Uterine Bleeding -- pyometra? cysts? surgery?

pinta

Post   » Wed Jan 23, 2002 11:09 pm


Very confined. Basically just big enough to turn around in. I use a duck carrier(don´t ask) that´s about 12" x 15". I line it with towels over a hot water bottle with a food bowl in the corner and a drinking bottle attached poking though one of the airholes.

Yeah, the pig gets pissed and glowery, but having seen one die from adhesions and finding out they´re caused by scar tissue ripping and rebuilding until the scar tissue causes blockage - the pig can just suffer for a few days. Small price to pay.

kleenmama
I GAVE, dammit!

Post   » Thu Jan 24, 2002 12:44 am


Lisam, I hope things go great with Amidala. Did you use Dr. Harris? Just out of curiosity, how much does he charge for a spay? I might need him myself, some time.

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lisam

Post   » Thu Jan 24, 2002 9:34 am


Well, I told my husband just a little over $100, although it was actually more like $150. I thought I may be able to get it done for less, but I do trust Dr. Harris (most of the time) and wasn´t so sure about anyone else in the area. The ultrasound would have added an additional $135 to the bill.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Thu Jan 24, 2002 1:24 pm


I called all around to find out if anyone was equipped to do a gp ultrasound. One person said he could do it but doesn´t see guinea pigs. Others said it was usually a referral to someone in distant Richmond or Virginia Tech. People who read their own ultrasounds didn´t know enough about guinea pigs to feel comfortable doing it.

I did talk to one helpful vet who suggested examining the bloody discharge under a microscope. He said you could tell if there was an infection present and also if there were a-typical cells. I posted in the reference forum how a guinea pig may have experienced the first pap smear. It would seem any reproductive cancerous problems might actually show up this way.

I think Nina may have quit bleeding so there may be nothing to check but I´ll bring this up when I haul them in to see the vet. Maybe she could get a pap smear (or something like it).

I am a little fuzzy about this, but I think the vet I talked to today (who I understand is also a local "radio" vet) may have said that often with an ultrasound and suspicious bleeding, you may end up doing surgery to find out what is going on even if nothing shows up on an ultrasound. I think this is why he suggested analysing the discharge as a first step in diagnosis.

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lisam

Post   » Thu Jan 24, 2002 5:03 pm


Amidala is home now, and seems perky, and is eating and drinking as we speak. I was a little disappointed in the staff there--they had given her water in a dish (she had spilled it all over) and the food was full of seeds and colorful bits. Next time I will be more prepared and take her own food and water bottle.

The vet took a picture of her uterus and ovaries, and gave me a copy. The cysts were quite huge, and filled with fluid that he said was almost pure estrogen.

My vet also said that even with an ultrasound you often wind up doing the surgery anyway.

Very interesting about analyzing the discharge.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Thu Jan 24, 2002 7:16 pm


I thought so too. If you check out the link in the reference forum about the guy who developed the pap smear, it mentions how much information can be obtained from shed cells. I wonder if any vets do this. He developed the technique apparently because he couldn´t tell when the guinea pigs he was working with were in heat.

pinta

Post   » Sat Jan 26, 2002 8:49 pm


It should be 3 days very restricted movement - not 5 days.

Sorry, numbers mean nothing to me and it took a while for this to register.

From an old post:

Try to keep Pepper as quiet as possible to reduce the risk of
adhesions forming. Our vet recommends 3 days restricted movement (carrying
case) and 4 days with no jumping or climbing. Adhesions are scar tissue
forming around surgical wounds. They don´t happen to every pig - but we
did lose one to them a few years ago after she was spayed. Now we
exercise extreme caution with major surgery post-op pigs


Since ours are free range and have a multilevel condo, we have to take particular care in movement restriction. A pig in a regular cage might just have to bypass floortime for a few days after the initial movement restriction. Adhesions may not happen and probably won´t, but having experienced them once, I personally won´t take any chances. If I´d never had a pig die from them, I wouldn´t take these precautions, but having had one die, I now do everything possible to make sure it doesn´t happen again.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sat Jan 26, 2002 9:22 pm


Thanks for the clarification. I don´t know where I got the 5 days from (I keep telling people I am getting old -- and now I´m afraid they will believe me) but I thought you said that somewhere.

Snowflake has a sleeping shelf they jump up onto and bathrooms they jump into so I am guessing I had better make sure she doesn´t jump for a while. But I´ll give her more level room to move around.

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lisam

Post   » Fri Mar 15, 2002 2:56 pm


ttt for Sonia

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