fluffysal
Forum Donator 2024/25
Healing rumbles from my boys and hugs from me 

imo a whole month doing 24/7 guinea care is a lot! You're a hero in my eyesBut I confess that I came here just to talk. It's been very difficult to keep my hopes, especially with the sleep deprivation. Tomorrow will be a month since I have been dedicated to her 24/7.
Thank you guys, your words mean a lot to me <3
The results came back: she has a tooth root abscess in the third molar, which is causing the eye to pop out.
We sent the CT scan to another veterinarian with more experience in dental surgeries to see if it is possible to treat it with medication, if it will be necessary to go with surgery or even remove the tooth (I know that this is not recommended in the case of molars, but this option was presented to me as a last treatment to consider).
Hi, everyone
Dilma had surgery yesterday. Her molar ended up needing to be extracted. The root was very compromised and infected, and the abscess had fistulated into her mouth, making marsupialization impossible.
The surgery was complex (the tooth had to come out piece by piece because it was the last one, deep in her mouth) and she spent more time under anesthesia than recommended.
By some miracle, once again, she survived. We just completed the first 24 hours. Her face is completely swollen, it looks like she had been stung by a bee. She has watery eyes and a runny nose (which the vet told me was to be expected: it's not a respiratory problem, but swelling in the area). It really breaks my heart. However, despite the obvious discomfort, she is ok with syringe feed and taking her meds and is already trying to eat her veggies on her own, even though she still can't.
It was something I thought a lot about: whether it was worth subjecting her to such a serious surgery. But she always seems so eager to live, so anxious to get back to doing her little things... I hope everything works out and that I made the right decision.
Hi everyone
Dilma is getting better from the swelling and the secretions caused by the surgery, but she still can't eat anything on her own (except for a little piece of watermelon yesterday — irresistible).
However, my main concern at the moment is weight loss. Over the last three days, I've managed to gradually increase the amount of cc I give her. I've been giving 52ml, 57ml and 62ml. Still, she's continuing to lose weight (790g, 772g, 764g). The strange thing is that, with 60ml of cc I was able to make her maintain her weight before (pre-surgery). What could be going on? And is it okay for me to take a 5-hour break to sleep? I'm really exhausted from the 3-hour routine for over a month.
Hi
I am very sorry. It sounds like something is going on if the weight is going down slowly on the same amount of care.
Please switch to a feeding pattern that eliminates getting up in the middle of night once your piggy is at 60 ml a day or more (i.e. she is out of the immendiate life-and-death battle) and make sure that you get 5-6 hours of unbroken rest yourself as soon as you can make the switch to 3-5 feeds during the day with getting 10-15 ml into your piggy with every session or even a bit less but try to up the amount you are feeding.
Is Dilma on painkillers? If yes, try to up them a little and see whether that helps and then contact your vet.
As the primary carer, your first duty is to look after yourself and to manage your own physical needs on a longer sustainable level. This is not selfish: If you run out of steam or fall ill from exhaustion, who is looking after those you are looking after? Even very ill piggies will be able to survive a night off food if they can get enough little feeds over the course of a day to give you that crucial amount of unbroken sleep. Finding a sustainable balance between two conflicting needs can be a tough decision but it can also be a very tough lesson for any dedicated and loving owner.
You are such a dedicated and loving owner. Dilma is so lucky to have found you.
HUGS
Thank you Wiebke
I really trust the opinion of the people here (and yours especially) and maybe this is the first time I feel "authorized" to rest a little without feeling like a horrible owner. You're right, what you said makes sense... I'll try to reach 70ml today (an hour ago she took 15ml in one sitting, so fingers crossed) and then I'll go to sleep at night. Thank you again.
Hi, guys
It's been a while since I've given any updates, but I was processing everything that happened.
Dilma had to be PTS 15 days ago.
After recovering from the first surgery, she had no improvements in her ability to eat. So we did another CT scan, which showed that another molar was compromised due to the abscess. We went for the second surgery, but when the vet opened the gum, there was no abscess at all, but rather a neoplasm that was compromising the roots of all the teeth in that area. We sent a sample to the lab, and ended up discovering that Dilma had an ameloblastoma, a benign tumor (in the sense that it does not cause metastasis to the organs) that corrodes bone tissue. It also occurs in humans, and the treatment consists of removing a large piece of the affected area, performing radiotherapy and then surgery to reconstruct the bone. As you can imagine, this is not very feasible for guinea pigs. Besides, it is a tumor with a high chance of recurrence in such accelerated metabolisms. It would be very painful for her, and with little chance of success. Meanwhile, all of her teeth and the bone in her jaw were becoming compromised.
So we made the difficult decision to let her go. She went PTS at home, lying next to her sisters, very peaceful.
I am devastated, but happy that we reached a diagnosis that left me at ease knowing that we did everything possible. It was more than 70 days taking care of her 24/7.
Dilma was a very special little pig. I miss her every day.
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