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I Wish I Had Never Made This Appointment For Frank....

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Glad you have a diagnosis and know what you are dealing with, hopefully the meds he is on should keep him comfortable.
 
Hi FGM.....and Frank

I'm so sorry you've been so worried today about Frank having an Xray...and glad that he has recovered and you now have a diagnosis.
I wish I had seen your thread earlier to perhaps save you some of the "piggie slave angst" that we all experience when one of our furries is under GA.

I hope you don;t mind me using your thread about Frank....but I thought it might be a useful opportunity to reassure anyone reading this thread about Xrays under GA........
There are two types of GA - one is a short-term whiff of gas using a mask for quick procedures such as Xrays....the other is an injectable/reversible longer term sedation which is used for more lengthy procedures such as operations (dentals, bladder flushes, stone removal etc) and (sometimes) for taking bloods. It is this latter type of GA that is most risky for piggies as there is more than one type of method/drugs involved and each vet has their own preferred procedure..(..with varying recovery rates....which is why 20years ago , before appropriate gas protocols were developed for piggies, the generally held belief was to avoid GA for piggies on Xray if possible).

These days Xrays are normally undertaken with whiffs of gas, and these are normally no problem unless the piggy has serious respiratory or cardiovascular problems or is incredibly weak/underweight.

If a piggie is already in a state of collapse/motionless.....and only a dorsal view (ie from the top/above ) is required..it may be possible to take an informative Xray without GA...perhaps by using physical restraint (eg towel wrapping).

However, good practice/informed diagnosis requires a lateral as well as a dorsal view.Xray..... which means putting the piggie on its side (which most pigs will not tolerate if conscious) Therefore in most cases vets will prefer to give a whiff of gas in order to be able to place the piggie on its side and position the limbs accordingly.so that the area of interest eg. urinary system, spine or whatever, can be seen unobstructed by other boney parts of the guinea pig body. This is especially important for Xrays for "unknown causes", heart conditions or urinary stones (where towel wrapping a conscious guinea pig cannot guarantee the perfect positioning of the guinea pig body/limbs.)

Moving back to Frank:
I'm so sorry that you were so worried about the GA.
For what it's worth - Lance (and his colleagues) are one of the very best guinea pig vet practices in the UK.and it's a tribute to you that you have driven the distance to get Frank the best care.I know I'm a bit late to the thread, but I can reassure you that Frank has been in the very best of hands and his diagnosis and meds are entirely appropriate. If you become concerned about any lack of progress on his current med regime then two alternative meds to discuss with Lance (after 7 days) are
a) replacement of baytril with azithromycin to combat the bone infection
b) addition of tramadol to assist in deep-seated pain relief for the spine

One other thing you need to be alert to short-term is if the current pain relief is not sufficient and his food intake reduces to the point his gut motility becomes challenged in which case you may also need to consider gut motility meds and syringe feeding..

HTH
x.

P.S.
I know we have a vet locator.... for which I provided a lot of the initial data..however this has been added to by other forum members over the last few years and perhaps it may no longer reflect the somewhat rigorous qualification criteria I personally applied when providing my input. My personal definition of a cavy-savvy vet is not necessarily a vet who does conscious Xrays or is "nice"...or "well-priced".. It means they are a vet who has years of proven experience of
a) diagnosing routine and complicated guinea pigs issues,
b) giving successful GA's (whether gas or injectible) to guinea pigs when deemed necessary
c) willingness to think outside the box/prescribe off-license meds
.....and who I trust to balance up the risks of a particular type of GA/no GA vs the the current health of the guinea pig vs the need/urgency to diagnose/sort the problem and who have a high record of successful GA outcomes, especially when dealing with very poorly guinea pigs.
x
 
Pebble said:
Hi FGM.....and Frank

I'm so sorry you've been so worried today about Frank having an Xray...and glad that he has recovered and you now have a diagnosis.
I wish I had seen your thread earlier to perhaps save you some of the "piggie slave angst" that we all experience when one of our furries is under GA.

