Advice and care for broken ribs

[Lynx]

Sending good wishes to you and your guinea pig.

[Talishan]

Call the vet and make absolutely sure the hospital has 24-hour coverage. Check that he will be handfed and checked on regularly the entire time he is there.

Many otherwise good veterinary hospitals have their last tech run-thrus at 10 or 11 pm, then the early-am tech gets in at 6 am or so. This is generally fine for dogs and cats, but herbivores like guinea pigs and rabbits require an overnight tech to check on them and handfeed if they aren't eating.

Good luck and please keep us posted.

[GrannyJu1]

Sending warm thoughts and good wishes your way. Also hoping for a real recovery for him.

[Newpiggymom]

He is still hanging in there. They drained some blood and fluid from his chest. But he is not breathing well, which could be from bruising and trauma of the tissues of course. The vet said we could bring him home today and check back in five days to see if his breathing improves. How ever she said if he recovers he will always need special handling because his rib cage on one side has been "obliverated" her words. I don't know what to do. I don't know if we should give him more time and let him try to live this way or put him down. I've had cats and dogs my entire life but have zero experience with guinea pigs. This is tough and hard on my family. I don't know what's best for him. :(

[Lynx]

I am so sorry. I wish I had more direction for you. For what it's worth, I would watch for signs of pain. Talishan has provided a great deal of information on pain management post surgery. Here is the link I posted above:
www.guinealynx.info/pain.html

[Talishan]

If it were me I'd bring him home and see if he improves. Draining the blood and fluid from the initial trauma may help him, especially if it does not re-form..

He HAS to eat. Period. Pain medication right now is ABSOLUTELY vital.

Since handling him will be an issue, you can try making him a pellet stew and see if he will eat it on his own. Soften pellets in warm, clean water. Mix this with carrot baby food, and offer it to him on a small plate (ceramic, not paper or plastic).

If he's not drinking, offer him water or unflavored Pedialyte (infants' electrolyte solution) by syringe. Many pigs love it and will willingly take it from a syringe. Don't force it, though.

[Newpiggymom]

He is home. We're going to see if his breathing improves in the next few days. He takes hard rapid breaths. He is showing all of those signs of pain. He's on two kinds of pain medicine and we have critical care mix. So we're doing that and he is slowly eating hay and a few veggies. The vet said if he were hers, she would give him a few days to see if he improves. That helped me a lot so that's what we decided to do. Giving him our best shot. Thank you all so much for your help. Please send some prayers or good healing thoughts for our Wallace.

[rjespicer]

Different health issue but we were told to consider euthanasia for one of our girls who had fluid in her chest area and was having issues breathing. We kept up with the meds and critical care (although it took us a while to find the right technique to get her to take it) as well as plenty of TLC and (touch wood) she appears to be doing great now, she has put on 275g in the 3 months since then.

Will keep hoping Wallace makes a speedy recovery.

[Catie Cavy]

I'm thinking of you and praying for dear, little Wallace. I'm hoping for the best.

[Newpiggymom]

Luckily he likes the critical care! He ate some right from the spoon and we also spread some on leaves and he ate those too.

[GrannyJu1]

Very cool! Good job!

[Newpiggymom]

He's not eating at all in his own now. The dr prescribed him a very strong pain killer along with the metacam. After we gave him that last night he hasn't eaten in his own since. I'm doing syringe feeding. I just gave him the metacam alone thinking maybe the other one made him too dopey to eat. He's looking terrible right now though. :(