Injury Help with giving eye meds

[thistlewriter]

I need some advice. My boar Ziggy has been diagnosed with a corneal ulcer because of hay poke. I've been given four medications (two for his eye and then the other two are oral) and instructions on when to give them. The problem is, Ziggy is a very stubborn boar who is not being cooperative and who absolutely hates being handled in any fashion. I've tried my vet's suggestion in picking him up in the fleece tunnel, but he burrows to the bottom where I can't reach him or he turns his head and closes his eye so that I cannot get the eye meds in there. I called my vet today, who said either I've got to wrap him up in a towel (which I don't know how that would work without him running off) or that I'm going to have to board him at the hospital. I'd prefer not to board him because I'm sure it's going to be expensive, but I spent 30 minutes battling him last night and another 45 minutes this morning (and in both cases I don't think the eye medication got where it's supposed to go) and I've got to do this three more times today for the next week at least. I'm at my wit's end and don't know what to do. I feel like a bad pigmom for not knowing how to handle him or being able to successfully give him his meds.

 

[spy9doc]

Let me see.......I presume that you are an adult dealing with a 2 lb. cavy.........who is going to win? We call it "tough love" for a reason. You aren't a bad pigmom, just an inexperienced one.

Use a hand towel and lay it down on a solid surface, lay Ziggy on that towel and quickly roll him up in it......just like you would roll anything else in that same towel. Now you have a "piggy burrito". Pull back enough of that towel from the head end of the roll.......just enough to expose his eyes. In this way he will be restrained no matter how much he dislikes it. The trick is for you to be firm and not be fazed by either his struggles nor his cries. Sometimes they will scream as though you are torturing them. In this way you can administer the drops without any help from another human. If you are right-handed, use your left forearm to hold him against your abdomen with him in a "sitting" position, use your left hand to hold the eye open if necessary, and administer the drops with your right. Don't hold the eye dropper at a distance from his eye because he can see it coming. Pull the lower lid down and put the drops on the lid and then let the lid assume its normal position and the drops will spread over the eye.

Many of us use this same burrito method for manicuring nails or anything else that the piggy isn't crazy about. The trick is to be very firm in your intention and steady and firm in your hand movement. You'll get it!