• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Specialist Back Legs paralysed after a fall - any advice please?

C

Coastal Cavies

New Born Pup
Joined
Jun 10, 2018
Messages
3
Reaction score
1
Points
55
Location
Bournemouth
Hello, my daughter's visiting friend panicked and dropped beloved Snowy from about 2 feet onto grass and now her back legs are paralysed. This was on Saturday 9th. We took her to Lynwood Vets who are no longer exotics specialists. They prescribed Metacam, which she liked. On Monday 11th we took her to exotics specialist Piddle Valley Vets, who prescribed Prednisolone for her legs, and 2 things to keep her guts moving as she seems bloated, which he thought was cystitis: Ranitidene and Emeprid - which she hates, but will take with a lot of cucumber bribes and some quick squirts. She can move by pulling her back legs behind her. A little improvement since is that one of her feet are now under her when she sits. We are giving her a little shallow bath twice a day before the medicine and treats and then some physio - trying to get her back legs to move across a towel to finish drying off her tummy. The guineas spend their day in a covered run which we move onto fresh long grass every day. However, we had a scare a few days ago as when we brought them back in for the night Snowy was covered in flies and eggs on her back and rear, as she is not able to groom her lower parts. Luckily, I managed to get all the eggs out of her fur with hair conditioner and lots of persistence. We now have a mosquito net on the girls' run. Last Thurs Piddle Valley Vets told me that we may have to think about the worst if her legs don't improve. However, Snowy is very well in herself and still really enjoys her food. She doesn't have any solid or liquid blockage. We are keeping her clean so she has no urine sores. The vet said she might develop bed sores on her legs and tummy if she doesn't move much. Please could anyone offer any advice/experience about guineas regaining leg movement after a fall, please? She is still quite bloated but now only on one side. She can now move one leg under her after crawling with them dragging, which she couldn't do before. They are still dragging when she moves about, but she still can't walk on them. We have an appointment tomorrow (Thursday) lunchtime and if anyone can offer us some hope or ideas I would really, really appreciate it. Thanks very much for reading this really long post!
 
Coastal Cavies said:
Hello, my daughter's visiting friend panicked and dropped beloved Snowy from about 2 feet onto grass and now her back legs are paralysed. This was on Saturday 9th. We took her to Lynwood Vets who are no longer exotics specialists. They prescribed Metacam, which she liked. On Monday 11th we took her to exotics specialist Piddle Valley Vets, who prescribed Prednisolone for her legs, and 2 things to keep her guts moving as she seems bloated, which he thought was cystitis: Ranitidene and Emeprid - which she hates, but will take with a lot of cucumber bribes and some quick squirts. She can move by pulling her back legs behind her. A little improvement since is that one of her feet are now under her when she sits. We are giving her a little shallow bath twice a day before the medicine and treats and then some physio - trying to get her back legs to move across a towel to finish drying off her tummy. The guineas spend their day in a covered run which we move onto fresh long grass every day. However, we had a scare a few days ago as when we brought them back in for the night Snowy was covered in flies and eggs on her back and rear, as she is not able to groom her lower parts. Luckily, I managed to get all the eggs out of her fur with hair conditioner and lots of persistence. We now have a mosquito net on the girls' run. Last Thurs Piddle Valley Vets told me that we may have to think about the worst if her legs don't improve. However, Snowy is very well in herself and still really enjoys her food. She doesn't have any solid or liquid blockage. We are keeping her clean so she has no urine sores. The vet said she might develop bed sores on her legs and tummy if she doesn't move much. Please could anyone offer any advice/experience about guineas regaining leg movement after a fall, please? She is still quite bloated but now only on one side. She can now move one leg under her after crawling with them dragging, which she couldn't do before. They are still dragging when she moves about, but she still can't walk on them. We have an appointment tomorrow (Thursday) lunchtime and if anyone can offer us some hope or ideas I would really, really appreciate it. Thanks very much for reading this really long post!
Click to expand...


Hi!

I am very sorry for the fall.

Here is information with more tips on bloating; gentle massage/vibrating may help as the fall has obviously impacted on gut movement and digestion.
It may also be the case that she is not able to pick up and eat her caecotrophs (redigested poos). Guinea pigs have to run their food through the guts twice to get all possible nutrients out of their hay based diet. The nutrient packed poos are usually directly picked up from the anus and eaten straight again. I would discuss with your vets whether vitamin supplement
Please make sure that her diet is as high in hay as possible to help her digestion and go low on veg. I would treat her like a boar on impaction (the impacted poo are actually the caecotrophs, so he has the same issues) in terms of diet. See whether that can help with the digestion; the more fibre in the diet, the better!
Please also weigh her daily at the same time to monitor the food intake. Make sure that she has got an unlimited supply of fresh hay (which should make over 80% of the daily food intake) and fresh water next to her resting place at all times, so she can access it without problems.
Bloat, Gi Stasis ( No Gut Movement) And Not Eating
Impaction - How To Help Your Guinea Pig.
The Importance Of Weighing - Ideal Weight / Overweight / Underweight

Please make sure that you clean her bum and well as the underside of her feet and her belly daily, if necessary just with baby warm water. Check these areas once and twice daily for sores and for potential fly strike (flesh eating maggots), which she is at increased risk of.
Guinea pigs with limited mobility are at increased risk of bumblefoot (foot infection), especially when they are not able to take their weight off their front bearing legs not having the help of the back legs to get up again.
Change any cosies she is mainly sitting on twice daily; ideally you keep her on vetbed bedding; it is the softest available and best for minimising the risk of sores. It is very important that she is not sitting/lying in wet pee and poos.
Guinea Lynx :: Pododermatitis
Fly Strike

As long as a guinea pig is still eating, it has the will to live and a certain quality of life. Problems start when secondary complications start kicking in. You will have to constantly reassess quality of life as nobody can predict whether or two which extant she will ever regain mobility. It is tough to stay objective when you are feeling davastated by what has happened and your main desire is to undo any damage.

