Midnight's Medical Topic

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Sep 27, 2021 10:14 am


Thanks for the detailed advice! Your experience with ill pigs is so valuable.

And regarding narotics, guinea pigs are small. Any narcotic would be a fairly small amount.

Not enough to sell on the street ;-)

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AviN4
Supporter in '21

Post   » Sat Oct 02, 2021 8:16 am


Talishan, Thanks so much for all the helpful advice.

Incidentally my vet has already given me a 1 cc syringe, so I should be good on that front. I can see that a 0.03 mL dose should be easy to administer.

Just as an FYI, Tylenol is not an NSAID: "Acetaminophen (Tylenol) is known as a non-aspirin pain reliever. It is NOT an NSAID [...]"

A number of reliable sources indicate it's safe for humans to combine Tylenol with Ibuprofen (an NSAID). For instance, the NHS. And as I understand from your post, combining Tylenol and NSAIDs is safe for guinea pigs too, which is good to know! Depending on the circumstances, it seems like it could be good step to try before moving onto opioids, if it comes to that.

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Wed Oct 06, 2021 1:10 pm


Good information. Thank you!

Continuing best wishes to Midnight, Moon and you.

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Wed Oct 06, 2021 1:40 pm


Just my $.02. Tylenol is worthless as a pain reliever. I can't take aspirin or NSAIDs, so it's Tylenol or the hard stuff. Or biting a bullet. None of those are particularly good choices.

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ItsaZoo
Supporter in 2023

Post   » Thu Oct 07, 2021 11:11 pm


I agree Tylenol doesn’t seem to do much. My understanding is it’s supposed to block the pain receptors to control pain, whereas NSAIDs are anti-inflammatory and actually relieve the pain. They can be taken together. In fact, my favorite and most effective pain reliever is Exedrin, which is a combination of Tylenol, aspirin, and caffeine. The caffeine is the secret weapon that makes everything else work better.

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AviN4
Supporter in '21

Post   » Fri Oct 08, 2021 3:13 pm


I want to be cautious about celebrating too early, but Midnight's weight has been mostly stable for around 2 weeks:

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Here's what I've been doing:
  • 0.25 mg dose of Metacam each morning.
  • Adding some rolled oats on top of their veggies.
  • Feeding them both KMS pellets (finally back in stock!) and Oxbow "Garden Select" pellets, in different bowls, 1/4 cup in each bowl. They seem to prefer one or the other depending on their mood.
It's not obvious to me what, if any, of the above is what's helping Midnight. But I plan to continue for the time being.

With regard to the other food recommendations:
  • I tried the pellet mash a few times, but it wasn't obvious to me whether Midnight liked it better than actual pellets.
  • I have not tried Critical Care "meatballs" yet.
Also, behaviorally, he seems fine. Still no obvious signs of pain. The only odd behaviors I notice are pickiness about carrots and drinking more water than previously, both of which I've mentioned previously.

As the chart shows, Moon had an uptick in weight today, so it's possible the dietary changes I'm making for Midnight could end up being a problem for him. But that's just one sample, and a few more ounces probably won't hurt him, so I'm not going to worry too much for now.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Fri Oct 08, 2021 11:17 pm


Sometimes when topics get long, it is really helpful to pull things back together. Repeating a description of any odd behaviors is a help!

Nice to see the weight stabilize for now.

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Sun Oct 10, 2021 4:45 pm


Excellent. Carry on. 😊

Drinking more water is not a bad thing. For whatever reason he may be doing so, it'll help keep him well hydrated and his kidneys and bladder 'flushed out'.

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AviN4
Supporter in '21

Post   » Sun Nov 07, 2021 8:01 am


Midnight still seems to be doing well. His weight has been surprisingly stable for 6+ weeks. Both the treatment and the symptoms are unchanged from my last post. I expect it's still only a matter of time before he takes another downturn, but hopefully he'll remain happy for a while longer until that happens.

I also see no signs of Moon gaining too much weight, which I was slightly worried about because of the increased availability of pellets and rolled oats.

Past 7 months (since weight loss began):

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Past 3 years (since adoption):

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sun Nov 07, 2021 12:19 pm


It's nice to get a feel for where they are with charts. And great to see the relative stabilization of weights.

p.s. for someone not familiar with graphing techniques, note that the vertical range does not start at zero. Graphs can be used to mislead by making a change look more dramatic than it is.

I know this is not your intention and your graph is pretty clear.

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AviN4
Supporter in '21

Post   » Tue Nov 09, 2021 6:56 am


Lynx, thanks for the clarification to readers. I agree that line charts with a Y-axis that start at non-zero have a risk being misleading. Some are intentionally misleading, though not mine: I think intentionally misrepresenting data is very bad and I have no interest in being misleading about Midnight's weight changes. :) The background here is that I originally had these charts start at zero, but I found that it made it difficult to see changes of a few ounces. Since these charts were originally for me, I decided to design the charts in a way that was most readable for me. In the future, I'll consider adding some clarification to the charts themselves or the text introducing it.

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AviN4
Supporter in '21

Post   » Sat Feb 05, 2022 12:55 pm


Midnight has been doing surprisingly well. His weight has been very stable for the past 4 months as you can see on these charts. (Note that to help me visualize changes, the Y axis starts at 35 ounces.)

Since the weight loss began (~10 months):

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[original]
[SHOW]
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Since adoption (~3 years):

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[original]
[SHOW]
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And behaviorally, he seems fine as well. No obvious evidence of pain or discomfort from the stones or the arthritis. He seems to enjoy eating, exploring, napping, playing with his cagemate, etc.

The only two changes I've maintained in terms of treatment are:
  • 0.25 mg dose of Metacam each morning.
  • Feeding them both KMS pellets and Oxbow "Garden Select" pellets, in different bowls, 1/4 cup in each bowl. Though they've mostly lost interest in the Garden Select, so most of it ends up in the trash.
Because he has been doing so well for months, I had wondered whether the stones could have all moved from his ureter to his bladder, alleviating his discomfort. In that case, I might want to have them surgically removed. So I took him to Dr. B for more x-rays. No indications that the stones have moved.

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[original]
[SHOW]
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[original]
[SHOW]
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However, Dr. B still thinks the stones are in Midnight's bladder, not his ureter, which is what he told me back in September. He said the string of stones may be lining the bottom of his bladder. His reasoning is:
  • The anatomical location of the stones look to Dr. B like they're in the bladder.
  • Stones in the ureter would likely be causing kidney problems, leading to severe symptoms. But Midnight now has no symptoms at all.
I noted that Lynx and Dr. W both seemed to the stones were in his ureter. Dr B still believed they were in the bladder but acknowledged he could be wrong. He said to confirm the location of the stones, I could get an ultrasound. Unfortunately, Dr. B isn't able to do ultrasounds on guinea pigs so I'd have to go elsewhere. (However, Dr. B's view is still that palliative care is the better approach, given Midnight's age, arthritis, and cataracts. He suggests not getting the stones surgically removed even if they are in his bladder.)

I haven't decided what to do next.

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