Big&nasty infection after castration

[B+R]

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if anyone had ever had a guinea pig with nasty infection after castration.

My little fella was castrated over a year ago there and quickly after the surgery developed an infection in that area. The nurse we saw for the check-ups after the surgery completely ignored the problem and said that it will heal over time. But it got to the point where he developed a huge, nasty, smelly infection that eventually burst, leaving huge bleeding wound. We rushed to the same vet (I wish we went somewhere else back then) and the vet there said that it's a serious infection that obviously was nurse’s fault since. She didn’t reacted when she saw developed infection (We did everything as they've instructed after the first surgery). The vet hasn't cleaned his wound and only prescribed him metacam (0.13ml) & (0.4ml) baytril oral for the treatment of bacterial infections of the respiratory and alimentary tracts for a few days.
(Please never go to Vets4Pets with your wee one)

Also we've been handsomely charged for their second treatment (!) but never mind because it seemed to have healed and he was (seemingly) fine for a year. Last week though we've noticed that he wasn't feeling well so I checked the place where the infection was a year ago and, much to our shock, there was big open wound again. This time we went to a proper vet surgery and today he had a very complicated surgery which originally was only going to involve flushing his wound and taking antibiotics but after the vet there cut him open she realized that there is a massive infection all over his groin and penis area which required a very risky surgery and removing a lot of tissue, to the point where they couldn't remove any more due to the risk of damaging his organs. Now he's back home.

For the first few days he was on (0.13ml) Metacam & (0.4ml) baytril once a day but after second check-up the wound still wasn’t looking good… The vet said that probably te baytril it’s not working properly and we still have two options to help him. They decided to increase baytril to (0.4ml) twice a day + now I have to flush his wound by lodine (0.2ml with 10ml water) + purt manuka honey into his wound twice a day. The next appointment is on Tuesday. He said that If there will be no improvement last chance is to give him penicillin by injection (but it’s really risky)…Hopefully manuka honey will help..
Has anyone had similar problem? Please help.. I don’t want to lost him.
He’s only 1.5 years old

P.S I will try take some pictures of his wound later.

[GrannyJu1]

Do NOT let vet give him penicillin! See the guidelines for dangerous medications. I think penicillin is #1.

[Catie Cavy]

Are there other safe guinea pig antibiotics the vet can try instead? If not, let me throw this out there, but let others comment on the wisdom of it before proceeding. If the vet is going the dangerous antibiotic injection route, how an injection of cephalosporin (Fortaz) instead? Perhaps it would be less risky than penicillin. It was used on a stubborn abscess on one of my guinea pigs that was about the same age as yours. She did end up with mushy poops for the rest of her life. I did not give her probiotics at the time which might have helped.

[Lynx]

It sounds like the vet is aware of how risky penicillin is. Cephalosporin is also risky. Giving dangerous meds by injection can sometimes avoid fatal reactions but it is still risky. www.guinealynx.info/_medications.html

Do read over www.guinealynx.info/.html since it sounds like this is very serious and you also need to address recovery.

[B+R]

Lynx I am sure he's aware how risky is penicillin because he told me about it. He said that giving penicillin by injection can be less risky but anyway there is really big chance of death - it definitely will be last hope if other antibiotics fail.

I heard a lot of positive opinions about Zithromax. I will talk with my vet about it. Now I just finished cleaning his wound (he was screaming so bad..) it was 4th time and I still can't see any improvements. Anyway I know that it can take time..hopefully he will get better antibiotics and everything will be fine.

Any experience with manuka honey?

[bpatters]

I've heard good things about manuka honey, just not on guinea pigs. Not that I've heard anything bad about it with pigs, just that all I've heard has been on other animals.

The main thing I'd worry about with the honey is an overdose of sugar if the pig licks the area, and he will. But if you pay close attention to his poops, and supplement him with poops from a healthy guinea pig, it might work.

[B+R]

I actually bought Pro-C probiotic but he doesn't like taste of water with it that's why I have to sprinkle it on food. I would rather avoid using syringe with 'poo soup' because he is stressed enough.

Photo of his wound:

[afdani1984]

I know Los Angeles Guinea Pig Rescue has had a lot of success treating bumblefoot with a combination of antibiotics, epsom salt soaks and manuka honey wraps. There's actually a medical grade version you can purchase.

[JX4]

I'm so sorry you had this happen to your pig. When we had our male neutered, we made sure to go to a cavy savvy vet, and still he had a minor complication. However, it was caught almost immediately and the vet ended up going back in (for free!) and cleaning out the area within a week -- and he healed fine. Ours is now just over 2 years old and the surgery was back when he was under 6 mos. old.

[JaneDoe]

Only one of my boys abcessed and it was bad. Hot packs didn't work, vet operated. Did a beautiful job. Sorry you're going through this.

[B+R]

Unfortunately after one week on barytil, liodine & manuka honey there was no improvement and we noticed another abcess so vet decided to give him barytil and septrin together and continue flushing his wound with liodine and manuka honey.

After 2 weeks there is sighlty improvement that's why we are going to start with other antibiotic ZITHOMAX but our vet said that this kind of antibiotic is really powerful with a lot of sides effect so our little fella my die after it. Is it true?... I am so worried.

[Catie Cavy]

I know others here have tried Zithromax with success. See this link:

https://www.guinealynx.info/forums/viewt ... =zithromax