robputt
Junior Guinea Pig
Hello,
Unfortunately earlier this year we had a boar in our bonded pair die prematurely at 3.5 years old, we took him to the vets as we realised he was very lethargic and after examination the vet concluded he had a twisted gut and there was very little we could do so he was put to sleep.
Since then we have sought a new boar and proceeded with boar dating, we found a baby boar who took to eachother like a house on fire. He is now 5 months old and we decided to have him neutered to break the boar cycle as we now have out of sync boars and hoped in the future when the elder boar dies we can have more flexibility in the herd formation.
We used our local Guineapig Facebook group to research vets and picked a highly recommended vet in the local area, we had pre-operative check on Monday which concluded the guineapig was in good shape and ready to proceed with the procedure.
On Tuesday morning he was neutered and appeared to be recovering well, however during the afternoon the vet discovered there was more oozing from the wound site than expected and could not satisfactorily determine via ultrasound the root cause, so the guineapig was anesthetized for a second time for a quick look internally to check nothing serious was wrong. He was then stitched back up and after recovery sent home. He is on antibiotics, two different forms of pain killer and pro-kenetic to keep his gut moving. Throughout Tuesday evening and Wednesday we provided hand feeding every 4 hours with critical care as well as the medication provided at the appropriate intervals. He also has free access to food and water in his recovery cage.
This morning we noticed he was leaking urine from his penis, he was rather smelly as he was covered in it so I gave him a bum bath and called out vets when they opened, the vet saw me first thing and had a feel and said everything felt good apart from the fact his bladder was very full, she manually expressed the bladder and a large what looked like a sperm stick emerged from him followed by the contents of his bladder. The vet crunched this up in her fingers and concluded that it was likely bladder sludge and a little bit of calcium deposit and sent us home to see how we got on. He seemed much brighter after this, however after another feeding at midday he went down hill quickly, started leaking again and seemed quite lethargic so I took him back to the vet. The vet then performed an ultrasound and could not find any signs of bladder stones or abscess, however he did have a full bladder. She expressed his bladder again and sent us on our way with a promise to call back tomorrow to discuss further, she also increased his pain killer dose as the theory is he is retaining his urine due to pain / stress as a result of the procedure.
Since we got back we bought his bonded pair to the recovery cage for some time together. Unfortunately he has started leaking again but seems to have a mood boost from his buddy being present. I am about to give him his higher dose of medication and some more hand feed, and I guess unless he clears his bladder himself in the next few hours will be back off to the vet first thing tomorrow morning.
I am feeling a bit deflated as I have tried everything to look after him whilst he has been recovering :-(. The vet did reassure me that day 2 after a procedure is often the worst as this is the stage when muscle starts to repair and the guineapig is likely to feel most sore and sorry for itself and was hopeful that by Saturday we should start seeing improvements. Is there anything else I can do, or anything else I should discuss with the vet to help resolve this?
Thank you in advance for your knowledge, support and guidance.
Unfortunately earlier this year we had a boar in our bonded pair die prematurely at 3.5 years old, we took him to the vets as we realised he was very lethargic and after examination the vet concluded he had a twisted gut and there was very little we could do so he was put to sleep.
Since then we have sought a new boar and proceeded with boar dating, we found a baby boar who took to eachother like a house on fire. He is now 5 months old and we decided to have him neutered to break the boar cycle as we now have out of sync boars and hoped in the future when the elder boar dies we can have more flexibility in the herd formation.
We used our local Guineapig Facebook group to research vets and picked a highly recommended vet in the local area, we had pre-operative check on Monday which concluded the guineapig was in good shape and ready to proceed with the procedure.
On Tuesday morning he was neutered and appeared to be recovering well, however during the afternoon the vet discovered there was more oozing from the wound site than expected and could not satisfactorily determine via ultrasound the root cause, so the guineapig was anesthetized for a second time for a quick look internally to check nothing serious was wrong. He was then stitched back up and after recovery sent home. He is on antibiotics, two different forms of pain killer and pro-kenetic to keep his gut moving. Throughout Tuesday evening and Wednesday we provided hand feeding every 4 hours with critical care as well as the medication provided at the appropriate intervals. He also has free access to food and water in his recovery cage.
This morning we noticed he was leaking urine from his penis, he was rather smelly as he was covered in it so I gave him a bum bath and called out vets when they opened, the vet saw me first thing and had a feel and said everything felt good apart from the fact his bladder was very full, she manually expressed the bladder and a large what looked like a sperm stick emerged from him followed by the contents of his bladder. The vet crunched this up in her fingers and concluded that it was likely bladder sludge and a little bit of calcium deposit and sent us home to see how we got on. He seemed much brighter after this, however after another feeding at midday he went down hill quickly, started leaking again and seemed quite lethargic so I took him back to the vet. The vet then performed an ultrasound and could not find any signs of bladder stones or abscess, however he did have a full bladder. She expressed his bladder again and sent us on our way with a promise to call back tomorrow to discuss further, she also increased his pain killer dose as the theory is he is retaining his urine due to pain / stress as a result of the procedure.
Since we got back we bought his bonded pair to the recovery cage for some time together. Unfortunately he has started leaking again but seems to have a mood boost from his buddy being present. I am about to give him his higher dose of medication and some more hand feed, and I guess unless he clears his bladder himself in the next few hours will be back off to the vet first thing tomorrow morning.
I am feeling a bit deflated as I have tried everything to look after him whilst he has been recovering :-(. The vet did reassure me that day 2 after a procedure is often the worst as this is the stage when muscle starts to repair and the guineapig is likely to feel most sore and sorry for itself and was hopeful that by Saturday we should start seeing improvements. Is there anything else I can do, or anything else I should discuss with the vet to help resolve this?
Thank you in advance for your knowledge, support and guidance.