I hope you don;t mind me using your thread about Frank....but I thought it might be a useful opportunity to reassure anyone reading this thread about Xrays under GA........
There are two types of GA - one is a short-term whiff of gas using a mask for quick procedures such as Xrays....the other is an injectable/reversible longer term sedation which is used for more lengthy procedures such as operations (dentals, bladder flushes, stone removal etc) and (sometimes) for taking bloods. It is this [you]latter[/you] type of GA that is most risky for piggies as there is more than one type of method/drugs involved and each vet has their own preferred procedure..(..with varying recovery rates....which is why 20years ago , before appropriate gas protocols were developed for piggies, the generally held belief was to avoid GA for piggies on Xray if possible).

These days Xrays are normally undertaken with whiffs of gas, and these are normally no problem unless the piggy has serious respiratory or cardiovascular problems or is incredibly weak/underweight.

If a piggie is already in a state of collapse/motionless.....and only a dorsal view (ie from the top/above ) is required..it may be possible to take an informative Xray without GA...perhaps by using physical restraint (eg towel wrapping).

However, good practice/informed diagnosis requires a lateral as well as a dorsal view.Xray..... which means putting the piggie on its side (which most pigs will not tolerate if conscious) Therefore in most cases vets will prefer to give a whiff of gas in order to be able to place the piggie on its side and position the limbs accordingly.so that the area of interest eg. urinary system, spine or whatever, can be seen unobstructed by other boney parts of the guinea pig body. This is especially important for Xrays for "unknown causes", heart conditions or urinary stones (where towel wrapping a conscious guinea pig cannot guarantee the perfect positioning of the guinea pig body/limbs.)

[you]Moving back to Frank:[/you]
I'm so sorry that you were so worried about the GA.
For what it's worth - Lance (and his colleagues) are one of the very best guinea pig vet practices in the UK.and it's a tribute to you that you have driven the distance to get Frank the best care.I know I'm a bit late to the thread, but I can reassure you that Frank has been in the very best of hands and his diagnosis and meds are entirely appropriate. If you become concerned about any lack of progress on his current med regime then two alternative meds to discuss with Lance (after 7 days) are
a) replacement of baytril with azithromycin to combat the bone infection
b) addition of tramadol to assist in deep-seated pain relief for the spine

One other thing you need to be alert to short-term is if the current pain relief is not sufficient and his food intake reduces to the point his gut motility becomes challenged in which case you may also need to consider gut motility meds and syringe feeding...which, given the

HTH
x.

P.S.
I know we have a vet locator.... for which I provided a lot of the initial data..however this has been added to by other forum members over the last few years and perhaps it may no longer reflect the somewhat rigorous qualification criteria I personally applied when providing my input. My personal definition of a cavy-savvy vet is not necessarily a vet who does conscious Xrays or is "nice"...or "well-priced".. It means they are a vet who has years of proven experience of
a) diagnosing routine and complicated guinea pigs issues,
b) giving successful GA's (whether gas or injectible) to guinea pigs when deemed necessary
c) willingness to think outside the box/prescribe off-license meds
.....and who I trust to balance up the risks of a particular type of GA/no GA vs the the current health of the guinea pig vs the need/urgency to diagnose/sort the problem and who have a high record of successful GA outcomes, especially when dealing with very poorly guinea pigs.
x
Click to expand...

That's absolutely fine, Frank is very underweight which led to my concern, however I wouldn't want people to be in the same state I was in. I ended up in bed with a shocking migraine and I'm amazed how I'm still awake! So I'm glad you've posted this for reassurance to others, as much as I do wish I had been able to see this sooner, do not feel bad in any way, we all have our own lives! :')

Thank you for that information and reassurance of Lance, I spoke to Suzy and she reassured me (so that was a big help!), if I see no improvement, I will certainly be ringing up and bringing his appointment a week in advance :) I'm always checking for poo's and what they've been eating, so will certainly keep an eye on that, he's just scoffed his veggies and he loves recovery food - he was on it last week so if I ever need that again at least he eats it - so I may ask about that also next week if he hasn't improved in weight, he has remained in the 650g range this week when he was 630g last weekend.

Again, thank you x
 
Oh Heather, I have just noticed your post. I hope you feel more positive now you know exactly what you are dealing with. I'm glad Frank is eating his veggies and enjoys the recovery food, I am struggling with Diesel at the moment, he had a dental last Tuesday but the vet couldn't fix him properly, they didn't have the correct equipment. I'm so glad you found a cavy savvy vet. Here's hoping that little Frank starts to thrive now. Best wishes xx
 
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