Petunia's Medical Thread

Macylu

Post   » Sun Feb 03, 2013 6:15 pm


I drop her off in the morning. I am SO nervous, and to make things worse we are getting more snow overnight which will make the drive across the isthmus even more nerve wracking. Any last minute words of advice? I really appreciate the support I have gotten here, it means a lot.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sun Feb 03, 2013 10:50 pm


I've added Talishan's fine advice to the post op page and included a link on the pain page to the post op advice.

www.guinealynx.info/.html#pain

Macylu

Post   » Mon Feb 04, 2013 8:38 pm


Petunia is home. Surgery was finished somewhere around 12:30 I believe. She is most definitely not herself. She is barely moving and she has not eaten much. I believe she was given critical care there. The doctor didn't seem too concerned, and since she has been home I got her to eat a little lettuce and some seed heads from the 2nd timothy. I have given her a syringe and a half of critical care with pedialyte and benebac. Does this sound like normal behavior? I had expected her to be a little more back to herself by now. And the white of one of her eyes is red, they said to call in the morning if it was still that way. I have 5 days of metacam, I gave her a dose about 45 minutes ago, how long does it take for that to kick in?

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Feb 04, 2013 9:37 pm


Your guinea pig should have had some pain medication associated with the surgery. Ideally you make sure the pain medication is always there working - it takes much longer to relieve pain once it restarts.

I don't know how long it will be before she feels better. I would reread the postop page, especially the info from Talishan's post (which is on that page).

www.guinealynx.info/.html

Macylu

Post   » Mon Apr 29, 2013 8:06 pm


I realized that I had never finished reporting on Tunie's spay. Forgive me for the delay but I wanted to have this for possible future reference. Also, as things went remarkable smoothly, it felt like talking too much about it would jinx things!

It has been almost three months now and she is as good as new. The first three days were rough. She came home and was like a little lump, probably still a little loopy from the surgery, not moving or doing much. That was hard but I continually offered her hay and veggies, she didn't much care for critical care. She did eat though so that was good. Naturally her weight dropped, and she lost a little more in the day or 2 after but then we maintained and now she is actually at her heaviest since I have had her. Pain medicine was essential, she was taking matacam 1 time every 24 hours, but she was still in pain, so the vet said once every 12 was fine as long as she was still eating drinking good. We used the metacam for about 4 days I think. She was separated from her cagemates in a 1x2 at one end, but by exactly one week she was freaking out and wanted to be back with them! Her incision healed great, you can hardly even see the scar on her tummy now. One thing I was unprepared for was that there was a slight amount of blood in her urine for about 3 days after. The vet said that was ok, but if it increased or continued any longer then it did to bring her back.

To offer my 2 cents to anyone reading this and considering options for cysts. . . Most important would be to find a vet that has experience doing surgery on small animals. Then you need to consider the piggies current health and if they can handle an invasive procedure. And finally, you need to be able to do good post op care, including enough pain medicine. We were really lucky (though I did not sleep much the first 2 nights!) as I am home a lot, and my family was very understanding of me camping out by the pigs for days.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Apr 29, 2013 8:34 pm


I am so glad all went well for you and Tunie. Your advice is right-on.

User avatar
GP_mum
Supporter in '13

Post   » Tue Apr 30, 2013 2:03 am


Thanks for sharing your experience. I have a girl who has cyst and will be going for a spay so this is helpful. Glad your girl did well after her operation.

Post Reply