RebeccaJ
New Born Pup
Hi. This is my first post but I've been using this amazing website since we got our guinea pigs, the advice and guidance has been invaluable. We have two girls, Blackberry and Noodle, they're 2 years old. These are our first piggies so we have no previous experience.
My post is about Blackberry. We took her to the vets Friday morning as she'd lost some weight and was subdued. I was worried about her teeth as she seemed slower to eat her veggies. I was also worried about her hips. Since getting her as a baby she uses her back legs differently to Noodle. She prefers to lay when eating, adjusts herself frequently when standing still, will always lay down with her back legs to the side.
The Vet could see upon inspection that her teeth were a problem and he was happy to anaesthatise her and do what he could straight away. I voiced my concerns about her hips and asked if he could examine her whilst she was under an anaesthetic. We agreed to additional x-rays.
He called me after she had recovered to say he'd done what he could with her teeth and her bottom molars were overgrown and will continue to be a problem, needing trimming at regular intervals (not sure what the time span will be). He also said "you were right to be worried about her hips because..... she doesn't have any"
So Blackberry doesn't have hip joints at all. Likely a birth defect. She's probably adapted by creating her own 'false sockets'. Her x-rays also showed a curvature of her spine and that the middle part of her spine is "not normal" (the bones didn't show as clear white images but fuzzy).
The Vet said it was just a 'wait and see' situation with regards to both her teeth and if or when her spine/hips cause future problems.
I wanted to ask more experienced owners if anyone had any advice or previous knowledge about how to help her going forward with regards to her skeletal problems? Is there something I should be doing now to help her?
Also, we have dog strength Loxicom for her teeth recovery. The Vet said to give her a 8.5kg dog dose (that's the kind of syringe he gave) once a day. Knowing that the general advice on the forum is to give it twice a day, I gave her a half dose yesterday morning and half dose in the evening. Looking at our 1ml syringe, it equates to just under 0.3ml twice daily (she's about 850g). Do you think I'm correct to do that? She wasn't as bright yesterday as she was when she came back from the vets (having had a full dose there) and I'm worried it's because of the split pain med.
I'm support feeding her recovery food during the day and have been weighing her daily since she became unwell. She was maintaining her new low weight but today she's 17g less than yesterday. She doesn't appear to be eating grass or hay at all yet. Recovery feeding yesterday was hard, she just didn't want it. Whereas when we returned from the vets on Friday, she ate a lot eagerly all in one sitting. We have Burgess Excel which is pellet form, I hand fed her a few this morning and she took them. Might try more of that today.... She currently hiding in a pile of hay, she's just not used to being picked out of her cage so frequently, she's not enjoying it!
I'm really sorry for such a long post, taking up valuable time, I just don't want our inexperience/ignorance to have a negative impact on her care. It's really worrying seeing her this way and knowing it's likely not an isolated event.
Thank you in advance.
My post is about Blackberry. We took her to the vets Friday morning as she'd lost some weight and was subdued. I was worried about her teeth as she seemed slower to eat her veggies. I was also worried about her hips. Since getting her as a baby she uses her back legs differently to Noodle. She prefers to lay when eating, adjusts herself frequently when standing still, will always lay down with her back legs to the side.
The Vet could see upon inspection that her teeth were a problem and he was happy to anaesthatise her and do what he could straight away. I voiced my concerns about her hips and asked if he could examine her whilst she was under an anaesthetic. We agreed to additional x-rays.
He called me after she had recovered to say he'd done what he could with her teeth and her bottom molars were overgrown and will continue to be a problem, needing trimming at regular intervals (not sure what the time span will be). He also said "you were right to be worried about her hips because..... she doesn't have any"
So Blackberry doesn't have hip joints at all. Likely a birth defect. She's probably adapted by creating her own 'false sockets'. Her x-rays also showed a curvature of her spine and that the middle part of her spine is "not normal" (the bones didn't show as clear white images but fuzzy).
The Vet said it was just a 'wait and see' situation with regards to both her teeth and if or when her spine/hips cause future problems.
I wanted to ask more experienced owners if anyone had any advice or previous knowledge about how to help her going forward with regards to her skeletal problems? Is there something I should be doing now to help her?
Also, we have dog strength Loxicom for her teeth recovery. The Vet said to give her a 8.5kg dog dose (that's the kind of syringe he gave) once a day. Knowing that the general advice on the forum is to give it twice a day, I gave her a half dose yesterday morning and half dose in the evening. Looking at our 1ml syringe, it equates to just under 0.3ml twice daily (she's about 850g). Do you think I'm correct to do that? She wasn't as bright yesterday as she was when she came back from the vets (having had a full dose there) and I'm worried it's because of the split pain med.
I'm support feeding her recovery food during the day and have been weighing her daily since she became unwell. She was maintaining her new low weight but today she's 17g less than yesterday. She doesn't appear to be eating grass or hay at all yet. Recovery feeding yesterday was hard, she just didn't want it. Whereas when we returned from the vets on Friday, she ate a lot eagerly all in one sitting. We have Burgess Excel which is pellet form, I hand fed her a few this morning and she took them. Might try more of that today.... She currently hiding in a pile of hay, she's just not used to being picked out of her cage so frequently, she's not enjoying it!
I'm really sorry for such a long post, taking up valuable time, I just don't want our inexperience/ignorance to have a negative impact on her care. It's really worrying seeing her this way and knowing it's likely not an isolated event.
Thank you in advance.
