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Tonks’ lady lumps... Op due.

Thank you all so much! I’ve been beside myself all day so I really appreciate the support :)

That’s what I ended up doing @furryfriends (TEAS) thank you. I got some info and wrote it all down with his contact details. I hope he doesn’t mind.

She’s now staying at the vets, I’m not sure if it’s just for today or not. My vet has said it’s not as bad as it looks and that they’ll be draining it and keeping an eye on it. Also something about creams and other meds but it’s all written down at home so I’ll have to look later. She said she’ll call and look into the Zithromax, hopefully we’ll be able to get it easier in the future as well if we need it.

If she’s there longer I may have to take a companion to stay with her, but who to take?! The worries are just never ending!
 
She’s staying in for a couple of days, god I’m gunna miss her and her little shark butt. I hope the gang don’t forget about her and let her come home to them.

She’s having a flush with hibiscrub x4 daily, flamazine cream x2 daily and intrasite gel x2 daily and baytril.

Unfortunately Simon was in surgery when they phoned him but we’re hoping for an email back. Then hopefully we can start the Zithromax and get her on the road to recovery.

I don’t really know what to do with myself now that I don’t have her to care for all evening... I just can’t wait to have her back in my arms again soon.
 
Aw, so sorry to here poor little Tonks poorly. Fingers cross she makes a full recovery very soon. Sending hugs to you, I have had a week in a similar situation and it’s absolutely horrible x These little ones are such a worry x
 
Thank you guys :) x

They really are aren’t they? She has no idea what all the fuss is all about bless her.

Guess I’ll have an update in the morning now, it’s so strange at home! X
 
Eurgh this is such a nightmare, they may want to operate on her AGAIN tomorrow... That would make it 3 ops in 3 weeks. I really don’t want her to have another operation, she’s been through so much already and I don’t know if her little body would handle it :(

Apparently they may need to take away dead tissue to let it heal but as the last operation didn’t help I’m just worried that it’ll end up another £280 odd down the drain and we’ll be no better for it. They will put a drain in and close up the wound again. Idk if the drain will be the difference or not as it won’t trap the infection in this time but idk...

Idk if Simon replied to the email as she didn’t say and I forgot to ask. I’ll check in tomorrow morning, I just can’t wait to bring her home.
 
Merab's Slave said:
So sorry that Tonks isn’t doing as well as hoped.
I know from reading other threads that Manuka honey has proved an excellent healer.
@PigglePuggle has recently used it.
Holding Tonks and you in my thoughts
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Absolutely! Sorry forgot to mention they have packed the wound with manuka honey all day today instead of the other stuff they did previously.

I had hoped that something like that would be beneficial over surgery, I don’t know if it’s possible for her to be okay without it.
 
Oh no poor piggy... just caught up with this after @Merab's Slave tagged me in... we just recovered from a "routine" abscess surgery that resulted in little Tallulah having a weird reaction to her stitches and her body attacking them and her getting a huge fluid filled lump then dissolving her own skin making a giant whole in her back... little Tallulah is too small to put a drain in, she was running out of healthy skin and we had to leave the wound open and just flush and squeeze it... We had hibiscrub wound flushes from the vet at first daily then every other day and twice daily saline flushes at home and manuka honey prescribed to put on the wound, it really worked miracles and she's all better, manuka honey really does the business on big open wounds. I was very sceptical but it healed the wound in about 10 days, you can get it on prescription as a sterile little tube for "autolytic and debriding" (means gone wet and yucky and full of dead tissue that needs taking off) open wound treatments :)
Healing wheeks for poor Tonks, hope she recovers soon!
 
Aw, poor Tonks, I’m so sorry she is having a rough time of it, poor little lady. Got all fingers and toes crossed here for her to make a full recovery x Hugs to you, such a worrying time x
 
PigglePuggle said:
Oh no poor piggy... just caught up with this after @Merab's Slave tagged me in... we just recovered from a "routine" abscess surgery that resulted in little Tallulah having a weird reaction to her stitches and her body attacking them and her getting a huge fluid filled lump then dissolving her own skin making a giant whole in her back... little Tallulah is too small to put a drain in, she was running out of healthy skin and we had to leave the wound open and just flush and squeeze it... We had hibiscrub wound flushes from the vet at first daily then every other day and twice daily saline flushes at home and manuka honey prescribed to put on the wound, it really worked miracles and she's all better, manuka honey really does the business on big open wounds. I was very sceptical but it healed the wound in about 10 days, you can get it on prescription as a sterile little tube for "autolytic and debriding" (means gone wet and yucky and full of dead tissue that needs taking off) open wound treatments :)
Healing wheeks for poor Tonks, hope she recovers soon!
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Oh so sorry your little baby has gone through all that! So glad to hear she’s better :)

Thank you so much for sharing your experience, that’s going to help a lot when I talk to the vet tomorrow. So what happened to the dead tissue without an operation? Did it just heal behind it and come off or? This sounds promising!
 
