Help with Melvin

[Sef]

That is very good news indeed! Just be careful and know that, in many cases, a bad GI episode seems to make *some* guinea pigs more prone to these issues in the future. You might consider severely limiting or even discontinuing fruit altogether. The sugars in fruit are hard for a healthy guinea pig gut to digest, and more so for one that has gotten out of whack.

Also, go slowly as you re-introduce vegetables into his diet. The tendency is for us to give the "all clear" too soon after the gut seems back to normal, and the result can be a relapse.

Thank you for the update, and keep up the good work both of you!

[Lynx]

That is encouraging! I hope things continue to go well.

[daj]

Good info, thanks. I definitely have learned from this and will be more conservative with all my pigs from now on, especially as they get older. They're about 2 1/2 now. Until now they've mostly been healthy and resilient digestively, but this is a good wake up call.

[daj]

So, Melvin seemed to be over his first bout of mushy diarrhea after eating too much banana, and I was back to giving him small amounts of orange and some vegetables. I resolved to never give any of them banana again, but then a week or two later I had him out on the floor while I was changing out his pen, and I forgot about the bunch of bananas that was on the floor. (I eat a lot of bananas, and sometimes leave them on the floor when unpacking groceries.) It started his troubles all over again, dark brown urine and tons of mushy poop. He was already on poop soup, as I was still giving it from the previous bout. It seemed not to be working this time though. With a diet of just hay, pellets and poop soup for a solid week, there was no change in the consistency or constancy of his pooping. It was getting worrisome.

Finally, the thought occurred that it might be the poop soup that is the problem. Sure enough, after not giving it, the next morning things look much better. His volume is down, and they are back to looking normal. I wonder why the poop soup was now giving him diarrhea? I make it by soaking pellets into a mush and adding some fresh poop from one or both his mates, along with a bit of liquid vitamin C. I have noticed it seems to have a laxative effect. Maybe that is the point at which to stop giving it?

[Sef]

Possibly, or maybe there are some sweeteners in the liquid vitamin C that are problematic for him. Can't remember if you mentioned previously the brand?

[Lynx]

I want to mention that two guinea pigs died after eating way too much banana. So I would make sure this does not happen again. Here is a link to the original topic in cavy chat where this was posted back in 2006. The poster saw a vet. https://www.guinealynx.info/forums/viewt ... =8&t=29615

[daj]

That is scary. I absolutely will make sure none of mine touch banan ever again. The brown pee alone tells me it's not something they should have.