Freak accidents and falls are unfortunately not uncommon. We recommend to not allow children to carry their piggies (which is the most common scenario) and to pick them up and carry them in a 'shuttle; where they cannot blind jump, either! :(
How To Pick Up And Weigh Your Guinea Pig

I hope that this helps you a bit!

PS: I am moving your thread to our specially monitored Health and Illness section.

@Abi_nurse @helen105281 @Jaycey @Freela
 
It sounds as though you are doing everything you can to keep her safe/clean while she is not able to do so herself. Nerve damage/compression can take some time to regenerate, but may regenerate partially or completely over week or months. If she is eating and you are able to hold off secondary problems, like sores, fly strike, bloat, etc., I would try to give her some time to see if and to what extent she makes a recovery as her body has a chance to heal. Best wishes to her, I hope that she makes great improvements!
 
Hi thank you for your kind thoughts and helpful suggestions. I forgot to mention that we did have an X-ray on the Saturday of the fall but it didn't show any breaks or spinal cord damage. It did show gas, which the vet thought was cystitis, and might be stopping her putting her hind legs straight under her body

I have been looking into the really interesting links- thank you so much! I'm sure she's not constipated as every time we pick her up there is a little pile where she has been sitting and also plenty while we are holding her. I'll watch out for the bumble foot.

I hadn't thought about her not being able to eat her caecotrophs. She ate a couple whilst on the mat, but how many do they need to eat a day? I will ask the vet about vitamin supplements today.

What is vetbed bedding? She is currently on hay, which we change every morning when the guineas have gone outside into their runs for the day.

She is mainly eating grass and hay. We give vegetables and pellets & cereal at night. I have put them where she can get them easily, but once inside her cage shelter, she doesn't seem to want to move much.

I think some sort of physiotherapy might help her. Does anyone know of any? Are the moment we are just moving her legs whilst trying to walk her on a mat.

If the vet thinks he can do no more for her today, what should I ask him apart from coming off the steroids gradually? Should I ask for more metacam? Also we have run out of the Ranitidene and Emeprid and she is still bloated on one side (the other has gone down). Can I insist on more?

Does anyone know of another vet who specialises in paralysis or guineas? We live in Bournemouth, but I am prepared to travel with her if necessary.

Thanks so much everyone x
 
Vetbed is a really good bedding that wicks away the wee so she would not get too wet from sitting in one place. Here is a link to Pets at Home but you can buy bigger pieces cheaper elsewhere online. Vetbed. Shop Vetbed Pet Beds & Bedding. Pets At Home

I have heard of water therapy being used, my Ellie lost the use of her back legs for a different reason and we used to hold her gently in the bath and let her move her back legs in the water where possible.

Does she go outside at the moment? if so I would try to keep her indoors as like others have said she is at risk of flystrike. We had a case on here of a random fly getting to an indoors pig (who was being treated for a UTI) and so I would not risk her being outside at the moment.
 
A friend took in a piggy whose owner couldn't cope after a spinal injury (I think from a fall) caused him to stop using his back legs. It took a long time but he eventually got a lot of feeling and movement back in them.

A couple of weeks is no time at all, so I definitely wouldn't write her off yet. It can take a long time for humans to get their legs working again so it doesn't surprise me that it can take time for piggies too,
 
I have no more advice as to what has already been given, but I would like to send healing vibes to your little snowy :hug: Accidents do happen, paws crossed she makes a full recovery x
 
Welcome to the forum.
I can’t add to the advice but did want to offer support at such an anxious time
 
Hello, well we went back to Piddle Valley Vets and the vet said that there wasn't anymore he could do. We didn't want to give up on Snowy so we sked if we could come off the steroids slowly and continue with the Ranitidene and Emeprid, so he has given us some more to keep going. He seems to imply that if there are no improvements in the next couple of weeks then we should think about whether we should think the worst. Obviously we want to try as hard as we can to get her better though.

An interesting thing the vet said about them eating their caecotrophs - if their diet is very high in hay and grass, which hers is, then she will get enough nutrients, even if she doesn't get to eat them.

Unfortunately, tonight we have an impaction problem. We have spent the last 3 hours with her in the utility sink, constantly changing the water so it is comfortable and gently squeezing her swollen part, alternately standing her in the water and squeezing and then lifting her out also so extract seems to work. We managed to get out about 65 poos in 3 hours, and she seems a bit less swollen. However, she is a little pink underneath and I wonder if she has an infection. I will take her to vet first thing tomorrow but if there is anything else I should try please let me know! We are giving her some milk thistle and some dandelion leaves too as I think they may be medicinal. She has been really enjoying the milk thistle. I know in France dandelion leaves are good for producing wee - they are called pis-en-lit - wet the bed.

Anyway, it's gone 1am and I have to go to bed as I have to get the children to school in the morning. I'll keep posting updates as and when.
 
Hope all goes well at the vets today.
It’s a difficult time for you so offering support and holding you in my thoughts
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top