missyscove
Christina - Moderator
I got this email from my mom this morning. It's hard for me to tell her much without being there to see and feel it, but I thought that you guys might have some thoughts on it.
A little over a week ago he stopped eating for a day. I gave him half a dose of metacam we had and lots of tummy massages and he picked up eating again.
Then as I was driving across the country, my mom called to say he was doing it again. She dosed him with some aspirin and simethicone, but according to her he still won't eat his hay.
We've had him for nearly 4 years now; he was full grown when we adopted him so we don't know how old he is. Until now he's never given us any trouble.
So this is the email which has all the information I have.
"Hi Christina - Timmy will eat fresh greens, but he does not want his hay. If I poke a strand at his face, he will bite it but he won't eat it. (Fiona eats the hay, so it'snot "bad" hay.) He'll eat papaya treat or yogurt drop treats, but I don't want to give himtoo many of those...just to fill him up...because I know that that is not good for him. He had made a mess of himself last week afterhe'd had a huge dumping of cecatropes and then sat in them and got them all over his feet and all over both levels of his condo, but I cleanedhis cage and he managed to clean himself up very nicely after I toweled him off. One of his hind legs turns out to the side a bit and he kinda drags it when he walks.He can walk. He still goes up and down to both levels of his cage. I tend to think it's a dislocated hip, as he lets me feel all his leg bonesand doesn't seem in pain when I touch any specific area on his leg/hip/foot. Anything I read about "it" on the internet seems to say that a vet can manipulate the hip back into the socket but that will probably just pop back out in the near future. "They" seem to think that the solution is cutting off the head of the femur and making a new "ball" joint....surgery. I am more than willing to take him inand have X-rays made to see if it's dislocated. It might be some type of infection in the hip joint (??), but I think he'd have other symptoms. Last week when you were giving him the gas meds and baby aspirin treatment, he seemed to be having an intestinal bug. Later in the week, he was gnashing his teeth and seemed in pain to me. He has notdone that for days now! That'swhen I'd given him several doses of the aspirin and gas meds and then just the aspirin over 2 days. He seems to be alert and doing okay now, just no appetite for hay...drinkingvery minimally (so I think it's good that he likes FRESH veggies, for their "water")...and holds his hind leg "funny" when he walks. He is pooping and peeing. His pooballs are brown and round but a much smaller size, due to no hay fiber I assume. So...I am more than willing to take him in for X-rays, but I wonder what the next step will be IF it's dislocated. If it's an infection, I assume meds would be Rx'd. But if it's dislocated, not sure how much $$ I'm willing to lay out. I love the little guy dearly,but I just don't want to spend $1,000 on him at this point. Your thoughts...............??? "
A little over a week ago he stopped eating for a day. I gave him half a dose of metacam we had and lots of tummy massages and he picked up eating again.
Then as I was driving across the country, my mom called to say he was doing it again. She dosed him with some aspirin and simethicone, but according to her he still won't eat his hay.
We've had him for nearly 4 years now; he was full grown when we adopted him so we don't know how old he is. Until now he's never given us any trouble.
So this is the email which has all the information I have.
"Hi Christina - Timmy will eat fresh greens, but he does not want his hay. If I poke a strand at his face, he will bite it but he won't eat it. (Fiona eats the hay, so it'snot "bad" hay.) He'll eat papaya treat or yogurt drop treats, but I don't want to give himtoo many of those...just to fill him up...because I know that that is not good for him. He had made a mess of himself last week afterhe'd had a huge dumping of cecatropes and then sat in them and got them all over his feet and all over both levels of his condo, but I cleanedhis cage and he managed to clean himself up very nicely after I toweled him off. One of his hind legs turns out to the side a bit and he kinda drags it when he walks.He can walk. He still goes up and down to both levels of his cage. I tend to think it's a dislocated hip, as he lets me feel all his leg bonesand doesn't seem in pain when I touch any specific area on his leg/hip/foot. Anything I read about "it" on the internet seems to say that a vet can manipulate the hip back into the socket but that will probably just pop back out in the near future. "They" seem to think that the solution is cutting off the head of the femur and making a new "ball" joint....surgery. I am more than willing to take him inand have X-rays made to see if it's dislocated. It might be some type of infection in the hip joint (??), but I think he'd have other symptoms. Last week when you were giving him the gas meds and baby aspirin treatment, he seemed to be having an intestinal bug. Later in the week, he was gnashing his teeth and seemed in pain to me. He has notdone that for days now! That'swhen I'd given him several doses of the aspirin and gas meds and then just the aspirin over 2 days. He seems to be alert and doing okay now, just no appetite for hay...drinkingvery minimally (so I think it's good that he likes FRESH veggies, for their "water")...and holds his hind leg "funny" when he walks. He is pooping and peeing. His pooballs are brown and round but a much smaller size, due to no hay fiber I assume. So...I am more than willing to take him in for X-rays, but I wonder what the next step will be IF it's dislocated. If it's an infection, I assume meds would be Rx'd. But if it's dislocated, not sure how much $$ I'm willing to lay out. I love the little guy dearly,but I just don't want to spend $1,000 on him at this point. Your thoughts...............??? "
