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Cameo - problem pig!

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Amanda1801

Amanda1801

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Cameo was spayed 16 days ago...

After a slow anaesthetic recovery, urine infection, gut stasis and 12 days in the vets, she came home and was doing well!

Two days ago, I noticed she wasn't eating properly - would only eat leafy veg, not eating hay or pellets, so off we went to the vet. Temperature normal, spay wound great, healing nicely, no discharge. Dental exam showed a tiny spike on her molar rolleyes A quick conscious dental procedure later, and she was back eating normally, normal behaviour, all good!

This morning I noticed she wasn't herself behaviour wise :{

Took her to work with me, weighed her, a loss of 30g. Took her temperature, which was normal, but she then started passing tiny little poos - so, back on the syringe feeding!

When I got home, I popped her on the bed (away from Greedy Jeffy Pig!) and she had a good old munch on some apple, celery, parsley, cucumber, pepper, and even nibbled at some pellets and hay.

9pm she started showing signs of pain when straining again (wees and poos!) so.... off we went to the vets again for some pain relief. In my mind I was querying whether her urine infection has returned, or whether there may be some adhesions formed as a result of her spay. The vet gave her some vetergesic, and I decided to get another urine sample to be tested. I had a quick look at her spay wound, looked slightly odd, gave it a poke and guess what.... Abscess! :{

So.... MORE antibiotics, more pain relief, more syringe feeding, more probiotics and more vet trips!

Arghhhh!
 
Oh I'm sooo sorry to hear that cameo STILL hasnt recovered! :( Its awfull knowing shes poorly. :/

Just goes to show, even the best care can still have complications!

Sending cameo healing vibes hope shes back home with you and jeffy pig soon xx
 
furryfriends said:
Would your vet prescribe Zithromax? It really is the very best antibiotic for dealing with abscesses.

Poor Cameo, she's having one thing after another, bless her. xx
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Probably, my exotics vet is fairly old school but he's also open to new ideas! I did ask the vet about it tonight, she was reluctant as she's never used it in guineas before, but then it turned out there was none in stock anyway. She's got septrin at the moment, because baytril had such a huge reaction on her digestive system last time. Not the best antibiotic for the job, but at least she's got some cover until I can see the exotics vet.

I'm working tomorrow, so I'll be able to speak to one of the exotics vets (either the old one or the young one!) so I'll ask about the zithromax. They're aware that I'm not some crazy person like the normal owners who start suggesting drugs, so it shouldn't be a problem!

I just dunno how I missed it :{

Luckily she's been well in herself and eating reasonably well, so we are going in the right direction!
 
furryfriends said:
If your vet wants further info get him to talk to mine. Simon is always happy to discuss things with other vets xx

Simon Maddock 01604 478888
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Thanks for that! I doubt it'll be a problem - they're fairly happy to actually let me pretty much treat my own animals under their supervision. They know I have a huge interest in exotics and exotic medicine, and actually this whole thing with Big Dave and now Cameo is pushing me towards my 2nd career choice of exotics vet... :))

It'd work well actually - my best mate is specialising in exotics, but perfers reptiles to small furries - we could go into business together :))
 
Aww, poor Cameo. She really is having a run of bad luck health wise. :(
Sending healing vibes :laluot_29:
 
Oh dear - so sorry to hear Cameo is not out of the woods yet.

In view of the time lines since her op..and recent probs with Gi...there is a real possiblity that she is developing the post-op complication of adhesions. If your vet can confirm/reject this suggestion (very difficult without exploratory surgery or extremely exprienced utrasound) ) nonetheless, that would be great.


First off -try zantac at 0.2mg/kg twice daily (plus manual feeding if she needs it) to get her gut moving better and it will enable you to ascertain the extent of how (if any) adhesions as a result of the op are interfering with her health./digestive system

If the zantac improves things then i would suggest from personal experience that further surgery to release the adhesions is not the best option as it could in itself create more adhesions......so stick with the zantac for now but be aware she may be on/off prokinetics for the rest of her life.

Sorry to hear this - but not unsurprised in view of all her past complications.

HTH
xx
 
Pebble said:
Oh dear - so sorry to hear Cameo is not out of the woods yet.

