Olivia Tripod's Med Thread

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lisam

Post   » Wed Feb 25, 2009 9:03 pm


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.


Can you take photos of what the booties look like before they are wrapped on?

unicornvr

Post   » Sun Apr 05, 2009 9:35 pm


Olivia was getting much much better after bedding her on the shredded foam. She was able to go off the medication. We took the cage partition down and moved her back in with the other girls.

The cage now has two litter boxes with carefresh on either end and the whole middle is shredded foam with a whelping pad on top and fleece on top of that.

After moving her back in with the other girls, her feet looked a bit worse, so we started her back on the anti-inflammatory. We think we may have to bandage her feet once a week or so for 1-3 days, but we'll see.

And the much delayed bootie photos!

Ingredients:

1 Self adhesive gauze roll (or vetwrap).
1 gauze pad cut to size.
Dermagel

Cut 3 strips of gauze wrap and lay them on top of each other.

Image

This is the approximate length the triple piece should be to make one circle. Once you have the triple piece, roll it up hotdog style to form a tiny, but very long cylinder. Then make a circle out of it. Repeat so you have one for each foot.

Image

Lay your pieces at the ready!

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Put a tiny dollop of dermagel on the cut gauze pad. Place the dermagel area on the bumble.

Image

The bumble should be in the middle of the ring, so no pressure is on it.

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Use the self adhesive gauze wrap to wrap the circle and gauze pad onto the foot. Be CERTAIN to leave the toes out of the bandage and check frequently to make sure the toes aren't swollen (circulation being restricted). If toes are swollen, you will need to rewrap. We also had a rubbing sore on the top of the foot so we added some gauze pad on top and everything was fine!

Image

Hope this helps!

Tracis
Let Sleeping Pigs Lie

Post   » Sun Apr 05, 2009 10:03 pm


Your pictures are excellent. The booties are a great idea. :)

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sun Apr 05, 2009 10:04 pm


Great pics! Interestingly, I always thought it was best to wrap the entire foot with the toes inside. I thought that was how Pinta did it too. Looks like you are protecting the foot quite well.

User avatar
salana
GL is Just Peachy

Post   » Sun Apr 05, 2009 10:09 pm


Well, if you leave the toes out, you have a visual indicator of circulation in the foot. But wrapping them up would probably be good for bad cases of mites or other times you wouldn't want them to be able to scratch.

User avatar
TWP_2

Post   » Sun Apr 05, 2009 11:01 pm


I'm glad her feet are getting better. The booties look pretty cute on her.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Apr 06, 2009 9:02 am


unicornvr, let me know if you'd like me to add your pics permanently to the thread.

unicornvr

Post   » Mon Apr 06, 2009 5:31 pm


Lynx - I think that would be a good idea. I can't believe the immediate improvement we saw with the booties. Hopefully they can help others out facing the same dilemma.

I think it's best to leave the toes out in this case, because it can be hard to gauge how tightly to wrap the circle/donut on the foot. The vet said wrap a bit more loosely over the top of the foot and a bit more tightly round the donut. We went through a couple days of readjustments when the toes looked swollen before we got it just right!

I would also highly recommend having two people for this. One to hold and one to wrap.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Apr 06, 2009 11:38 pm


Thanks! I cropped and optimized the pics and added them to the thread.

unicornvr

Post   » Sun Mar 20, 2011 9:04 am


Olivia falls over and cannot right herself a lot. It can happen up to once a day.

She has to be on crushed foam bedding or she gets bumblefoot. I would say she is slightly overweight. She is free fed hay and lots of greens, about 1/16c pellets per day. (I scatter 1/8c in the cage for the two girls).

Any suggestions on how to keep her upright?

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sun Mar 20, 2011 11:35 am


Can you slowly remove the pellets? Encourage more movement around the cage?

What is crushed foam bedding?

I am sorry she is doing poorly.

If she was having difficulty walking, a cart of some sort might help her move and stay upright. I wonder if some sort of "outrigger" wheels could help her stay upright? Would depend on obstacles in the cage and you'd need a smooth floor.

unicornvr

Post   » Sun Mar 20, 2011 1:19 pm


I have a link to the crushed foam in post from 2/25/09 in this thread. It's basically foam that's shredded into small pieces. I have it in several garbage bags in the cage. Then a whelping pad on top of the garbage bad. Then fleece on top of that. It completely cushions the cage floor. We have tried for a flat floor a couple times since the bumbles, but she shows signs of redness fairly soon.

I put the food all over the cage so she has to hop around to get it. She doesn't really have mobility issues actually. I can call her from the other side of the cage with a treat and she will come over quickly. It's just that if she hits the floor wrong, she will tumble onto her back. Because of the lack of the front foot, she can't right herself. This wouldn't happen on a flat floor, but I don't think we have that option.

I could probably phase out the pellets for a while. Would I have to worry about nutrients? They get a mix of four greens a week - whatever's good at the grocery. Timothy and/or bluegrass hay. The hay is wetted and added daily.

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