Hind end/back injury

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AliceMcmallis
Supporter in '08

Post   » Tue Feb 22, 2005 2:15 pm


snowflakey the smell is definitely urine, her skin on her back doesn't smell bad at all. The vet thought the flaky junk was the result of mites, didn't think it was fungal.

I wonder if she doesn't have scurvy? I'm just reading over the info about it on the main GL site and it sounds very similar to what she's suffering with. Poor thing, she's probably got a mixture of everything.

I will not bathe her, thanks for the input on that. I don't want to cause her any more discomfort than I absolutely have to. I'm printing off all the info about Itchy and Scratchy, as well as ladyveg's recent thread, for reference at home.

I'm hoping the baytril will be sufficient to cover any skin infection, UTI, URI, etc. that may be present. I'm considering a combo, though I'm not sure if I should go with bactrim or doxy in addition to the baytril. Doxy seems to be more recommended for URIs, but bactrim is more recommended for UTIs. There wasn't enough nasal or eye discharge to do a proper culture, and we were so focused on the other stuff we neglected to take a urine sample.

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AliceMcmallis
Supporter in '08

Post   » Tue Feb 22, 2005 2:17 pm


I emailed my dad the info about the cart, so hopefully we can get started on it. I'm excited about that, but nervous about putting her in it what with her skin being so sensitive. I think the harness thing may hurt her. Not sure what to do, what should take priority at this point.

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snowflakey
E's Moriarity

Post   » Tue Feb 22, 2005 2:27 pm


I guess she could have scurvey. 50 mg of C couldn't hurt, and it seems to help scurvey pretty quickly. Poor poor girl. Chance had scurvey and so did Para's scurvey girls.

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snowflakey
E's Moriarity

Post   » Tue Feb 22, 2005 2:31 pm


Chance and Scurvy Girls

Lots of ranting, as you would expect. Somewhere in there might be interesting symptoms.

Josephine
Little Jo Wheek

Post   » Tue Feb 22, 2005 2:38 pm


Hmmm... maybe Valium (diazepam)? I haven't used it much and it can slow the GIT down? since it is a benzodiapene (controlled substance). It is used for sedation, anti-itching (anti-puritic), anti-seizure, appetite stimulant, etc. It will help relieve some pain if the pig is in a lot of pain. You can't use much else with depomedrol.

Program is fine to use with steroids and won't hurt. I'd also supplement the vitamin C (at least 50 mg/day). I woudn't worry about the cart until you get the skin under control. She should probably be bedded on something she can get decent traction on and something that is very absorbent. The Baytril is good for possible skin infections or urinary tract infections, etc. I wouldn't give her the full whammy of abs unless there was a specific indication.

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AliceMcmallis
Supporter in '08

Post   » Tue Feb 22, 2005 3:11 pm


The diazepam sounds good in a number of respects - itch relief, pain relief, appetite stimulation - but bad in the sedation, GI slowing respects. She's already pretty conked out most of the time. I'll have to see how she's doing when I get home and make a decision based on that.

Thanks for all the help and input, I will update tomorrow morning when I get to work.

Josephine
Little Jo Wheek

Post   » Tue Feb 22, 2005 3:18 pm


The steroids should help, too. Especially in the itching department.

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AliceMcmallis
Supporter in '08

Post   » Wed Feb 23, 2005 10:06 am


Megan seems to be doing well this morning, relatively speaking. There were two huge globs of gross poo in her cage when I got home yesterday, and a smear of diarrhea later on in the evening. But this morning there were a bunch of wee hamster type poos.

She seems perkier in general. I'm still holding my breath, waiting for something really bad to happen, but I think she may be on the road to recovery as far as the mites and other problems go. She was even making those little happy clucking noises while eating some hay last night! :)

I think I'm going to hold off on the Valium for now as I'm a bit nervous about the sedative affect. She's just starting to eat more on her own and I don't want to mess with that.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Wed Feb 23, 2005 5:52 pm


I don't know why but I thought for a moment you were talking about holding off on taking a valium yourself. I used it once when I had a sore neck -- it worked wonders to relax the muscles (this was maybe 20 years ago). Glad to hear she's improving.

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AliceMcmallis
Supporter in '08

Post   » Thu Feb 24, 2005 7:51 am


Megan is now Trevor. I had a suspicion that she was a he, but as it wasn't a high priority I didn't do some serious checking until last night. I think he's holding his testicles up inside him most of the time, but they're definitely there.

This adds a new dimension, as I'm not sure how well the Roxy cart will work for a boy. Will I have to adjust it somehow to allow for him urinating in a slightly different direction?

Also, I'm worried about impaction. I've noticed a couple of times that he's getting a little blob of poop stuck in there. It's more like a bunch of little wee poops all stuck together. Poor little thing.

I've got pictures too although they're not the greatest.

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AliceMcmallis
Supporter in '08

Post   » Thu Feb 24, 2005 7:55 am


Here is Trevor's butt, not sure how much of the junk you can see. His skin has that white crust mostly all over.

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This is Trevor "standing" on his hind feet. I was trying to get across the position of his feet. I think that's how he has them all the time, and the left one in particular is not showing much reaction when I touch it or tap it.

Image

Trevor trying to walk towards a piece of parsley. He would pull his front feet forward and the back ones would come out like he was stretching them.

Image

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AliceMcmallis
Supporter in '08

Post   » Thu Feb 24, 2005 8:06 am


This is Trevor's belly and butt. The position I'm holding him in (all crooked/twisted) is how he always lays, it seems to be most comfortable for him. I'm thinking I should be discouraging it.

Note how he's got the poos stuck coming out of his butt.

Image

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What a cute little guy he is:
Image

Now, when the vet looked at his x-rays (not a guinea pig expert) the first thing he said was that it looked like severe arthritis. We discounted that as he's only 7 months old and were pretty sure he'd been mishandled. But is this a real possibility? Why would the vet say that if it isn't arthritis? Is there something else that would show up on x-rays as looking like arthritis?

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