• Discussions taking place within this forum are intended for the purpose of assisting you in discussing options with your vet. Any other use of advice given here is done so at your risk, is solely your responsibility and not that of this forum or its owner. Before posting it is your responsibility you abide by this Statement

Nerve Damage

Status
Not open for further replies.
PopcornPigs

PopcornPigs

Adult Guinea Pig
Joined
Oct 8, 2010
Messages
3,280
Reaction score
479
Points
645
Location
Surrey UK
Last monday evening I went in to see the pigs about an hour later than my last smooch. I found basil to be walking funny and was barely using his left back leg. I work in a veterinary referral hospital and knew it didnt look good but no idea what had happened. I called the OOH vet and was advised to give metacam and bring in in the morning. The vet established he has no broken bones or spinal pain however he has limited proprioception (awareness of where the foot/limb is). He will occasionally move it but it often drags behind. He did still have his withdrawel reflex tho which was good news. The vet suspected he had damaged the nerve so advised metacam and rest. I spoke to a neurologist at work and I'm doing physiotherapy and checking the withdrawal reflex every day. So far basil has not improved, he seems to get tired and give up quicker. He is still urinating, pooping and eating normally.

I just wondered if anyone had any experience of something similar. Hes 5 1/2 and I'm very worried for him.
 
Has he had an xray? At that age arthritis could be possible. There's muscle loss and also bone density loss which could be involved.

Is the vet sure it's not a sprain? How is he holding his leg?
 
IMG_20170608_075159.webp

Its a typical neurological dragging of the leg. E.g if you put the foot that way up its not corrected. Its not a limp he literally doesnt know its there. I'm ringing the exotic vet with progress tomorrow. I'm happy with doing physiotherapy as I do this at work with dogs/cats that have spinal surgery but our neurologist isnt aware of guinea pig spinal disease so she can't say whats causing it. Worst case I guess would be if he has a mass compressing the spinal cord? Best case hes damaged a nerve and he'll slowly regain function.
 
An xray might be helpful as that would rule out or confirm a mass pressing on anything.

I had a pig who had some sort of seizure and lost control of his back legs. He slowly started to become aware of them after 3 weeks or so and eventually he did gain use of them. It's not the same thing as I was there and actually saw my boy having his seizure but I hope your piggy recovers like mine did.

I have a friend whose pig was injured after a fall. He also recovered the use of his legs.
 
I'm going to call the vet tomorrow with an update, I think he will need xrays and itll put my mind at rest. Its good to know that some pigs have recovered tho. He always improves after physio, the foot can be stimulated easier and he pulls it in but placement is still not good. Fingers crossed.
 
So basil had xrays, its been found not only does he have some of the worst arthritis the vet has seen in his knees (she was surprised he could walk at all) but he also has a compressed area of the spine which could be causing the loss of movement of his leg. Hes now on gabapentin as well as the metacam. Ive just gone to give him meds and noticed hes somehow managed to break half of his bottom right tooth off. Going to keep an eye and make sure the upper doesnt now overgrow..really not what we need when we want him to keep eating! He's coping fine eating hay but have mushed pellets as he was dropping those. Fingers crossed something works :(
 
My boar has what my vet described as "the worst arthritis I've ever seen". We noticed it after he started to limp on his front foot.

We have him Metacam twice a day and it really helped him. After a few days he started to climb up the side of the cage again. He was never able to jump and dash around anymore but he could have a good "jog" when he wanted to.

Try not to worry about his tooth. As long as he has something there he should be able to eat as normal. They grow back surprisingly quickly.
 
So basil hasn't improved at all :( only occasionally moving his left leg and hes lying down a lot and now peeing on himself. Ive been cleaning him but worried about urine scalding. Ive added a photo of his awful knees which is heart breaking but I think the main problem is the compressed spine.. I dont know what to do if he doesnt improve..

IMG_20170615_181929.webp
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top