Ginger's Medical Thread

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sosumi

Post   » Tue Jul 01, 2014 6:49 pm


I'm thinking of giving her pedialyte. Should I give it full strength or diluted. If diluted, what is the ratio? Thanks!

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Tue Jul 01, 2014 9:35 pm


sosumi, that is indeed a wonderful thread. So many pet owners are worried and afraid - and so love their guinea pigs. I'm glad Barnaby recovered well.

Sorry I don't remember if most people dilute pedialyte or use it plain.

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sosumi

Post   » Wed Jul 02, 2014 3:29 am


Well, just as the post op page said she quit eating! Quit eating EVERYTHING!!! I had to force food yesterday and she ate unwillingly but now she is totally uncooperative! Fighting all the way. I try to be gentle but she needs to eat. She really struggles.

Also, she is now having more red in her urine again. I hope I didn't screw her surgery up with the way she fights the food so much. Surgery was 36 hours ago. Should I still be seeing blood in her urine?

I ended up giving her a dose of torb but it didn't make any difference as far eating is concerned. She is struggling less when defecating and stools are softer. I have been pushing more liquids and making her CC more watery.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can tell if it's the pain or the abx that is making her fight the food so much? She's been on abx before which caused anorexia but has never put up such a fight when hand feeding, so probably the sum of both.

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Wed Jul 02, 2014 5:38 am


1. Pedialyte: full strength. Some like it cold, others like it room temperature. As much as she will take.

2. "Should I still be seeing blood in her urine?" Entirely possible. You can see blood in the urine nearly a week later. That isn't always the case, but a few days is to be expected.

3. What AB is she on, and was there any infection prior to the surgery?

If there was no known infection prior to the surgery, and the AB is only pre-emptive postop, don't use anything stronger than Bactrim. She does not need Baytril if it's "only" a preventative. She may not need it at all, although I always like to use something postop.

4. Buprenorphine (Buprenex) is in my experience only a better choice. Torb can be zonking and/or not work at all. Buprenorphine stays in the system longer and can be effective at smaller doses. Tramadol may also be a good choice. It's less zonking and may help her recover better than either torb or Buprenex.

Metacam can be given for its anti-inflammatory (as well as pain management) effect along with any of the narcotics. Don't skimp on the Metacam. Her bladder area is thoroughly swollen and inflamed right now.

In our experience 36 hours is right about when they bottom out. Lots of times they seem fine coming home from the vet, then go downhill, *then* turn the corner. Hang in and keep pushing the watery CC.

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sosumi

Post   » Wed Jul 02, 2014 12:33 pm


Well, now she seems to be giving up.

When I fed her at 8:00 am, she was fighting me, mostly running away, and moving her head, but not as hard as she fought last night. I made the CC very watery this am. Also gave her the pedialyte full strength. Last night I was diluting it a bit.

At 11:30 when I got her out of the cage for another feeding, she seemed very weak. Sorta limp, but not fully. When I tried to feed her, I could get it in her mouth, but she only chewed when I first put the syringe in, not when I squeezed some CC in her mouth. Even with me wiggling the syringe around, she didn't chew. She did not spit it out, but it seemed like she was giving up. She would just put her head down and look at me. She did try to run out of my arms but not much.

She is on Baytril. I am calling the vet and taking her in. I will ask for Bactrim and a sub-Q. Oh, and the pain med they Rxed last night is Tramadol. I gave her a dose last night, but not this am.

Are we at the bottom now? If we forge ahead, will she turn around? What else can we do? How long does the turn around take?

I am exhausted and frustrated, especially with her weakness and the not swallowing. But if she is not swallowing, where is the food? It does disappear. She is not spitting or dribbling it out. Her chin is sloppy, but not the whole 4 ml I squeezed in over the 20 min or so. So, maybe I made it that wet that it goes down real easy?

She is not eating anything on her own, not even lettuce, which I could convince her to eat one or two bits yesterday.

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sosumi

Post   » Wed Jul 02, 2014 2:08 pm


Also, is it best to lever her by herself in a "foreign" cage or should I split her and her friend's cage in half (2x4 C&C)? I don't know if she might feel abandoned not being in her own cage? Would seeing her cage mate right next door be good or bad for her?

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sosumi

Post   » Wed Jul 02, 2014 4:47 pm


She got a sub q and a shot of reglan. We are stopping the baytril. I think she is shutting down. She hasn't pooped since early this morning. X-rays showed gas. She is urinating.

Crazy4me

Post   » Wed Jul 02, 2014 5:04 pm


Infant anti-gas drops can help a little with the gas. If you have a battery powered toothbrush around or you can buy a cheap one, you can use that to vibrate her tummy to help her expel some of that gas.

Bloat is sometimes hard to get rid of, and requires frequent interventions with something that vibrates and anti-gas drops.

The reglan may help move things along too. BTW anesthetic slows everything down, including the digestive system. Hopefully the combination of the reglan, vibrating the tummy and antigas, things will start to improve.

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Delaine
Supporter in '14

Post   » Wed Jul 02, 2014 7:28 pm


sosumi

I am so sorry. I can only imagine how exhausted and frustrated you must be. I have only been through one minor surgery so I hope more experienced members can help you.

I am sending good wishes your way and I hope after all the wonderful care you are giving Ginger she will take a turn for the better.

Hang in there!

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sosumi

Post   » Wed Jul 02, 2014 8:56 pm


Thanks Talishan. Our vet said to stop the tramadol. Only gave her the one dose last night. I misspoke when I said torb. Should I continue or not? She is just a rag doll.

Thanks Crazy4me. We are giving her simethicone and put her on a vibrating pillow.

Thanks Delaine. We appreciate the good wishes!

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Thu Jul 03, 2014 6:45 am


You're doing everything you can do. The vibrating pillow may help.

If the food is going somewhere when you feed her, don't give up yet. The subcue fluids may help a great deal.

Tramadol is not as zonking as other narcotics. Rather than stop it altogether, I think if it were me I'd give her a very low dose. Then again, it may be contributing to her lethargy. Without reading back, is she still on Metacam as well?

Were you given any Reglan to use at home? (It can be given either orally or injectably -- that is, you can give it to her yourself orally if you're not comfortable doing injections.) She needs to keep stuff moving.

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sosumi

Post   » Thu Jul 03, 2014 11:29 pm


We didn't think she'd make it through the night. In fact, she was on her side starting to "run across the rainbow bridge" this morning. But we came up with a game plan that seems to be working and we ran it by our vet for his blessing. She is far from being out of the woods and is still very weak but we are finally seeing poop after a 23 hour drought.

Sub Q every 12 hours
Meloxicam every 12 hours
Cisapride every 8 hours
Reglan every 8 hours
Tramadol every 8 hours

Stopped all ABX

Feeding 12 ml of CC every 2-3 hours on average.

Lots of pedialyte.

Placing her on a massaging pillow after every feeding for about 15 minutes. That's when it seems the most poop comes out.

We also discovered that her bloat/stasis was not entirely caused by the surgery itself but related to having it done. She crashed 72 hours after the surgery, 36 after leaving the emergency vet's.

We've had pigs for 13 years now and had to deal with severe stasis before but now we're right on top of it. This one caught us off guard because of other circumstances and we had to remember what we did way back then.

Wish us luck!

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