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Soft stools & pain after neutering

mcgstar

mcgstar

New Born Pup
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Whitley Bay
We had our boar Nelson castrated on Monday, by a piggy savvy vet, and it all went smoothly.

However, he's been having intermittent pooing problems afterwards.

On Wednesday, he seemed to be squeaking in distress when pooing. I called the vets, they found an appointment for me that afternoon. But, before we got there, he seemed to be fine again. The vet couldn't seen anything wrong when we went, and suggested that perhaps he was just in a bit of temporary pain from the wound. She prescribed some meloxaid to help keep him comfortable. I gave him one dose that night, and then as he seemed totally back to normal, didn't give him any more.

He also went back on Friday for his official post op check up, and all seemed to be well then too.

He has then been fine since, until today. Today he's back to squeaking, and is also struggling to expel some poos. I helped him get some poo out of his anal sack, and it was soft (though not runny - sort of mushy like a horse poo?) and a bit smelly. However, he still seems to be struggling with them a little, and is sporadically still making noises of pain/distress.

Any thoughts on what I can do, or what the issue might be? His stitches look fine, and there's no obvious signs of swelling or infection around the wound.

I don't fancy taking him to the emergency vet, as out of hours cover is a different practice and they don't have a piggy specialist.

Any advice would be fantastic.

Thanks!
 
mcgstar said:
We had our boar Nelson castrated on Monday, by a piggy savvy vet, and it all went smoothly.

However, he's been having intermittent pooing problems afterwards.

On Wednesday, he seemed to be squeaking in distress when pooing. I called the vets, they found an appointment for me that afternoon. But, before we got there, he seemed to be fine again. The vet couldn't seen anything wrong when we went, and suggested that perhaps he was just in a bit of temporary pain from the wound. She prescribed some meloxaid to help keep him comfortable. I gave him one dose that night, and then as he seemed totally back to normal, didn't give him any more.

He also went back on Friday for his official post op check up, and all seemed to be well then too.

He has then been fine since, until today. Today he's back to squeaking, and is also struggling to expel some poos. I helped him get some poo out of his anal sack, and it was soft (though not runny - sort of mushy like a horse poo?) and a bit smelly. However, he still seems to be struggling with them a little, and is sporadically still making noises of pain/distress.

Any thoughts on what I can do, or what the issue might be? His stitches look fine, and there's no obvious signs of swelling or infection around the wound.

I don't fancy taking him to the emergency vet, as out of hours cover is a different practice and they don't have a piggy specialist.

Any advice would be fantastic.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Hi!

It rather sounds a pain issue that is causing the problem.

How much is your boy weighing, so we can check the painkiller dosage. Please firstly check whether you have been given the cat or dog version - the latter is three times stronger. Especially general vets do often scale down from cats with a much slower metabolism while guinea pigs do cope with much higher twice daily amounts.

Please weigh daily at the same time and step in with syringe feeding top up if your boy is losing over 50g.
You may find these guides here helpful:
Tips For Post-operative Care
Neutering operations: Considerations, post-op care and a successful recovery example
Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment

Please contact your vet again tomorrow in case it is a developing complication at the back of the operated area.
 
He's currently around 1115g, down from his normal 1150-1160g range. He lost a bit of weight after the operation, but had gone almost immediately back up to normal, so this is a drop again. I am not brilliant at weighing at the same time each time though, so there's normal daily fluctuation in there too.

He was prescribed the dog version, with a dose of 0.45ml once per day. He appears to be eating normally, but i will start supportive feeding if he drops any more weight.
 
As wiebke has mentioned above, it is normal to give them pain meds twice a day. Quite often a once per day dose has worn off long before the next dose is due leaving piggy in pain. I would speak to your vet about this.
 
Piggies&buns said:
As wiebke has mentioned above, it is normal to give them pain meds twice a day. Quite often a once per day dose has worn off long before the next dose is due leaving piggy in pain. I would speak to your vet about this.
Click to expand...
Thanks! I'm going to call them in the morning to ask about it anyway, as he seemed initially to have coped fantastically with the operation so i am worried that he's having pain issues now :(
 
mcgstar said:
He's currently around 1115g, down from his normal 1150-1160g range. He lost a bit of weight after the operation, but had gone almost immediately back up to normal, so this is a drop again. I am not brilliant at weighing at the same time each time though, so there's normal daily fluctuation in there too.

He was prescribed the dog version, with a dose of 0.45ml once per day. He appears to be eating normally, but i will start supportive feeding if he drops any more weight.
Click to expand...

Hi!

The good news is that the overall weight is still very good and that the weight loss is very much on the small side, so the pain control is working so you need not step in with extra support yet; only if the weight loss is accelerating.

However, you can either split the dosage and give it every 12 hours but you can also safely give the same dosage of metacam twice daily so there is a lot of leeway for you in that respect. ;)
 
In the short term it won’t hurt him to have a larger dose twice a day, so I’d be tempted to give it to him twice daily until you get the chance to speak to the vet. meloxaid is also anti inflammatory so helps with the post op swelling as well as pain.
 
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