This does not look good, does it? GP related.

[FryingNemo]

Poor piggy was dropped by a visitor and became paralyzed in his hind legs We took him to the vet who said he still has feeling in his hind paws and might recover. This was 24 hrs ago and although he has recovered movement in one leg the other is still lame. We are keeping him quiet. He is eating only a little and is doing wees and poos but I am not hopeful of a full recovery. We have been told to go back to the vet on Tuesday. DD is devastated as are we all. Does anyone have any experience of these sorts of injuries? What's the prognosis? Please don'tflame.

Aaaah poor little soul

Good signs is he's eating (anything like shock is bad for guinea-pigs and they 'close down' )
The weeing and poohing is good - poohs have to have muscle control to get them out, wees not so much, they could dribble uncontrollably.But if he's poohing then it shows he can still put some effort in.
You might need to tempt him with his favourite foods and even spoon feed him water if he can't do it himself.

The feeling in his back legs is a good sign too.(Sensory nerves)
The lameness might be that his spine is bruised rather than permenantly damaged.
Once the inflammation goes down you'll have a better idea.

I'm assuming the vet gave your boy an anti-inflammatory and painkiller - by injection ?
Have you got any medications from the vet to give him?

Keep him quiet and calm. He's in a vunerable state right now. Shock can literally see them off so be prepared.

No flaming from me- last year my GP1 (and I've kept GPs for years) leapt off my shoulder onto the wooden floor of the Pighouse. He 'just' missed bouncing off the lid of the haybox.
He was (understandably) shocked, as was i. DH and I moved all his joints carefully.He hadn't lost any use or feeling.No blood or broken teeth. But he was a bit 'whistly' for a couple of hours.
I put his soft pet bed in his cage, put his brother next door (seperate) to keep him company and agonised if a trip to the vet would traumatise him more.
He started eating ,breathing properly and quietly within 2-3 hours. We kept him in a small area for a couple of days, he was a bit sorry for himself but was walking well.
One life gone.I can still visualise those little legs as he landed

Your pig might not make a full 100% recovery. I guess you'll need to do the Wait and See Approach and take it from there.
Hope he's made huge improvements by your next vet visit.

Thanks for your post. We have him with his brother on lots of fleece blankets and are giving him lavender and coriander - his favourite nibbles. I've given him a gentle wash to get rid of pee and poo that's stuck on him. He is so quiet - not like him at all.
The vet gave him 2 anti inflammatory injections but no medicine for us to give. She said that she could feel a lump but it is very low on his spine. I hope she is right and he will recover. Fingers crossed for Tuesday.

The injections will keep him going till Tuesday and TBH I've never managed to get medicine down an animals throat without losing skin myself.(Cat).

Hopefully his brother will sense to leave him in peace, but his being there will give your injured GP comfort. (My GP1 stresses when he doesn't have GP2 but they are still inclined to have a squabble from time to time)

Fingers crossed for Tuesday.

Hi all - would echo everything 70 has written - guineas do not respond well to shock, and it may be his little body is still in a state of shock - would do everything you are doing, try and encourage him to eat and drink but don't over stress or fuss over him, as long as he is in familiar surroundings and is being watched over, hopefully he will be fine- they are remarkably resilient, so hopefully he will recover, it may just take a bit of him - one of ours was very wriggly and jumpy and managed to throw herself out of a friends' arms onto the lawn, thankfully. She looked stunned and wondered around dazed - we put her back in her cage and kept her separate to try and get her back into the land of the living so to speak. She did make a full recovery thankfully, and managed to do the same thing many times after that! Good luck :)

a bit of time - obviously!!!

Nothing more to add but wishing your little chap well.

My LittlePig has jumped from heights sofa, my lap, and somehow out of his cage on the sideboard and has so far, some how, manage to come away unscathed!

The little mites know how too make us worry!

Well, he has made it through another night and is now eating hard food but is not drinking. Will he get enough from wet dandelion leaves etc? I don't want to stress him out with a syringe.

Thanks to you all for your positive vibes.

Frying Try some cucumber for water. They are full of it :)

I've tried melon and cucumber but no luck. He's not peeing anymore so I'm worried about dehydration. Any advice?

He really needs fluid, especially if he's been ill.
Can you try him on some Ribena , diluted?
I've never tried it on the boys and it's not something I'd give regularly but worth a try .
You could try a spoon rather than a syriinge (you need to make sure the syring doesn't squirt it into their windpipe rather than their stomach)

My chaps never drink (though they always have water) but they pee plenty. So they are getting enough fluid from their veg- but if you aren't seeing any pee from him, then he's getting dehydrated.

