Guinea Pig Re-homing Norfolk

The story of Fanny Adams

Fanny Adams was given to me on the 22nd of May 2009 as her owner was not able to treat her for a massive womb infection. I took her straight to the vets on the way home and she was given antibitoics and pain killing injections. She was under weight (660g) and in a very poor state, had fur loss around her middle, and had a lot of calcium carbonate deposits in her urine.

 

 

The antibiotics started to get to work on the infection but as the tissue was damaged some of it died away leaving her with open wounds. It was obvious that her soaks gave her great comfort.

 

Day 2 of antibiotics

 

Day 3 of antibiotics.

Enjoying her soaks.

 

We visited the vets on the 26th of May and her weight was increasing well (+ 80g), although she still had a lot of calcium in her urine, she was treated for cystitis and given lots of extra fluids and cranberry juice. She was also given pain killers daily.

Fanny started to drop weight and I had major concerns about her bladder. We went back to the vets on May 30th. She had also developed another sore patch near her vulva.

She had an x-ray taken which, ruled out pregnancy and bladder stones so her treatment for cystitis and wounds continued.

On the 5th of June we visited the vets again for a change of antibiotics. The wound near her vulva was healing well, but still her urine had a lot of calcium in it and we hoped the change in antibiotics and extra fluids may help, but Fanny was starting to drop more weight.

On June 9th, Fanny obviously was in some pain at times when urinating. Her calicum problem was not resolving, so the decision was made to operate and perform a cystotomy to manually flush her bladder.

It was not a decision made lightly as she was back to the weight she arrived at and a general anesthetic would carry some risk. Thankfully she pulled through the operation well.

Her bladder was full of crystal deposits too large for her to pass herself, yet not large enough to be classed as a stone. The irritation of these crystals had caused her bladder wall to thicken to 5-6mm rather than the 1mm it should be.

Fanny has recovered from her surgery very well and her weight is now 736g as of the 14th of June. She is bright, eating, and drinking well. Her character is really surfacing now that she is no longer in pain.

 

The vets report stated that, " The calicum carbonate crystalluria and infections are the result of a diet too high in calcium, insufficient greens and low level chronic dehydration. The infections is usually ascending from a contaminated environment and predisposed by low levels of vitamin C, mutiple frequent pregnancies and stress. It is entirely preventable, by following good husbandry guidelines."

When I was given Fanny she came from a pen which also housed boars and could have become pregnant if her womb infection had not been so advanced. If her condition had been spotted and treated early it would have been easily resolved. Fanny has obviously been used for breeding in the past and given her condition at a relatively young age (approximated at 1 year) multiple pregnancies are likely.

We have great hope for Fanny making a full recovery and having a long and happy life here with us. Her treatment has been expensive but well worth it to give this girl a chance at life. If her condition had been left untreated she would have been in constant pain and would have eventually passed away.

It is sad to think that some people do not recognise the distress their animals are in and respond promptly to get treatment. These beautiful animals have as much right to care, attention, love and treatment as we do when they are in need. Sadly though they have to rely on humans to provide this for them and at times this is lacking. I hope to be able to update this page with more pictures and stories of Fanny Adams progress.

28/6/09

Sadly after surgery and what seemed to be like a good recovery Fanny's syptoms of a UTI have returned she is back on antibiotics and pain killers. She is comfortable and is not losing weight and with her special diet an excess of calicum in her diet is not seeming to be the only source of her problem. We are back to the vets tomorrow for further tests.

28/11/09

Fanny is maintaining weight well at nearly 900g she is still having extra fluids and antibiotics to help control her problem but the vet was very happy with her progress on one of our routine visits yesterday. She is a joy to have around and is so patient when it comes to 40ml of extra fluids every day.She has tolerated the antibiotics she has had to take exceptionally well and is a happy go lucky gal :)

 

29/6/09

Fanny was put on two oral antibiotics to try and kill off the bacteria causing her cystitis.

7/7/09

We went back to the vets yesterday, sadly the underlying cystitis is proving very hard to shift, slides of urine samples still show a lot of bacteria present in her urine. We are now on our fourth type of antibiotic (injectable marbocyl) to try and kill of the bacteria hopefully this will be successfull.

Vets bills so far have been  £272.36 it is a testament to the fact that small animals do not mean small vets bills and I would urge any pet owners to have a little fund for their guineas or get insurance as these bills can and do crop up with small animals.

12/7/09

The higher dose of antibiotics was very sucessful, Fanny is now clear of symptoms of her UTI  and thanks to the rate watchers diet and help from Chrissie at Gorgeous Guineas, Karen from Reading Guinea Pig Rescue and of course Louise my Vet along with everyone who kindly donated towards her vets bill. She is a very happy piggy now. Here she is out on the grass with her friend Splodge:

 

 

24/2/10

Realised I had not updated Fannys page in a long while! My apologies. Fanny is still doing very well her uti is well managed and she is fit healthy and cheeky as ever. She cannot wait until the weather warms up and she can get out on the grass again. Will do some update pictures soon.

15/3/10 Sadly recently Fanny 's health had taken a turn for the worse and she was having problems with her kidneys so the decision was made to have her put to sleep to prevent any suffering. She will be greatly missed and Sophie will be in contact with her sponsors.