guinea pig spinal injury

Question
Our daughter's guinea pig jumped from her hands and fell about a foot, injured his spine.  The vet x-rayed, no fracture, said it was a compression injury to the spine.  He is in no pain, eats fine, pees and poops (a good sign, per the vet), but is almost immobile since his rear legs just drag limply when he tries to move around.  He tends to stay inside his house, so he lays where he pees and poops.  We wash him up a few times daily and change the litter in his house several times daily.  It's been a week, the vet said that if he improves, it will take 6-8-weeks.  Meanwhile, do you have any experience with this type of injury or recommendations?

Thanks!

Answer
Hello Brian,

Actually we had a similar experience in our house about a year or so ago when Kimi struggled out of my 7 year old nephew's hands. She broke her pelvis and couldn't walk for a while either. What you are doing is exactly right. It will help make things a bit easier if you put him in a small cage where everything is near by so he won't have to work too hard to get to his food and water. Don't use any shampoos or soaps when you clean him up though becacuse it will dry out his skin. Just wiping him off with a damp rag should do the trick with a rinse off every few days or so. What type of bedding do you use? Using hay and news paper will help keep him dry. Line the cage with news papers and pile in an abundant amount of hay. When he urinates, the pee will fall through the hay to the paper and be absorbed instead of just sitting under him. Try not to handle him more than you need to. With Kimi's injury it took about 2 or 3 weeks before she started showing any signs of improvement and the whole time I felt so helpless. Hopefully in time he will improve and be perfectly healthy again. I can't stress the impotance of making certain he continues to eat and drink and go to the bathroom. If he stops any of those, get him to the vet ASAP. You are doing a good job and I'm sure in a few weeks he will be fine. Just give him a bit of extra Kale and try not to get too discouraged while he's healing. Please let me know how he does. He will be in my thoughts and prayers for a complete and fast recovery. Good luck!

-kkat