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Freddie Possible Dislocation

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Critter

Critter

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This morning Freddie had a limp, which he had not got last night. He is a robust, muscular solid and active boar, and his cage doesn't have any hazards that he can fall off. His diet is a mix of several brands of very good quality pellets, fresh hay and daily mixed veggies. If he has a weakness it has not become apparent before. The only unusual thing about Freddie is that he is a very deep sleeper and often doesn't respond to the treat-calls when asleep, but when awake he is a vigorous and alert piggy.
I am not sure of his age, I think it's 2 1/2 years, so he is still in his prime years.

At 10:00 he was at the vets and is still there awaiting x-ray. Upon examination the vet mentioned that it looked and felt like a dislocation but was not behaving like one. Hopefully the x-ray will shed more light onto what's going on. There was no apparent pain at all from examining his foot (though he has confirmed that Freddie still has feeling in his foot and toes), but examining the hip joint made him cry out loudly.

He still has the urge to be active. Inbetween the time of seeing his limp to taking him for his appointment he went up the ramp and to the hay loft, and interacted with his wife-pig Oreo as usual, and moved around quite a lot, albeit with his limp. He also enjoyed his morning treat.
The ramp is a tunnel ramp.

In short, all seems normal but for the leg injury.

I'll hopefully find out more around 5:00 ish and will give an update.

IF this is a hip dislocation, how easy is it to fix in guinea pigs please?
 
Fingers very firmly crossed for Freddie!

Because of their small bones dislocations are unfortunately not easy to deal with. :(
 
I think I knew of a pig once whose shoulder used to dislocate and the vet used to put it back in place but it was a few years ago and for that particular pig it was an ongoing occurrence due to an accident when he was younger. I would think anti-inflammatories and maybe water therapy may be used too.
 
Damn.
Thanks @Wiebke, and thank you for crossing your fingers too. Let's hope it's not a dislocation.

@helen thank you too. Yes water therapy may be good during the recovery if the vet can get the leg back into joint, but I bet Freddie would absolutely hate it and may panic even with me holding him. But it may be an option......

For now I will keep my fingers crossed that it's something else, perhaps a pulled muscle. I live in hope!
 
Have just received a call from the vet. The vet would like us to go down to discuss things. Apart from the fact that he's had his x-ray I as yet know nothing else, but I am left wondering if it is complicated. Or perhaps there are treatment options which are better discussed there than over the phone. Anyhow we will soon find out, and will let you all know. x
 
Critter said:
Have just received a call from the vet. The vet would like us to go down to discuss things. Apart from the fact that he's had his x-ray I as yet know nothing else, but I am left wondering if it is complicated. Or perhaps there are treatment options which are better discussed there than over the phone. Anyhow we will soon find out, and will let you all know. x
Click to expand...

BIG HUGS

Thinking of you and Freddie!
 
We're back, including Freddie :)
Things are still a bit of a mystery but the good news is there's nothing broken or dislocated. The knee joint is however rather swollen and he feels that both knees are a little unusual in that the ends are showing more white than other piggy knee joins, and will be showing the x-rays to another, for another opinion. He says the knees look a bit gritty round there.
I am to go back, not this Thurs but next after giving his meds chance to work, unless his colleague flags something up which would warrant us going down sooner.

So for now he's on Baytril and Metacam. I just hope this is not going to be a long term problem, as I will have some tough decisions to make about his pain levels and quality of life long-term. With a bit of luck though the swelling will go.

Freddie is back with Oreo and has eagerly tucked into some veggies.

x
 
Glad that you have had some positive news about Freddie. I have everything crossed for you x
 
Glad it wasn't broken or dislocated. Hope he responds well to the pain relief and you get some answers soon. I wonder if it could be arthritis?
 
Arthritis would be my thought too, although I'm sure the vet would have picked up on that straight away.

Hope hes on the mend soon xx
 
Hmm I thought about arthritis too. Thing is though the night before he was running around and popcorning and showing off to Oreo with all the agility that you would expect of a piggy in his prime. Then in the morning he wouldn't put his foot down. He is not taking any weight on it what-so ever, he just holds it up stiffly and doesn't move it at all. Being as he has gone from being completely agile to not using it at all I wonder if it's an injury causing the swelling, like a twist or a sprain.
We'll see what they come back with after discussing his x-rays, but if he is showing signs of early-onset arthritis in his knees I don't think that's what is causing him to suddenly limp the way he is, to that extreme.

Thank you all once again for your best wishes with him. One good thing, he's taking the Metacam without me having to pick him up and force it down him :)
 
Glad that it is not something really nasty!

My first thought was arthritis, too, which you can manage for the longer term.
Several of our members have had severely arthritic guinea pigs that could help you with their experience if the diagnosis comes back as that.

But hopefully, is just a nasty landing on his knees?
 
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