[KarasKavies]

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.

[Lynx]

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.

[KarasKavies]

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

[Lynx]

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.

[KarasKavies]

I know that Patty's foot took months to heal. I had her then T had her and then I was in contact with her new mom. I got her in July and her new mom told me in Feb. that the last scab had finally fallen off. Geeze, that's a total of 7 months. During the months that I had her, it got MUCH better. Then it just kind of slowed down. BUT... it did heal!

[Lynx]

Well, for what it's worth, I decided not to wrap it yesterday. From watching her I felt it was worth not putting on the peppery spray to keep her from biting at it, since she generally showed no interest and I hoped it was originally done because of pain, discomfort and swelling. She did indeed leave it alone. This pic is about 4 weeks after I first noticed the swelling and a bit under 3 weeks since she pulled the skin off the top of her foot.

Things look healed and not swollen. I was concerned that her toes were going to stay squished together because of the wraps and felt getting some air and exercise might allow them to return to normal. This is what the top of her foot looks like today:

[Charybdis]

Good news on the healing!

[lisam]

That looks much better.

[Jill]

I want to know how you get her to stay still!

[Lynx]

I don't know why she stands still either. I think she is resigned, but she never really gave me a hard time. What I would do was pet her, rub her jaws and talk to her. I'd usually get over five minutes of soaking time then thoroughly dry with a blow drier (after blotting off). She has taken to shivering so maybe she is scared too.

By the way, I have settled on a quarter cup of water and 1/4 tsp. of chlorhexidine gluconate. I prewarm the heavy feeding bowl with hot water, do a warm water mix and go get her for a soak. The feeding bowl is ideal as it holds the heat a bit and is very stable. I used to mix up 1/2 cup of solution but she got too wet. The smaller amount is adequate to cover her feet.

[Jill]

She's a beautiful girl. Glad to hear her foot is better. Are you writing down your soakin and wrapping techniques? I'd never be able to remember the details.

[Lynx]

I may stick up a page with my experiences and what I used (and what didn't work). I think this is going to be somewhat ongoing and I will always have to keep track of her feet.

[drsgr]

She certainly is beautiful. She seems to really enjoy the footsoak! Makes me want to prepare one for myself!
Susan

[mysticunicorn66]

i use Nolvasan Otic solution to clean the dogs ears. I don't know if it would work for that, but Valley Vet Supply has some other versions of it. I get mine from the vet or from http://www.valleyvet.com/ online. I get a lot of things for my dogs through them.

[mysticunicorn66]

See site for the Nolvasan Antiseptic info: http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=2e87beb8-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5

[Lynx]

Interesting to see they make a chlorhexidine cream. I was using the antiseptic solution for soaks.

I'd love to know precisely what treatment is best for maintaining her feet. the left one (unwrapped) looks slightly swollen but never as bad as the one I treated. I soak both her feet and apply the Prep H. My plan, once both foot bottoms look more similar, is to try BNP on one and prep H on the other to see if one works better. Might be interesting to try the Nolvasan cream.

As for Nina being beautiful, she is a wonderful pig and very soft and squeaky. I imagine you may have seen this pic of her when she got into a tight spot once -- I don't know what she was thinking. Story in Cavy Chronicles.

[drsgr]

I remember that picture!...I personally think she was going for a slim waistline look. ;-)
Susan

[smiley]

Great fashion statement!

[GP Lover]

Hey Lynx, glad to hear Nina's foot is so much better. You make a wonderful cavy nurse!

[Becky]

Her foot looks so much better. Good news.

I think she liked the foot soak. Wouldn't mind one, myself, either.