Sodapops
Adult Guinea Pig
HJi there,
As some of you may now - my recent discovery of my boar being a pregnant sow has spurred me in to looking at neutering her cage mate, once she's had her babies i'd like to put the two back together - so the sooner i can get it done the better.
I checked the following link (posted by someone on this forum, can't remember the thread) to look for vets in my area that specialize in treating small animals and exotics.:
http://www.rcvs.org.uk/findavet
The one not to far from me is called vets4pets, and after reading a few threads i came acroiss a list of questions that should be asked when castration is required (again i can't remember the forum member who posted it and can't for the life of me find the topic it was posted in). Anyhow these are the questions i asked:
- Do you have any vets available at your surgery that have experience in dealing with guinea pigs?
- What is the success rate of surgeries the vet has performed?
- Can you provide a short explanation of the most common risks with the surgery, and how likely (or unlikely) they are to occur?
- What anesthetic is used?
- What suturing material do you use?
- What do you do to bring the guinea pig around from the anesthetic, and how soon will you feed him?
- Do you offer pre-op checks and post-op care? If so what are these?
Can you also provide me with an approximate price list to have the operation done by yourselves (including any pre-op or post-op care)
This is the email reply i received today:
thank you for your enquiry. I have 14 years experience as a veterinary surgeon and have neutered several guina pigs during this time. I have not had any problems but every surgery obviously carries risks. The risks involved with castration of guinea pigs are reaction to the anaesthetic, wound interference post operatively and also the inguinal canal is very wide in guinea pigs so it has to be closed to prevent abdominal organs herniating post surgery. The anaesthetic we use is a low dose of domitor torbugesic and ketamine followed by isoflurane gas and oxygen. They are reversed with anisedan and withdrawl of the isoflurane gas. We use internal vicryl sutures and then skin glue to prevent the guinea pig interfering with the wound. We feed the guinea pig as soon as he is able to eat and ask you to bring some of his normal food to prevent stomach upset. We check all animal before surgery and then 1- 2 days and 1 week post operatively (or more often if deemed necessary) and these pre and post op checks are included in the cost. The cost of a guinea pig castration is £44.00.
Obviously i have no idea re. the medication they are going to be using during and after the op - so does this sound like the normal procedure?
From their response would you say they sound very competent in doing this sort of op?
Any advice is of course greatly appreciated.
As some of you may now - my recent discovery of my boar being a pregnant sow has spurred me in to looking at neutering her cage mate, once she's had her babies i'd like to put the two back together - so the sooner i can get it done the better.
I checked the following link (posted by someone on this forum, can't remember the thread) to look for vets in my area that specialize in treating small animals and exotics.:
http://www.rcvs.org.uk/findavet
The one not to far from me is called vets4pets, and after reading a few threads i came acroiss a list of questions that should be asked when castration is required (again i can't remember the forum member who posted it and can't for the life of me find the topic it was posted in). Anyhow these are the questions i asked:
- Do you have any vets available at your surgery that have experience in dealing with guinea pigs?
- What is the success rate of surgeries the vet has performed?
- Can you provide a short explanation of the most common risks with the surgery, and how likely (or unlikely) they are to occur?
- What anesthetic is used?
- What suturing material do you use?
- What do you do to bring the guinea pig around from the anesthetic, and how soon will you feed him?
- Do you offer pre-op checks and post-op care? If so what are these?
Can you also provide me with an approximate price list to have the operation done by yourselves (including any pre-op or post-op care)
This is the email reply i received today:
thank you for your enquiry. I have 14 years experience as a veterinary surgeon and have neutered several guina pigs during this time. I have not had any problems but every surgery obviously carries risks. The risks involved with castration of guinea pigs are reaction to the anaesthetic, wound interference post operatively and also the inguinal canal is very wide in guinea pigs so it has to be closed to prevent abdominal organs herniating post surgery. The anaesthetic we use is a low dose of domitor torbugesic and ketamine followed by isoflurane gas and oxygen. They are reversed with anisedan and withdrawl of the isoflurane gas. We use internal vicryl sutures and then skin glue to prevent the guinea pig interfering with the wound. We feed the guinea pig as soon as he is able to eat and ask you to bring some of his normal food to prevent stomach upset. We check all animal before surgery and then 1- 2 days and 1 week post operatively (or more often if deemed necessary) and these pre and post op checks are included in the cost. The cost of a guinea pig castration is £44.00.
Obviously i have no idea re. the medication they are going to be using during and after the op - so does this sound like the normal procedure?
From their response would you say they sound very competent in doing this sort of op?
Any advice is of course greatly appreciated.
I don't think the questions i asked were highly detailed and most of the answers they could give could be easily understood by even the novice guinea pig owner. The only thing i struggled with was the type of anaesthetic used in an operation such as this. Not being a doctor myself, i have no idea about different anaesthetics. 