Flora: large ovarian cysts but should we spay?

[YvonneBlue]

Sending lots of healing vibes for Flora and a big hug for you.

 

[rhymer]

Sending massive hugs and healing vibes.xx

 

[Josie_lg]

Sending the biggest hugs and well wishes for lovely flora. My sweet poppy also made awful honky crackly breathing sounds for a few days post op. This was something she also intermittently did before her surgery and had several x rays and two Heart scans to investigate and they never found a cause. At the time the vet gave antibiotics incase she aspirated during the surgery. But it wore off after a few days. I wonder if it’s the anaesthetic gas that’s used to keep them under. Does your vet mask or intubate? When masking it’s more irritant to the airways so may be linked to that but it’s worth having a chat to your vet xx

 

[Wiebke]

Fingers very firmly crossed for poorly Flora!

PS: Crackly breathing post-op for the first day or two is not all that uncommon a side-effect of the GA.

 

[Merab]

Hope Flora continues to improve.
Glad the surgery went well

 

[Helen42]

Hope your little Flora makes a full recovery

 

[Free Ranger]

She's doing well thanks - moving about much more. I expected the rasping to wear off (they said the gas can make them dry) but it got worse over the time she was home. It was when I saw her laying with her head flat on the floor like a pig heading for the end but her eyes were very wide, like she was panicking about her breathing. She didn't move when I came over either. But by weds morning her breathing was totally silent and has stayed thus, praise God. Her appetite is up and down - sticky poops very up and down - not eating hay properly but will eat grass. she's lost quite a bit of weight but is still over a kilo and tbh those ovaries were probably pretty weighty on their own. She's better on emeprid - this morning she was 'obliged' to take her CC breakfast but this evening she unexpectedly hoovered up a full syringe (15ml+) and then looked for more. But she won't eat it off a plate for some reason. Last night I put the slurry next to the pellet bowl. This morning I found a few pellets missing and the slurry peppered with poop like a choc chip cookie. She must have literally straddled the plate to do that. What is she thinking?!

 

[Helen42]

She's doing well thanks - moving about much more. I expected the rasping to wear off (they said the gas can make them dry) but it got worse over the time she was home. It was when I saw her laying with her head flat on the floor like a pig heading for the end but her eyes were very wide, like she was panicking about her breathing. She didn't move when I came over either. But by weds morning her breathing was totally silent and has stayed thus, praise God. Her appetite is up and down - sticky poops very up and down - not eating hay properly but will eat grass. she's lost quite a bit of weight but is still over a kilo and tbh those ovaries were probably pretty weighty on their own. She's better on emeprid - this morning she was 'obliged' to take her CC breakfast but this evening she unexpectedly hoovered up a full syringe (15ml+) and then looked for more. But she won't eat it off a plate for some reason. Last night I put the slurry next to the pellet bowl. This morning I found a few pellets missing and the slurry peppered with poop like a choc chip cookie. She must have literally straddled the plate to do that. What is she thinking?!

Bless her. Looks like my Bonnie is heading for a spay she’s nearly 4, lost a lot of weight, bloated but has always been quite bloated. She has had hair loss every few months but then it always grows back. No change in behaviour. An ultrasound and X-ray have revealed that she has large cysts on each ovary but nothing else was seen (obviously things get missed). Breaks my heart to put her through the op but I feel like this is the only way to give her a chance. Did the vet give you an indication on how long the recovery supposed to be? Wishing your Flora to be back to her normal self soon.

 

[Bill & Ted]

Hope Flora is back to full health very soon
Good luck with Bonnie, hope she sails through the operation

 

[Merab]

Bless her. Looks like my Bonnie is heading for a spay she’s nearly 4, lost a lot of weight, bloated but has always been quite bloated. She has had hair loss every few months but then it always grows back. No change in behaviour. An ultrasound and X-ray have revealed that she has large cysts on each ovary but nothing else was seen (obviously things get missed). Breaks my heart to put her through the op but I feel like this is the only way to give her a chance. Did the vet give you an indication on how long the recovery supposed to be? Wishing your Flora to be back to her normal self soon.

Hope Bonnie does well if she has to be spayed

 

[Free Ranger]

Flora has had a happy weekend - bopping about, in and out, back under the kitchen stool begging for treats
Not your best angle, nosy girl!
Tomorrow she gets a check up with a nice nurse. You'd think by her activity levels that she's perfectly fine tho she's still not eating as much hay as she could and she's not going in for 'hard' veg like a bit of cauli leaf or a bit of carrot. She is slowly gaining weight again so I'm not worried. She decided to eat CC from a bowl one night too so syringing and meds are now a thing of the past (although she's still on metacam). Good poopage - and that's what counts. I'll be watching now to make sure she doesn't deteriorate since stopping baytril and emeprid.

Did the vet give you an indication on how long the recovery supposed to be?

Not really no - she said it's important to watch her for the first hours and then first days...
I think the first hours is because they can struggle to get over the anaesthetic and the first days is to make sure the gut gets going again.

