Worst Guinea Pig carer in the world or the unluckiest?

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bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Wed Sep 26, 2018 3:52 pm


Ditto ^^.

rjespicer

Post   » Wed Sep 26, 2018 4:50 pm


Thanks.
I hope I can relax and get some sleep.
I am ridiculously stressed about the whole situation (in case you hadn't noticed) whereas the wife and daughter are pretty relaxed about it.

Deep breaths....

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ItsaZoo
Supporter in 2023

Post   » Wed Sep 26, 2018 10:24 pm


So glad your piggies are doing well. Best of luck on your trip. Get some rest and enjoy yourself.

rjespicer

Post   » Fri Oct 05, 2018 1:54 pm


Brief update as I am still in the UK but Nala saw the vet this week who said she has made a great improvement but should complete one more week of meds just to be sure. Will find out more next week when I get home but it sounds promising.
Will post more details when I am back and have found out what the vet said in more detail.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Fri Oct 05, 2018 4:20 pm


I hope she continues to do well!

rjespicer

Post   » Thu Oct 11, 2018 6:59 pm


So back home and have a bit more info.

Nala is doing well. The Vet did another X-Ray when the wife took her in while I was away. Apparently it didn't show any of the issues the vet was concerned about originally, like masses, tumors, cancer, inflammation, heart issues etc. Her weight is up to 880g as well at the last weighing which also seemed to impress the vet. She should finish meds this week so I am hoping that she stays fit and healthy once she is off of them and doesn't have any sort of relapse or re-occurrence of the issues.

The wife and daughter are continuing to handle the medications and syringe feeding so i can have a bit more of a break as I am getting over jet lag. The wife doesn't have to go to work until between 10:30am and midday so it makes more sense for her to do it at around 8:30 rather than me having to get up at 5:30am and try and get it done before leaving for work at 7:30am.

The other two seem fine as well. Suzi was up to 738g when I weighed her on Tuesday

While I was away the wife rearranged the pen/cage as apparently Chunkita had climbed up the ramp to the loft but on her way down rather than using the whole ramp to get down to the bottom level she decided to jump over the edge half way down. According to the wife she landed heavily and just lay there for a while, which worried the wife, but then got up and trotted off and seems to be none the worse for it. So to avoid any chance that it might happen again she took the loft off and used the parts to extend the lower level. Unfortunately this means we are having to improvise on liners at the moment but I will take a closer look at the weekend and work out what we need to make sure it is all properly covered.

Also just before I left one of the Hamsters (Saraswati) took a tumble when the daughter opened her cage, she climbed out on the door and lost her footing and fell, only an inch or two, but it looks like she got one of her paws caught between the bars as she fell and has been avoiding using it. She has seen the vet who said it may be sprained, twisted or possibly even fractured or broken so prescribed metacam and told the wife that hopefully it will heal given time and rest. So she has taken her out of the cage, to stop her trying to climb the bars and hurting her paw, and made a small pen for her so she can rest her paw and give it a chance to heal.

So fingers crossed all seems well, relatively speaking, for now.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Thu Oct 11, 2018 10:20 pm


Glad to hear she is doing well. I hope that the vet learns something - that you can't jump to unsubstantiated conclusions - that the issue could be something entirely different.

I hope your hamster does better.

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ItsaZoo
Supporter in 2023

Post   » Fri Oct 12, 2018 1:24 pm


Welcome back! I’m so glad Nala is doing well and gained a little weight - everyone likes a success story. Hope your little hammy rests that paw and gets better.

rjespicer

Post   » Wed Nov 07, 2018 2:40 pm


No emergencies or issues but I just got a call from the Vet (I haven't spoken to them since before I went to the UK, I had just relied on the wife and daughter relaying what they had been told) they were calling to let me know that the radiology specialist had reviewed Nalas last X-ray and agreed there was a remarkable improvement but she said that there was a concern that Nala might have some sort of chronic lung disease that might make her more susceptible to infection in future and so they recommended we take her in for another X-Ray in 6 months.

Nala was 904g when we weighed her on Sunday and still appears fit and active and running around like crazy during floor time so seems to be OK after having been finished with meds about 2-3 weeks ago.

I think we will just wait and see how she does and what she is like 6 months from now.

Suzi is now up to 766g and Chunkita is, well, Chunky ;)

Image

The Hamster with the poorly paw (Saraswati) is doing Ok, she appears to be using her paw but it still looks different from the other one, it seems to be at an odd angle but it doesn't seem to be bothering her too much, she still uses it to wash, hold her food and grab at the bars of her pen.

