Hog Boss
Junior Guinea Pig
Does anyone have any experience dealing with a piggy with a spinal injury causing painful poops?
Specifically the spinal injury is old/healed, he is walking and running fine, popcorning around, humping his friend when he gets the chance, eating well and enjoying life except he cries when he poops. He is 2.5years old.
We actually originally thought, along with our vet, that the issue was likely bladder stones/sludge and were shocked to find out about his spinal injury on his x-ray - attached (L2 and L3 fused).
The vet has advised it can be managed without surgery. He weighs around 1160g and she started him on 0.12ml gabapentin, 0.23ml paracetamol and 0.46ml meloxicam - all twice per day.
After a week or so I was still worried about his poop crying so we increased his paracetamol to 0.34ml as per advice from vet plus added in a third gabapentin dose per day as he was still crying a lot some days. She also said we could go up to 0.77ml meloxicam on bad days.
But he is still crying. I think he seems generally a bit happier/more mischievous and doesn't seem to get affected by the potential sedative effect of the gabapentin but it's still obviously sore when he poops.
I don't know what to do - if I need to give him more time on his current medication level or discuss increasing things with the vet again already (it's only been 3 days since we increased). Or if there is anything else I should be trying.
Also does his tailbone look okay on the x-ray? May just be the way he is lying?
Any experience/advice appreciated. I just want him to feel as comfortable as possible - as you know, they poop a lot!
Specifically the spinal injury is old/healed, he is walking and running fine, popcorning around, humping his friend when he gets the chance, eating well and enjoying life except he cries when he poops. He is 2.5years old.
We actually originally thought, along with our vet, that the issue was likely bladder stones/sludge and were shocked to find out about his spinal injury on his x-ray - attached (L2 and L3 fused).
The vet has advised it can be managed without surgery. He weighs around 1160g and she started him on 0.12ml gabapentin, 0.23ml paracetamol and 0.46ml meloxicam - all twice per day.
After a week or so I was still worried about his poop crying so we increased his paracetamol to 0.34ml as per advice from vet plus added in a third gabapentin dose per day as he was still crying a lot some days. She also said we could go up to 0.77ml meloxicam on bad days.
But he is still crying. I think he seems generally a bit happier/more mischievous and doesn't seem to get affected by the potential sedative effect of the gabapentin but it's still obviously sore when he poops.
I don't know what to do - if I need to give him more time on his current medication level or discuss increasing things with the vet again already (it's only been 3 days since we increased). Or if there is anything else I should be trying.
Also does his tailbone look okay on the x-ray? May just be the way he is lying?
Any experience/advice appreciated. I just want him to feel as comfortable as possible - as you know, they poop a lot!
