Aoife's medical topic: Lost tooth on a 4-5 year old

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ItsaZoo
Supporter in 2023

Post   » Fri Jul 22, 2022 8:54 pm


Does she like watermelon? When my previous pig wouldn’t eat CC, I mixed it with watermelon juice. Then I also mixed watermelon juice and water and I would trade off, a few bites of CC and a little watermelon water.

Another option might be the extra fine papaya-flavored CC. That seems to have better flavor and is smoother when mixed.

I wish you all the best, it’s so difficult when they don’t want to eat.

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Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Sat Jul 23, 2022 10:23 am


It does sound like her tongue might be entrapped. Is there any way to have her looked at today to see if that might be the issue?

cellymelly

Post   » Wed Jul 27, 2022 5:01 pm


Update:

Aoife went to the specialist after being on Crit Care for a few days. They kept her overnight for 2 nights with nurses and vet students keeping a close eye on her since she wasn't eating on her own. They did a CT scan on her and got a good look at her mouth. They also did bloodwork and a general physical, both of which gave her a clean bill of health :)

The CT scan showed that she did not have an abscessed tooth! Unfortunately what has happened is that her broken lower right incisor has started to grow a more into her jaw, which has moved some of her other teeth. The entrapped tongue behavior was because some of her teeth had come up and grew in an almost pointy fashion, which was scraping her tongue :( They filed her teeth down, changed her medications are a bit, and made sure she was eating and drinking on her own before they gave me the call for discharging her. The current plan is to get her weight back up (she dropped below a kilogram on Tuesday, they said her weight was stable this morning) and make sure she's strong and healthy before they schedule a surgery to handle the tooth.

We got her home and the other girls were immediately all over her with kisses and they were snacking on hay and some veggies together. She still eats a little slower than the other girls, but she isn't doing the mouth motions or pawing at her mouth anymore!

Here are the medications they gave me:
Gabapentin: 0.1mL 100mg/mL given as needed every 8-12 hours,
Meloxicam: 0.2mL 5mg\mL every 12 hours
Metronidazole 0.2mL 50mg/mL every 12 hours

We're going to weigh her daily and keep a close eye on her, supplementing with some critical care to get her weight up a bit. :) We're pretty happy with the diagnosis and future plan.

Thank you all for being here and being so helpful!

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mmeadow
Supporter 2004-2022

Post   » Wed Jul 27, 2022 5:46 pm


Wonderful news!

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Wed Jul 27, 2022 10:09 pm


Thanks for the update! It sounds very promising!

cellymelly

Post   » Wed Aug 24, 2022 4:33 pm


Another update:

The next time we took her to the specialist, Aoife's abscess had returned. It seemed to spring up in a little over 24 hours! They did a marsupialization surgery on her and we took her back and forth for check-ups. They took another CT scan of her yesterday because she'd been showing signs of malocclusion again.
Essentially, her premolars grew enough to start scratching at her tongue again, so they filed those down after removing her sutures from the marsupialization site. The good news is that her incisor has not moved and the CT scan didn't show signs of an infection. The bad news is that the infections she did have weakened the bone in her jaw, which allowed for that incisor to slide down, and she lost so much bone mass that the incisor itself is providing a lot of structure to that area of her jaw. They will not perform the surgery because it might fracture her jaw or worse. The specialist said that they want to remove the tooth, but the risk of her not making it through the surgery is far too high.

The other unfortunate news is they gave us a time frame of less than a year left with her. She's active, alert, and still complaining for treats all the time, but we all know that when something goes bad with a piggy, it goes bad very quickly. I'm hoping we can beat the odds and have her for longer, but for now we will enjoy the time we have her here.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Wed Aug 24, 2022 11:15 pm


I too am hoping you can beat the odds. It helps so much to have quality veterinary care so you know what is going on and what the options are.

cellymelly

Post   » Thu Jan 04, 2024 10:39 pm


My sweet Aoife (the same Aoife from a year ago, who the vets said only had 1-3 months!!!) Developed a mass on her hind leg early December. The vet x-rayed her and determined it was most likely a sarcoma.

The mass was almost unnoticeable when we found it, but now it takes up her whole leg. Currently, she is dragging her leg when walking. Prior to tonight, she was able to walk alright, a little wobbly, but getting around was no issue. She even stands up and begs for treats and breakfast still.

The vet put her on Meloxicam after the discovery(.3 ml dosage, not the heavy stuff she was on during her teeth surgeries) and said we would most likely have to make the call soon. Of course, we're heartbroken since she's one of our very first piggies and my partner's favorite piggy of the 4.

When are we being cruel? She's still trying to be active (as active as a nearly 7 year old is) and she is alert, bright eyed, able to eat and drink. We know there's no real cure for her, since the vet said she would probably not survive on the table... We want as much time as possible with her, but now I'm worried it time is up since she has started dragging the leg.

Is it her time? Please, let me know your opinions. ❤️

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Fri Jan 05, 2024 10:55 am


I merged your two topics on Aoife and find it assigned the old topic title and I don't seem to be able to edit the title (would have edited it to: Aoife's medical topic: Lost tooth & Possible sarcoma on hind leg). We try to have a single topic per guinea pig so history is there for evaluation.

I see it was early December you first saw evidence of the growth.

Given the speed at which it has grown, it would seem the likelihood of it being malignant (assuming your vet is correct about it being a sarcoma) would make it more difficult to treat. Possible treatment would require a definitive diagnosis, possible amputation.

Not addressing treatment, I would evaluate quality of life looking for signs of pain and changes in your description of her being "alert, bright eyed, able to eat and drink." This page may be helpful to you:
https://www.guinealynx.info/euthanasia.html

cellymelly

Post   » Fri Jan 05, 2024 11:21 am


We didn't notice it at all. I didn't notice it the night before the girls' physicals, and the vet noticed it when looking at her little feeties.
We watched her a little closer last night and it seems she's only dragging her leg for traveling small distances, like between one of the food bowls and the water bottles or when she thinks I'm giving treats. We fed some critical care to her and she was so impatient with it, so she's still got the zest of life going.

It's definitely not an abscess or a lipoma, unfortunately, as it's very hard and doesn't move around when we touch it. She allows us to touch it all we want, so it's not tender or painful in that way.

We're thinking that maybe it's not all that painful right now, just cumbersome? She's always been our fighter! We've decided to keep watch for longer, since other than being wobbly and slowly losing weight, she seems to be happy. :)

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Fri Jan 05, 2024 12:41 pm


She sounds like a sweet girl.

If you have a pic that clearly shows the size of the tumor right now (I am guessing you'd describe it as a tumor?), I would be happy to add it to your topic.
Image

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Fri Jan 05, 2024 12:48 pm


I'd keep a very close eye on her for any signs of pain, and let that guide me to when her time has come.

Since it's in her leg, it could affect the sciatic nerve, which would be very painful. And if the sarcoma began in the bone instead of soft tissues, that also would be very painful.

I wouldn't stint on the meloxicam. She gets no brownie points for suffering, and there's no worry about addiction. I'd make her absolutely as comfortable as possible no matter what dosage it took.

Good luck to you and her.

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