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Broken Back Leg

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pagan queen

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My sons pig fell and broke her back leg today. We took her to the vet and she said to confine her to a small cage for 3 weeks and take her back so she could check if it's healing. She wouldn't give her pain relief as she said long term it can damage their insides and she didn't strap the leg either. I took her home and strapped it myself just to immobilise it. Evie seems to be fine, she is eating and drinking and I have her in a small bird cage with food and water near her so she doesn't have to move. Is there anything else I can do for her?
 
It doesn't sound like your vet is very familiar with guinea pigs. There is a pain medication suitable for guinea pigs called metcam. Did they give the pigs an xray to confirm a fracture? Also, pigs hide pain really well, so he could be in much more pain than it seems. You might want to consider increasing his vitamin C intake. Also if he has a companion, separating with a wire barrier would be good, they could still socialize without the hurt pig causing more damage with too much movement. But if your vet didn't xray, I would consider getting a second opinion, or at least insisting on pain relief in the format of metcam. Hth xx.
 
She did have an xray. It showed that her leg is broken near the hock and the bone has overlapped and she will have a short leg. She told me Metacam is often prescribed but it is not really for small animals and long term use can cause internal damage. I asked her about animal asprin and she said that can cause stomach ulcers. She does have a sister but they live in a 5ft cage so I have had to remove her and put her in a small cage so she can't move about too much. I have her near a radiator to meke sure she stays warm.
 
Glad to hear she got an xray. A lot of pigs can take metacam with out any problems, but of course that is up to you and your vet. It would be good to keep her small cage close to her sister so they can interact, might keep her spirits up. Good luck, and I'm sure someone will come along with advice too. :)
 
Today Evie is like her old self. She's bright eyed and hobbling round her cage like nothing is wrong. She is such a tough cookie, bless her. I've put her cage inside the big cage so she can see her sister and vice versa.
 
Get better soon Evie :)
You definitely did the right thing :)
 
Poor thing, please ask for pain relief, it is perfectly fine for short term use, even if you have to see a different vet to get it. A human has pain relief when they break a limb so your pig definitely needs it. Please also ask that the vet splits the dose into AM and PM as pigs have a very fast metabolism.
 
Whaaaaa? No pain relief? My Moo had some hay stuck in her eye and my vet prescribed Metacam for a week or so with eye drops. It's a pain killer as well as anti inflammatory. Glad she's feeling better though :D
 
Thank you. I will give them a ring and see if they will provide some pain relief. Can they contact my vet and get the xrays from them?
 
Poor Evie :(

Pain relief (i.e. metacam) is a must for a broken limb.

My degu broke his front leg in 2012. It took three months for it to heal and he was prescribed metacam for quite a few weeks.

One of my gerbils also broke a leg a few months ago. His only took a couple of weeks to heal but he too was given metacam.

Not only does metacam relief pain, it also helps to reduce swelling which is a must to help broken and fractured bones to heal.

I think that the vet you are currently using would have to agree to pass Evies notes on to the new vet but I don't see why they wouldn't.

You don't want to be paying for two lots of x rays if you can help it.
 
pagan queen said:
My sons pig fell and broke her back leg today. We took her to the vet and she said to confine her to a small cage for 3 weeks and take her back so she could check if it's healing. She wouldn't give her pain relief as she said long term it can damage their insides and she didn't strap the leg either. I took her home and strapped it myself just to immobilise it. Evie seems to be fine, she is eating and drinking and I have her in a small bird cage with food and water near her so she doesn't have to move. Is there anything else I can do for her?
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Get better soon EVIE! :luv:
 
pagan queen said:
Thank you. I will give them a ring and see if they will provide some pain relief. Can they contact my vet and get the xrays from them?
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Yes, you are always entitled to a second opinion. The new vet should be able to contact the old one for the notes and x-rays from previous visits.

Pain relief is really important. Piggies are good at covering up pain and illness so just because they look happy doesn't mean pain isn't there. Metacam is an excellent pain killer and anti-inflammatory which would be useful for Evie. It only has long term nasty effects on kidneys etc and is safe for short term use unless your girl has other medical issues which may prevent it from being used. I have had older piggies on long term metacam for arthritis with very little problem although it may eventually have shortened their life span slightly, it gave them excellent quality of life in the mean time.
 
Poor thing, can't believe she hasn't been given pain relief. One of my piggies had metacam for several weeks when required and seemed no worse for it. Good luck finding a cavy savvy vet for second opinion.
 
One of my piggies, Mother broke her back leg when she was about 6 months old not long after she had her only litter of babies. I kept her in a cat carrying case for a few days but after a week put her back in her cage with her daughter. She was prescribed 0.2 ml of Dog Metacam twice a day for a fortnight for pain relief. She recovered very quickly & is now nearly 3 years old with no sign that she ever broke a leg. I can't even remember if it was the left or right leg. She may have problems with arthritis when she gets old but it is amazing how they recover without any strapping, splint or plaster. I would definitely get back to your vets or another vet to get a fortnight's course of Metacam but if you get Cat Metacam the dosage is completely different.

If you can't get any Metacam then I've heard that Baby Calpol can be used but hopefully someone on here may be able to advise dosage if you do try this.

ADDITION: I've just done a search on here & found dosage for infant or children's Calpol is 0.15ml to 0.2ml twice a day. I suppose it depends on the piggy's weight.
 
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I've contacted the Trinity vet centre and they are willing to have a look at the xrays and will request them from my vet. They are contacting me tomorrow to let me know what they think and if they will provide pain relief.
 
I just saw your post about this on the shelled warriors forum - I echo the above - get a second opinion! there's several pain relief medications that are safe to use in guinea pigs - metacam is fine for short term use (it has the added bonus of being an anti inflammatory too), and I've also had pigs prescribed tramadol and buprenorphine (opioid pain reliefs).

Increasing vitamin C levels will aid her recovery too - at times of stress or illness, they require 100mg/kg per day. You can give high vit C veg, or supplements - I have a pig that has permanent vitamin C supplements due to poor health; I give her Oxbow Daily C tablets - they're pineapple flavour and she eats them out of my hand :)

If she's up and mobile, great. If she's not, you might want to look at maybe getting a small piece of vet bed if she's sitting around in one place, just so that she's not sitting in her own urine and putting herself at risk of urine scalds on her feet.

Hopefully though, she'll make a good recovery - with the correct veterinary care, it's amazing what they can recover from!
 
Fingers crossed for you I have been given metacam by three different vets practices so it is widely used. I never had any issues with it. I have been given it for post op pain relief and also due to a very bad case of lice (that a pig had when I got her) she was in pain and couldnt bare to be touched
 
Hi Amanda, who are you on SW? I have been giving her extra veg, carrot, Pepper, cabbage and I found some dandelion leaves today, and she has a cuttlebone to give her extra calcium. Discovered piggies eat it when one of my parrots threw his on the floor and the girls found it and started munching away. I will get her some vit C tablets.
I have checked under her today. The vet mentioned that I would need to keep her extra clean as she has less room to move about. She is moving to wee so isn't sitting in it. I took the top off the cage to gently lift her out and check if she was sitting in wee and my little dog, who loves the pigs and is very concerned about Evie, took her piece of cabbage (he loves cabbage) I gave her another piece and she walked over to it peed and went back to the corner. I removed the cabbage leaf with the urine, into the bin.
 
Hi, please don't feed her Cuttlebone, guinea pigs are naturally vegan and can't process anything from an animal.
 
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