Fasting for 12 hours before surgery?

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MarlowePieper11

Post   » Mon Jul 27, 2020 9:16 am


Brilliant!! He is only two years old but I think that this is something we're going to have to keep up. It's a small price to pay to keep him around for as long as possible and healthy

MarlowePieper11

Post   » Mon Sep 14, 2020 9:17 pm


So it's been a few months since you was last at the vets. Since then I have been noticing something gross. He does his little horny sound basically whenever we pet him. And I have seen boars glue in his cage. something that's newer for us at least in the past few months is that he has sperm rods that get lodged and we have to help him with, nearly every other week or so. I'm beginning to think that that may have been the problem all along. It may have been lodged and it ended up causing an infection in his little bladder that led to the stone. So I just thought I would throw this out there as it's become a regular thing that I check now as a boy mom. There is a pretty gross symptom of a lodged sperm rod, which is that he smells fishy, literally fishy. I even smelled it a day in advance, and the next day sure enough there it was. He was crying one day when he was peeing and my heart stopped because I thought it was another bladder stone but sure enough, sperm rod period when I took it out he was sore for a few minutes I think but back to normal that same day. if you're having similar problems be sure to check that. Just another gross but necessary task.

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Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:00 pm


It's not uncommon for a male to have a sperm rod stuck "up there" that needs to be manually removed, but the fishy smell makes me a little concerned that there may be a urinary tract infection going on.

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:34 pm


You may want to consider having him neutered. That should fix the sperm rod problem.

MarlowePieper11

Post   » Tue Sep 15, 2020 7:14 am


The smell goes away when I remove the sperm rod. If it stayed I would be concerned, too. And it's not a huge deal to check him, I think I'd rather that than surgery for him.

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Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Tue Sep 15, 2020 11:44 am


Sounds reasonable. I'd just keep an eye on it.

MarlowePieper11

Post   » Tue Sep 15, 2020 9:43 pm


I definitely will! As always I really appreciate this forum, thanks so much!

MarlowePieper11

Post   » Wed Jan 20, 2021 9:58 pm


When does anyone else have this problem with their guinea pig he is constantly, maybe not constantly, but at least every two weeks has this from rod. Tonight I took two out and maybe a week or so ago he actually had three all jammed! I check him regularly but it's not always very obvious to see them. When I smell fish coming from his cage and from him I know that he has something brewing for me to remove. I just don't understand why this keeps happening! Given the fact that it happens so consistently, I know that this was what the problem was that caused his bladder stone. I mean he had THREE at one time. I can't imagine how backed up he was before I knew what was going on. I just don't get why he doesn't take care of them himself or maybe his piping is just off. Just wondering if anyone else has this problem

MarlowePieper11

Post   » Wed Jan 20, 2021 9:59 pm


*sperm rods

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Wed Jan 20, 2021 10:24 pm


As far as I know, sperm rods and bladder stones don't have anything to do with each other, except that both can block the flow of urine. But they're not produced in the same place, nor made of the same material.

However, we've seen several guinea pigs who have had to be neutered to resolve that problem. It stops all that sperm production that blocks the penis, and thus allows for a freer flow of urine.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Thu Jan 21, 2021 10:49 am


If you have a skilled and experienced vet, sounds like it would help!

MarlowePieper11

Post   » Thu Jun 17, 2021 9:23 am


Hello again everyone! Our guinea pig Finley is having a couple of medical issues again. This time it's with his left eye. We noticed that he was squinting in just that one eye, and it was a bit crusty. We took him to the vet, and they diagnosed him with a scratch in his eye and put him on 7 days of antibiotics, one drop twice a day. Flurbiprofen and Tobramycin.

If I'm being honest it was kind of difficult to give them to him but he was a trooper. Now that the 7 days are over his eye doesn't seem very improved. At some points it's fine and at other points it looks sensitive with him squinting it while his right eye is totally normal. Two things I would add to this are, I'm an optician and work with a doctor, an optometrist, and he said that sometimes the tobramycin doesn't stay in the eye quite long enough and he would recommend arythomycin which helps for scratches but is a salve and while it may give him a bit of blurry vision, stays on the eye longer. Although I don't want to pretend I think that would be very easy to administer on a guinea pig!

I have a call into the vet with that information, hoping that they'll prescribe that and have us give it another go. The second thing I wanted to mention is in the past I've had guinea pigs who have black skin but this guinea pig has very very pale skin. When we go outside and sit in the grass, not even in direct sunlight, his eyes get teary and the rims of his eyes get very pink. He's basically an Irishman at heart, with all pink feet as well. Needless to say he just has naturally sensitive skin that I have to be careful of, he should be wearing a cap and sunglasses at all times.

The tech at the vet did say that the vet may want to see him again, and this time they would want to sedate him to do a more thorough exam, but at this point between our puppy and the guinea pig we have literally been spending hundreds of dollars a month since February on them and I'm hoping perhaps someone here has another suggestion.

Could it be allergies in just one eye? My allergies have been really bad and we do keep the windows open so we don't have to constantly run the air conditioner. We live in the northeast of the US, in New England. If anyone has any suggestions they would be greatly appreciated.

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