CALIFORNIA POTBELLIED PIG ASSOCIATION, Inc.
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Constipation
Pig Constipation
This is a problem that plagues many potbellied pig owners, especially as our porcine companions approach being senior citizens. It is often brought on by our piggies aversion to drinking water. That is why we emphasize so strongly that all of your pigs need to have their meals awash with water. We have found that this is the easiest and most painless thing you can do to prevent health problems with your pig.
Today's question comes from one of our members in Guadalajara, Mexico. You might wonder how CPPA got to Mexico, but the wonders of the Internet have us all over the world. For many years we have had members in France and the Netherlands, but recently we have added Mexico, Portugal and Spain. I couple of days ago we were contacted by a pig owner in Latvia, whose potbellied pig was suffering from what we're quite certain was Dippity Pig Syndrome. She even sent us videos of the seizures. She sent us a very nice thank you email, and her pig, Rozine, is much better. The world is getting smaller.
The biggest problems these pig owners have are the same ones we have, but even worse. Many of us have trouble finding potbellied pig feed or veterinarians. They can't get them at all.
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Hello!How are you?
I'm not doing so well these days, I've been stressed because Dany has some constipation problems. I've already read your article and I found it really interesting, more helpful than the tips that a lot of veterinarians gave me. I'd love to have your assessment as well if that's possible.
Since I have Dany I realized that he has some constipation problems, those episodes weren't very frequent. I mean, he always has made poop once a day, very rarely two times per day (just in stressing events for him), but mostly one time per day and one day of the week he didn’t poop at all. so it wasn't a big problem I think.
This last month he has been pooping like 4 times at week, I mean if one day he made poop the next day he didn't and so on. I've been feeding him with a brand of yogurt named Activia, it contains prunes and it supposedly restores the intestinal tract. Since I'm giving him the yogurt, if I was lucky he pooped 2 consecutive days pooping just one time at day.
So I started to give him Metamusil every night which is natural fiber without laxatives and it doesn’t harm the body at all. After all this efforts he started to poop each day once a day as always, but that was just for five consecutive days and then he was constipated again, the last poop of those five days was more like liquid, and the next two days he was constipated, now he has two days he's been pooping once a day but I want him to be OK I really love him so much :(
I don,t think the problem becomes of his diet, because I've been feeding him with a lot of fiber I mean almost all days I feed him with this:
Breakfast: Activia yogurt with oats or papaya
Meal: vegetable soup (carrot, spinach, peas, broccoli, etc.). sometimes I give him some fruit like orange, tangerine, or oats (which I included a lot in his diet)
Dinner: oats, fiber cereals, or fruit with water with Metamusil
I always give him the food and the water together because he doesn’t drink water, so I have to give him between each meal water with some fruit juice. That’s the only way I can make him to drink water, by the way that tip was from your articles :)
I´ve been watching his poop and it is not dry, his poop is big (I don’t know how to say it but is like a fat poop, I mean is of a good size) and solid without being dry, dark brown (not too dark)
He's not depressed or sad at all, and he always have a great appetite and very active, sometimes more than I can handle, lol.
I really want him to be healthy, so do you think I'm doing something wrong? I don’t take him for walks outside anymore because he doesn’t like it, but he's always active in my house.
Take care,
Pauline
I'm not doing so well these days, I've been stressed because Dany has some constipation problems. I've already read your article and I found it really interesting, more helpful than the tips that a lot of veterinarians gave me. I'd love to have your assessment as well if that's possible.
Since I have Dany I realized that he has some constipation problems, those episodes weren't very frequent. I mean, he always has made poop once a day, very rarely two times per day (just in stressing events for him), but mostly one time per day and one day of the week he didn’t poop at all. so it wasn't a big problem I think.
This last month he has been pooping like 4 times at week, I mean if one day he made poop the next day he didn't and so on. I've been feeding him with a brand of yogurt named Activia, it contains prunes and it supposedly restores the intestinal tract. Since I'm giving him the yogurt, if I was lucky he pooped 2 consecutive days pooping just one time at day.
