Charlotte Marie 4 Week Old With Fractured Pelvis

[EeyoreCharlotte]

Hi everyone. We have a 4 week old skinny guinea diagnosised via X-ray, with a severe fractured pelvis that is giving her elimination problems.
She has gained weight steadily, up to 127 grams.
Charlotte Marie was taken to an emergency vet 25 Jan and thought to have bloat. She was put on antibiotics which she took for 10 days and was d/c yesterday per new vet.
We took her in thinking she just had bloat pain.
Little did we know she has a pretty severe pelvic fracture.
Per report this is what we were told,
Her right pelvis fractured at the pelvic symphysis with medial rotation of the ischium, and lateral rotation of the ilium. Fragmented piece present. Lateral view shows rotation of pelvis as well.
Has anyone had experience and can anyone tell me what we might expect?
She is on 0.02 of metacam a day and confined to a smaller area with her mom. We will recheck in two weeks.
I guess I’m asking what quality of life she might have and how much pain do you let them live with.
Our daughter fosters guinea along with having four of her own. Charlotte and her mom, Skylar, came from a breeding situation. I am so in love with this little girl but hate the fact that she is in pain. Thank you for any insight you can offer.

 

[VickiA]

Hello and welcome. I’m afraid I can’t help but have moved your post to our health and illness section so that one of our advisers can take a look

 

[Wiebke]

Hi and welcome

I am very sorry about your dilemma and your poorly girl. It can't be easy to make a judgement about her quality of life!

Please follow these tips for guinea pigs with limited mobility:
- ideally you keep them on softer vetbed bedding
- change daily or even twice daily in the areas they are sitting and toiletting most.
- make sure that hay and water are easily accessible from their sleeping space without any climbing
- if bending over to clean their genitalia is difficult, please give a gentle regular bum wash wish hand warm water. Helen can advise you on suitable skin care.

@furryfriends (TEAS) @helen105281 @Jaycey @Freela @Lady Kelly

 

[Tiamolly123]

Pain wise the vet should keep that under control. Does she think it will heal in time? All you can do is have a good chat with he vet & see what she says. I do know of some piggies that have a kind of wheel chair for the back end.
I'm not qualified to help you really, maybe some tips l have given by be helpful.

 

[EeyoreCharlotte]

Hi and welcome

I am very sorry about your dilemma and your poorly girl. It can't be easy to make a judgement about her quality of life!

Please follow these tips for guinea pigs with limited mobility:
- ideally you keep them on softer vetbed bedding
- change daily or even twice daily in the areas they are sitting and toiletting most.
- make sure that hay and water are easily accessible from their sleeping space without any climbing
- if bending over to clean their genitalia is difficult, please give a gentle regular bum wash wish hand warm water. Helen can advise you on suitable skin care.

@furryfriends (TEAS) @helen105281 @Jaycey @Freela @Lady Kelly

Thank you for the tips. They have fleece blanket in place of pine chips or care fresh. Change it twice daily. Yup the bum washing is almost a regular occurrence. She is screaming today since being on 24 hours of metacam so it seems to be controlling pain for now. She can walk. It’s the defecating that is the most painful. Thank you for the suggestions.

 

[EeyoreCharlotte]

Hello and welcome. I’m afraid I can’t help but have moved your post to our health and illness section so that one of our advisers can take a look

Thank you very much.

 

[Betsy]

Poor piggy not got any suggestions just wanted to send you hugs and your gorgeous baby skinny healing vibes!

 

[EeyoreCharlotte]

Poor piggy not got any suggestions just wanted to send you hugs and your gorgeous baby skinny healing vibes!

