Lily, the fluffy, fluffy Texel

[Lynx]

FYI, an ounce is about 28 grams. Not much. Normal variation. Recording weights does help identify a pattern of loss though.

[mmasters]

Good luck with Lily. If her tumor gets any larger or becomes irritated, you can ask your vet to remove it. My first Texel, Razzl, had a subaceous cyst on his hind leg and the vet removed it with a small incision and stitched the skin close. The area healed up in about 5 days and the stitches came out at 10 days. My merino boar, Bear, wheezes now and then, but the vet said it was nothing. However, after reading your very informative post, I will keep a closer eye on Bear and learn more about this type of heart condition. I really do hope Lily gets better soon. As for your significant other complaining about taking care of Lily, show him some extra affection, but be loyal to Lily. Men can be jealous of the strangest things - including guinea pigs - but he should care about the things you care about, too, which means Lily.

[tara8301]

Men can be jealous of the strangest things

Oh, how true that is. I once dated a guy who flat out told me he was jealous of my dogs. At the time I had an elderly dog who was arthritic and had bladder cancer and a pituitary gland tumor. Because of the pituitary gland thing she was severely overweight (she was about 50 lbs. and a 13 inch beagle!) which also cause the joint problems. I also think her bladder issues were due to contaminated dog food Remember when there was all those problems with the food from China? She had been on one of the recalled foods and I think studies showed that a lot of the pets did have kidney and urinary problems because of the food. Anyway, she had to have extra care because of that. When she started going downhill, I got another 9 mo. old beagle mix from the local shelter because I thought having a younger dog around would help a little, and I truly believe it did! But she was (and still is) pretty hyper. So I had a crazy puppy and an rather sick old dog to take care of and he complained about how we were too young for that kind of responsibility or something (I was 24 at the time, he was 26).

*sigh* I should have found a significant other that shares my love of animals.

But thank you for the well-wishes mmasters! Lily is tolerating the meds very well, I think. I can't say that her activity has increased or anything, because there was never a decrease to begin with.

[tara8301]

I think there has been a little bit of change in Lily's behavior. She was never really that hard to catch that I remember, but I've had some trouble doing so the past few days! I believe her weight has stablilized, too, and she's back up to almost where she was before meds.

I wanted to use the excel chart for ca:p ratio since the vet thought she might have seen a stone, but I can't get it to open on my comp. I know that's really a tech issue, and that there are charts listed elsewhere, but the excel one seemed to make it so easy! It keeps telling me the file is password protected when I try to open it. Any suggestions?

[tara8301]

Went back to the vet for Lily's check-up today and got good news! The meds are doing really well and the vet said she didn't want to change anything. When the vet listened to Lily's lungs there were no crackles or anything like she heard last time, and she said Lily's heartbeat was strong and regular and she couldn't detect any murmurs. On the x-rays, she said the heart size decreased a little and Lily had more space for her lungs to expand. Also, Lily's trachea wasn't compressed like last time. AND WE DIDN'T SEE ANY STONES!!! (sorry for the *yelling*, but that was super exciting!) She weighed the same as last time (and I'd been weighing her daily) so it seems her weight has stabilized. As I mentioned last time I posted, she is definitely harder to catch when I need to catch her. She still lounges around in her cuddle cups, but when it's time for her medicine, she's running circles around the cage. She's still rather bossy towards Nibs and still wheeks very loudly for food. All in all, it seems things are going to be just fine with Lily as long as she gets the proper medicine.

I finally figured out the ca:p excel chart. I forgot I don't have excel on my comp so I downloaded this free thing called open office and it works just fine now. I've been using that and sticking as close to the 1.33 ratio as possible. Hopefully that's all I'll need to do to keep Lily and Nibs from getting stones.

[Lynx]

I hope the excel sheet helps.

We got an indication from a vet in Virginia Beach that doing the Ca:P ratio is no longer done but as far as I know, it is still a legit goal. Guinea pigs do need calcium in appropriate amounts.

[tara8301]

So Lily had a checkup today and we got some x-rays. The vet was very pleased that she had maintained her weight and that her heart and lungs sounded good. The x-rays didn't show much of anything different from her last check-up. Heart is still enlarged, but there's very little, if any, fluid around her heart or in her lungs. She did happen to see stone though, but felt they weren't really of clinical significance because they aren't large and haven't really moved from where they were when she initially saw them last year.

The only other thing that the vet brought up was Lily's tummy -- she said it was very full in the x-rays and that she sort of wondered if it might be a hairball. I did a search and couldn't find any info about hairballs. She is a Texel, and as such has tons of hair, so I am kind of wondering. But she gets unlimited hay, veggies daily, and KM's pellets, so I also don't know if perhaps her belly was just full of food.

[Lynx]

There is one documented case of a hairball (someone's vet removed one from a pig, if I remember right). Kinda rare though.

[tara8301]

Yeah, I figured as much since I couldn't find much info. I'm guessing her belly was just full of food. She's acting normal and pooping normally, but I'll keep an eye on her just in case.