In view of the time lines since her op..and recent probs with Gi...there is a real possiblity that she is developing the post-op complication of adhesions. If your vet can confirm/reject this suggestion (very difficult without exploratory surgery or extremely exprienced utrasound) ) nonetheless, that would be great.


First off -try zantac at 0.2mg/kg twice daily (plus manual feeding if she needs it) to get her gut moving better and it will enable you to ascertain the extent of how (if any) adhesions as a result of the op are interfering with her health./digestive system

If the zantac improves things then i would suggest from personal experience that further surgery to release the adhesions is not the best option as it could in itself create more adhesions......so stick with the zantac for now but be aware she may be on/off prokinetics for the rest of her life.

Sorry to hear this - but not unsurprised in view of all her past complications.

HTH
xx
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I decided not to give her zantac today as her gut motility seems fine, her faeces were small as she's stopped eating hay again mallethead She is eating her favourite veg well, just not much else. She's had lots of syringe feeds today and it's going through well, bigger poos than this morning, but still smaller than normal. I do have some zantac and metaclopromide should we have problems though.

I did initially think adhesions, but her abscess could well cause pain when straining, so hopefully if that clears up, we should see an improvement in eating and poos :...
 
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Oh poor little Cameo. I am so sorry to hear she is still not herself. :(
 
Amanda1801 said:
I decided not to give her zantac today as her gut motility seems fine, her faeces were small as she's stopped eating hay again mallethead She is eating her favourite veg well, just not much else. She's had lots of syringe feeds today and it's going through well, bigger poos than this morning, but still smaller than normal. I do have some zantac and metaclopromide should we have problems though.

I did initially think adhesions, but her abscess could well cause pain when straining, so hopefully if that clears up, we should see an improvement in eating and poos :...
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Fair enough...you know your piggie best and also have attested in previous threads to the wonderful experienced support with your current ccavy savvy vets. You are very lucky

I therefore don;t think there is anything further I can add so will bow out now
xxxxx
 
Oh no that poor little girl :( she has certainly been thru too much :(

GET WELL LITTLE CAMEO, HEALING WHEEEEEEEEEEKS XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
 
Poor little Cameo - and you! These post-spay piggies of ours are really putting us through it!
Really hope Cameo gets over her abcess very soon. x
 
Poor Cameo, hope she gets well soon. Sending healing vibes x
 
furryfriends said:
How's Cameo? Are you going to give the Zithromax a go? x
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She's doing well! Holding off on the zithromax for the moment, as she's so bright on the septrin and the pharmacokinetics of zithromax are similar to baytril, which knocked her for six. Also as we've started the septrin already, swapping antibiotic now means increased risks of nasty abic resistant strains and such. If the septrin doesn't get rid of the infection, then they're going to get hold of some zithromax for her.

She's currently having a right feast of carrot, cucumber, lettuce, cabbage, critical care, barley water and baby food! I was about to put her away and think about bed, but shes just started eating some hay (yay for Oxbow botanical hay!), so I daren't interrupt her!

She's having a shot of vetergesic every 12 hours or so, and you can tell it's having an effect as she eats loads once it kicks in! So... off we go to the vets at 7am tomorrow for some more!

All in all, I'm really pleased with how she's doing, her pain seems to be controlled, she's eating, she's bright, shes got good gut motility going on - hopefully this is the last hurdle!
 
I've only just found this thread. So sorry to hear Cameo has had more problems but really hope you're over it now. Sending lots of love her way.

Can you tell me what the abscess looks like - so I can keep an eye out! Peggy's wound has almost healed but has 2 knobbly bits at each end which were 'glued'.

All the best - you're doing an amazing job x
 
Shalom said:
I'm just wondering why the vet didn't see the abcess?
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There was nothing to see. Even her temperature was normal. I only found it cos I thought her spay wound looked slightly different than it had done previously. It's formed internally to her wound
 
Amanda1801 said:
There was nothing to see. Even her temperature was normal. I only found it cos I thought her spay wound looked slightly different than it had done previously. It's formed internally to her wound
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Well done for spotting it! Hope she's on the road to recovery now x
 
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