Guinea pig ding-a-ling...cauliflower willy? help?
Thank you, Sef! The box says 0.5mg/ml...and we give him .25 every 12 hours. One at 6 am, one at 6 PM. I'm not sure with dosing, so I'm not sure how much I could give him. Maybe I could even give him more metacam....? He is also 921 grams.
Can anyone give me advice about tramadol? I'm researching and finding that it may have issues with gut motility; and that scares me. But he's also in a lot of pain and not moving much...kind of between a rock and a hard place. I think I will be going with tramadol, but is there anything I can do preemptively to help his gut and keep him regular?
- Lynx
- Celebrate!!!
Talishan has a couple excellent pages on pain management. I think they are linked to from this page:
www.guinealynx.info/pain.html
www.guinealynx.info/pain.html
- Sef
- I dissent.
There is a range with Metacam, which is roughly .1-.3 mg/kg q24. At the upper end of the dosage scale, based on his weight and the strength of the Metacam that you have (.5mg/ml), the calculation would be:
.3mg (dose) x .9 kg (weight) = 0.27, divided by .5 mg/ml = a dose of .54cc's. You are essentially giving him that, now, divided into 2 doses 12 hours apart. You could see if a single, 24hr dose at .5cc's knocks the pain better.
Oxbow Joint Support might also be worth a shot. I frankly haven't had much luck with any of the Oxbow supplements, but it can't hurt and there's a small chance that it could actually help a little.
The other product I was trying to think of is Myristol. I did some digging into it a while back for one of my own guys, and found that some rabbit societies recommend it for buns with arthritis. I didn't end up pursuing it further, and don't know of anyone else who has tried it with their guinea pig. It is an alfalfa-based pellet, unfortunately, which might be problematic since he's already prone to sludge. I had contacted the company to ask if they might consider a timothy-based product, but never heard back. You might ask your vet about it. Again, I can't vouch for its safety or effectiveness, but have seen it mentioned on several rabbit sites such as this one:
http://www.disabledrabbits.com/arthritis.html
.3mg (dose) x .9 kg (weight) = 0.27, divided by .5 mg/ml = a dose of .54cc's. You are essentially giving him that, now, divided into 2 doses 12 hours apart. You could see if a single, 24hr dose at .5cc's knocks the pain better.
Oxbow Joint Support might also be worth a shot. I frankly haven't had much luck with any of the Oxbow supplements, but it can't hurt and there's a small chance that it could actually help a little.
The other product I was trying to think of is Myristol. I did some digging into it a while back for one of my own guys, and found that some rabbit societies recommend it for buns with arthritis. I didn't end up pursuing it further, and don't know of anyone else who has tried it with their guinea pig. It is an alfalfa-based pellet, unfortunately, which might be problematic since he's already prone to sludge. I had contacted the company to ask if they might consider a timothy-based product, but never heard back. You might ask your vet about it. Again, I can't vouch for its safety or effectiveness, but have seen it mentioned on several rabbit sites such as this one:
http://www.disabledrabbits.com/arthritis.html
So, awful turn of events. As he got older, he developed sludge, like I mentioned. He started really being in pain, and straining to urinate. I held him to watch his urine output and what it looked like; if he was passing sludge. He wasn't passing anything at all. After 2 1/2 hours, he still hadn't passed any urine. We took him to emergency vet...he had a stone blocking his urethra. It was too big to pass. We said goodbye to him at around 1:30 am. I am absolutely devastated. He is the 3rd to go in my origional herd of 4. He was my baby boy. He was sweet, soft wheeking, cuddly, kissy-boy. I miss him immensely already. Our house feels like it's missing a whole person.
- Sef
- I dissent.
Oh no, I'm so sorry. When you mentioned x-rays and the diagnosis of arthritis, I guess I assumed stones had been ruled out. They can form quickly, though, so it might not have been caught at the time.
We lost a guinea pig to a blocked urethra a few years ago. It's devastating. Sending you my deepest sympathy.
We lost a guinea pig to a blocked urethra a few years ago. It's devastating. Sending you my deepest sympathy.
I'm not sure what happened...but now I'm upset thinking maybe the vet missed it??? Now im really upset. I didn't even think about that.