Violet's medical thread

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Tue Jan 05, 2021 9:47 pm


Good luck finding just the right companion for your group!

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ItsaZoo
Supporter in 2023

Post   » Wed Jan 06, 2021 11:58 pm


That sounds like a good idea. It's not easy finding a buddy. You don't want Violet to be lonely, but you also don't need her irritated at the new piggies. Maybe once the newbies are gone, Violet will feel like coming out and moving around more. I hope so!

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Zaphy

Post   » Thu Jan 07, 2021 2:28 am


Things are definitely less tense now that the new pigs are gone. The rescue just had a baby female from an oops litter born yesterday, so once she’s old enough we’re going to try her in with my herd. Since babies are usually pretty easy to integrate I’m hopeful that Violet will be very on board with her- though I don’t want to jinx anything! I’m looking forward to it though, babies are so much fun :)

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ItsaZoo
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Post   » Sun Jan 10, 2021 11:31 pm


That’s pretty exciting and definitely something to look forward to!

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Zaphy

Post   » Wed Apr 07, 2021 12:34 am


Baby's integrated well with the herd :) Violet has good days and bad days, so I also have her on a low dose of metacam as needed and she seems to be doing pretty well on that. She's definitely slowing down more and more and has started looking a bit arthritic in her hind legs- stumbles a bit here and there and sometimes doesn't quite clear the ledge when stepping in and out of the litterbox, that kind of thing. But she is still mobile, will still spin for treats, and when she's done with lap time still jumps up onto my shoulders (not as nimbly as she once did of course, but still).

Violet literally just had a checkup with the vet yesterday, but today I noticed one of her eyes has a spot on it. I don't have too much experience with eye issues so I'm not sure what it is and unfortunately can't get a photo of it. It's a small cloudy spot on the surface of the eyeball- she's kind of always had it but today I noticed it a bit cloudier/larger than normal. It reminds me of an ulcer a previous pig with facial paralysis had due to not being able to blink (Violet can blink though). It doesn't seem painful to her, and the rest of her eye looks normal and not irritated. Is this something to take her back to the vet about right now, or something to just keep an eye on (ha) and only take her in if stuff starts looking irritated? The eye page wasn't super clear to me on this, sorry D:

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Wed Apr 07, 2021 2:11 pm


Did you notice the link to more eye info in the Records forum? More pics and conditions there.
https://www.guinealynx.info/records/viewtopic.php?t=77

If it is on the surface, most likely an injury.

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Zaphy

Post   » Thu Apr 08, 2021 2:37 pm


I did not notice that, thank you for the link!

Eye didn't look any worse yesterday but also not any better, so I made an appointment with the vet just to be on the safe side. They were able to get her in right away which was great, and the vet said the spot did "take in some dye"- that means it's ulcerated, right? I'm going off of my memory of a previous pig. He also noted that there was a second small spot on her other eye though- the fact that it's in both eyes worries me because i had assumed it was just an injury. Regardless, we're trying terramycin 3x/day for a week and will recheck then.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Thu Apr 08, 2021 9:32 pm


I'm with you on being somewhat more concerned that something is going on with both eyes. Has your brand of hay changed? Is it stiffer or more straw-like? (pokier). The terramycin should definitely help. Let us know if they improve.

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Zaphy

Post   » Wed Apr 14, 2021 6:39 pm


It's now day 6 of the terramycin, I think? The eyes don't seem to have improved at all, and in fact I think her left eye (the one I noticed first) is getting a general cloudiness to it as well. So, worsening a bit. The vet was out today and will get back to me tomorrow morning. In the meantime I'm wondering if there's any point in continuing the terramycin. I guess continuing with one or two more doses until the vet gets back to me isn't a huge deal, it's just that she hates it so much and always looks much worse (hunching/poofing-wise) after a dose.

I suppose I can't say I'm terribly surprised that the terramycin didn't work, after learning that it's in both eyes. No clue what would be causing it though. To answer your question Lynx, I did get a new bale of hay recently but it's quite soft and grassy, not much in the way of sticks.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Wed Apr 14, 2021 9:11 pm


I wonder if she is developing cataracts. If so, I don't think there are any treatments for guinea pigs.
https://www.guinealynx.info/eyes.html#cataracts

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Zaphy

Post   » Wed Apr 14, 2021 9:40 pm


I'm sure she has cataracts as well (that's something I think I've seen in her eyes for a couple years now), but the cloudiness I'm seeing is around the edge of the iris. Not to mention the surface spot which is still there (possibly bigger than before, not sure). I tried to get photos of it, but it's very difficult. The first one shows the spot on the surface of her eye- but unless you know what her eye is reflecting I think it might be impossible to pick out where it's distorted. It's just a small rough cloudy patch on the surface. The second picture shows the general cloudiness around the iris though which I think is easy to see. It's been a while since I uploaded photos here and my usual image host changed things around, so hopefully they don't mess up!

Image

Image

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Zaphy

Post   » Thu Apr 15, 2021 2:26 pm


ARGH! This morning it was suddenly much worse!

Image

The vet's going to squeeze us in today in a couple hours. It couldn't have been the terramycin that caused this, right? Just that this was so sudden!

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