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Forum THE LOUNGE OT – Guinea Pig With Bumblefoot

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    • Morgan Bun
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        Anyone here have experience with bumblefoot in guinea pigs?

        I picked up this pig yesterday, the girl wanted to get rid of him, and said he needed a nail trim. I didn’t even see him til I got home, cuz he was hanging out in his hut, which is probably good, for his previous owner’s sake…..

        Not only were his nails curling, but he has severe bumble on three of his 4 feet. The fourth one I couldn’t get him to hold still long enough to inspect it and I didn’t want to stress him out anymore than necessary, so I can only assume it’s on that foot as well.

        He has an appointment tomorrow with the vet….

        He’s a “skinny pig” and only has hair on his head, and a wierd tuft on his back. He is absolutely NOT a pleasure to pet. Feels kinda grody, and his skin is rough and dry feeling.

        So here’s Toupee…..

        And here’s Toupee’s foot, prior to a nail trim:

        (I’m intentionally linking these instead of displaying, in case someone doesn’t want to see)

        This one’s bad:

        http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b…dy7/t2.jpg

        This one’s worse:

        http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b…dy7/t3.jpg

         

        I’ll assume the doc will put him on some Baytril, and I’m not sure what to do about bedding. Anything absorbant seems like it’d be painful on the feet, anything soft on the feet soils so quickly I’m concerned it will hinder his healing. I have a natural carefresh in there right now with him (after he soaked my paper towel trial in a couple hours) but it seems painful for him to maneuver even on a thin layer of that.

         


      • Sarita
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          Aww, he’s cute.  I found this on the guinea lynx site about Bumblefoot:

          http://www.guinealynx.info/pododermatitis.html

          I used to help out a guinea pig rescue and they would get the skinnies in and people really like them.  But they definitely aren’t soft and do feel funny.


        • KytKattin
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            Oh that poor little dear. I can’t offer any suggestions, only to say how lucky this little pig is to have found you!


          • Stickerbunny
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              I don’t have any experience with pigs, but he is cute – glad you got him so he can get treatment. Poor baby.


            • Elrohwen
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                Poor little guy! I also don’t have piggie experience (I had to look up with a skinny pig was) but he’s a cute little pig. I hope you’re able to get his feet cleared up and make him comfortable!


              • Pandorachik
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                  Poor fella’! He’s so lucky he got you to nurse him back to help! Bless you and Good Luck!!


                • LittlePuffyTail
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                    Awww…poor little piggy. He’s cute. I don’t have any advice on Bumblefoot as I’ve never dealt with it before. I love piggies though. I had 2 in high school.

                    Are you planning on keeping him or is this just a temporary situation?


                  • bunnnnnnie!
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                      Ouch, that’s a pretty severe case of bumblefoot.

                      I had a piggie who got a very very mild bout of bumblefoot on one of his feet years ago.  Took him to the exotics vet, they trimmed off the flap of skin (it was kind of like a callous), and gave me this blue solution to wipe his foot off with to keep it clean and disinfected daily for about a week.  They also had me keep him in a smaller cage, cleaned out multiple times a day, until he was healed up.

                      Sorry I don’t remember what the solution was, it was so long ago.  But after about a week he was totally fine.  It may take a bit longer with your piggie.  SO GLAD you took him on, he sure is cute. 


                    • bunnyfriend
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                        Awhhhh poor guy!! He looks so sweet wrapped up in that towel. That has gotta hurt though


                      • Morgan Bun
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                          Poor ToupeePiggy…. he went to the vet today and got poked and prodded and handled and held…. He’s not a happy piggy! 🙂

                          As I expected, he was put on Baytril orally twice a day for 10 days, and a blue dip to soak his feet in as often as I can (bunnnnnie, the stuff I got is Nolvosan, I wonder if it’s the same?). She’d like me to do it once a day for 5 minutes but says she’d settle for 3 times a week after seeing how NOT cooperative our little guy is. lol.

                          I’ve only dealt with bumblefoot in ducks, and with them, the “puss” is a cheesy consistancy and it has to be physically dug out of the bumble, which is not only painful for the duck but difficult to do for the human, and the SMELL…. o.O I took in a Pekin duck that had been dumped at the local pond with a bad case of bumblefoot and I hoped I’d never see it again. So I’m really glad I don’t have to do any digging on this little guy’s feet.

                          He actually did pretty good for the first round of soaking, but I was only able to do his front feet. He wasn’t havin’ any of his back feet done….. Gonna try a shallow pan and let him sit in it instead of doing it in the cup, or just do the fronts which are the worst, and hope the oral antibiotic takes care of the backs from the inside out…..

                          Here he is gettin’ his feets soaked….


                        • Morgan Bun
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                            bunnnnie…. What did you use for bedding when your pig had it? I’m experimenting with different ones right now…. I do have him in a smaller cage as his mobility isn’t great and I want him to be able to get to food/water easily. I tried paper towels because they’re smooth and easy to walk on, but one or two pees and they’re soaked. I tried carefresh natural because it’s absorbant, but it’s just lumpy enough that he has difficulty maneuvering on it. I thought about towels/blankets, but figure it’d have similar results as the paper towels. Or maybe actual shredded newspaper? I don’t know….


