Violet's medical thread

Post Reply
Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Sun Jan 17, 2016 9:50 am


Keep going. Less smell is good. Carry on and please keep us posted.

You're doing all the right things. Big chunks of scabpusboogerdeadtissue stuff is good.

User avatar
Zaphy

Post   » Thu Jan 21, 2016 4:14 am


http://i.imgur.com/9ZTTT2Ah.jpg

Violet's been doing pretty good the last few days! No major incidents. I've been slacking a bit on feeding her since she seemed to be eating and drinking pretty well on her own, plus she's been quite active and perky. This morning I weighed her and she was 900g... down from 925g over the last week or two and 950g in the days immediately following her first surgery (about the 7th of this month), and before the surgery she was 970-1000g depending on water weight.

Now, she was pretty chubby before this, and compared to my other two pigs she doesn't seem underweight in her build right now though she is noticeably leaner than before, so I'm not concerned about her weight currently. I think it would not be super good if she continues to drop weight. So I'm thinking about going back up to a full 60cc of Critical Care a day for a while.

Tonight she scared me a bit when I walked by her cage about an hour or two after I gave her her meds, she was hunched, puffed up and squinting her eyes. Upon closer inspection her recent poops looked kind of dry so I took her and fed her 10cc of water, then a couple cc of Critical Care for good measure. I also rubbed her belly for a little while, not sure if any of that did anything or if it was just a coincidence but she's laying down relaxed again now. She was pooping and peeing a bit more frequently than usual this morning, not sure if that means anything.

The other concern I have is that she appears to have a big scab forming over the big hole, as you can see in the photo above. Is that pretty normal for a wound this size? I've still been flushing the wound 3-5 times a day but I have no idea how a drain like this is supposed to heal, I can't think of what to Google for it. I'm concerned that there might be gunk hanging out under this scab, and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to wait till the scab falls off kinda naturally or if I'm supposed to flush the wound out completely till the scab comes out each time. I'm no longer getting chunks of boogerscab, the saline's coming back fairly clear each time. Violet still fights me when I flush it.

Her behavior's been pretty encouraging though. Since she was a little piglet she's always been excited about fresh bedding, and has popcorned like crazy whenever I changed the paper bedding (I have an adorable video of her doing a barrel roll through some fresh bedding when she was younger somewhere on my computer). Today I changed her litterbox and she did the same thing- popcorned all over her tiny quarantine cage. She also rumblestrutted at me as I walked past her holding my other pig Hazel. She wheeks and begs every time she hears the fridge door open or we call her for treats. When she sleeps she stretches out her little feet and lays her head down, so she seems pretty comfortable!

User avatar
Zaphy

Post   » Thu Jan 21, 2016 5:48 am


Hmm, looks like my photo disappeared. Here it is reuploaded- I'm on mobile now so hopefully I did it right.

Image

But yes, scab forming on top, still seems like there's gunk underneath it. It may be worth noting that the smell is gone now as far as I can tell, too... am I being stupid by not talking to the vet about this right away?

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Thu Jan 21, 2016 9:27 am


It is looking better. I think what you are hoping for is granulation of the skin at the sides. I think you do need to continue flushing if you can. That it is no longer smelling is super (good sign).

Note Snowflake's simple healing incision. What I thought was the incision coming apart was granulation (healing by forming new tissue over the opening):
Image

This is from:
https://www.guinealynx.info/spay.html#incision

It looks like there may be some granulation happening from the sides - and hopefully underneath the scab too.

Hopefully Talishan will comment. I have not had to deal with something like this and imagine she has dealt with open wounds much more frequently.

I am glad you are so observant. Weighing helps, the extra food helps, sounds like the massage helps (I suspect what you were seeing was signs of pain - which could have been intestinal).

I'll go add your pic.

User avatar
Zaphy

Post   » Thu Jan 21, 2016 3:37 pm


hm. The vets were in surgery when I called, so the receptionist couldn't ask em- Violet hasn't left any poops in her cage since at least 3:00am this morning. It's now going on 1:30pm, and though I've been asleep for a lot of that I haven't seen her ducking under for poops. She's still eating and drinking, also urinating regularly, though something unusual is that she's chewing the towels and eating the paper bedding in the litterbox quite a bit today and yesterday. I wonder if she's bored? So I put in a willow stick with her, she's always liked those.

Scratch that, she ducked under for a poop just now but I can't tell if she got anything- I'm feeding her CC right now and she wasn't chewing very long, so I feel like it might have just been the remnants of the CC she was eating.

If she's still eating hay and drinking water on her own, I shouldn't be too concerned about blockage yet, right? I'm just worried since I've seen her eating at the paper and towels so much.

I've been continuing with the massage. Also tried putting her on the dryer for vibration for a few minutes, no idea if it vibrated enough to be effective or not.

Also continuing with flushing the scab- no change today.

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Thu Jan 21, 2016 6:37 pm


Chewing things is often a sign of pain. Is she on any pain medication?

User avatar
Zaphy

Post   » Thu Jan 21, 2016 9:10 pm


Yes, she's on Rimadyl still- it's a 5 mg/ml solution and her prescribed dose is .35 ml. I asked the vet and he gave me permission to give her half again if she still showed signs of pain- I've only done that a handful of times these last few weeks. She's still chewing the towels, though she stops when there's a willow stick available to chew instead. She does have plenty of hay and still eats that too.

She's passed a few droppings this afternoon, phew.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Thu Jan 21, 2016 9:26 pm


You're still weighing daily right now? I would ask the vet if you could get some Meloxicam as a pain med. These days it is often prescribed and seems to be fairly effective.

I agree with bpatters that the chewing is more likely to be a sign of pain.

User avatar
Zaphy

Post   » Fri Jan 22, 2016 12:23 am


Yeah, she's been plateauing at one weight, then over the course of a day or two she'll suddenly drop 20-30g, then she'll plateau again, etc. Today she was back at 920g.

How does Meloxicam differ from Rimadyl, is it just a stronger NSAID? Would upping her dose of Rimadyl again for a while accomplish the same thing as switching medications?

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Fri Jan 22, 2016 8:08 am


All I can say is that in the 17 years Guinea Lynx has been around, we started out recommending Rimadyl and somewhere along the way it ended up being supplanted by Meloxicam. This is years ago.

I think it was to a great extent not used as much due to the flexibility of Meloxicam (dose rates can better be adjusted).

I don't have a scientific reason for suggesting it, just that it is much more frequently used and seems to work fairly well. The entry for Meloxicam does not indicate there is a range but posts here show varying doses for guinea pigs.

See: www.guinealynx.info/.html

User avatar
Jaycey
Supporter in 2014

Post   » Fri Jan 22, 2016 11:31 am


I remember when I had to swap my arthritic piggy from Metacam onto Rimadyl because it caused digestive problems, I think it was Talishan (sorry it it wasn't you) that mentioned Metacam is harder on the kidneys and Rimadyl the liver, but they're very similar drugs.

I think in the UK we probably use Metacam (Meloxicam) more often as it's in liquid form and piggies tend to like it. The Rimadyl (Carprofen) I had was in tablet form and I had to cut them up and dilute them myself.

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Fri Jan 22, 2016 11:36 am


My guess is that long-term use of either one has significant side effects. Most pain meds do, particularly the NSAIDs. You just have the weigh the benefits and the liabilities. You can't leave a pig in pain.

Post Reply