SERENDIPITY7000:
I'm glad that you agree. It definitely felt like the safest method of helping her! I do feel a lot more at ease knowing that she has pain relief. She's nearly 22.5 months old, she turns 2 on 23rd April (bless her). Hopefully we can get to that milestone. It's really good to hear previous experiences with your hams and I'm sorry that some of them had to go through similar things.
That is true, on a day-by-day basis I think we're doing okay for now.
MEDS
She loves the Metacam but I think she's put off the syringe (since her other med is supposed to be syringe fed also). Since I started dipping the end of the Metacam syringe in some banana - she's all over it. She starts biting the end and can't get enough hahaha!
Buuuuut the other day she didn't want the syringe at all. I took a tiny bit of rich tea biscuit, put a drop of water on and then soaked the Metacam dosage into the biscuit. That worked a treat.
The Sulfratrim however, is a struggle! I really didn't want to force feed her meds so I wanted to try everything first. I tried to drop it in the middle of some folded kale / spinach but she could still smell it. The baby food suggestion is a godsend. I bought the Ella's Kitchen sweet potatoes, broccoli + carrots pouch. I put a blob of it on a tiny jar lid and mix the nasty meds in. Some days I mash in a bit of banana or other tasty things.
The issue with that is that she doesn't eat it right away, I just wake up in the morning and it's all gone... I've been putting very small amounts of dried food in her bowl so I'm hoping that she feels that she's got no option but to eat it. To start with she was standing in the baby food, but I non-toxic glued the lid to a flat rock in her tank so that she couldn't flip the lid.
My Boyfriend is currently away and I imagine he'll be a lot more hands on at sticking the syringe straight in her mouth (even when she fights it). I've literally tried everything to be as kind as I can to her. Thank goodness it's only for 10 days. Also, do you think I should be giving her probiotics with the antibiotics? I've read that they can be very beneficial.
COST OF VETS
I checked the invoice from the vet and the consultation was £36. The Metacam was very cheap at around £13? And the Sulfatrim was the most expensive.
TUMOR UPDATE
I've tried to handle her as little as possible as I feel that waking her for meds is already stressful enough. Today I bribed her with snacks and scooped her up to check on it. It had a much smaller scab on about 3/4 of it, and the other 1/4 was still quite ulcery-looking. It definitely hasn't got bigger (so far) which I'm extremely happy about, and it didn't seem as red, raw and inflamed as the above picture.
CAGE SETUP
Her cage set-up is currently this:
PXL-20220302-131524126-MP — ImgBB - she's always had a certain type of sawdust that isn't sharp or dusty for the majority of the space. She has soft papery bedding and hay, but I'm tempted to get rid of the sawdust / hay completely so it doesn't stick to the ulcer. I'll also take the platform out when she's due a full cage clean. I since moved her foodbowl from up there so she doesn't have to climb any more.
I tend to do her bed just once a week. Any less isn't necessary and any more is when it starts to smell. She actually has a reptile house which is huge:
Exo Terra Reptile Cave XX Large. I orginally bought it since her old house was wooden (no good for nest peeing). My plan was to put a litter tray / sandbath inside like you suggested, but with it being such an irregular shape I'm not sure if it would work.
It is a very good idea though, do you think it'd upset her if I gave her a different house? She's always loved her bed so much and I feel that she's quite attached to her current nest area. She uses the irregular shape as different compartments for her goods :')
THANK YOU
I just want to thank you so much for your helpful advice and for responding so fast. It's really nice that forums like this exist and has definitely made me feel more at ease about the situation. Compared to the other day I feel a lot more accepting of it, and so far I think we're doing good (or as good as we can be). I'm literally doing everything I can in my power to make her comfortable (which makes me feel a lot better as well).
Jess x