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am so worried about my little pig in vets with a broken leg

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sarahw

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right while i was sorting out all of my cages with their new cage liners the 2 boys were running about as normal in their indoors run, when i went to pick up little hurley he squealed at me his leg was floppy i felt it all over and guessed it was broken, plus he started peeing blood all over me so i got more worried, a lovely neighbour of mine rushed me to the vets, who gave him pain relief and antibiotics(for the bleeding just in case)
she said its common for guinea pigs to pee blood when stressed?
i had the choice to leave him there or bring him home and make an appointment tomorrow, so i done the sensible thing and left him, at least he will be in good hands and pain free, when the examiantion finished he was put in his carrier and dived under his hay!
i have to phone in the morning to find out what will happen with him as its the knee joint thats broken so if they cant fix it they will amputate the leg, just so worried about him he was so calm and brave and did not squeal much when given the painkillers
his cagemate seems lonely in his cage without him just hope they dont forget each other and can go back together without any fuss
 
poor little guy. well done getting him to the vets so quickly. i know it sounds bad, but i have heard of pigs living happy and normal lives with 3 legs. hope things go well, and keep us updated!
 
Oh that sounds awful. I'm so sorry! I hope he's ok. When will you know?

Did the vet really say they pee blood when stressed? Not because of any other medical reason? My little piggy started passing blood through his urine, I got him to a vet who said they suspected cystitus, however, I think he's been stressed lately as his cagemate has been bullying him.
 
How frightening! I hope that there is no need for amputation; restricted cage size (approx 1ftx2ft) with food and water close to the bedroom area, along with good painrelief and some time should see a good recovery. The x ray will give more information for his long term prognosis. I have had a few pigs with broke bones - none needed amputation or PTS.

Hopefully the blood in the urine is not from internal injuries, sometimes a broken pelvis can do some damage inside - as he is still able to pee it is a really good sign that it is not too severe.

Next is to work out what happened - a crush or trapped injury, or a fall. Are there ramps in the cage, levels that he could have jumped down from, who has access to the cage, other pets that might have caused it (parrots can do a lot of damage)? It is important to try to find out to prevent a similar incident in the future.

Suzy x
 
Good advice from Suzy, I hope the vet can give you some answers today - sending positive vibes for your little guy. xx
 
What a shock for you! I very much hope that your little guy can be sorted without drastic measures. Good on you for taking him asap!
 
Oh no, poor you and your piggie. Really hope he gets better soon x
 
right have just been told that the vet cant treat the leg as it would need to be referred to an exotics vet
i have one number which is trinity vet centre in maidstone, has anybody tried these and are they good? or is there any other cavy savy vets near the bluewater area?
got to pick piggie up this eve, so hopefully i can get an app for tomorrow with a good vets that can treat him, so i hope that he will be pain free until then, as far as i know he only had the one painkiller last night so have now idea how long that will last him, have got a small 80cm cage that he can go in for the time being
 
I think it was Trinity that were recommended recently on another thread, I'll see if I can find it and the name of the vet.....
 
he is off to see richard at trinity tomorrow, mark is not there until thurs, but have been told that richard is also very good having worked all over the country and in zoos so he must be good, looked on their gallery and they have a chinchilla with leg bandaged up so if they can fix a chins skinny little leg, then I'm sure they can fix our little hurley, hes the runt of the litter and only weigh 565g at 7 months old
also they will do payment plans as well so I'm not worried about the cost if they can save the leg would rather that than it coming off if it can be saved
am picking him up at 7 tonight from the useless vets which has annoyed me as they told me on phone they would def be able to treat him last night, so all this time has been wasted as far as I'm concerned so I'm hoping he will be ok and not to stressed and bothered by it all
his pain releif will run out about 10pm tonight so i am going to ask them to make sure that he has another injection for the pain for tonight until he can be seen tommorrow, dont want him in any pain as he wont eat, i have critical care formula this worked a treat with a rat a few years back, also have oxbow vitamim c on order from last week as wanted it for emergencies so hopefully i will have that soon
 
I used Trinity vets last year for Ariels bladder stone, saw Mark and Richard, both good with piggies, quite expensive though, and difficult to park so allow plenty of time! I still have some Metacam for pain if you need any tonight; I live between Swanley and Dartford.
 
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that is such a lovely offer thank you, i dont have a car unfortunately so wouldnt be able to pick it up from you, just hope they will give him something for tonight, i will request it, they cant say no surely
 
Yes, I'm sure they will; if the worst comes to the worst I can bring it to you.
 
just got back, he had already had another painkilling injection, also got given some antibiotics for his water as soon as i put him in his small cage to rest he dived under the hay his belly was soaked in pee thou so gave him a little clean didnt want to do to much, I'm sure they will clean him up when hes asleep, hes now comfortable for now so thats the main thing, will update tomorrow when have seen the vets at trinity
 
My poor baby,Marble has developed a skin infection as she keeps lying in her urine due to an operation she had friday. I really hope this does not happen to your little one. Fingers crossed he will be well soon.
 
poor thing, when their poorly its harder to bath them as i feel guilt touching them and dont like handling them to much, just checked him hes peed and pooed ok and has eaten some hay and a tomato so at least hes eating, for some reason he feels a bit skinny
 
He is bound to have gone off his food a little with all the stress. I am sure he will start eating again but you may wish to weigh him so you can monitor any weight loss. You cannot bath them when they are unwell as it is just too much stress for them.
 
we didnt give him a full wash just used cotton wool to wipe him
hes back and doing fine, richard at trinity x rayed him and is more than confident that it will heal by itself, hes fractured his femur, hes much more perky today, hes on antibiotics for the blood in his urine, plus metcam daily for 6 weeks and tramadol twice daily for 10 days, i also picked up some oxbow critical care just in case he wont eat his nuggets for a while and my oxbow vit C tablets turned up today from america only paid for them on fri!
going to give him the CC plus his normal nuggets
have put him in his old cage with his brother but split the cage so he has a small area
the x ray confirmed that the blood in the urine is down to the trauma and not anything else which is good
hes got a follow up app in 6 weeks with richard to check that hes healed right so if it hasnt then we will go for the surgery which will be around £300, was expecting much more than that to be honest
he tried washing his face he toppled over
we weigh them weekly just to monitor so thinking of weighing hurley twice a week while hes healing
 
Thank you for the update - it must be such a relief! Fingers crossed for a swift recovery, it sounds as though the new vet really knows his stuff.

Suzy x
 
they are very recommended by many people for piggies
as soon as he started talking i knew they were good and i so happy i took the 2 hour journey to get him there, so worth it to know hes been in good hands
was exting the price to be much more it was £130 altogether but that was consult, x rays, 2 lots of medication and a 454g packet of the critical care which i asked for
lets hope now that he has a sppedy recovery, he does seem so much happier, my daughter just mixed up some cc for him and he jumped in the bowl!
 
All the best for a speedy and straight forward recovery!

Great that you have been able to have him seen and checked over properly and that he is a lot better in himself now.
 
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