It was pretty awful, the wound swelled with fluid (a seroma) until it started leaking within 2 days of surgery, then it started going hard and lumpy with weird allergic scar tissue (a granuloma) 2 days later... the suddenly it split open completely and the would edges started going all mushy and there was a big yellow/red/soggy hole bigger than a 50p piece on my tiny baby skinny pig! The vet gave her emergency opiate painkiller injections and used his sad "its all over" voice then scrubbed all the dead tissue off with hibiscrub and some nasty scrubbing while she was sedated and apologetically gave us a tube of manuka honey like it was all he could think of... the hole was too big and the piggy too small to close it surgically, not enough skin... we were told to bring her back daily for opiate painkiller injections then aggressive scrubbing off the dead tissue with hibiscrub and crazy hard scrubbing... but the dead tissue just rubbed away it was so squishy and left a clean pink wound every day, it was very deep we could see the fat and muscles inside her neck after the scrubbing... but within 2 or 3 days of the manuka honey most of the wet nasty dead stuff and swelling had gone, it was a huge hole but no extra infection got in, after 4 days there was some hope and no more opiates just loxicom and the wound was shrinking, then after 6 days no loxicom needed and the vet was happy to leave her alone for a week... 10 days and it was a little scab smaller than a 5p and no more wound flushes, 3 weeks after her initial surgery and 2 weeks after we first thought she'd die we got the all clear from the vet! The wound wasnt ever infected as the abscess came out cleanly but it should have been given the size and the mess, but daily baytril and twice daily wound flushes and manuka honey was enough to keep it clean and free of infection. If there is deeper infection already then a stronger antibiotic might be needed. We were really lucky, Tallulah is a little fighter, but that manuka honey really fixed up a "too big and wet and mushy to surgically fix" wound into a little weird puckered up scar with a tiny scab :)
I really hope Tonks has as easy a recovery as our baby Tallulah did, we were very lucky but I think the manuka honey must have helped a lot! Tallulah sends small but feisty skinny pig kisses to Tonks x
 
Sorry to hear that Tonks is no better. I do hope she starts to improve. Keeping her in my thoughts. xx
 
I dont want to offer false hope because every situation is different of course, but Tallulah was pretty calm with a buprenorphine injection for pain relief/sedation then a very deep and thorough hibiscrub wound scrub/debridement as its called. I think its worth asking for trying to go with pain relief/sedation with buprenorphine rather than a full GA with ketamine etc if the vet would consider it, if you dont want another GA.
As well as not enough skin to fix the hole, and an allergy to suture material, Tallulah didnt have a great GA experience with her original surgery- it took 4 hours and 4 stimulant injections to wake her up after her op so our vet wasnt keen to try that again...ever...my vet is great with piggy surgery usually but Tallulah really scared them a lot I think!
 
PigglePuggle said:
I dont want to offer false hope because every situation is different of course, but Tallulah was pretty calm with a buprenorphine injection for pain relief/sedation then a very deep and thorough hibiscrub wound scrub/debridement as its called. I think its worth asking for trying to go with pain relief/sedation with buprenorphine rather than a full GA with ketamine etc if the vet would consider it, if you dont want another GA.
As well as not enough skin to fix the hole, and an allergy to suture material, Tallulah didnt have a great GA experience with her original surgery- it took 4 hours and 4 stimulant injections to wake her up after her op so our vet wasnt keen to try that again...ever...my vet is great with piggy surgery usually but Tallulah really scared them a lot I think!
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No of course, but it’s reassuring to hear there are other options! I think Tonks is “okay” with GA and such but I just feel that 3 in less than 3 weeks is playing with fire.

Besides, I’m not convinced that blocking the infection in is the right move anyway. Even with a drain... Especially as I think they’re still giving her baytril and not trying zithromax :(
 
Really hope she pulls through! But in my (admittedly very limited!) experience dont be too scared of a great big hole where you can see what's going on, and then there's less anaesthetising/opening/suturing etc. The big hole in Tallulah was freaky as hell but we could clean it and see if anything was obviously infected at home and just check in with the vet once a day... but again we didnt have a deep infection. Zithromax sounds good, some really knowledgable forum members recommend it, definitely lots of stuff to discuss with your vet anyway! Keep us updated and hope it goes well for Tonks x
 
Tonks is home, which is a bit bitter sweet. We’ve had to section off part of the cage for her and they’re trying to get to each other which is heartbreaking! They all seem happy to see each other though (the other 4 are finally making noises and are more active!) so it gives me hope that the bond isn’t broken.

Her wound is a lot bigger now, I was really shocked to see how big it is when the vet was showing me how to flush it etc. It’s about the size of a creme egg. I think she’s chewed it a bit since being home too which is frustrating as she’s bled a little :(

The bacteria is enterobacter which means the baytril she’s been on for 2 days was ineffective as it doesn’t treat that. She’s now back on the co-trimoxazole at double the dosage, but idk how much that will help as she was on that when the infection started...

Sadly Cat & Rabbit vets haven’t replied to my vet yet (she sent an email Monday and again today) so I’ve sent an email today as well in the hopes we hear back from them. I phoned them earlier as well and idk if it was Kim I spoke to but she said she’d look into emails. Especially worried as Simon is on holiday from Monday for two weeks so I’m anxious to hear back!

I’m just desperate to get her back to full health again. I can’t help but feel so powerless. Sorry for rambling on I’m just worried as hell :(
 
Ramble all you need to - that’s what we’re here for.
This is the place where people understand exactly how you feel.
Holding you and Tonks in my heart
 
Poor Tonks, and poor you, but at least she's home and can see her friends. Good luck with the wound flushes, and at least you know what bacteria you are up against now so have the right medicine! Sending hugs and manuka honey kisses and healing wheeks and vibes x
 
PigglePuggle said:
Poor Tonks, and poor you, but at least she's home and can see her friends. Good luck with the wound flushes, and at least you know what bacteria you are up against now so have the right medicine! Sending hugs and manuka honey kisses and healing wheeks and vibes x
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Thank you! They’re ordering some more manuka honey should be in Friday, for now we have intrasite gel to pack it with after the flushes. I just hope we’re doing everything right!
 
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