Piglet the Toothless and her eye: E-collar options?

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allcreatures

Post   » Wed Jun 18, 2008 1:40 pm


How do I keep my piggy from scratching at her injured eye, apart from an e-collar?

Backstory:
On April 4th we took in a 3 year old intact sow, renamed Piglet, who was missing both upper incisors.

Her owner took her to the vet when finding her drooling and thin due to her massively overgrown lowers. She'd been on a diet of 100% pellets, no hay, only the very rare baby carrot or bit of romaine.

Image

Click for big.

The owner surrendered her to the vet once they found out the cost and time of rehabbing the poor girl. She had her lowers trimmed and all the spurs taken off her molars, then the vet called me and asked if we could take her. I'm a sucker.

The vet wanted to extract the lower incisors. I said no, I want to see if the uppers would re-grow. They said the X-ray showed no sign of upper tooth buds, it ain't gonna happen. I said let's give it a few months, we'll trim in the interim.

Well, three trims and 2.5 months later there's still no upper teeth. I agree to let the vets extract the lowers. The surgery goes great, she eats like a horse the moment we get her home. However, her right eye was injured during her recovery - when we picked her up it was dry-looking, with a red abrasion. I made the vet re-examine her and he thinks she must have rubbed against the towel while waking up. She's on some antibiotic eye drops, but she's actively scratching at it and we have to stop that.

The vet has fashioned a temporary e-collar out of X-ray film (none on hand are small enough). I don't like that idea because I know how they interfere with cecal consumption and even regular eating. Poor girl doesn't need to have her eating interfered with (all she will eat is a CC/pellet/babyfood/pumpkin slurry, no hay except an occasional tiny leaf of alfalfa). But what else can I do to keep her feet out of her eye for a few days?

I've considered designing a one-sided e-collar: basically a giant rectangle to the right only, but open to the left and bottom. Not sure this would help. Worst case scenario, I leave the e-collar on, and hand feed her via syringe (including cecals) 24/7. I'll do that if it comes to it. But I'm hoping someone else will have a better, easier idea.

Anyone?

User avatar
Bugs Mom

Post   » Wed Jun 18, 2008 1:54 pm


When my little one was just a few months old she had eye surgery on her lashes. Her vet made her a collar which she had to wear about 3-4 days. I would think a collar was a better option than the scratching for such a short amount of time.

BTW she's adorable!

Tracis
Let Sleeping Pigs Lie

Post   » Wed Jun 18, 2008 2:04 pm


Piglet is very cute! I hope she has a speedy recovery.

Did your vet prescribe any pain medication?

This might be a better, more comfortable idea for an e-collar. Josephine suggested using interfacing to make one, in this thread.

User avatar
allcreatures

Post   » Wed Jun 18, 2008 2:16 pm


Did your vet prescribe any pain medication?

Absolutely, she's on metacam for the tooth removal. Also TMS, and the eyedrops are gentamycin and tobramycin, for anyone who cares.

Interesting idea on the interfacing. I've already designed a little muff to prevent the collar (whatever the material) from rubbing her neck. I could just iron the interfacing to attach it!

It's frustrating that there are so many options when you're trying to prevent the mouth from reaching a body wound, but not so many when you're trying to prevent the foot from reaching the head.

She absolutely is a darling pig. She's SO patient with all the prodding and medicating and assisted feeding and chin shaving, and literally purrs non stop the moment you start touching her. So sad that her life has been reduced to this. She can't have a buddy live with her because he'll eat all her slurry (she's in a divided C&C, though, so she has a little company) and she refuses to attempt any veggies any more, so there's not even a way for us to give her a treat. It's pathetic at veggie time - she's screaming along with everyone else, then I give her a bowl of minced whatever, and she just stares at it sadly. Breaks your heart.

Tracis
Let Sleeping Pigs Lie

Post   » Wed Jun 18, 2008 2:21 pm


If you can, you will have to post a photo of Piglet's e-collar. :)

Hopefully, her eye will heal fast and she will feel better soon. She sounds so sweet.

User avatar
Caspersmom

Post   » Wed Jun 18, 2008 10:08 pm


Have you tried hand-feeding her small strips of lettuce and veggies? I had to hand-feed Casper till she got the hang of eating small strips by herself; now she sits in a box on the couch 4 - 6 times a day for feeding time, so I can monitor what she's eating and how much.

