cafecreme
Junior Guinea Pig
Hello, Beauty is having a rough recovery following spaying surgery. We are having regular vet visits (she's seen 7 vets so far...) but I would appreciate your insights. The guides on here have been SO helpful for getting us through so far (it all happened in a rush, and they are our first pigs, adopted them a year ago from a rescue, their director has been so helpful with advice). Beauty is around 2 years old and part of a quad with two daughters and a neutered boar. She has had the one litter, when she arrived at the rescue pregnant very young.
I'll write out the timeline below and then post my specific questions.
Day 1 - we noticed blood in the cage and so took them all to the vets. It was Beauty, the vet did an ultrasound and diagnosed thickening of the line of the womb - cystic endometrial hypoplasia. We agreed to start her on metacam and review in a week, with spaying surgery potentially the next step.
Day 5 - I checked for blood and noticed that Beauty had a prolapse. I took her to the emergency vet who got advice on the phone from an exotics friend and thankfully managed to get it back in. She advised that Beauty needed to be spayed asap and kept separately from the others on puppy pads. We sectioned the cage when I got home. She was super distressed to be on her own so we put in Pops, her daughter.
Day 7 - Beauty had the spay surgery with Simon at Cat and Rabbit in Northampton (an hour away). Before the surgery, she had an xray for stones, which was clear. Simon found a mass in her uterus, maybe she was trying to push it out? It was not attached to unlikely cancerous. We didn't get pathology as it wouldn't change the treatment and the vet pot is running low. Beauty came home with dog metacam, emeprid and paracetamol. We do the paracetamol a few hours later to extend the pain relief. She was not interested in eating when we came home so we started on syringe feeding. By 3am she had weed and pooed so we put Pops in to keep her company.
Day 8 - still not interested in eating, Cat and Rabbit advised to do 4x bigger feeds at 4 hour intervals and take to local vet if no improvement.
Day 9 - saw local vet, started on maropitant for anti nausea (1/16th of a cat tablet!) . Advised to book a review for 5-7 days. After that she was sort of improving, very gradually.
Day 11 - Pops started rumble strutting and chasing Beauty so we had to take her out. We judged that the others would also make trouble, sadly.
Day 13 - we were still syringe feeding and she wasn't really eating properly. Maybe a nibble here and there but not enough to sustain herself. We were going to run out of emeprid (gut stimulant), so I took her to the local vet for a review. They noticed the wound was thickening but no major concerns. We had an appointment booked in 2 days time anyway so decided to review then as vet wanted to avoid antibiotics as we didn't want to make her appetite worse.
Day 14 - noticed her whimpering when weeing and pooing for the first time. Often she only does small wees.
Day 15 - vet tested her wee, it was OK. DId an ultrasound and found some fluid and infection of the wound. Started baytril. She has now lost 100g since surgery. Vet thought she should be back on night feeds, we discussed hospitalising her (would need to refer elsewhere, I think it would be prohibitively expensive and also stressful for her). We restarted night feeds.
Day 16 - added a snuggle safe heat pad overnight as I was wondering if she was more up for eating on my lap because she was warm. (this has a cover and is wedged between one side of her hidey and the side of the cage).
Day 18 - we noticed her wound had come open. The emergency vet was able to glue it. So far it has held. She is still often whimpering when weeing/pooing.
Overall, she has improved a bit since the day of the surgery but still is eating little independently. She often doesn't move from her hidey and gets wee on herself. At syringe feeding time, she will take about 5ml of syringe and then look for orchard hay and munch a bit of that on my lap. We usually do about 15ml recovery per feed.
Here are my questions:
Diet and urinary issues:
She will nibble Oxbow orchard grass hay on my lap, but rarely goes for her standard meadow hay. She will eat her veg, and wheat bran (usually it's a weekly treat but we are giving more often). She will eat an Oxbow urinary treat with glucosamine (one of her daughters had an issue in the summer, and gets one every day, everyone else gets a half so daughter has a chance of eating hers! Since her whimpering, Beauty now gets a whole one). She will eat dried nettles, not so much other forage. . For recovery, we are using oxbow critical care and emeraid intensive care - we change flavour/type every few days for variety. We aim for 15ml each feed and do every 3ish hours during the day.
Her diet is currently richer than usual as she won't eat her usual meadow hay, I'm now worried that could be exacerbating any urinary issue?
I read through the excellent guides and am now worried that they are getting too much dill/coriander/parsley (I can get it at the market for a good price so they tend to have it over the week).
Also, she is not drinking independently. Should I be syringe feeding water, too? I assumed not as we are making the recovery feed quite liquid as otherwise it clogs up the syringe (recovery syringe too messy so we're using a 1ml with the end cut off).
Night feeding:
We are really struggling. I have a long term condition that flares when I'm short on sleep plus we have all been ill over the weekend. We work and have a kid. My husband is doing a midnight feed them I'm up around 4 with her (and struggle to go back to sleep again). Last night we tried putting a bowl of wheat bran out to see if she'd eat that to tide her over. It went but she started on it straight away, we were hoping she'd leave it a bit. Any tips for helping them eat independently, especially overnight?
Socialisation:
We have a 7x2 c&c which we have divided into 4/3. As they are on aubiose and she is on bed pads, there is a height difference and she isn't well enough to put her paws on the bars and see the others. But she can hear/smell them. After we had to take Pops out, we started putting them all in the indoor run on puppy pads together for a short time each day to try to keep the bond. But we are now finding someone chases her after a few minutes (usually her daughters). This is obviously not good for the wound. If she goes to the vet, I usually take the boss, who is a neutered boar, the most chilled and unlikely to chase her. I'm also putting used bedding from her side into their side so they can smell her. Any ideas about what else we can do?
