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Hysterectomy - Post Op Care & Lack Of Poops

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Thanks Wiebke :) Should I be concerned about her not eating hay? I have managed to feed her a few tiny bits along with the coriander but she seems uninterested in it. Is there enough fibre in the critical care to prevent her teeth overgrowing do you think?
 
Don't worry about hay for now. Will she eat grass? Teeth won't overgrow that quickly. I had a piggy who didn't eat for three weeks, and was fully syringe fed, and his teeth didn't overgrow. Dental problems come on slowly, and don't happen overnight. It sounds like she is a little bit brighter today. So far, so good I think xx
 
Thanks Debbie :) Sadly we don't have any grass at the moment, our elderly neighbour helpfully scarified it at the weekend & most of it is now bald! :doh:
 
Thank you so much I won't worry so much about her teeth now :) Last week she was mouthing a little & using her paw on her mouth, she had a little bit of wetness under her chin too, so her teeth were checked whilst she was under for the op & the vet found a small spur on a back tooth, she had been grinding her teeth because of the pain she was in even though she had the maximum pain relief possible, so we really had no option but to have the hysterectomy done. Very scary but she has a neat little scar now & is a lot more comfortable :)
 
Well the vet is very very pleased with her :) No more Tramodol, so just Metacam & gut meds to continue until she starts eating for herself, which won't be long by the looks of things! She had some veggies first thing this morning, not a lot but is definitely showing more interest & she is back in with the others properly too which will help :)) I have seen more poops which is such a relief & vet said it's normal for them to be sparse at this stage. She is taking her Critical Care easily & my order of Avipro, treat hay & vet bed arrived today plus some dandelion seeds which I need to plant for them which they will enjoy. Feeling a lot more optimistic now :luv: Back at vets next week for her Cartrophen injection & 2nd post op check up then hopefully back to only once a month visits!
 
And now 2 steps back :( She is clearly in discomfort this morning so I have given her pain meds until my vet can see her at 3 :( She is not passing much in the way of poops again, despite all the gut motility meds & syringe feeding. Feeling very worried as I don't know what else I can do really :(
 
Fingers firmly crossed for your poorly girl!
 
Hope the vets can help, sending her and you lots of love x
 
I hope the vet visit went ok. How much syringe food will she take? Is she better having little and often? It is such a worry when they take a bit of a step back, but often it can just be a blip and they pick up again very quickly. I really hope this is the case xx
 
Thanks everyone we are back & she has no bloat or anything, so the vet said to add the Tramodol back in for the next few days to see if that helps & if she still is subdued then they would probably x ray her to see what is going on. She happily takes syringe food Debbie, but I agree with you that she might be better with little & often. She will easily take 20-25 ml in one sitting every 4 hours, so I think I'll try 10-15 ml every 2 hours, does that sound ok? I'll have to sleep at some point though! I usually feed her last thing at night, about 12-12.30 before bed then first thing in the morning so there is a 7-8 hour gap there.
 
Oh no! Hope you can get her back on track again very soon! Sounds like you're doing very thing you can so fingers firmly crossed for you.
 
What really upset me was I popped into work after to fill in my time sheet as I had last week off using my holiday to care for her & one of my work colleagues sort of said "What do you do with a guinea pig?" & I was like what? I said what do you mean & she said they don't do anything :( She was kind of hinting as to why am I bothering :( People make me so angry sometimes.
 
Poppy'sMum said:
Thanks everyone we are back & she has no bloat or anything, so the vet said to add the Tramodol back in for the next few days to see if that helps & if she still is subdued then they would probably x ray her to see what is going on. She happily takes syringe food Debbie, but I agree with you that she might be better with little & often. She will easily take 20-25 ml in one sitting every 4 hours, so I think I'll try 10-15 ml every 2 hours, does that sound ok? I'll have to sleep at some point though! I usually feed her last thing at night, about 12-12.30 before bed then first thing in the morning so there is a 7-8 hour gap there.
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I used to get up in the night and feed every few hours. Having pretty much spent the last 7 years syringe feeding I had to stop the night feeds, apart from when a piggy was desperately ill, as it was just too much. I have since found that as long as you get enough syringe food in during the day, then they last fine throughout the night without feeds. I always put some softened nuggets on a plate so they can snack overnight if they wish to. I find the little and often approach works well when they seem to be struggling a little, as I guess it mimics a more normal eating pattern. I hope she is soon feeling much brighter xx
 
Thanks Debbie :) I forgot to ask the vet today (I usually have to take a list!) but do you normal give the pain relief staggered? For example she has Metacam twice a day & Tramodol twice a day so is it best to give them together twice a day or give say Metacam then leave a couple of hours then Tramodal then repeat later?
 
I have only ever had Madeline on both and am trying to remember what we did, I think we did stagger it. I know if I have a pig on both Metacam and Buscopan I stagger that.
 
Thanks Helen, I am thinking she would get more long term relief that way? I must keep reminding myself it's only a week ago she had surgery; a human would need 6 weeks off work so maybe I am expecting her to get better a bit too quickly :)
 
Well this morning she is much more alert, she's had breakfast of Critical Care & then rampaged through the scattered veggies, I had to stop her eating too many in case poops go the other way! Amazing what a difference Tramodol can make. Obviously it's not something to be given lightly but it is definitely helping her get through this recovery phase when Metacam wasn't quite enough.
 
I personally feel Tramadol is an amazing drug when used correctly. It was the only thing that stopped my P's pain. He used to run to the front of his cage for it.

Glad your little one is doing better now, even after my P's stone Operation he was on Tramadol we didn't have any negative effects and he was on it for weeks perhaps even months can't remember now.
 
Tramadol is a great drug. I used to stagger the metacam and tramadol, so i did 4 doses a day. Haven was on tramadol and metacam for nearly 6 weeks with her mouth issues with no ill affects.

So pleased she is doing better now x
 
Ok so an update, she is doing very well, but I am still syringe feeding about 3 times a day to maintain her weight. Overall she is 150g down on what she was pre-op. However I now have the opposite problem, instead of being bunged up she is doing soft poops with no proper shape :( Although it's not diarrohea, it is getting me down a bit as I have to wash 12 paws several times every day, not to mention the fleece which is getting in a right state :( Anyone else had this problem post op? What about those pigs on syringe feeds every day, do they always do soft poos? She is eating lots of Readigrass (Have no access to decent safe grass) & meadow hay with dandelion. She will eat some pellets too. I have stopped giving her veggies again as I still don't know if it's that, but she had 10 days without any veg at all & that didn't help either. I'm baffled! She is on Zantac & a low Metacam dose twice a day, that's it now. Any ideas anyone? And is there anything safe to give her to help normalize her poos?
 
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