Apparently when she was at the vets the vet took a photo of her as she hadn't seen such a large hamster. She is a bit chubby and when she sleeps she sits on her haunches with her front paws together in front of her and looks a bit like a furry Happy Buddha.

Image

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Wed Nov 07, 2018 8:04 pm


Your hamster reminds of of gerbils. All your pets are so cute!

I am glad you were able to sort this issue out.

GreysGuineaPigs

Post   » Wed Dec 05, 2018 7:36 am


First of all, your pigs are ADORABLE. Little Chunkita is just too precious for words! I'm so glad they're all doing well now, and I'm sorry you've had such a difficult time of it lately!

I don't want to hijack your post or anything, but I just stumbled across this because I was searching for something similar to your problem, and thought I'd add for others who may stumble across it doing the same.

I've been using Guineadad since I got my girls over the summer. Maggie is the oldest and largest at 3 years and 1135g, and she tends to lie and pee in the same spot all day long...and that spot is almost always under the pocket. She ended up with a UTI and bladder stone not long ago, but the vet and I assumed that was caused by a previous illness. However, almost every day when I pick her up her butt is wet, and I can't imagine that helps matters. I should also mention that the liner isn't sitting there for days getting soaked or anything...this happens within a matter of 12 hours after putting down a new, fresh liner.

Lately, her breathing sounded a little different than usual. Not so much as to be overly concerned, but enough to make me a little cautious. I called the vet, and they said to just keep an eye on her and bring her in if it worsened. Then I started to think about how her bottom is wet every day after she's lied in the corner of the pocket and peed all day...that pocket isn't propped up and therefore doesn't allow a lot of fresh air in or smelly air out. While, ideally, the liner is designed to absorb the urine and prevent the smell, within 12 hours wherever Maggie has laid all day, the liner is soaked all the way to the bottom blue layer and the top of the fleece is damp to the touch. With that much pee in such a concentrated area, I figured poor airflow is probably not helping respiratory issues, and I folded the pocket back on itself to where it was on the bottom of the liner and Maggie could no longer access it. Now she lies and pees all day in her cardboard house (with two entrances plus small windows cut out for lots of ventilation), and like magic, within 2 days her breathing was completely back to normal. I hate taking the pocket away from her because she LOVES it, but it's not worth the risk to her health in my opinion unless I can find a way to get her to change her urinating and/or sleeping habits.

I'm sure for many people the pocket isn't a problem, but if you have a large or older pig that wants to sleep and do their business under it 12-18 hours of the day...that can be a lot of ammonia for them to breathe in if they've saturated the liner or the smell isn't being well controlled. I contacted my vet again, who was the one who originally suggested Guineadad to me because of my allergy issues by the way, and she said that this wasn't the first time she had heard similar complaints. She said most of those having that issue have larger, older, or already ill pigs that are concentrating that small, covered area of the liner with urine and not coming out and getting enough fresh air. Young, small pigs are just more prone to moving around throughout the day, plus they aren't producing as much urine either, so that may be why they don't seem to have as many issues.

Side note, if anyone has any idea how to get a pig to quit laying in their own waste for hours on end, I'll take advice on that too, because I'm really tired of having to change the entire liner for a clean one 10-12 hours when I expected them to last a week before washing (honestly, I'd be happy with 2-3 days at this point). Since I have 6 sets of the Guineadad I'd like to figure out how to make these work better rather than having to switch to a different product and start from scratch. I've also tried a "kitchen" in their cage, but she apparently pees more where she sleeps than where she eats.

I'm glad so I found your post, I was starting to think I was the only one who had issues with it, not many people seem to be talking about this potential danger! Thank you for sharing this! I'm so glad Nala is feeling better and back to acting like her little active self!

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Wed Dec 05, 2018 10:53 am


Thanks so much for adding your experiences to this topic! There are very pertinent. Unusual that your vet had actually suggested them.

I am thinking that aside of a smart, robotic guinea pig to nudge each pig on an hourly basis so they move somewhere else, a new liner that rotates on an hourly basis to provide a clean service could work. Of course, we don't yet have them and safety concerns would need to be worked out but it seems like for some guinea pigs, it would improve their health. Evirotiles (mentioned in the bedding section) would prevent contact with pee. And bpatters' wood pellets are super absorbent and perhaps could be piled thicker in the area they lay, with an eviro tile on top.

www.guinealynx.info/bedding.html

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