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Hysterectomy - any advice?

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gill

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I have a 5 year old girl who has just had a complete hysterectomy after discovering two golf ball sized ovarian cysts. She has always been the master of me and so I am finding it very hard to administer her antibiotics and pain killers (thankfully only once a day) without causing her quite a lot of stress and most likely pain! Has anyone any tips on how to keep a pigs head still whilst at the same time finding their mouths etc etc?

I am also worried about general care - she looks quite well although she has aged a lot (she now has the watery eyes of old age). I am keeping her in her cage partitioned off from her companion, Doogle, (neutered male) on a folded towel covered with disposable nappy changing mats. She is having tomatoes, cucumber, grass from the garden, hay, ready grass, apple, carrots mixed leaves and normal Excel pellets. She is eating a litle but not noticeable drinking. Should I give her a syringe of water?

Basically any advice anyone has got would most gratefully received - she is such a tough cookie both Doogle and I would be devastated if she were not to pull through just because we did not do something.
 
Personally, I wouldn't worry about the water if she is eating all the veggies you give her, because cucumber/tomato/apple etc. are quite watery. My two don't drink much at all, but I have been assured tha they will get plenty of water from their veggies (I give them a whole variety of veggies).


Hopefully someone more experienced can give you some more advice.
And if I'm wrong about the water thing, please correct me.
I hope she gets better soon though.
 
Aww fingers crossed for a complete and quick recovery from the op. Afraid I have no advice to offer as my pigs are very young but I'm sure someone more experienced will be along soon to help x

Healing vibes :laluot_29:
 
Thank you both for your advice and good healing vibes - can't wait for this time next week whe hopefully she will be well on the way to recovery!
 
gill said:
I have a 5 year old girl who has just had a complete hysterectomy after discovering two golf ball sized ovarian cysts. She has always been the master of me and so I am finding it very hard to administer her antibiotics and pain killers (thankfully only once a day) without causing her quite a lot of stress and most likely pain! Has anyone any tips on how to keep a pigs head still whilst at the same time finding their mouths etc etc?

I am also worried about general care - she looks quite well although she has aged a lot (she now has the watery eyes of old age). I am keeping her in her cage partitioned off from her companion, Doogle, (neutered male) on a folded towel covered with disposable nappy changing mats. She is having tomatoes, cucumber, grass from the garden, hay, ready grass, apple, carrots mixed leaves and normal Excel pellets. She is eating a litle but not noticeable drinking. Should I give her a syringe of water?

Basically any advice anyone has got would most gratefully received - she is such a tough cookie both Doogle and I would be devastated if she were not to pull through just because we did not do something.
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In terms of administering medication orally, do you have someone else available who can hold her? Someone steadying her body/acting as a bum-stop while you use one hand to open her mouth and the other to syringe makes it so much easier. Alternatively you can pop her on a table and kind of put her back end in the crook of your elbow, then open her mouth with that hand...or maybe that's just me with my gorilla arms? :)) If you're really struggling, call your vet, make an appointment with a nurse and ask them to show you some techniques. A lot of these things are things you need to be shown before you can master them.

What medication is she on currently?

Is she pooing ok? What are they like? normal size/shape/consistency? (Sorry! you can tell a lot about a piggies health by their poo!)

If she's eating quite watery veg (which it sounds like she is), then she shouldn't require extra water.
 
I will try putting her in the crook of my arm on the table tomorrow and see if I manage this way. It seems ridiculous that an adult can not keep a guiena pig's head still with just a few fingers let alone a whole hand! I will go back to the vet if I don't do it very well tomorrow.

Her poo is ok but on the small side. She has been weeing a bit, it is pinkish today - could this be the tomato she ate yesterday? She more or less only ate tomato yesterday, a bit of cucumber but not much else; today has been much better with small amounts of everything even a couple of pellets of normal food. She had the operation Friday so it is still early days and I am perhaps worrying unnecessarily but I have never really had anything go wrong before :(
 
Her medication is 0.4 of Metacam and the same of Baytril once a day. She has not had the Metacam today as I could not get her to take it and I felt she was getting too upset. She does not appear to be in lots of pain - it may be that the pain she was in before was so much worse than now; although she did not show pain before and she must have had a great deal. Oh to be able to speak guinea pig!
 
Once you are in a routine you'll be ok, as amanda said i find it easiest on the kitchen work top with their bum in the crook of my arm and opening the mouth and squirting it in with the other hand. Metacam shouldn't be too bad as it apparently tastes quite sweet.... sometimes when it comes to giving med's or feeding they do fight but you have to be cruel to be kind and sometimes be more forceful, they will thank you in the end. x
 
Hi gill

This site is very good for medical stuff regarding guineas generally and has a picture of how to strongarm a guinea pig for nail clipping. Not sure if it will help but it has pics!

http://www.guinealynx.info/nails.html

Like Amanda1801 said, might be best to get some advice from your vet but the guinealynx site also has quite a lot of post-op care advice.

http://www.guinealynx.info/postop.html

Your girl sounds like a real trooper, fingers still x here for you :)
 
If her poo is smaller than usual, it suggests that shes eating enough (although it's a good thing that she's pooing, it means her gut is working well, not eating enough can cause gut stasis, where their digestive transit stops. This is considered an emergency).

You could try softening some of her pellets (pop in a dish, add some hot water, allow to cool), she may find it easier to eat more like this. Mine will also eat critical care or similar (the high fibre powdered food that you mix with water) from a bowl too, so that might be worth a try.

As for pink wee, hopefully it's just the tomatoes. Lay off of them for a while. Is she squeaking while urinating at all? Stress can cause cystitis, which can cause pink wee.

I'd get the metacam into her if you can, she's likely to be in quite a lot of pain. I'd do metacam first, then baytril; baytril tastes foul!

Are you using any kind of probiotic? Fibreplex, Avipro Plus (both available from your vet) or Pro C (available from large pet stores) would help rebalance her gut flora that have been upset as a result of the antibiotics (antibiotics don't just get rid of the "bad" bacteria, but also the "good" bacteria that are required for efficient digestion).

It sounds like she's doing well post-op wise so far. Just keep a very close eye on her inputs and outputs(!) as well as her behaviours. I had my sow spayed almost a year ago and I ended up with a rather large bill (I won't tell you how much!) and 8 weeks worth of post-op complications.
 
Bless her, hope she makes a recovery soon. I found that mine have always liked metacam (apparently its a lovely taste) so I always did that and then quickly did the baytril before they realised it wasn't the same thing.
 
All this information is wonderful - thank you all; I did manage just, to get the Baytril in this morning; I will have another go at the Metacam this afternoon but she hates that more than the Baytril. I was thinking of mixing it with a mashed poo - she likes those!
 
Did you get the metacam into her, this will help her and make her more comfortable, so be forceful if need be xx
 
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