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Bumblefoot? Help please!

Charlottibiscot

Charlottibiscot

Junior Guinea Pig
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Hi all, Ermintrude has recovered really well from her spay 2 weeks ago. You can hardly even see the incision now. I have been really avoiding picking her up and turning her over to avoid stress/damaging the healing process, and just maintaining her daily weigh-ins - she's gained almost 50g in 2 weeks!

Unfortunately I have been silly and forgotten to keep up with checking her feet 😟 She has a health checkup appt on Monday so I am taking her in then.

I've attached a picture... sigh.

She's had red feet forever and we've always monitored it, she's on fleece and I never let them sit on wet material, wash it regularly... but this has happened in the last 2 weeks.

I wonder if it has progressed because she spent the first week of recovery not moving around as much, and me being silly we've not caught it until now. Lesson learned.

It's not bleeding currently but the scab is slowly peeling so it will bleed again soon and has recently bled and clotted, from the look of the photo.

The best I can do now is treat it. But I've heard that it's difficult and this looks severe.

Before I see the vet, what steps can I take right now? Epsom salts? Not sure. Please advise. Thank you :(

P.S her temperament/personality is, out of the hundreds of guinea pigs I've ever handled, one of the least cooperative, for extra context.
 

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Aw poor girl. Do you have some vet bed she could sit on! Might add a bit of cushioning and spread her weight a bit?
I’ve had success with leucillin and manuka honey cream too, might be worth a go until you can see the vet 👍
 
Wheekallweek said:
Aw poor girl. Do you have some vet bed she could sit on! Might add a bit of cushioning and spread her weight a bit?
I’ve had success with leucillin and manuka honey cream too, might be worth a go until you can see the vet 👍
Click to expand...
Thank you, I'll look those both up! Upon further inspection, all 4 feet are affected 😪

I have done a few things today:
- completely disinfected and cleaned out her run
- purchased bandages in case we need them, but not used them yet
- given her a warm epsom salt soak for 15 minutes
- sprayed some ear piercing spray on her feet (this one contains guinea pig safe ingredients and specifically kills staph bacteria by breaking down the bacteria cell walls)
- tried to find iodine solution but have ended up with some cetramide ointment instead - as an emergency step, I have applied a small amount and waited for it to soak in and dry but won't apply any more, will soak it off shortly and will find a better alternative
- placed her back in the clean run. Will change everything out once a day. My main concern is the hay tray.

Tomorrow she will likely be put on baytril or similar. My poor little girl.
 
Poor baby - I’ve had a budgie with it in the past and we’ve had plenty of pigs in through the rescue with it. Had a house bunny with sore hocks too - she had special bunny boots to wear with padding in which helped massively - don’t think this would work for tiny piggy feet though! Fingers crossed the vets can get her sorted x
 
Sorry to hear your poor lady has bumblefoot, my last old lady pig got it too in one paw in her last months.

Do you have any pet safe antiseptic wipes you could clean her paws with? I was recommended CLX wipes, active ingredient Chlorhexidine (same stuff as in mouthwash🤢) you can buy them online or your vet may sell them.

I also used F10 barrier cream at first, and Flamazine cream was also prescribed for her later. She had baytril for the infection and pain relief (which she was already on for arthritis). Bepanthen was suggested by another forum member as it's antiseptic and healing but I didn't use that as I had all the other things.

I had a routine of medicines twice a day and paw cleans followed by the wipes and Flamazine once or twice a day (can't remember now). Poor Winifred was not happy with me, she had never liked being handled and had to endure it twice daily...

Hope your vet can help you get on top of it for your Ermintrude. Sending healing vibes 💓
 
This is the thread mentioned above: Billie's paw
In Billie's case it was an ongoing battle for many months.
I used bandages for quite some time. They did help but I don't think you can bandage all four feet. There is also always the danger of reduced circulation in the paw which can have dramatic side effects.

Billie was on long-term Baytril and pain medication. I used Bepanthen plus and Flammazine but also other ointments. Whenever I felt that the paw was getting worse despite of the treatment, I switched to a different ointment.

I hope that your girl's paws will heal better than Billie's.
 
Thank you all. I read through Billie's story - I am so sorry for your loss :(

I've trimmed her curly nails today as short as I can get them.

I don't know if I'm cut out for a long fight and I am facing the sad reality that if this isn't significantly better within a month or so, I will have to make the decision to put her to sleep instead of seeing her suffer like this. The toll on my own mental health is becoming unmanageable. I am sure you all will understand the constant fatigue and stress and not being able to think about anything other than doing everything we can for our sweet furry friends.

