[Gpdd] HEALTH Bumblefoot

[Penny Charlesworth]

Hi Debbie,

There is a whole lot of info on Bumblefoot ( Pododermatitis ) on Guinea Lynx http://www.guinealynx.info/pododermatitis.html  and on Peter Gurney's website http://www.oginet.com/pgurney/bumblefoot.htm

I have had a couple of piggies with this condition in the past. One developed it in old age and the other arrived with it. At that time there was no treatment for it that seemed to work. The older piggy, Posy, was never bothered by it. I made sure that her feet ( front ones only were affected ) were kept very clean and that there were no rough bits of hay in her pen on which her foot could catch as if, the scabs lift, the foot can bleed profusely.

The second piggy, Snowflake, arrived with terrible respiratory problems as well as the pododermatitis. She came fron a pet shelter, where they had never seen a piggy in such bad condition.She had already had several courses of antibiotics to reduce the infection which had spread up both front legs and she still had a lot of pus under the scabs which had to be squeezed out and dressed with an antiseptic cream on a regular basis. Again she only had very soft bedding as her scabs were much worse than Posy's having been neglected for so long. She bore all this treatment stoically. Her feet never improved beyond this and she eventually passed away due to her respiratory illness.

The Baytril that your vet has prescribed will kill off any infection but it won't cure the Bumblefoot. You said that you are giving pills. I have only ever seen Baytril as a liquid which can be given orally by syringe as well as injected.

If you do find a cure for this, please post it, as my vet and rodentologists would love to hear about it. Even Peter Gurney didn't know of a cure. A treatment which has been reported as successful in my copy of Richardson is the following. A dose of 0.2ml.lincocin sterile solution equivalent to 20mg. lincomycin is injected into the foot pad daily for 5-7 days.  No more details are given but if I ever have another piggy with Bumblefoot I am going to try this. Maybe your vet would like to give it a go.

Best of luck with Rascal. Do let us know how you get on.

Penny and the Piggyfriends.