Site hacked(?) database strewn with backlashes, etc.

I suspect that my site was hacked or that some plug-in when awry, but more likely it was hacked. On April 24, my stats report a spike in bot activity. When I tried to log into my site yesterday, no go. Everything was broken.

The advice that suggested I append _old to my current theme’s directory name at least restored access to front and back, but it was clear that something injected code into my database. Everywhere there was a quotation mark, there was a backslash, or a “\”.

I’m currently trying to clean out the database using good old fashioned search and replace — at least in the posts table. Any other advice people can give me would be appreciated. And no, I don’t have a pre- April 24 backup. Thought I did, but I don’t.