Thank Betsy. She can use all the prayers she can get

 

[Lady Kelly]

Oh I'm so sorry to welcome you in such sad circumstances. Many times I have seen the question of when is the right time to help end their suffering and I know I've asked it myself as well. In all honesty no one can say for certain. The common answer is a day early is better than a day too late but often we don't know when that day is so it doesn't make it easy. I think that if Charlotte is living a normal life and seemingly enjoying life with medication and she is able to move around and eat etc then I would be inclined to carry on for now and keep a close eye on her. Other than that I don't think there's much I can add, I haven't dealt with broken bones before

 

[Hoppity.K]

Sending you huge hugs . Sorry I’m not experienced with this at all but I really hope Charlotte can heal and live a normal piggy life. Fingers & paws crossed for you x

 

[helen105281]

Hi and welcome

I am very sorry about your dilemma and your poorly girl. It can't be easy to make a judgement about her quality of life!

Please follow these tips for guinea pigs with limited mobility:
- ideally you keep them on softer vetbed bedding
- change daily or even twice daily in the areas they are sitting and toiletting most.
- make sure that hay and water are easily accessible from their sleeping space without any climbing
- if bending over to clean their genitalia is difficult, please give a gentle regular bum wash wish hand warm water. Helen can advise you on suitable skin care.

@furryfriends (TEAS) @helen105281 @Jaycey @Freela @Lady Kelly

Poor angel. For general skin care I always recommend Humilac spray, are you in the UK? I get mine from VetUK. However, that is more to keep the skin from getting dry. When I have needed to bum bath my skinnies I have either used just warm water or baby shampoo but I always patch test any shampoo for 48 hours behind the ear first. Baby wipes are also useful, or water wipes if you can get those.

Is the vet able to increase her pain relief at all? I know she is already on a high dose for a young pig.

 

[EeyoreCharlotte]

Thank you for the dry skin recommendation. We are in North Carolina. The loading dose for my bumpkin was 0.04. What a difference it made for her. Vet then said to drop the dose to 0.02 q 12 hours. Only lasted for about 11hours and she was in so much pain last night. While trying to defecate last night she was straining so hard she had tiny spots of blood from her bum. Scared me but we knew it was from straining so we gave her another dose of 0.02 metacam. It lasted her till 0710 this morning. We did call the vet office to let them know what was going on and that we collectively decided to Increase her meds.
As my daughter has used metacam for her guinea for 5 years without issues, I totally trust her knowledge of this medication.
I don’t what our little bumpkins prognosis for a quality of life will be but as long as she stays strong and is willing to fight so are we.

 

[Merab]

Hello and welcome.
I can’t add any advice but wanted to assure you of my support

 

[Flutterby]

Poor little lady! Sending a huge amount of healing vibes and hugs your way!

 

[helen105281]

Am glad the vet agreed to put the pain relief back up bless her. Is it dog metacam?

Not sure if you can get Humilac in the US.

 

[EeyoreCharlotte]

Spoke with our vet this morning. She said 0.02 twice a day was to much so she is adding buprenix. It won’t be compounded till tomorrow so I will give second dose of 0.02 metacam tonight. Hoping this helps with her straining pain.

 

[EeyoreCharlotte]

Spoke with our vet this morning. She said 0.02 twice a day was to much so she is adding buprenix. It won’t be compounded till tomorrow so I will give second dose of 0.02 metacam tonight. Hoping this helps with her straining pain.

So the vet has ordered a compound of buprenex. Not sure of the strength. But said 0.1 ml q 12 hours. Will pick it up tomorrow morning. This in conjunction with metacam Will hopefully curb her pain and straining and aide in healing.

 

[helen105281]

I hope it helps. I have not heard of Buprenex but it looks like it is a kind of morphine like a pig has post op.

 

[EeyoreCharlotte]

Our little bunkin has gained a whooping 40grams in a week.go Charlotte Marie!

 

[DM030819]

@helen105281 Buprenex is another name for Buprenorphine (and I've seen it as Buprecare on my bills before). Vets commonly use it as pain relief straight after surgery. It's really strong so I believe that's why pigs can seem to get worse a few days after surgery before getting better, as it takes a few days to get out of their system.

It can make them really zombiefied though too, making them not want to eat so I always ask for it not to be used unless absolutely necessary.

