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Advice on Spaying a six year old piggy

So information on the operation, everything went well, her cyst fluid was a total of about 70ml! And from the entire of the op, she has lost around 90grams! They were some big cysts.. the vet explained it that she would've felt heavily pregnant, with little to no appetite. I literally cannot believe how lovely she is consider what's she's been through! She come home and she walked straight out of her carrier into the cage, shortly after eating all her veggies except she didn't finish her carrot or broccoli. Willow and her are now sharing some hay 😊 I could not be happier, I'm just praying that she continues to get better and better, compared to what she was like yesterday, I cannot believe the difference and after such traumer
 
dannif_piggies said:
So information on the operation, everything went well, her cyst fluid was a total of about 70ml! And from the entire of the op, she has lost around 90grams! They were some big cysts.. the vet explained it that she would've felt heavily pregnant, with little to no appetite. I literally cannot believe how lovely she is consider what's she's been through! She come home and she walked straight out of her carrier into the cage, shortly after eating all her veggies except she didn't finish her carrot or broccoli. Willow and her are now sharing some hay 😊 I could not be happier, I'm just praying that she continues to get better and better, compared to what she was like yesterday, I cannot believe the difference and after such traumer
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So glad she came through the surgery ok, she must be much more comfortable without all that nasty cyst fluid, so good she has little Willow and such a good piggy mummy to help cheer her up :)
 
VickiA said:
Such a lovely positive post. Hope she continues to do well x
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Thank you, finger crossed that this continues, at the moment she is only eating when I print her and put food near her mouth but once I do that, she happily munches away! Cannot believe it in all honesty but so so so happy 😊😊😊
 
PigglePuggle said:
So glad she came through the surgery ok, she must be much more comfortable without all that nasty cyst fluid, so good she has little Willow and such a good piggy mummy to help cheer her up :)
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I was shocked how much they said they got out! For such a small animal, she's looking rather thin now bless her :( shes never been in the 800g bracket in terms of her "stable" weight, I'm sure she'll soon fill herself out again though 😂☺️ Willow is being surprisingly calm! She was lying beside her just a minute ago and then got up and helped her clean her eyes, as they're a little bit crusty, I expect she cannot yet be bothered to clean herself up and I don't want to stress her out with that kind of thing just yet, but yeah Willow is being super cute with her! 🙊🙊
 
Also, I know this may sound a bit crazy, I'm kind of worries about picking her up, obviously I don't want to hurt her. (When I put her back in her cage I just opened the carrier door and let her walk out herself). Should I just pick her up as I normally would? Or has anyone got any advice. I'm probably overthinking this more than I should be...
 
Has she been given pain relief for home? With my girls I avoided handling them any more than was absolutely necessary. I picked them up on the cuddle cup they were sat on, or in the fleece house they were sat in so that they were supported underneath but handled as little as possible. Even though she’s eating for herself you will need to top her up with some syringe feed. If you can do that in her cage without taking her out, all well and good. If not, then you’ll need to take her out for some one on one time with you. This is very positive. Let’s hope she remains in good spirits.
 
VickiA said:
Has she been given pain relief for home? With my girls I avoided handling them any more than was absolutely necessary. I picked them up on the cuddle cup they were sat on, or in the fleece house they were sat in so that they were supported underneath but handled as little as possible. Even though she’s eating for herself you will need to top her up with some syringe feed. If you can do that in her cage without taking her out, all well and good. If not, then you’ll need to take her out for some one on one time with you. This is very positive. Let’s hope she remains in good spirits.
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Yeah she's been given various medications to give orally, she seems to just been laying on the pee pad, so I wouldn't be able to pick her up just on this, maybe I'll put her "handling/lap" fleece down and hope she climbs on, as I doubt I'll be able to do this in the cage, she's not that keen on the syringe 🙄 I'm gonna top her up at 10 when it's time for her meds so I may try in the cage but if not I'm just going to have to take her out
 
So glad to hear she is doing well. I tried to give bumble some syringe feed but she was eating for herself fine and I didn't want to stress her. As long as she is eating plenty she will be fine. Did they do the usual through the tummy incision or through the flanks? I found the flanks one easier for being able to pick her up

Bless honey though, she would have been very uncomfortable before, I'm surprised it wasn't treated as an emergency spay when they first recommended it
 
Lady Kelly said:
So glad to hear she is doing well. I tried to give bumble some syringe feed but she was eating for herself fine and I didn't want to stress her. As long as she is eating plenty she will be fine. Did they do the usual through the tummy incision or through the flanks? I found the flanks one easier for being able to pick her up

