# Guinea pig recovered from paralysed back legs



## dandelion

Hi, I haven't posted on here before, but wanted to tell the story of my son's guinea-pig Fluffles.

In April, Fluffles escaped in the garden. I suspect he was dropped or squeezed during re-capture by my children, because next day we found him in his cage with his back legs trailing behind him. I was horrified. We rushed him to the vet, who said he was not in pain, and could find nothing obvious wrong. The vet said he might have some damage or inflammation to the spinal cord, and gave an anti-inflammatory injection, but sent us home with the gloomy verdict that if there was no improvement in three days, it would be kindest to have him put down.

Well, there was no change after three days, but Fluffles was eating well, and shooting around the run pulling himself by his front legs. He seemed to have rather poor control of his poo, but his rear end remained clean and dry. I phoned back and said I wanted to delay the decision, as I was not keen to put him down while he was coping well and contented. I had read on the net that guineas can sometimes recover from this type of problem.

Well, slowly there was an improvement, and four weeks on, he is almost back to normal, galloping around on all four legs. His coat has become a bit thin and dandruffy, but we are brushing him and hope it will recover now that he can groom himself again.

I wanted to post this, as I think vets can be a bit pessimistic sometimes about small animals. If we had followed advice, Fluffles would no longer be with us. Obviously, if he had been suffering, or had developed sores, we would have re-considered, but if anyone else has this problem with their guinea, it might be worth hanging on to see what happens. We think of Fluffles as our miracle pig!!


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## thedogsmother

Welcome to the forum and thankyou for posting, I agree vets often write off small animals but some little ones have that strong will to live and can surprise you. Lovely story.


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## Jazzy

The exact same thing has happened to my guinea pig, Nemo at least three times. The first time it happened we took him to the vet who gave him antibiotics and steroids but it didn't make any difference. Then I read on the Peter Gurney site about giving them 'Osteocare' in liquid form. I did this and within two weeks he was back on his legs again. It has happened twice more since but he's always got his legs back again although it did take a good few weeks last time but he's been fine for a few months now. He will be six years old in November. Our vet also gave him no chance and suggested we had him put to sleep. 

Nemo hadn't had a fall at all though.

Glad Fluffles is okay now though.


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## Jazzy

This was Nemo when his back legs were paralysed.


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## gemma1983

so glad your guinea is better now, and good on you for delaying the decission to have him puto sleep, best decission in the end. We had a kitten who was trapped under a dishwasher (not by us i must state) he was took in by the place i worked and even though the vet advised us to put him down we wouldn't and he lived to the grand old age of 10. He never walked fully with his back legs but cud do everything a regular cat cud climb stairs etc. Sometimes you need to trust your instincts.


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## dandelion

Thanks for the replies. Yes, it was just like your pictures of Nemo (he's a lovely guinea pig). I think I read about him when we wee looking for information. Did you post about him before? It was reading other people's experiences that gave us a bit of hope, even though the guineas that get better seemed mostly not to have suffered injuries.

We now think that Fluffles might have a slight fungal skin infection following his illness, hence the scurfy fur, so we're treating him for that. Poor thing, he's having a tough time at the moment. I'll try to put a photo of him up when he's fully recovered.


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## Lavenderb

You see lots of wild animals on tv who cope with disabilities so why shouldn't a guinea pig. Time can be a good healer as you found and of course nature. Im glad your piggie is better.


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## yvonne416

I am so glad I seen this information on this site and other sites. Our guinea pig is on 2 years old and is dragging his legs. I had made an appointment for tomorrow at the vets and was going to put him to sleep. When I read this about osteocare I thought I will give it a go. So fingers crossed guys.


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