Do hope he is rallying slightly by now - did he visibly drink plenty before? Some of mine were great guzzlers and others never seemed to touch the water bottle, so it is down to finding something hydrating that he will like - I always went for the long succulent grass and dandelion leaves, as well as cucumber which as Bonkey says is usually foolproof. Try a water bowl and a bottle, if not you may have to just tempt him with a syringe full, slowly over some time, to get him in the mood. IF he is eating steadily and you are still getting a wet hutch, I wouldn't worry too much, it might be the drugs have knocked his system out a little bit.
PS one of my girls loved tea - it is probably worth trying a few things, but you know how you feel if you are under the weather, can't be bothered to eat or drink, so he will need some support with a syringe maybe if he hasn't touched anything at all - eating is a good sign, he will be regaining his strength :)

Hope he's feeling a bit better now. One of mine has recently went lame on one of his hind legs. I had to syringe anti-inflammatories into him twice a day which was surprisingly easy as he got extra cuddle time and lots of parsley between mouthfuls of medicine. Once he realised this he would open his mouth ready for the syringe

You could make sure any veg/herbs etc he is eating is quite wet when he has it. My rabbit has been off his dry food/hay this weekend and without vet access, I had to nurse him through with very wet veg. He did stop peeing for a day, but I did manage (the fight was impressive) to syringe water into him (side of the mouth, little and often).

BTW, my pig is fully recovered. Occasionally, he is slightly stiff on that leg, but mainly is back to his normal bossy self.

Good luck and I hope he perks up soon.

Well, he's still peeing but not much. Wet parsley seems to be doing the trick.

His brother is now getting bored of his boring, quiet and still sibling and is starting to aggravate him. I will have to separate them soon.

Vet appointment is at 3.30. I don't want to get my hopes up and poor DD is convinced everything will be fine and has promised to make a wheelchair for him. Fingers crossed.

If he's not had much to drink, there won't be a lot to come out, but if he's peeing a little, then that's positive.

Can you stick in some extra chewy things for his brother to play with - cardboard tubes/boxes etc? Anything to divert his attention away from the invalid. If you can avoid separating them, it's better. My lads had to be separated whilst my limpy boy recovered and a few weeks later, they're just getting back together.

Good luck at the vets, we'll have our fingers and paws crossed for you (I'll rub Current Bun's lucky rabbit foot). Let us know how it goes.

Vet says he may still make a full recovery but it will take a very long time. It turns out he has 2 injuries to his spine and he has damage to one of his front legs. He's had another round of anti inflammatory injections and is back home cuddling up to his brother who has calmed down a bit.

Next vet's appointment in a week.
Thank you for all your advice and virtual support.

Hi again, so pleased he is going to make a recovery, he will just have to take it at his own pace, really pleased they have 'made up', that will help as well. He must have fallen with some force, and I guess, like us, he will be bruised and sore and proabably a little bit shocked still.

You will just have to take it day by day and make sure he is spoiled rotten, will be a good chance for your daughter to play nurse!

So glad you've had positive news (my pigs have just started wheeking like mad, so presume they are glad too ).

Good to see the update Frying. Your GP will be a bit sore and fragile for a while and might protest when he's lifted.

BTW don't expect him to remember or learn from this incident. I know your GPs fall was outside of his control.
Mine jumped. Then about six months later, DD and I were in the Pighouse and he thought it was a good idea to repeat his little misadventure. This time from DD shoulder (so less height) and onto the haybox lid (carpeted). He sort of rolled/scrambled onto his feet and pootled off down the ramp.
DD was in tears. Little blighter GP Not Bovvered

He'll start being more mobile in his own time. For now he needs cossetted, fed and watered. (Which is what all guineas want TBH)

Oh, thinking about you and wee pig. It sounds like he's getting there, bit by bit.

I remember Peter Gurney (RIP) saying that hydrotherapy can make a huge difference to piggies affected by nerve damage and paralysis. If you have a wee search in t'interweb, maybe something will come up? Healing wheeks from my mob (including the parkouring pig who is anything but risk averse!)

He's peaking out of his house and scarfing down sage! But is still not really movingmuch.

Peeking. Not peaking.

I'm so sorry this has happened. Just over a year ago our boy GP leapt out of 10yo DD's arms onto the grass. His back legs were completely paralysed. He just dragged himself away on his front legs. We took him to the vet who gave him painkiller and anti-inflammatory. She gave us the anti-inflammatory with a pipette to give him every day. He was fine about drinking it. Must have tasted nice! He did recover, but it took a whole week before he was showing any signs of getting up onto his back legs. Now he walks and runs as normal. However, he is still incontinent so some nerve damage is still there.

I would separate your pigs now though. Our boy is neutered and was living happily with girl piggy. He was top dog. After his accident she sniffed around him for a few days, then just walked over his back! Later on, DP heard a scuffle, and went to look and they were having a full blown fight with poor boy dragging himself around the cage with her coming after him! We separated them straight away and put boy in a massive cardboard box for a cage. She had obviously seized the opportunity to gain the upper hand! I do hope your boy gets better, It's heartbreaking to see them injured.

Just to let you know that wee piggy is much better. The paralysis in his hind legs has gone and he is scooting around on 3 legs as his broken front leg will take up to 6 to 7 weeks to heal. He has lost loads of weight and is the cleanest he has ever been as we are bathing him once a day as he tends to lie down in his wee.
I am amazed at his recovery - thanks for all the positive vibes :-).

Good to hear your pig is on the road to recovery.

They are fragile little things and it sounds like one of his nine lives has been lost .
But with lots of spoiling (though they view this as their Right not a Privilege) , he'll get there.