Gracie - Very Sore Eye

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Bugs Mom

Post   » Tue Jun 21, 2011 11:39 am


I would think an x-ray would have shown any arthritis but maybe it was just missed? I'd discuss this with her vet and try and find out why the muscle is deteriorating in just the one leg. A small dose of pain meds might help if she's uncomfortable with the leg.

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BamBam

Post   » Tue Jun 21, 2011 11:43 am


Arthrotabs can be quite useful. I will check the dosage I use when I get home if its of interest.

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Trick

Post   » Tue Jun 21, 2011 11:54 am


Apparently the x-ray showed no difference at all between her front legs so we're at a bit of a loss. The vet thinks arthritis due to her age and the leg not being sore to touch etc. We've got metacam for her just now to see how she progresses as she reacted well to pain meds before.

We do have an expert guinea pig vet further away who we can go see. I'll keep an eye on how she progresses with the pain meds... Letting her settle back in now - Gracie does not do well at the vets, I think she's been playing dead the entire time again :/

Anything and everything that could help her is of interest! I think either way we'll go see Good Vet soon to see what he thinks.

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Bugs Mom

Post   » Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:12 pm


When you do go to see "Good Vet" perhaps an ultrasound of the offending leg would help. X-rays only show hard matter where an ultrasound shows soft tissue.

Please give Gracie a gentle hug from me and tell her I don't do well at my "vets" either ; )

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Trick

Post   » Tue Jun 21, 2011 1:04 pm


Thanks Bugs Mom, that's good to know! We took her to our local vets just so we could rule out anything urgent really, like breaks or tumour etc. We'll sort something out with Good Vet to see exactly what we're dealing with.

Poor Gracie has never come around to being petted or enjoying hugs - I think Rosie likes them enough for both of them! But she does love her critical care so that cheered her up hugely :)

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Tue Jun 21, 2011 9:13 pm


It was my understanding that arthritis would show up on an xray. Looking forward to having your "good vet" return.

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Trick

Post   » Fri Nov 11, 2011 4:16 pm


(Regarding the above, we took Gracie off the pain meds to see how she went and her leg has been absolutely fine ever since. I'm thinking it was a particularly bad sprain, as she's been her spright old self for months now!)

Gracie started squeaking in pain when she was peeing and we took her to the vet who confirmed there was definitely blood in her urine and to first try a course of baytril. Gracie seemed to improve so we thought we'd cracked it, but last night she started whimpering when she peed again so we took her back.

As agreed at the last visit, this time Gracie was x-rayed and got an ultrasound. Her bladder came back clear of stones but there was however calcium build up - not in the bladder but in the urethra.

We have more baytril for Gracie and we'll give her extra fluids too. We have four water bottles in the pen (for three pigs) and two of those are for cranberry juice which we've done for years (as Purdie has interstitial cystitis). We've also been very diet aware for years as Brie (who passed away) had major issues with vegetables high in calcium (and romaine lettuce etc) and we never switched back.

They do get Oxbow pellets and I've seen suggestions in other threads that this might be a problem? They've been on them since they were babies (all our pigs are 5 years old now) and we're in the UK so the only other decent option is Burgess I think. Recently we ran out of pellets so bought some Burgess - perhaps this is a cause?

Her behaviour is generally okay - her appetite is fine, as is her mobility. But when she does need to pass urine she sits hunched up for a long time, and her cries are a lot worse. There have been no calcium deposits in her urine.

Is there anything else we can do for her?

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Bethie
Still supporting in 2014

Post   » Fri Nov 11, 2011 4:39 pm


Isn't Burgess lucerne based? I think that has more calcium than Oxbow. I hope she manages to pee it all out okay.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Fri Nov 11, 2011 7:39 pm


Have you tried trimethoprim/sulfamethoxizole (some form of Bactrim)?? www.guinealynx.info/.html It is generally well tolerated and quite effective for UTIs. I wonder if the urethra needs flushing. Sometimes calcium deposits can kind of get embedded in the bladder walls - I wonder if anything similar is happening in the urethra. Is it a continuous darkness? Not a bunch of stones? I would increase fluids, maybe try a vibrator.

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Trick

Post   » Sat Nov 12, 2011 8:11 am


It's definitely not stones, and she got a lot of fluids put through her yesterday at the vets (which may explain the increased pain afterwards?).

Bactrim would definitely have been better, damn - it's been such a long time since we needed antibiotics, I've forgotten this stuff. Gracie does tolerate baytril well at least. Thanks Lynx - I'm so used to heart stuff I feel like a newbie with everything else again!

I didn't realise Burgess was lucerne hay, argh. They were on it briefly before but that was when they were babies. They started getting it about a month ago and loved it so we were using up the rest of the bag along with their Cavy Cuisine. I've removed it now, I'm almost 100% sure that would be what caused it given the rest of their diet is balanced. Thank you Bethie!

I'll see if I can get some kind of vibrating pad for her, and we're giving her lots of fluids which thankfully she is happy to take!

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Sun Nov 13, 2011 1:29 am


The vibrating pad is a great idea. Hopefully it may even loosen some of the calcium coating her urethra so she can pee it out.

Best to her and to you.

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Trick

Post   » Tue Oct 30, 2012 4:44 pm


Gracie recovered from all of the above, and has since dealt with a case of bumblefoot that cleared up as well - I swear my girls have a medical encyclopaedia to choose their predicaments from!

Gracie is now 6 and a half years old, as are Rosie and Purdie. However, Rosie and Purdie both behave like elderly pigs - both are on heart meds and sleep a lot, and aren't really interested in playing.

Gracie on the other hand is still round and soft, with bags of energy, and as she's always been ridiculously intelligent, I've been really worried about her boredom levels. We noticed her pulling hair off of Purdie a few times. Gracie always used to get the other pigs to chase her (even though she's always been the Number Two pig) by tugging at them and running off. Now of course Purdie isn't up for it, so the hair comes right out.

I've been keeping her occupied with toys to help as unfortunately Gracie is not a fan of lap time, or of playing with the stinky humans.

Last night when I was putting ointment on her foot (the bumblefoot has cleared up but it happened because of hard skin on that foot tearing), we noticed that she has also barbered herself - right in the middle of her tummy. Yes, she is that flexible! It's not near her nipples, it's right down the middle and higher up than that, and I've seen her grooming there but thought that's all it was.


So! Is this a boredom thing? Or could it be medical? Her weight and behaviour are all normal. She's in heat at the moment, but not aggressively so, and this must have taken longer than that to do this.

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