2962. A 3-year-old guinea pig is restless and loses appetite - gastric & caecal bloat

Jun 22, 2016

The couple fed a better quality of guinea pig feed earlier but the pet shop had no stock to replenish. So, they bought a cheaper lower grade which had pellets. The guinea pig ignored the pellets. When the first brand had appeared, the couple bought it and fed the guinea pig around 4 days ago.

Yesterday, the guinea pig was not eating and tried to hide his head under the elevated feed tray hooked onto the side of the crate. He is an introverted type and would not want to play with the couple who used to play tug-of-war with the feed, by giving and taking back. He would have no such nonsense and refused to participate. He preferred to be home alone, inside his crate.

He demonstrated to me by scurrying up into the crate when I placed him after examination. He had painful cries when I palpated his bloated abdomen. I suggested an X-ray which showed two large gas-filled swellings - the stomach and caecum.

"Looks like GDV," Dr Daniel said. GDV = gastric dilatation and volvulus, seen in dogs. I thought it was bloat as in sheep being fed with high protein food. Sheep get swollen abdomen of  enterotoxaemia when fed a diet rich in grains but low in fibre, or are in poor bodily condition and infested with parasites.

This 3-year-old guinea pig is thin, BCS = 3 (lumbar vertebra palpable), had abdominal discomfort, refused to eat the harder hay and pellets of the older feed and was restless (excitable). He had loose stools but no diarrhoea.

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