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help me hes now having diarrhea..

21 13:43:03

Question
QUESTION: I just bought a new guinea pig, but actually my mom didn't allow me to buy him in the first place, said it's going to be a carrier of toxoplasma gondii, you know, like cats or dogs. I currently live in a very small studio apartment so of course I will be sleeping in the same room with it, I feel weird for asking, but I do feel like I need to know whether it will be a danger to live with it in the same room. Can Guinea pigs be a carrier for toxoplasma? if it can, then is there any injection or vaccination I can give to him? bcause the toxoplasma vaccination I can find are for dogs and cats.

ANSWER: No, guinea pigs do not carry toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease whose primary hosts are cats. The danger comes from ingesting the meat of an infected animal or by handling the fecal material, not the animal itself. The World Health Organization says that one third of the world's population carry Toxoplasmosis but have no affect from it.

A poor immune system makes the carrier more susceptible to illness from it, but healthy people have no problem. Pregnant women are warned not to handle cat litter during pregnancy as they could pass the infection to the fetus.

Guinea pigs carry no internal parasites or diseases that we know of. If you're concerned (or you just want to give reassurance to mom) you can wear disposable gloves when you change the cage bedding and just make sure to wash your hands with soap and water afterward. So assure mom that you aren't going to get anything from your guinea pig.   

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: My new baby guinea pig had a diarrhea earlier today. I'm so worried, what am I supposed to do. I'm planning to go to vet tomorrow, is there anything I can do right now? thing is I'm currently living in China, so I don't even know whether the vet here will be as good and as knowledgeable. and it s also quite hard to find the meds. I'm quite sure his diarrhea didnt come from other anti-biotics meds. he's been eating hay all day yesterday, but the night before he's been eating a lot of pellets and drink a lot of water, and today i found that his stool have a very foul smell, and tho werent black in color, it's watery and have no shape.
what am i supposed to do? is diarrhea fatal for guinea pigs? bcs i read quite a lot in the internet, diarrhea was quite fatal and serious for small animals.

Answer
It's very probable the diarrhea was caused by the antibiotics. Guinea pigs don't tolerate antibiotics and if there's a real necessity for antibiotics they need to be accompanied by probiotics. Some antibiotics kill the normal good bacteria in the intestinal system, and the result is just what you have, diarrhea.

There is a little trick you can try, it's rice water. You boil some rice in a lot of water (not the instant kind eiither). You cook it to the point that you have a gluey white broth from the rice. Let it cool and give it to him in his water bottle.

We use that same remedy on humans and it works. The gluten in the rice gives substance to the bowel and helps stop the diarrhea.