Injury Very slight limp

[Jake8771]

This is Jeni, she’s one of my four year old piggies. On Tuesday I noticed that when she walks fast or runs (Yes she’s still able to run), she slightly limps. When she walks slowly there’s not a noticeable limp. She does sometimes lift her front leg up and puts slightly less weight on it, but not all of the time. There’s no swelling anywhere, nothing bleeding, and she doesn’t get bothered if I touch it. It’s now Thursday night, and it’s still about the same. She’s acting completely normal, even got a bit excited earlier and gave me a little popcorn. As the weekend approaches, I want to know what I should do, I work tomorrow and will likely be unable to take her to the vet. I wanted to know if it’s even necessary to take her to vet being that it’s so mild that I wasn’t even sure she really was limping at all at first. She did jump from my arms a few days prior to noticing this, it wasn’t a big fall, but they do have tiny little legs. I will be honest, I have still been letting her out of the cage to exercise twice a day, so I have not been letting her rest it likely. Also, I do have some Metacam from my other pig from when she hurt her foot.

all advice is valuable, I would especially appreciate hearing from @wiebke as I’ve read your posts over the course of a decade. Thanks all.

 

[Jake8771]

Figured I should give you guys some videos, just so you understand how mild I mean. This was tonight, you can notice it more in this video, or maybe I’m completely overthinking it. https://youtu.be/o6PSCPm4wIg

this was earlier in the day where you actually can hardly notice it at all https://youtu.be/XcP4lXfr2t8

 

[bpatters]

I'd confine her in a small area for several days and see if rest will help it. If it doesn't, she needs an x-ray to see if it's arthritis, or a fracture. Time would likely heal a fracture, but arthritis could benefit from treatment.

 

[Jake8771]

I'd confine her in a small area for several days and see if rest will help it. If it doesn't, she needs an x-ray to see if it's arthritis, or a fracture. Time would likely heal a fracture, but arthritis could benefit from treatment.

Thanks for the response! I decided to just take her to the vet anyway. X rays showed no broken bones, just some minor soft tissue swelling. He gave her a pain medication injection and a anti inflammation injection, then sent me home with metacam.

 

[Guinea Pig Papa]

The other thing I would do, and I've actually had this happen recently, is check her paws for hay pokes. I actually removed two hay "splinters" from Leo's paw about a month ago.

Once they were removed, within a few days his walking greatly improved. The first day or two he was limping markedly, as in he wouldn't put weight on it at all. By the third or fourth day he was walking similar to your girl. A week later there were no indications whatsoever.

 

[Jake8771]

The other thing I would do, and I've actually had this happen recently, is check her paws for hay pokes. I actually removed two hay "splinters" from Leo's paw about a month ago.

Once they were removed, within a few days his walking greatly improved. The first day or two he was limping markedly, as in he wouldn't put weight on it at all. By the third or fourth day he was walking similar to your girl. A week later there were no indications whatsoever.

thanks for the input, I’ll take a closer look when I get home. This foot was the same one that had a very slight case of bumblefoot last August that has since healed. However, the spot where the sore was has a tiny little hard callus like thing. I can’t imagine that hadn’t been there for a while, plus she never limped when she had bumblefoot, so I’m not sure if something that minor would make her limp. I will take a closer look in a bit.