So I started to give him Metamusil every night which is natural fiber without laxatives and it doesn’t harm the body at all. After all this efforts he started to poop each day once a day as always, but that was just for five consecutive days and then he was constipated again, the last poop of those five days was more like liquid, and the next two days he was constipated, now he has two days he's been pooping once a day but I want him to be OK I really love him so much :(
I don,t think the problem becomes of his diet, because I've been feeding him with a lot of fiber I mean almost all days I feed him with this:
Breakfast: Activia yogurt with oats or papaya
Meal: vegetable soup (carrot, spinach, peas, broccoli, etc.). sometimes I give him some fruit like orange, tangerine, or oats (which I included a lot in his diet)
Dinner: oats, fiber cereals, or fruit with water with Metamusil
I always give him the food and the water together because he doesn’t drink water, so I have to give him between each meal water with some fruit juice. That’s the only way I can make him to drink water, by the way that tip was from your articles :)
I´ve been watching his poop and it is not dry, his poop is big (I don’t know how to say it but is like a fat poop, I mean is of a good size) and solid without being dry, dark brown (not too dark)
He's not depressed or sad at all, and he always have a great appetite and very active, sometimes more than I can handle, lol.
I really want him to be healthy, so do you think I'm doing something wrong? I don’t take him for walks outside anymore because he doesn’t like it, but he's always active in my house.
Take care,
Pauline
~~~
It looks to me like you're doing all the right things. Be careful to regulate the amounts of what you're feeding, as you don't want your pig to get overweight.
Skipping a day here and there is not unusual for a pig. The real test is how uncomfortable or painful it is when he does poop. There are a couple of additional things that have worked for us.
First as to the poop. Most pigs have very small (2 to 3 cm) fairly dry round poops. Some others, however, have much larger elongated soft poops. The only reason I can see why pigs fed exactly the same diets and living in the same enviroment would have such different poops is that our pigs with the softer poops seems to eat more natural things such as leaves, and they root around in the yard more.
As our Riff has gotten older (19 years old) his constipation has become a major problem. When he strains, he hurts his deformed back (spinabifida) and he will collapse to the ground crying. His diet looks very similar to the one you are using, but it still wasn't working.
I remembered that when the leaves fell in the fall of the year he would develop much more and much softer poops. So I started cutting branches off our mulberry tree and letting him eat the leaves. The exercise strengthened his back and his constipation went away. Of course, fall came and the leaves were gone. In fact I fear I might have damaged the trees by removing the leaves too soon.
This winter, I started buying Romaine lettuce and spreading out the lettuce for him. It helped a little, but not always enough. The University near us that teaches veterinarians suggested that we try "Lactulose Solution USP". It is a liquid that can be mixed in their food, and is actually good tasting. You give 10 to 15 mL, 2 to 3 times daily. All of the above things combined have him back to being healthy, again.
The leaves or lettuce have given him some roughage and a reason to be active, and the Lactulose Solution is a gentle laxative that is much more acceptable to their taste buds than biting into a stool softener.
It looks to me like you're doing all the right things. Be careful to regulate the amounts of what you're feeding, as you don't want your pig to get overweight.
Skipping a day here and there is not unusual for a pig. The real test is how uncomfortable or painful it is when he does poop. There are a couple of additional things that have worked for us.
First as to the poop. Most pigs have very small (2 to 3 cm) fairly dry round poops. Some others, however, have much larger elongated soft poops. The only reason I can see why pigs fed exactly the same diets and living in the same enviroment would have such different poops is that our pigs with the softer poops seems to eat more natural things such as leaves, and they root around in the yard more.
As our Riff has gotten older (19 years old) his constipation has become a major problem. When he strains, he hurts his deformed back (spinabifida) and he will collapse to the ground crying. His diet looks very similar to the one you are using, but it still wasn't working.
I remembered that when the leaves fell in the fall of the year he would develop much more and much softer poops. So I started cutting branches off our mulberry tree and letting him eat the leaves. The exercise strengthened his back and his constipation went away. Of course, fall came and the leaves were gone. In fact I fear I might have damaged the trees by removing the leaves too soon.
This winter, I started buying Romaine lettuce and spreading out the lettuce for him. It helped a little, but not always enough. The University near us that teaches veterinarians suggested that we try "Lactulose Solution USP". It is a liquid that can be mixed in their food, and is actually good tasting. You give 10 to 15 mL, 2 to 3 times daily. All of the above things combined have him back to being healthy, again.
The leaves or lettuce have given him some roughage and a reason to be active, and the Lactulose Solution is a gentle laxative that is much more acceptable to their taste buds than biting into a stool softener.
Chris Christensen
"...pigs are very beautiful animals. Those who do not think so
do not look at anything with their own eyes but through other people's eyeglasses."
G. K. Chesterton