Yipes! Poor Nina has a badly swollen foot!

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Evangeline

Post   » Mon Apr 14, 2003 2:37 pm


Ouch!

I'd keep her on pain killers for sure.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Fri Apr 18, 2003 10:54 am


Here's a pic from this morning. You can see how much skin is missing now. I think it's been about 6 days since the skin was pulled off and it doesn't seem to be scabbing, healing, or doing much of anything. I am somewhat worried about the darker flesh near the toes. But I don't know that there is anything else I can do besides the baytril, antibiotic ointment, and bandage wraps.

As a recap, the swollen foot (more swollen than this pic) was noticed 2 weeks ago tomorrow. Her foot was soaked and she got some bactrim until Monday when a vet anesthetized her and cleaned out the apparently infected area (foot pad). She got 0.5mg/kg baytril 2 X day plus twice daily soaks and flushes with a chlorhexederm solution for a week until she pulled off the wrap and some of her skin. Then once daily or just flushes of open sore on sole to try to allow the skin on top to heal. Then she pulled off some more skin a day or two later.

If anyone familiar with injuries where skin has been removed has any helpful comments, I would appreciate them. The amount the foot is swollen went down somewhat but seems to have stabilized and is still more swollen than normal.

In addition, her left foot (the other one) has been soaked daily for the last few days and Preparation H ointment applied (advice from a friend who has had good luck with its healing and soothing properties, recc. by her vet).

Besides putting ointment on the right foot pictured below, I am using a product recommended to prevent chewing on injuries, sprayed on on top of the triple antibiotic ointment before wrapping (in case she pulls the wrap off). It is sold by vets and called "Chew Guard". You can see what it looks like here: www.guinealynx.info/photos/chewguard.jpg This product is peppery -- it has antiseptic properties and is supposedly safe to put directly on wounds. When sprayed, it creats a fine mist so you want to cover your animal's face and avoid inhaling it yourself. I will be using it on her paw once the dressing is off, was advised not to put it on the inside of her foot so she doesn't rub it in her eyes when cleaning.

Image

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Fri Apr 18, 2003 2:09 pm


Addendum: I stopped by my vet's office with my camera and a pic of her foot (that you couldn't see very well). He suggested 10 more days of 5mg/kg baytril q12h, soak the whole foot once a day in a chlorhexedine dilute solution and not putting any antibiotic ointment on the injury. Just the telfa pad, guaze, and bandage. A friend of mine who has seen alot of injuries thinks the paw is looking better.

I'm taking all the pigs to the vet next Wed (Snowflake and Kitten to compare feet). And see what he thinks about Nina's general health and if heart meds would be indicated.

Charybdis

Post   » Fri Apr 18, 2003 2:20 pm


Poor baby. I hope that the swelling goes down soon. Painkillers would definitely help. Maybe she was chewing on it because it hurt her.

Lynx, when you get a chance, would it be possible to add the Rimadyl and Meloxicam dosing information to the "medications" sticky? It would be very helpful for people to have as a reference. The Reglan dosing information would be great to add too.

The meloxicam dosing info is in my thread on Humphrey:

https://www.guinealynx.info/forums/viewt ... 9&start=20

The Reglan dosing information is on this thread:

https://www.guinealynx.info/forums/viewt ... ight=bloat

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Fri Apr 18, 2003 2:27 pm


I have been thinking of doing it also. I just want to get it right -- and have time to do it. Nina is no longer limping and I have been giving her a painkiller for the last 6 days.

The information I really need to find is the cautions for the common medications like aspirin, acetominophen and ibuprophen. Because they are so readily available, people may feel they can use them but not be aware of some of the associated problems. And ideally they would be prescribed by a vet.

For example, ibuprophen is in a coated form so it does not irritate our stomaches as much, but a cut up pill would have no such coating if given to a guinea pig. It is hard to know what is safe and under what circumstances. I want to avoid self diagnosing if possible.

Charybdis

Post   » Fri Apr 18, 2003 2:32 pm


That's a good idea. Personally, I would never give aspirin or ibuprofen to my pigs, but then again I always have Meloxicam on hand.

Hopefully someone will come along with information about the side effects of both those OTC drugs on cavies.

I think the painkiller and reglan dosing information would be helpful not just for people like me who have supplies, but for vets who are new to cavies.

Didn't someone recently OD their pig on Meloxicam? Or was that a result of mis-reading the label?

Glad to hear that Nina is feeling a little better.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sat Apr 26, 2003 10:58 pm


Charybdis, I added some pain medications, motility drugs, and heart drugs to the medications page. Don't have a dose up for the ACE inhibitors though. I can't find it mentioned in any of my books.

Meloxicam is apparently a new drug (okayed in 2000). It doesn't appear in any of my med books. I found some internet references and decided to only use the lower dose and drop the higher range.

Reglan dosing information is widely available in multiple references so vets should have no difficulty using it.

Oh, and Nina seems to be doing okay. The skin seems to be healing (more or less) and she is still on 0.5mg/kg baytril 2Xday. She's eating well and fairly happy.

I do think my soaking the other foot in the chlorhexidine solution has helped it.

Charybdis

Post   » Sat Apr 26, 2003 11:54 pm


Glad to hear about Nina's recovery.

I like what you've done with the medications page. That will be the first place we send vets on our referral list. Thanks for taking the time to put that information up there.

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KarasKavies
For the love of my girls!

Post   » Sun Apr 27, 2003 3:53 am


Poor baby. It is so hard to see them "injured" in any way. I am glad she is doing a little better. What a long 2 weeks it has been for you too.

I wish I had something helpful to add. The one rescue sow I had with bumbblefoot took many weeks to heal, but it finally did. What seemed tohelp the most was wrapping the foot. Pinta mentioned to include the toes... that really helped a lot. I used the Nexcare "Active" bandaids. They are kind of spongy and stretchy. They stayed on quite well. The wrapping, including the toes, really, really helped.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sun Apr 27, 2003 8:02 am


I have the feeling I'll always be watching them. It was very discouraging to have Nina remove some of the skin on the top of her foot. While things are getting better (I hope), the wrapped foot certainly does not look normal any more and is still larger than the other one, the toes curled and more swollen. It will be hard to decide when to quit wrapping the foot. I figure it will be a minimum of another week, perhaps two weeks or more before I can consider leaving it unwrapped.

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KarasKavies
For the love of my girls!

Post   » Tue Apr 29, 2003 11:01 pm


How is Nina's foot? I hope the wrapping is helping. It is a long and tedious recovery for sure.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Wed Apr 30, 2003 7:26 am


She'll get her last dose of baytril this morning. So it's been 3 and a half weeks or so since I found her foot swollen.

I need to know more from people who have had pigs with bumblefoot. Maybe I'll make a list of questions to try to get enough information. I think it would help me to decide what kind of maintenance care I need to do on both front feet. Her back feet look okay at this time. She is such a soft little pig. At least she is back to making her happy noises.

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