Guinea surgery tomorrow!

Long story short, one of my male French guineas had a de-gloving injury to his middle toe about 2-3 months ago, leaving bone exposed. After consulting with the local poultry gurus, I was assured the bone would die and fall off and the toe would heal. I decided to keep him penned and treat him with a course of antibiotics anyway, so after 2 weeks of Baytril injections (yes, folks, I know how to calculate dosages and give shots in poultry. I've worked with a wide variety of species in research labs), his toe was not looking completely healed, but not infected either. I turned him loose to rejoin the flock. A couple days ago, I noticed one of the guineas had a sort of gimpy gait, I assumed it was the one with the toe injury and managed to catch him for another look at the toe....even a guinea with a busted toe is darn hard to catch! Well, it hadn't healed as I had been told it would and was now massively swollen and infected. The toe is going to have to go, there's no salvaging it at this point.

Luckily, my primary vet is also a personal friend, she's not a bird vet, but when I texted her a picture of the toe and asked if she wanted to attempt amputating it, she agreed as long as I didn't hold it against her if he didn't survive...no problem there. Having been a vet tech in research labs in a past life, I have done many simple procedures like this on my own and looked up some information on poultry anesthesia or immobilization. I actually found a study done on guineas that recommended a specific drug cocktail for immobilizing the bird for procedures, great I thought, this is going to be simple....restrain the guinea, give an injection, let my friend remove the toe and we'd be on our way! Well, at the same time, my friend was researching avian medicine and surgery and has come up with a much more complex surgical plan of gassing the bird down, intubating him, everything... I have to say beyond being a friend I LOVE my vet, she is always willing to go above and beyond the call of duty for her friends and clients. The fact that she spent half the night coming up with the best possible surgical plan for him really shows how much she cares.

So, at around noon tomorrow, she's going to use her lunch break to operate on my guinea. I will be there to assist and if possible take pictures of the whole procedure. The tech in me is excited, having never gotten the chance to assist in any avian surgery, and while all my guineas are pretty wild and not pets, I felt like I should try to give this guy a chance if I could. It should be very interesting, wish us luck! If possible I will post pictures some pictures of the whole thing.

Wow, I envy you having a friend like that! I'd love to see pics of the procedure, (altho I'm sure they will be somewhat graphic and not everyone will want to see, lol). Hope you can get some good ones.
Wish your boy luck for me, hope it goes smoothly He may hate ya in the morning (or whenever he wakes up), but I'm sure he'll be glad to be rid of the ouchie toe!

Boy am I interested too.....

And

Good Luck and

Oh my Gosh! Best of luck.

Imp

Awesome. I'm also hoping you get pics. The more detailed the better- I don't mind blood and gore Hopefully your guinea recovers smoothly!

from ga. Prayers for your guinea, your friend and you. Please keep us updated please. for a great outcome.

Guinea surgery was a success! He's now been named Stumpy by the clinic. Pictures and video to follow...

*Edit*: Pics and video are uploading now, and I got one more bit of good information while we were there. Our AKC Grand Champion Skye Terrier girl is pregnant! She was the 9th Skye Terrier Grand Champion in AKC history and had an impressive show record. Puppies due around Thanksgiving.

From georgia . I hope it go good If not then

Woo Hoo for Stumpy..... I have a Miss Peggy. Lost a leg to a coon.