Non-emergency poo question and Lumps success story.

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TheIrishScion

Post   » Wed Jun 17, 2015 8:39 am


Oh yes. She's all about the cilantro, and will actually eat masses of it, though that doesn't seem to produce the same effect vis-a-vis loose poops. Right now though she's a very picky eater, she'll eat a few pellets, tons of hay, tons of cilantro, the new oxbow C disks, and not much else. Gotta broaden her gastatorial horizons!

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GP_mum
Supporter in '13

Post   » Wed Jun 17, 2015 11:24 pm


Not sure if it's related but my 2 newly adopted sows also had soft poop for a few months initially. I suspect that it was due to my feeding them KMS 3rd cut which is more leafy. They were eating hay that had more stems in their previous home (rescue). I had kept their vegetables quite similar to what they had been fed.

Things improved with feeding them a high fiber pellet (recommended by the vet) which I've since stopped as it had a lot of high calcium herbs and their poop improved. However, i do feed 2-3 of these high fiber pellets to my paralyzed sow to keep her poop from turning too mushy.

They also got 1/2 tablet of the Oxbow dietary supplement daily which also helped. I'm now feeding the Oxbow tablet only as a supplement and not daily since things have normalized.

It's been 6 months as everyone's poop is looking normal. Giving probiotics should help as well. All the best with your pig.

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TheIrishScion

Post   » Fri Aug 31, 2018 1:23 pm


Hi guys,

I just realized I should post a quick followup for posterity, as it's been a few years.

I made Penny poop soup on and off for a few months, tried a number of probiotics, a multitude of different dietary approaches, had her poo examined by wise physicians, and generally worked hard to address her lackadaisical-coprophagia issue. Here's what I've observed;

Penny has never got very good at eating her cecal pellets, despite being a greedy little thing. She's lived with her sisters ever since the we got the strangles cured, so she's most certainly been inoculated with the appropriate gut biome at this point, but still she can only be bothered to eat some of her own production, some of the time. This _appears_ to be largely psychological in nature. She can physically reach her bum (just) so no mechanical issue I don't believe. She's not calorie deprived <cough> either. On the contrary, she weighs in just shy of 3lbs (partly overweight, partly just a very big frame) and she's happy, active, glossy of coat and hilariously people-social (having been hand-raised she's quite certain she's a people, and converses with me loudly whenever she feels it's time for more food. Which is all the time. I swear she can hear the rustle of what might be a cilantro bag from next door.)

So what if anything helps? Calorie restriction.

Her diet (along with her sisters) is primarily 2nd and 3rd cut Timothy hay (KMS Hayloft), supplemented with occasional (every couple of days) fresh leafy veggies and continuous access to Oxbow adult pellets for vitamin C supplementation. Interestingly they all greatly prefer the hay to the pellets, to the extent that I just keep the pellet hopper full and let them eat what they like. In practice they eat less than 1/2 of the pellets they're entitled to. So she's certainly not being given piggie junk food, but she can easily maintain her weight on the hay alone. If offered only pellets, they'll eat a few but will then go on hunger strike until provided hay again.

So how to achieve calorific restriction? Drop the grade of hay. The less primo the hay, the more enthusiastic she is about bothering to run it through her system twice. I'm a bit stuck because the whole herd practically has to eat from the same trough, but when I _severely_ restrict access to hay, and make sure it's not terribly nice hay, she behaves significantly better. The more calories she can get at, the less attention she pays to her pooply duties, and vice versa.

So not a cure exactly, but that's the steady state maintenance phase in which we find ourselves.

Let me know if anyone has any questions or thoughts.


Dermot.

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TheIrishScion

Post   » Fri Aug 31, 2018 3:10 pm


(The is the most slimming shot I could grab, the rest of them look decidedly....gestational)

Image

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Fri Aug 31, 2018 8:32 pm


I have to say, I would have reservations about giving poor quality hay. It seems to me this would be less nutritious - possibly fewer vitamins and minerals. Or do you mean give only 2nd cut and no 3rd cut (which is leafier)?

I am glad you found something that works for her.

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TheIrishScion

Post   » Sat Sep 22, 2018 5:19 pm


Oh, sorry, yes, by 'less primo hay' I mean 2nd cut from KMS Hayloft rather than 3rd cut. They all have access to pellets almost all the time (oxbow adult, primarily for the stabilized vitamin C), though strangely they are never terribly enthusiastic about them. Even Penny mostly ignores the pellets. The hay is apparently much more palatable.

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