Charity's stump

[Ibepatience]

Hello everyone, I have a female guinea pig, about 4 years old who is missing one of her back feet. She was rescued from a hoarding situation when she was really young and they're not sure if it was genetic or if she lost it some other way. I've had her about a year and she just recently (about 3 weeks ago) developed an abrasion on the stump, almost like a rug burn.

I make sure to keep it clean, shes on fleece and I change the pad where her hidey house is every day so she's not sitting in urine and I rinse it if it ever looks "dirty". I tried neosporin which made it worse - it made it too soft, and I tried betadine which didn't help much at all. I tried wrapping it but her stump is too short and when she retracts her leg the wrap just falls off.

I finally decided to take her to the vet today to see if they had any suggestion. She said it's very superficial and does not look infected at all, and she said the biggest thing we need to do is try to keep it protected while it has time to heal. We tried making a cast out of a rubber finger protector but it wouldn't stay on. She put some surgical glue on it to try to give it some protection and told me she will try to reasearch another way to wrap or protect it. She didn't want to do antibiotics yet but that is an option.

Has anyone dealt with this before? Any suggestions? The vet made me nervous because she said if we don't stay ahead of it and it gets infected, the infection could spread to the bone. She said it is often the cause of demise for amputees.

[Ibepatience]

I have photos but I don't know how to attach them, I'll email them to Lynx

[bpatters]

My suggestion would be to have the leg completely amputated. "Tripod" pigs generally do very well, and the surgery eliminates the possibility of abrasions on the stump.

[Ibepatience]

I might have misspoke, she is missing most of her leg and her foot, plus at her age surgery to remove the remains leg would be risky.

[Lynx]

I am thinking about how you might protect the stump. How about a bandaging adhesive of some sort? Something like what a human would put on a corn that raises the outside area in a ring and protects the center (one without the salicylic acid)? Your primary concern would be how well it adhered and if it could be eaten.

Unsure if this is the correct chronological order but I used the numerical identifiers chronologically.













Or perhaps something like this human toe protector if you could devise a way to keep it on?
https://www.myfootshop.com/gel-toe-protector-1

[Ibepatience]

I will pick up some of those corn rings and see if I can find a way to adhere it to her. I put her on carefresh today instead of the fleece in case its an actual rug burn she is getting. I'm also going to try Vetrycin today to see if it helps.

The order of the photos you posted is:
7/30/18
7/19/18
8/8/18
7/14/18

[bpatters]

I don't know whether you could use Tegaderm or not. It can be left on for several days, and will adhere over some hair (but maybe not as much as a guinea pig has -- you might have to shave part of her leg. I don't know whether she would try to eat it or not.

[Lynx]

Try to find one of the corn things that is more of a protector and not the kind with the salysilic acid.