Any other observations/advice on how she's doing very welcome. She will see the vet again tomorrow or Weds and I will raise the whimpering when weeing/pooing again. It's not every time but one bad feed it was 4 times (feeds take 30-45 mins).
I'll write out the timeline below and then post my specific questions.
Day 1 - we noticed blood in the cage and so took them all to the vets. It was Beauty, the vet did an ultrasound and diagnosed thickening of the line of the womb - cystic endometrial hypoplasia. We agreed to start her on metacam and review in a week, with spaying surgery potentially the next step.
Day 5 - I checked for blood and noticed that Beauty had a prolapse. I took her to the emergency vet who got advice on the phone from an exotics friend and thankfully managed to get it back in. She advised that Beauty needed to be spayed asap and kept separately from the others on puppy pads. We sectioned the cage when I got home. She was super distressed to be on her own so we put in Pops, her daughter.
Day 7 - Beauty had the spay surgery with Simon at Cat and Rabbit in Northampton (an hour away). Before the surgery, she had an xray for stones, which was clear. Simon found a mass in her uterus, maybe she was trying to push it out? It was not attached to unlikely cancerous. We didn't get pathology as it wouldn't change the treatment and the vet pot is running low. Beauty came home with dog metacam, emeprid and paracetamol. We do the paracetamol a few hours later to extend the pain relief. She was not interested in eating when we came home so we started on syringe feeding. By 3am she had weed and pooed so we put Pops in to keep her company.
Day 8 - still not interested in eating, Cat and Rabbit advised to do 4x bigger feeds at 4 hour intervals and take to local vet if no improvement.
Day 9 - saw local vet, started on maropitant for anti nausea (1/16th of a cat tablet!) . Advised to book a review for 5-7 days. After that she was sort of improving, very gradually.
Day 11 - Pops started rumble strutting and chasing Beauty so we had to take her out. We judged that the others would also make trouble, sadly.
Day 13 - we were still syringe feeding and she wasn't really eating properly. Maybe a nibble here and there but not enough to sustain herself. We were going to run out of emeprid (gut stimulant), so I took her to the local vet for a review. They noticed the wound was thickening but no major concerns. We had an appointment booked in 2 days time anyway so decided to review then as vet wanted to avoid antibiotics as we didn't want to make her appetite worse.
Day 14 - noticed her whimpering when weeing and pooing for the first time. Often she only does small wees.
Day 15 - vet tested her wee, it was OK. DId an ultrasound and found some fluid and infection of the wound. Started baytril. She has now lost 100g since surgery. Vet thought she should be back on night feeds, we discussed hospitalising her (would need to refer elsewhere, I think it would be prohibitively expensive and also stressful for her). We restarted night feeds.
Day 16 - added a snuggle safe heat pad overnight as I was wondering if she was more up for eating on my lap because she was warm. (this has a cover and is wedged between one side of her hidey and the side of the cage).
Day 18 - we noticed her wound had come open. The emergency vet was able to glue it. So far it has held. She is still often whimpering when weeing/pooing.
Overall, she has improved a bit since the day of the surgery but still is eating little independently. She often doesn't move from her hidey and gets wee on herself. At syringe feeding time, she will take about 5ml of syringe and then look for orchard hay and munch a bit of that on my lap. We usually do about 15ml recovery per feed.
Here are my questions:
Diet and urinary issues:
She will nibble Oxbow orchard grass hay on my lap, but rarely goes for her standard meadow hay. She will eat her veg, and wheat bran (usually it's a weekly treat but we are giving more often). She will eat an Oxbow urinary treat with glucosamine (one of her daughters had an issue in the summer, and gets one every day, everyone else gets a half so daughter has a chance of eating hers! Since her whimpering, Beauty now gets a whole one). She will eat dried nettles, not so much other forage. . For recovery, we are using oxbow critical care and emeraid intensive care - we change flavour/type every few days for variety. We aim for 15ml each feed and do every 3ish hours during the day.
Her diet is currently richer than usual as she won't eat her usual meadow hay, I'm now worried that could be exacerbating any urinary issue?
I read through the excellent guides and am now worried that they are getting too much dill/coriander/parsley (I can get it at the market for a good price so they tend to have it over the week).
Also, she is not drinking independently. Should I be syringe feeding water, too? I assumed not as we are making the recovery feed quite liquid as otherwise it clogs up the syringe (recovery syringe too messy so we're using a 1ml with the end cut off).
Night feeding:
We are really struggling. I have a long term condition that flares when I'm short on sleep plus we have all been ill over the weekend. We work and have a kid. My husband is doing a midnight feed them I'm up around 4 with her (and struggle to go back to sleep again). Last night we tried putting a bowl of wheat bran out to see if she'd eat that to tide her over. It went but she started on it straight away, we were hoping she'd leave it a bit. Any tips for helping them eat independently, especially overnight?
Socialisation:
We have a 7x2 c&c which we have divided into 4/3. As they are on aubiose and she is on bed pads, there is a height difference and she isn't well enough to put her paws on the bars and see the others. But she can hear/smell them. After we had to take Pops out, we started putting them all in the indoor run on puppy pads together for a short time each day to try to keep the bond. But we are now finding someone chases her after a few minutes (usually her daughters). This is obviously not good for the wound. If she goes to the vet, I usually take the boss, who is a neutered boar, the most chilled and unlikely to chase her. I'm also putting used bedding from her side into their side so they can smell her. Any ideas about what else we can do?
Any other observations/advice on how she's doing very welcome. She will see the vet again tomorrow or Weds and I will raise the whimpering when weeing/pooing again. It's not every time but one bad feed it was 4 times (feeds take 30-45 mins).
it sounds like Beauty has been through a lot. A spay is a huge operation and is one of the biggest invasive surgeries for a guinea pig.
