Olivia Tripod's Med Thread

unicornvr

Post   » Tue Jan 27, 2009 4:49 pm


Olivia is a 3 year old pig with 3 legs as one front leg was amputated when she was about 4 weeks old due to a fracture.

Olivia had a triple bumblefoot, so the vet put her on a diet (no pellets) and had her on Cipro and Meloxicam for 3 weeks. She was also put on restricted movement with foam padding underneath her regular bedding to take pressure off the feet. The front foot appears to have healed (1 month later) fairly well but the back feet still look bad.

The vet has made little booties for her. There is a donut that goes around the outside bottom of the foot to relieve the pressure off the center of the foot. Then a small gauze pad with derma gel. Finally this is wrapped with vet wrap to create the bootie. These are to be changed every 1-3 days depending on how the bootie look.

I have taken photos but am currently unable to upload them. I'll upload as soon as possible. I really hope the booties help her heal.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Tue Jan 27, 2009 5:35 pm


I hope they help. Bumblefoot can be difficult to manage.

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dgarriques
Got Pigs?

Post   » Tue Jan 27, 2009 6:52 pm


Poor Olivia. I hope she fets better soon.

Tracis
Let Sleeping Pigs Lie

Post   » Wed Jan 28, 2009 12:37 am


Sending good thoughts for Olivia, and I hope the custom-made booties help her to heal.

TwoWhitePiggies

Post   » Thu Jan 29, 2009 3:34 am


Poor Olivia! I have no experience with bumblefoot, so I can't offer any advice. I hope the booties make her more comfortable.

unicornvr

Post   » Wed Feb 18, 2009 7:57 pm


The booties have helped her feet immensely. The swelling went down immediately. Saltwater soaks helped remove the old, dead skin and scabs. The bad problem with the booties is that if she lay down on her side, she could not get back up. She has lost some weight from this. The vet said to continue antibiotics and antiinflammatory meds, but discontinue the booties for now. She recommended foam padding now that is not solid, but pieces of foam so that she will sink in and have much less pressure on her feet.

Vet also wanted to do penicillin injections. She said when she looked this up, it said absolutely to not give to guineas, but did not say why. She wanted to go the injection rout because it could be weekly and would also not stress the GI tract like oral antibiotics.

Photos aren't the best, but you get the idea.

Original bumble photo

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After 3-4 weeks of antibiotics and meloxicam

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Booties!

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After 1-2 weeks of booties

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Wed Feb 18, 2009 8:56 pm


Poor girl! It does look like there has been significant improvement. I take it you are/will be slowly nibbling away at those toenails? Some of her problem moving around might be from the length.

Your pics are great. Let me know if you'd like me to add them to this thread.

maremma

Post   » Wed Feb 18, 2009 11:19 pm


Aww the poor baby! Bless her little heart.

Has this baby had her heart checked? I ask because sores that I couldn't get healed were the only "sign" I had from him at first that he had a heart condition, fluid retention in his feet is how it all started. (Which I thought was all swelling from the blistered sores I couldn't get rid of for him.)

After a week long course of lasix (along with his permanant lotensin) we finally made great head way with his feet. They are completely healed! I of course am constantly on guard and look at his feet every day. if I see the puffy reddening start developing, I know he need a round of lasix, kept of soft fleece and aloe on his feet then he is fine again.

I agree with Lynx concerning her nails. Jimmy had really bad nails when I first took him in and it made him not able to wAlk right. It was quite painful for him.

Also I see her bottom is wet and stained with urine. Please do your best to gently wasH her there frequently so she doesn't wind up with painful sores from urine scald or bladder infections from sitting in pee.

unicornvr

Post   » Thu Feb 19, 2009 3:29 pm


As far as the urine goes, she gets salt soaked once daily and everything gets washed away. Perhaps we should up it to twice?

You're right about the nails! I tend to cut all my animals a bit long cause I'm afraid of hitting the quick. Her nails also had an extra layer grow around them w/the bumble foot, which made it even harder to see. I will have my SO clip them as she doesn't have the same reservations I do!

Thanks for the heads up about the heart probs. The vet is pretty sure it's because she only has three legs, but it's definitely worth looking into. How do they check the heart?

maremma

Post   » Fri Feb 20, 2009 12:37 am


They can do an xray to se if it is enlarged or if their is fluid around it or in the lungs. You can't always hear fluid even with a stethascope. When I took my one boy in the vet said his chest sounded clear but the xrays made it very clear that he as in desprate need of lasix and lotensin.

Unfortunately not all vets (even cavy vets) are real good at dealing with heart issues. Some still even refuse to acknowledge it is a very common problem for them. I have encountered one of the vets that didn't know any better when my favorite was unavailable.
He was looking at a very enlarged heart with fluid around it then told me the heart was perfectly fine! Thank God at that point I knew exactly what I was seeing and have lotensin and lasix on hand and the ability to get more with just a phone call so I began treatment for him immediatey too.

There are pictures on this site somewhere that show you x-rays of a normal sized heart and an enlarged one. I can't recall where but I know I saw them here. I can't remember if there are pictures that show you how to tell if their is fluid around the heart or not but I can tell you that my pigs that showed fluid had a hazy/fuzziness surrounding the heart and the vet confirmed that what I was seeing was indeed the fluid. Perhaps we can find them and you can print them and take them with you to the vet?

My first heart pig we even did EKG's on and re-xrayed her six months after starting treatment. The lotensin work wonders for stopping the enlargment as it got no larger and the xray showed a much more crisp looking heart with no hazing aorund it at all from the lasix treatment to get all the fluid out of her. Her EKG stablized and the second one showed her heart was acting just like a perfectly healthy one to my great relief and joy.

EKG's are not necessary to find or treat heart disease but my Lovebug was the first pig my vet had ever tried to treat for heart disease so we wanted to try to gather as much information as possible for future reference. She is wonderful about researching and being willing to listen and try things if I ask we at least try.

I would definately be washing her more frequently than one time daily since she has such moblilty issues. Think of it this way. If the urine had enough time to stain her hair it has enough time to make her sore on the outside or worse give her an infection on the inside.

With her nails you need to just clip some of the tip then wait a few days then clip a bit more and so on. This gives the quick time to retract before you clip more so you don't cut into the blood supply. Once you get them all the way back to the right size it will be easy to keep them that way.

Tracis
Let Sleeping Pigs Lie

Post   » Fri Feb 20, 2009 1:28 am


More information about signs of heart problems, along with comparative x-rays, can be found here:
https://www.guinealynx.info/heart.html

unicornvr

Post   » Wed Feb 25, 2009 7:30 pm


Blah, I ended up clipping her nails and got a single bead of blood from 3 or 4 toes, though she didn't react. I must have let the quick get long. Will keep a better eye on it.

Partner bought shredded foam to bed her on. She got it from JoAnn's. Put it in a garbage bag, then put whelping pad on top and fleece on top of that. It has helped a TON! No more booties hopefully. Will post more pics on the weekend to document her progress.

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