Sometimes I have to pat her or annoy her by patting her butt to get her going, but once she's eating, she eats. She has her veggies in one bowl and her pellet mash in another. I put the leftover mash/veggies in her C&C cage with her and her mom, who sometimes eats it but I don't worry about it if I know Casper has had enough to eat.

User avatar
salana
GL is Just Peachy

Post   » Wed Jun 18, 2008 11:31 pm


What about wrapping up her foot so her claws can't reach the eye?

User avatar
allcreatures

Post   » Thu Jun 19, 2008 10:29 am


What about wrapping up her foot so her claws can't reach the eye?
You know, I discounted that because all the archived threads said the pig would just chew off the bandage, but I didn't consider that since this one has no teeth that shouldn't be an issue! I'll get some vet wrap and try that the first day we go without the e-collar.

Have you tried hand-feeding her small strips of lettuce and veggies?

Oh, yes. She won't have any part of it. When she first came in, she was under 600g, and ravenous - she would eat romaine, kale, baby lettuce, banana, and tomato on her own if I minced it into 1/4" or smaller bits. Over the course of the first month, as she got her strength up, she realized that slurry and baby food are easier to eat, and she gave up on veggies. I still offer her diced veggies and she usually ignores them, while standing with both paws and nose pressed into the slurry.

I tried all the fragrant herbs - basil, dill, cilantro, parsley, mint - and wheatgrass as "handfeeding" foods. She really HATES when I poke something in her mouth, including syringes until she realize something good comes out. I'm actually slightly afraid that I made her hate parsley because I kept tormenting her with it. She's never touched it in any form.

Until this eye thing happened, getting her to eat more veggies/hay was the next step after the tooth removal. It's frustrating that this probably happened at the vet, during a major surgery, due to someone being careless or not watching her carefully during recovery. I'm also slightly worried that somehow during pulling teeth they damaged the nerve that allows her to close her eye, because I haven't seen her close it as much as I would expect, given the discomfort she's in.

So here's our update (click for bigger on all of these):

Here is a good shot of her bad eye, with the e-collar the vet put on her:

Image


It's a bird e-collar, so it's very stiff and wide. He cut the inner hole up to accommodate the larger neck of a pig, but she couldn't move around at all without it hitting the ground.

I took it off the moment I got home last night and offered her some slurry (one with pellets, one with critical care, both mixed with baby food and pedialyte).

Image
NOM NOM NOM

She ate about 12g of food in addition to another 15g that the vet had syringed into her about an hour before this. So at least the tooth extraction isn't interfering with her appetite at all!

While she was eating, I made this e-collar out of interfacing:
Image
This was an excellent suggestion, thanks!!

Piglet still was not happy about it, though.
Image

I left it on overnight, and this morning she was still wearing it. She had obviously continued to eat somewhat through the night, and her eye looked a little bit better - still dryish, but not quite as red. I took it off for an hour this morning, and although she wasn't too interested in breakfast apart from the carrot mush, I watched her eat cecals 5-10 times and do quite a bit of grooming. She only went after her eye once so I might try leaving it off tomorrow if her eye continues to improve.

Also, for anyone who is interested, there is a picture of the extracted teeth:
Image They're sitting on a GL weight sheet, so that should give you some size reference by the size of those printed boxes. The blue lines roughly indicate where the gumline was.

Tracis
Let Sleeping Pigs Lie

Post   » Thu Jun 19, 2008 10:44 am


Your photos are wonderful! I'm so glad that the interfacing worked as a softer e-collar for Piglet. Her eye looks so sore in your picture.

I hope she changes her mind about trying new foods once she is feeling better. She has been through so much in such a short time.

Sending more healing thoughts for sweet Piglet!

User avatar
Bugs Mom

Post   » Thu Jun 19, 2008 11:04 am


Piglet, you're very stylish in your collar. Sending good thoughts your way and hoping you learn to eat all the good things that are out there.

Josephine
Little Jo Wheek

Post   » Thu Jun 19, 2008 5:07 pm


Ha! I love the interfacing collars. It is stiff, but not too stiff and keeps them away from their eye. I used those collars when I had a sow with corrective entropion surgery. It really helped--especially when I was hospitalized for my ruputred appendix and my not as vigilant parents had to monitor her post op.


Cavies and rabbits do REALLY well with their incisors missing since most of the work is done by their molars and premolars. I hope her recovery continues smoothly!

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Thu Jun 19, 2008 10:59 pm


Yes, your pics are great! Let me know if I can add them to the thread for future readers.

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