Beechie had an exploratory op yesterday. He has for the past year had probems with this guts, starting off with a case of full-blown stasis and subsequently always having pain towards his hind leg area and bouts of squishy poos. He has been on zantac and metacam and is relatively in-active spending a lot of time hiding under his fleece but does come out when there are veggies to be had. Some veggies (brassicas, unfresh spinach or just too much veggies ) can trigger an episode.
On X ray a large mass was suspected, attached either to the spleen or gut, so after much soul-searching, he was booked in for an exploratory op yesterday with a view to removing it if possible or at the very least taking a biopsy.
He was X rayed again before the op and there was no evidence of the mass but still an area of radio-opacity so vet decided to go in.
He found that the cause of the gut problems was a series of adhesions of the gut to itself and other tissues. This slows the stomach emptying (it was apparently very distended) and also causes distension of the guts as food gets stuck and the guts don;t move properly (ileus) The vet has freed some of the adhesions but left the rest alone for fear of damaging his intestines.
Now as the the cause of the adhesions........a past infection in the abdomen and/or previous disturbance of the tissues during a past op.
Beechies only abdominal op (he had abcesses renoved from his mouth/cheek the previous year) was a neutering carried out over a year ago by what used to be my local practice...who had performed many neuterings and other surgery for me before with no problems. I had 5 piggies neutered/spayed that day including Beechie....but by a locum vet..... and was very unhappy with the outcome....one developed an internal abdominal abcess (now sorted), two died within two months of the op but to be fair at the time their deaths weren;t linked to the surgery (one was a ruptured thoracic duct and the other was un-known wasting) ......and just Muffin and Beechie seemed to have "got away with it". However it was enough to prompt me to change vets.
Beechie's gut stasis happened two months after his neutering following 4 weeks of baytril for a URI (which we now believe could have been a virus rather than the normal bacteria hence why the baytril didn;t work)...and this episode may also have contributed to the adhesions that developed.
So despite the fact that the neutering in Beechie looked to be OK at the time with no complications - he possibly had a low level infection in the abdomen at the time that eventually cured itself.....and tissues were disturbed during the surgery (quite high up in the abdomen considering it was a neutering operation).
Beechie has recovered well and apart from a 5cm long incision and a cold belly through lack of fur; he is back to his normal self. I'm really pleased he has no lump....and relieved that we have finally identified the cause of his "irritable bowel". Long term he will continue to be managed on daily zantac (4mg/kg) and metacam when he is in pain together with the odd dose of metaclopromide if needed.
Thought I;d share this info for anyone who has a piggie with difficult to determine gut problems.....or for those whose vets don;t routinely prescribe antibiotics post op when neutering piggies......personally I am going to insist on septrin post-op for any future neuterings.
x
On X ray a large mass was suspected, attached either to the spleen or gut, so after much soul-searching, he was booked in for an exploratory op yesterday with a view to removing it if possible or at the very least taking a biopsy.
He was X rayed again before the op and there was no evidence of the mass but still an area of radio-opacity so vet decided to go in.
He found that the cause of the gut problems was a series of adhesions of the gut to itself and other tissues. This slows the stomach emptying (it was apparently very distended) and also causes distension of the guts as food gets stuck and the guts don;t move properly (ileus) The vet has freed some of the adhesions but left the rest alone for fear of damaging his intestines.
Now as the the cause of the adhesions........a past infection in the abdomen and/or previous disturbance of the tissues during a past op.
Beechies only abdominal op (he had abcesses renoved from his mouth/cheek the previous year) was a neutering carried out over a year ago by what used to be my local practice...who had performed many neuterings and other surgery for me before with no problems. I had 5 piggies neutered/spayed that day including Beechie....but by a locum vet..... and was very unhappy with the outcome....one developed an internal abdominal abcess (now sorted), two died within two months of the op but to be fair at the time their deaths weren;t linked to the surgery (one was a ruptured thoracic duct and the other was un-known wasting) ......and just Muffin and Beechie seemed to have "got away with it". However it was enough to prompt me to change vets.
Beechie's gut stasis happened two months after his neutering following 4 weeks of baytril for a URI (which we now believe could have been a virus rather than the normal bacteria hence why the baytril didn;t work)...and this episode may also have contributed to the adhesions that developed.
So despite the fact that the neutering in Beechie looked to be OK at the time with no complications - he possibly had a low level infection in the abdomen at the time that eventually cured itself.....and tissues were disturbed during the surgery (quite high up in the abdomen considering it was a neutering operation).
Beechie has recovered well and apart from a 5cm long incision and a cold belly through lack of fur; he is back to his normal self. I'm really pleased he has no lump....and relieved that we have finally identified the cause of his "irritable bowel". Long term he will continue to be managed on daily zantac (4mg/kg) and metacam when he is in pain together with the odd dose of metaclopromide if needed.
Thought I;d share this info for anyone who has a piggie with difficult to determine gut problems.....or for those whose vets don;t routinely prescribe antibiotics post op when neutering piggies......personally I am going to insist on septrin post-op for any future neuterings.
x