I have found Tamodine but there are no other povidine iodine solutions available in the UK so it will have to do. I can't use it as a soak as it is too expensive but will use it after a soak instead.

Here's the plan, feel free to suggest changes:
- Epsom bath soak 10 minutes twice daily
- Clean off epsom salt residue, then Tamodine wipe on feet twice daily after soak
- hypochloric acid twice daily to prevent bacteria recolonisation

or do I do a chlorhexidine soak?

- I will get an antibiotic from the vet and seek further advice on the treatment plan, although the vet won't be a specialist. I'm assuming it will likely be baytril. This will be the most important step. Currently there is no surface skin breakage apart from scabs, which is good but also means the infection needs to be fought primarily from the blood stream.

What would you say my chances are of us getting through this? I've seen so many horror stories now and am feeling so, so down and defeated.

She is actually moving around as normal and fairly active, which is a bonus. She was only sitting around during that first week of recovery from her spay.
 
I just wanted to offer support but I don’t have any experience of this
It sounds a good plan
I really hope it will help her ❤️
 
Thank you :)

Our washing machine just suffered a catastrophic failure and flooded the kitchen 😂 Great timing when I need to be washing things! It's okay, we have a laundrette close by. But wow, the universe must not like our household!

I'll look into manuka and make sure to get her on some pain relief. Luckily I had some metacam left over from her op so have had her on a safe medium dose in the interim too.

I'll update as to whether things are getting better / worse / etc in due course.

Thanks all for your help :)
 
It's really helpful reading through all of these other threads - thanks all.

We had the most horrendous vet visit today with a vet who was decidedly not a guinea pig specialist. He didn't even check her front paws 🙄

I fought for a systemic antibiotic but he kept telling me that a topical antiseptic cream would suffice! But couldn't of course tell me which cream would be suitable.

I asked him how an antiseptic that can't penetrate into deep skin is going to treat a deep skin infection at which point he sighed and let me have a 7 day course of baytril "if I'm prepared to accept the risks".

Needless to say I expect we'll be going back in 5 days time to ask for a top-up of meds.

There's spelling mistakes all over the prescription labels. Sigh.
- 0.15ml baytril 2.5%, twice daily
- 0.2ml cat metacam once daily starting on Wednesday and dropping to 0.1ml after one day (what?!)

Anyways.

UMF15+ manuka honey, 3 packs of protexin fibreplex all in the post arriving either tonight or tomorrow to be given 2h after each baytril dose. Even more absorbent bedding arriving Thursday and of course some pea flakes to say "sorry" for all the stress she's been through recently. Critical care at hand if needed. Going to stick with epsom salt soaks once daily as she hates them despite me getting the water temps perfect etc.

Piggy attempting to use any other surface than the changeable pee pads 😂 (she's so cute though! Also spot her sister who she's temporarily fallen out with hanging out on the other side of the bars with her)

Feet looking almost the same today, no change to scabs, back feet slightly less swollen but front feet looking slightly more swollen.

🤞🤞🤞
 

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Oh gosh I’m sorry you had that sort of Vet 😢
I and many forum members on have had that experience
That’s why this forum is so amazing …🥰
Having read all the previous posts will give you all the info you need
 
Thank you all :)

My gut instinct is that baytril is going to do a number on this little girl. She isn't completely off her food / water after 3 doses every 12h, especially her hay, but she is noticeably quieter today and is turning her nose up to pea flakes 😬. She's had her fibreplex too.

It's got me thinking about bactrim, but I'm not sure my vets have it in stock, so I may need to get it from an online pharmacy, sooner rather than later.
 
Hi, crazy, scary update -
She is now on cotrimoxazole (yay).

Monitoring her all day today she was wiping her bum along the floor a little strangely.

She has a bladder stone. It won't come out.

One emergency out of hours visit, an ultrasound, and a catheter containing lubrication later... she's FULL of calcium oxalate. Full to the brim.

Like a snowglobe, said the vet.

The vet made sure she could pee around her current one and we are hoping the buprenorphine will relax her enough to pass it, and at least help with the severe pain.

I don't know what happens next. I've never had to deal with so much calcium oxalate. And I'm running out of money now.

I've switched her water to calcium free. I may still need to give critical care which I guess contains calcium.

Everything is hanging in the balance. I just don't want her to suffer.
 
I’m sad to read your news
You know her best and will do the best for your girl
I hope the medication brings some help for her ❤️
 
Thank you. Appointment soon and I will find out how much everything will cost and whether she will immediately go in for surgery, or whether it'll be time to say goodbye. I can feel all the shards in her tract if I run my hand along her abdomen. Poor girl.
 
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