It can be a fantastic pain relief though when the regular pain relief isn't enough.

 

[helen105281]

Does she seem more comfortable @EeyoreCharlotte ?

 

[EeyoreCharlotte]

@helen105281 Buprenex is another name for Buprenorphine (and I've seen it as Buprecare on my bills before). Vets commonly use it as pain relief straight after surgery. It's really strong so I believe that's why pigs can seem to get worse a few days after surgery before getting better, as it takes a few days to get out of their system.

It can make them really zombiefied though too, making them not want to eat so I always ask for it not to be used unless absolutely necessary.

It can be a fantastic pain relief though when the regular pain relief isn't enough.

Thankfully, Charlotte is doing amazing with once a day metacam and twice a day buprenex. Definitely no zombism eating like a champ, and moving much easier. She will be seen for follow up on Tuesday and hoping we see some calcification happening.

 

[EeyoreCharlotte]

Does she seem more comfortable @EeyoreCharlotte ?

ABSOLUTELY. What a difference the buprenex has made.

 

[EeyoreCharlotte]

FANTASTIC vet visit today . Our vet was so shocked at our little Charlotte Marie’s progress. She has gained 76 grams in two weeks! She weighs 214.7grams now. She has doubled in sized!! We will start weaning her off the metacam over the next few weeks. Great news is she can stay on buprenex over an extended period of time. Her tummy was soft and supple, no pain on palpating, hip alignment is still off but, this is her normal. X-rays in two weeks to see how much healing is happening. I couldn’t be happier with today’s visit.

 

[Hoppity.K]

Wow that’s great news. Well done Charlotte Marie.. onwards & upwards x

 

[helen105281]

FANTASTIC vet visit today . Our vet was so shocked at our little Charlotte Marie’s progress. She has gained 76 grams in two weeks! She weighs 214.7grams now. She has doubled in sized! We will start weaning her off the metacam over the next few weeks. Great news is she can stay on buprenex over an extended period of time. Her tummy was soft and supple, no pain on palpating, hip alignment is still off but, this is her normal. X-rays in two weeks to see how much healing is happening. I couldn’t be happier with today’s visit.

Fantastic news.

 

[Merab]

Great news.

 

[EeyoreCharlotte]

Ugh. I am an extremely new skinny guinea mom. Since our vet visit yesterday, Skylar Jean, Charlotte Marie’s mom, has bitten her twice on the neck and back!! I am so nervous about her really hurting Charlotte Marie. I have them in separate pens right now in separate rooms. First picture is from last night. Second I just took 15 mins ago. Now I know why CM was screaming last night.
Any suggestions on why this is happening?
Could she sense thatCM has an injury?
They just are going to get along?
CM hasn’t tried to nurse for a week so I don’t think that is it.
I’m so sad about this.
Is CM to young to be separated from mom and how will they do alone?
Sorry for so many questions.
Thank you in advance for any help and suggestions for a remedy to this.

 

[EeyoreCharlotte]

Ugh. I am an extremely new skinny guinea mom. Since our vet visit yesterday, Skylar Jean, Charlotte Marie’s mom, has bitten her twice on the neck and back! I am so nervous about her really hurting Charlotte Marie. I have them in separate pens right now in separate rooms. First picture is from last night. Second I just took 15 mins ago. Now I know why CM was screaming last night.
Any suggestions on why this is happening?
Could she sense thatCM has an injury?
They just are going to get along?
CM hasn’t tried to nurse for a week so I don’t think that is it.
I’m so sad about this.
Is CM to young to be separated from mom and how will they do alone?
Sorry for so many questions.
Thank you in advance for any help and suggestions for a remedy to this.

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So I have talked to someone that is in a rescue. She says it is time to separate the girls. It sounds like food aggression. Skylar Jean, mom, has lost a bit of weight so I think separating them is best for now.

 

[helen105281]

Skinnies can be complete divas. Do you have any hairy pigs that you could bond each of them with? My 2 skinnies live with a hairy each and they get on well.