Bless honey though, she would have been very uncomfortable before, I'm surprised it wasn't treated as an emergency spay when they first recommended it
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She's not taking too well to the syringe feeding but gotta be cruel to be kind, she's currently sitting in a fleece, nibbling on some hay, but I'm having to put it right in front of her to encourage her. I'm not too sure what to do over night, she's had her meds, painkiller, antiinflamatory, gut stimulant, and antibiotics... so I'm hoping the gut stimulant will encourage to nibble on the hay Ive left, should I do any syringe feeds through the night? Or would she have had enough today to see her through? (She had 50ml of critical care at the vets, veggies when she got home, nibbling on hay, and has just had 4ml more with me of critical care)... not sure what to do
 
dannif_piggies said:
She's not taking too well to the syringe feeding but gotta be cruel to be kind, she's currently sitting in a fleece, nibbling on some hay, but I'm having to put it right in front of her to encourage her. I'm not too sure what to do over night, she's had her meds, painkiller, antiinflamatory, gut stimulant, and antibiotics... so I'm hoping the gut stimulant will encourage to nibble on the hay Ive left, should I do any syringe feeds through the night? Or would she have had enough today to see her through? (She had 50ml of critical care at the vets, veggies when she got home, nibbling on hay, and has just had 4ml more with me of critical care)... not sure what to do
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Sorry I was in bed by the time you sent that lol. I hope she's ok this morning. I have never done overnight feeds after an operation but then I've seen all the ones operated on start to eat and figured they might not eat enough but they are eating which means they aren't in immediate danger.
 
Lady Kelly said:
Sorry I was in bed by the time you sent that lol. I hope she's ok this morning. I have never done overnight feeds after an operation but then I've seen all the ones operated on start to eat and figured they might not eat enough but they are eating which means they aren't in immediate danger.
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I decided to just leave her be and get some rest, leaving hay and peletes in easily accessible places, this morning she had done numerous poops, so all good signs, going to give her veggies soon 😊
 
Sorry for all the questions, what would people suggest I aim to feed her in terms of critical care? Today she is eating the veggies and going to them rather than me giving them to her one by one, so she's seeming more lively, I don't want to stress her out with a lot syringe feeding if it's not needed, would it just be a case of monitoring her weight and top up if it's needed?
 
What I have done in the past is only syringe fed if the piggy is not eating normally. If she is going about normal business then level her to it. She will hopefully regain some of the lost weight over the next month or so
 
Lady Kelly said:
What I have done in the past is only syringe fed if the piggy is not eating normally. If she is going about normal business then level her to it. She will hopefully regain some of the lost weight over the next month or so
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Okay great, she'd actually already gained weight this morning! So all positive signs, I'll just let her be, I think Willow being there is helping her out a lot, Honey was playing with Willow this morning 😂😂 acting like nothing is wrong... I mean she's laying around a lot, but she normally does that anyway so not much change really 😂😂😂 thank you so much for the advice x
 
Guys sorry for all the questions, but how long should it be until Honeys poops are back to normal, at the moment they're a great variety of shapes, sometimes fairly full but a little mis shaped and other times small and dryer looking I'm not sure how long to wait until I should be concerned
 
dannif_piggies said:
Guys sorry for all the questions, but how long should it be until Honeys poops are back to normal, at the moment they're a great variety of shapes, sometimes fairly full but a little mis shaped and other times small and dryer looking I'm not sure how long to wait until I should be concerned
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The poop you see today shows what’s been eaten yesterday. After surgery you can expect to see smaller poops for a day or so. Is she eating her normal volumes of hay and pellets and veg? If not, I’d top her up with a syringe feed to help keep her guts moving adequately.
 
VickiA said:
The poop you see today shows what’s been eaten yesterday. After surgery you can expect to see smaller poops for a day or so. Is she eating her normal volumes of hay and pellets and veg? If not, I’d top her up with a syringe feed to help keep her guts moving adequately.
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She is eating her usual veg quantities for sure, and she seems to be eating hay a usual amount from what I can tell/Ive seen, and i saw her eating pellets for the first time earlier. She really isn't a fan of syringe feeding so if it's not necessary I would much rather not do it as I already have to stress her with the syringe medicating
 
Merab's Slave said:
So glad to hear that all has gone well.
Hoping recovery continues to go well for Honey
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Thank you so much for your support and kind words throughout this process and stressful time, I'm still a little bit anxious and I know guinea pigs can change so drastically, but it's all positive signs!
 
I'm not an expert but I'd say any poops are better than no poops, if you are worried you could count the poops every hour or two then save them to show to the vet? When Puggle had acute bloat we saved all her poops every couple of hours in tupperware boxes just in case, I found them on shelves in the piggy room for days afterwards all labelled with the date and time lol :)
 
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