Treenie's swollen feet

Cavy Treenie said:

Hey, I have owned piggies for 4 years + and my older piggie Treenie has a hock infection. I have her on antibiotics and I have been monitoring her almost constantly. She is quite old for a pig and she has been dropping a bit of weight. She is such a sweetie and I'd hate to see her go like this. Any suggestions and advice for making her comfortable? I love her to bits and beyond. I realize that I should be prepared for the worst, yet I still hope for the best.

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By hock, what part of the foot or leg is the problem? What did the vet say? For bumblefoot, it helps to soak the infection a couple of times a day in a dilution of Chlorhexiderm. It's tricky to do, depending on where the infection is. Bumblefoot can be difficult to cure, depending on how far it's progressed.

4 Years is only middle age for GPs. The average is 7-9 years. Something is going. We might be able to walk you thorough it so that you can have more years with her... We need more info. Like what part? What antibiotics? Maybe a pic of the infection... any other info about her cage, her life, her diet etc... Would be helpful!

No, I have owned piggies for 4 years. When I rescued Treenie she was 3 now she is about 6. Hock as in lower foot on her pad, like I said our vet has checked her out and he thinks an infection is most likely, so she has peanut butter antibiotics . I will get a pic up tomorrow morning. Her cage is store-bought and bedding is critter care. Cleaned 2x weekly. She has a whole room for herself where I pick her up out of her cage and set her on the floor so she can have hoggy run time for 1-2 hours about 2-3 times a week. She eats piggie pellets, timothy hay, fresh fruits and veggies (celery, apples, and carrots) and because of her infection she has vitamin C supplements in her water. She is loved very much, and she likes being held, right now she is relaxing in her cage munching on her hay, and being VERY careful not to put weight on her foot. Her left hind pad is the problematic one.

I hope she gets better soon, I can't really offer much support on this as i've never treated it before

Just so you are aware though, water based Vitamin C is most often pointless (Unless the piggy drinks it within an hour) As soon as you expose the supplement to water and light, it starts breaking down very quickly. After about an hour or so, you're left with poor quality and nasty tasting water.
Don't waste your money and get Vitamin C tablets instead and crumble/rub it into the veg if you wanna supplement her
Although, if you are feeding her regular veg she will get more than her daily dose of Vit C - bell pepper is among the veggies that contain the highest amounts.

Thank you! She drinks a lot of water so I put a small amount of water in her bottle, and she usually drinks it within 20-30 minutes. Then I fill it with room temp water. I also give her peppers, garden grown, just not as often, but I will be sure to pick some up. I think I calculated her age wrong as I am looking at her papers. She is about 7-8 years old. She is no baby any more.

You don't need vit c supplements if you are feeding her green bell peppers everyday and fresh good quality pellets. Yes 7-8 years sounds a lot better for her to be winding down. Store bought cages are way too small. I know you let her run around a bit every few days but she needs to be able to exercise on her own time too. Cubes and coroplast cages are really great and versatile and cheap! I'm not familiar with critter care bedding. Is that a pellet? A fiber like material? If its a hard material like a pellet that might be irritating to the foot. Have you thought of fleece bedding. I and many other GP owners here use fleece and its preferred by many...

O and don't forget we would LOVE to see a pic of your old gal!

Onetwo said:

You don't need vit c supplements if you are feeding her green bell peppers everyday and fresh good quality pellets. Yes 7-8 years sounds a lot better for her to be winding down. Store bought cages are way too small. I know you let her run around a bit every few days but she needs to be able to exercise on her own time too. Cubes and coroplast cages are really great and versatile and cheap! I'm not familiar with critter care bedding. Is that a pellet? A fiber like material? If its a hard material like a pellet that might be irritating to the foot. Have you thought of fleece bedding. I and many other GP owners here use fleece and its preferred by many...

O and don't forget we would LOVE to see a pic of your old gal!

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CritterCare is processed stuff, but it's not hard. It's made from plant matter (Cellulose?).
It's like a pulp

Okay, I will be getting pics of my girls and the babies on here ASAP. I have tried C&C cages, I know they work for a lot of people but they prove to be challenging for me to keep them in as we have a cat who would love some piggie pork chops. Their HUGE new hutch is in our garage being built right now, so that should be done fairly soon.

piggie pork chops lol

You can just put a roof on their C&C cage so the cat can't get in Should be fine though as long as the hutch is big enough.

These are Penelope's baby boys. Romeo and Jerry! Romeo died a few weeks after us suspecting that he had some neurological issues. He had a seizure while I was away and died in my dads hands. Jerry has moved on to be a therapeutic pet, that comforts kids while they learn to read or if they just need a friend. We rescued Penelope thinking that she was 2-3 weeks old, her growth was stunted due to malnutrition and a few weeks later she became wider and wider, and while we were at a rodeo she popped! And out came Romeo and Jerry! Romeo is on the left and Jerry is on the right.

Cavy Treenie said:

These are Penelope's baby boys. Romeo and Jerry! Romeo died a few weeks after us suspecting that he had some neurological issues. He had a seizure while I was away and died in my dads hands. Jerry has moved on to be a therapeutic pet, that comforts kids while they learn to read or if they just need a friend. We rescued Penelope thinking that she was 2-3 weeks old, her growth was stunted due to malnutrition and a few weeks later she became wider and wider, and while we were at a rodeo she popped! And out came Romeo and Jerry! Romeo is on the left and Jerry is on the right.

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Oh well that's a real shame We have a currently pregnant pig as well!

Haha, I have to admit even though Jerry went to the best home we could ever hope for is was very bitter sweet saying good bye. The little things are just so cute you don't want to ever let them go! And if there is any advice for her "time to shine" it would be that she knows how to handle things on her own, although checking in occasionally would probably be beneficial, in case momma hog has some troubles.

lol some pigs are like that you know, but don't get too comfortable with it

Yeah, well I don't think I will do it enough times to get comfortable with it! That litter was an accidental litter, I know that there are plenty of piggies right now wondering what they did to deserve to go to a place where all they can do is wait for a little kid to beg for them and then forget them in a week or two. I do not condone breeding. There simply aren't enough homes for the piggie population as it is.

Oh no, I mean don't get comfortable with letting the piggies take care of themselves. lol

Haha. Well tried it once. Thats enough for me!

Poor piggy! I have had to deal with 2 infected foot issues and they take forever to heal! My Buddy Pig just recovered from an infected front foot caused by a bite from his ex-cage mate. The infection abscessed and took almost 2 months to completely heal and Buddy is a young pig, just a year old! When I adopted my Ben Pig off of craig's list he came to me with a slight infection and irritated feet. His pads were bright red, peeling and puffy that took almost 3 months to heal completely but he pulled through just fine.

Just keep at it, keep in contact with the vet letting them know if anything changes, and give the piggy some pro-biotics to help keep her healthy while she takes the anti-biotics. Buddy had 4 treatments of anti-biotics for his foot infection so it is important to keep the gut moving and the piggy feeling good enough to eat.

This is my girl! (1 out of 3) She is the oldest at around 6-7 years.

This is of her foot favouring and of the infected foot. Poor girl.

Dragging Hind Legs And A Strange Lump

Hey, my guinea pig Treenie is about 6-7 years old, she has had (or still has) a nasty hock infection. She was getting a ton better, so we stopped giving her medicine since she seemed to be cured. But then she started getting worse, much worse. She is not putting weight on either of her hind legs and tonight when I was holding her I discovered a painful lump immediately behind her shoulder blades. It is small, but it is still there and it is painful. She has dropped a lot of weight, yet she still eats and drinks. I need a second opinon and I'm not sure where to turn.