's a tough decision to make but you know you made the right choice,

Thank you 70. We took him to the vet who prescribed all sorts of meds but the next day he had gone into shock. We have two more pigs and I don't know if I can cope if similar happens to them.