Cleaning Surgery Wounds?

[DigitalVixen]

Hey everyone - I had to take my baby in to the vet today to get an abcess drained. The wound looks so bad from where he entered, I can hardly look at it without crying. I'm really worried about it getting infected before it heals, and he scratches it! Does anyone know of anything or any ways that are good to help something along with healing? Should I keep him in something other than his cage sometimes to keep him away from germs? Thanks for the help.

[DocDolittle]

I don't know about keeping them completely out of there cage, but I woud recommend spot cleaning more often, and when you entirely clean out your cage, make sure to put extra effort in. I'm sure that completely removing him from his cage would just cause stress. Have you ever heard of Vetbed? I'm not sure where it's available, I don't have one myself, but I read on someone's sight that it is like a towel but the surface stays dry, and the pee just soaks through it. And there little piggie poops can just be picked up.

[roosterboy]

Wipe with H. peroxide. Put on a few times a day. Change bedding whenever soiled.

[Treen]

Unless it was removed whole, the wound should have been left open with a shunt in, so you can flush the wound several times a day to ensure all the bacteria are gone and it doesn't recur. Hydrogen peroxide isn't ideal for that - I used betnovate. Your vet should have given you detailed instructions on how to care for the wound, so maybe it's worth giving him/ her a call to ask for advice, especially with regards to him scratching his wound.

Post at Guinea Lynx http://207.58.139.33/~guinea2/forums/ for medical advice - this forum is primarily for cage related information and discussions, and you'll find the best medical advice over there.

Good luck with your pig.

[Susan9608]

Yikes! Don't use hydrogen peroxide! Hydrogen peroxide kills off and damages new skin cells along with germs. If you need to clean your pig's wound, get a bottle of saline solution (like hte kind you store contact lenses in) and irrigate it with that. Hydrogen peroxide is very painful on healing tissue as well.

[sofiemuffins]

My pig Oscar had Abcesses removed from his chin area. The vet left the wound open to heal after the second surgery. He gave me some kind of oral cleanser to flush the wound with several times daily. Unfortunately my little guy didn't make it. His infection had gone into the bone and after about 4 surgeries I decided to put him down because he was so weak. =(


You should probably check with your vet on what you should be cleaning the wound with. Good luck with your little guy. Oh and I kept Oscar in a smaller cage so that I could monitor his bowel movements-and I used fleece so that the shavings wouldn't get into his wound, and I cleaned it daily so that nothing could infect the wound more.

Good luck!

[AngelsCavies]

awwwwwwww im sorry about oscar. Im waiting to get money put together so my Gizmo can get his drained.