                          • bunnnnnnie!
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                              Posted By Morgan Bun on 03/06/2012 12:38 PM
                              bunnnnie…. What did you use for bedding when your pig had it? I’m experimenting with different ones right now…. I do have him in a smaller cage as his mobility isn’t great and I want him to be able to get to food/water easily. I tried paper towels because they’re smooth and easy to walk on, but one or two pees and they’re soaked. I tried carefresh natural because it’s absorbant, but it’s just lumpy enough that he has difficulty maneuvering on it. I thought about towels/blankets, but figure it’d have similar results as the paper towels. Or maybe actual shredded newspaper? I don’t know….

                              I used Carefresh, but my piggie wasn’t nearly as bad, it wasn’t effecting his mobility.  I’d maybe try bedding with a really absorbent fleece or even a towel, and just replacing them very very often.
                               

                              As for soaking the back feet, I would actually soak a paper towel with the blue stuff (I think it was Novlasan), and tempt the piggie to stand on it with his back feet while I fed him treats (baby carrot, parsley, etc).


                            • Sam and Lady's Human
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                                Oh so sad! He’s so lucky to have found you!!

                                I would try a few layers of fleece, or maybe even like, quilt filler from the store, the liquid should run to the bottom.


                              • Nicolene
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                                  Hi, I am new to bunnies, but we’ve had guinea pigs for a few years. The antibiotics will definitely help. And I also did Epsom soaks 3-4 times a day. It REALLY helped. You can read about our experience and see my before and after photos here: http://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/medical-veterinary/63542-does-sound-like-bumblefoot.html

                                  Good luck! Our’s footsies healed completely in about 2 weeks. Then they peeled a lot of dead skin, so about 6 weeks later we had pretty shiny pink feet again.


                                • Morgan Bun
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                                    I may have to go to Joanns and raid their fleece remnants and try that for a while. The carefresh is working great for absorbency…. but I hate seeing him hobbling around on it.

                                    The vet I took him to is wonderful…..she asked me if I was keeping him on a wire cage bottom, and I said no, and she said “Oh good, I always ask that question very cautiously”…. It’s nice to see a vet that suggests to her clients not to put small-furries on wire floors.


                                  • Nicolene
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                                      Oh and for the back feet, I held my piggy over a tupperware bowl with the epsom soak in it and just dangled both feet in with my hand under his tush.


                                    • Nicolene
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                                        I had my piggy sit on hand towels so I could replace them twice a day. I usually use fleece in their cage, but even though it soaks into the absorbant layers below, it still holds a lot of bacteria. And with open wounds you want it as clean as possible.


                                      • Morgan Bun
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                                          Thank you Nicolene! Great idea for the back legs…. will give that a try for tomorrow’s soak…. and may be doin’ some shopping this week for piggy bedding.


                                        • brittbritt
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                                            I have three male guinea pigs and I use 2 layers of towels and then fleece as the top layer. If you wash and dry the fleece three times it makes it wick the pee down to the towels. Just don’t use fabric softner or dryer sheets as they only make the fleece not wick properly. Gool luck with your babies’ feet. I hope they are better soon.


                                          • Apple
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                                               I use old quilted matteress covers under the fleece for my piggies. Just trim off the elastic sides, fold to fit the cage and cover with the fleece. Works great.

                                               


                                            • Morgan Bun
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                                                Thanks, Brittbritt and ssaapple. Definitely goin’ shoppin’….gotta work tomorrow, might have to wait til the weekend, so we’ll make due til then….

                                                His feet still look awful, but the soaking seems to make the actual bumbles look less inflamed and less angry. Today, his evening round of antibiotics got shot onto his cheek cuz I didn’t have the syringe in his mouth when I thought I did. :-\ But we’ve got the first 3 doses in him, and tomorrow I’ll be sure to get it all in there. 😉

                                                He has been letting me pet his head, but I touched his body a couple times today and he literally threw himself at me, almost like he was charging me. I felt threatened. LOL. Silly piggy. We’ll be friends someday……


                                              • Kokaneeandkahlua
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                                                  Poor piggy!!! He’s lucky he has you!

                                                  For bedding…I thought maybe newspaper-if you changed it very often, depending on how large an area he had, that might be non-irritating? Not sure. Just a thought.


                                                • Morgan Bun
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                                                    Piggy is on fleece now. He seems to like it and I have enough to change it out two or three times then wash it all and go again. His feet look maybe a little better, the scab looks like it may have shrunk on the one foot, but the swelling still looks close to the same size to me.

                                                    He’s tolerating the soaks and me fussing with him a little better. He even seems to, dare I say, enjoy me petting his head. He put his nose up to my nose today, which sounds sweet, but I saw him open his mouth, so I think he was gonna bite me. lol. Touching moment – RUINED! 😀

                                                    Well. Hopefully this works for him…. I feel so bad for him, the way he moves it’s so obvious his little feets are hurting. I just can’t imagine how the people before me could leave him in this condition and do NOTHING. 🙁


                                                  • Morgan Bun
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                                                      Just a quicky update….. Toupee’s feet are far from normal, but they’re definitely healing!

                                                      That is the worst foot, which now looks like the best foot did when I first brought him home. I’m going to see if I can get an extention on his baytril and keep him on it another week. I can’t imagine the vet would say no, seeing how well he’s progressing and it’s not hurting his stomach.

                                                      He’s letting me hold him and handle him without biting (much) though he’s still quite wiggly when I initially pick him up. He goes nuts for anything green (leafy greens, collards, spinach, etc).

                                                      I can’t wait til his feet are good enough that I can focus on trimming his toenails back even more. They still look terrible, though I took a LOT off the first day….. One step at a time, I suppose…..

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                                                  Forum THE LOUNGE OT – Guinea Pig With Bumblefoot