There were some similarities and some differences to George's stone operation. Both had the same pre-med procedure which involved 'pre-oxygenating' - whatever that means - and giving buprenorphine as a painkiller for the surgery. They got gut stimulant at some point and some fluids. Then both just had gas anaesthesia: as I understand it the isoflurane knocks them out but doesn't have a painkilling effect so you have to have the bupre as well. The gas is thought to be the safest way to put a piggy under (at my practice at least).

George had more bupre after his op - quite a lot as I understand and he was very stoned (although it is a v good painkiller). It took until the next day for him to get back on track with eating anything at all for himself without it being either shoved under his nose or pushed into his mouth. Bupre can really affect their appetite but it also affects their demeanor so I was on tenterhooks about whether it was 'just' the bupre affecting him or whether there was any damage from the anaesthetic that he wouldn't be able to get over (I had lost a pig before to something like that). George was also on metacam and gut stimulant although not any antibiotics. Actually this vet would normally have given a precautionary course but he had special circumstances. He was fine though.

In Flora's case there was no bupre after surgery, only a generous dose of metacam. She was under for longer and probably had a lot of pain, and she certainly had swelling but she was brave. It may have been because of the effect on the guts as they were actually handled and this would have caused some issues so perhaps this vet thought best not to complicate matters. Initially she wasn't given any gut stimulant or antibiotic either, but both were started when he breathing took a turn for the worst the next day. But she's pulled through - I would say following her op on Monday lunchtime she had to be medicated and carefully monitored for the next 48 hours. Then she became more able to move about and fend for herself so by Thurs I went into work ... she got a syringe of CC morning and evening and had to manage on that rather a little less and a little more often through the day. Tomorrow it will be a week and I would say she's still convalescing but she's OK now. That's been our experience. She's much sprightlier now than before her op but I suspect she hardly dared move about those ovaries were so big. Now we can begin to look for a friend for her properly.

If you decide to go ahead with a spay we wish you luck. It is a big op, no doubt about it, but in our position there wasn't really a choice x

 

[Helen42]

Thank you. That’s so helpful. She’s at the vets again on Wednesday for a follow up and to decide what to do. Really don’t think we have any other options x

 

[Free Ranger]

Ask about their success rate and their confidence at this. My vets were very honest about their experience and her chances. They are very careful with piggy anaesthesia but they don't get much experience with ops on pigs because people don't go in for them

Flora had her post-op check up today and she realised where we were going and she was absolutely sh***ing a brick about it in the car. We saw a lovely nurse who was very pleased with her wound but couldn't hear any gut sounds and asked if she might be "nervous" (because that can stop everything gurgling) and I said of course she's nervous (we were actually in the pre-op room!) and she seemed quite surprised. I'd said that there was initial objection to syringe food but once on her ABs she'd started to want to tuck in and she was surprised again because Flora hadn't fought the syringe in the surgery after her op and they'd not heard any breathing issues in the practice. I felt fortunate that my pig knows me well enough to show me how she's feeling and have a 'conversation' about the syringe. She wanted to take her temp and I said "you can have a go but she's not going to like it" and again she seemed quite surprised, and tried to insert the thermometer and Flora did a mighty "WHEEK!" and leapt in the air so she decided to leave it. She was gaining weight, she was pooping well, she disappeared to check with a vet and came back to give us the all-clear. Old George never minded the thermometer but he was so used to having his back end poked and unbunged that he just let them get on with it!

 

[Bill & Ted]

Thank you. That’s so helpful. She’s at the vets again on Wednesday for a follow up and to decide what to do. Really don’t think we have any other options x

Wishing you all the luck if you decide on the operation.

Ask about their success rate and their confidence at this. My vets were very honest about their experience and her chances. They are very careful with piggy anaesthesia but they don't get much experience with ops on pigs because people don't go in for them

Flora had her post-op check up today and she realised where we were going and she was absolutely sh***ing a brick about it in the car. We saw a lovely nurse who was very pleased with her wound but couldn't hear any gut sounds and asked if she might be "nervous" (because that can stop everything gurgling) and I said of course she's nervous (we were actually in the pre-op room!) and she seemed quite surprised. I'd said that there was initial objection to syringe food but once on her ABs she'd started to want to tuck in and she was surprised again because Flora hadn't fought the syringe in the surgery after her op and they'd not heard any breathing issues in the practice. I felt fortunate that my pig knows me well enough to show me how she's feeling and have a 'conversation' about the syringe. She wanted to take her temp and I said "you can have a go but she's not going to like it" and again she seemed quite surprised, and tried to insert the thermometer and Flora did a mighty "WHEEK!" and leapt in the air so she decided to leave it. She was gaining weight, she was pooping well, she disappeared to check with a vet and came back to give us the all-clear. Old George never minded the thermometer but her was so used to having his back end poked and unbunged that he just let them get on with it!

Well done Flora, haven’t you done so well x

 

[Free Ranger]

She made us laugh this morning. We've taken the shelves out of the cages in case she was tempted to jump up. She always greets us in the morning from the shelf nearest the fridge to get a bit nearer to the veggies. She's had to settle for just raising her nose as high as she could. But then this morning she had an idea...

I think it might be time to put the shelves back in!

 

[Viennese Furbabies]

Good girl, Flora!

 

[Aisling]

It's great to see she's doing so well.