Pig swallowed staple

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Sat Dec 01, 2007 3:40 pm


How I empathize with your frustration at the irony here. You obviously take magnificent care of your pigs, and this happens.

Ditto TWP. I would think a staple would show up bright as day on radiograph if you don't find it, or if it begins to seem an impossible task to sort through *all* of that bedding.

For what it's worth, a rescue we have came from an abusive breeder bust. He had an ear tag, and I planned to have it removed when he first needed a vet trip. One day we noticed it gone; he had evidently decided to remove it himself.

We searched and searched and never found it. If he ate it, it hasn't to date done him any harm. This was a couple of years ago.

klynne

Post   » Sat Dec 01, 2007 7:06 pm


"There's no excuse for these mistakes, but I now know firsthand that even someone who is usually conscientious can have a momentary lapse of concentration with disastrous results."

It's called being human ;-)

We've all, despite trying our best to be excellent animal guardians, had those, er, lapses. Or just made dingy mistakes.

It's part of life and so try not to beat yourself up too badly. It's obvious from what you write these pigs are well-loved.

I'll add in another irony, though. If this had happened at a hoarder's or breeder's, the pig would be just fine, with no intervention.

I swear, it seems that way, anyway. I know the reality is, the pigs are either fine on their own, or they die, since they get no medical care. But it just seems they hang on until they make it to good care, then they do everything to make us lose our minds with worry.

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salana
GL is Just Peachy

Post   » Sun Dec 02, 2007 3:07 pm


I thought staples were made out of aluminum...

TwoWhitePiggies

Post   » Sun Dec 02, 2007 3:28 pm


In which case, a magnet wouldn't find them. The Wikipedia article doesn't specify what they're made of.

GuineaPiggy, try sticking your magnet to some remaining staples and see what happens. If it doesn't stick, then you know that your staples are probably aluminum and your magnet won't pick up the one in the bedding.

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sun Dec 02, 2007 3:29 pm


No, steel/iron (I just used a magnet to pick some up -- they will rust). If they were aluminum, they would be too soft to use in a stapler.

Carrottop

Post   » Sun Dec 02, 2007 4:19 pm


Good news: The piglets were x-rayed today, and the x-rays show no sign of the staple!!!!! I'm still at a loss to explain what happened to it, as I couldn't find it in the litter the pigs were on at the time of the paper-eating incident, and there's been no sign of a staple in any of the droppings the pigs have produced since then. But, whether it was ejected from a pig's mouth at the time of the paper eating or has passed through the pig's body since, it's now certain there's no staple inside either pig. I'm so very, very relieved. I did another complete litter change before putting the pigs back in the cage, to make certain the staple won't be anywhere the pigs can get at it.

Most of the veterinarians in my city flatly refuse to see guinea pigs no matter what the situation is. The city's only emergency clinic open 24/7 is especially adamant that it won't see guinea pigs, or even sell supplies it already has on hand to people who have guinea pigs. I've never understood why they're so adamant about this, but suspect it's at least partly a result of the city being home to a staggeringly high number of lawyers, some of whom bring frivolous lawsuits against small businesses they feel dissatisfied with. Anyway, I found a small clinic with weekend hours that was willing just to x-ray the pigs, with the understanding that if the staple was detected, we'd then proceed to an exotics hospital hours away. I'm very grateful to the vet there for making an exception to the "no exotics" rule.

I have a staple from the same batch as the one that went missing, and it's weakly attracted by a strong magnet, so I believe it must contain at least some iron. The attraction was weak enough that I'd have preferred to use a much stronger magnet in searching through the litter, but I couldn't think of anywhere to buy an industrial-strength magnet on the weekend.

By the way, I've previously wondered exactly how many droppings a guinea pig produces in a 24 hour period, and having counted the droppings one time while breaking them apart, I now believe there are approximately 80 droppings per pig per day. Just a bit of trivia for anyone else who may have been wondering.

THANK YOU to everyone who has written with support and suggestions! I cannot tell you how much your support means to me. I used to be active in online guinea pig discussion groups, but left after being harshly condemned for things like taking my pigs to the "wrong" veterinarian. All of you here seem so much nicer, and as time permits I plan to spend more time in the Guinea Lynx forums.

Talishan
You can quote me

Post   » Sun Dec 02, 2007 4:40 pm


What a relief. Thank you for posting the good news.

Welcome to GL. I think I can say we'll all look forward to you being an active member here.

" ... being home to a staggeringly high number of lawyers ... "

My BIL lives there. 'Nuff said. ;-)

TwoWhitePiggies

Post   » Sun Dec 02, 2007 5:52 pm


I'm so glad you received good news! You realize, of course, that you're now destined to find it by stepping on it.

We're happy to have you here.

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JaneDoe

Post   » Sun Dec 02, 2007 6:41 pm


Yay!

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Bugs Mom

Post   » Sun Dec 02, 2007 6:48 pm


Whew!!

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Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sun Dec 02, 2007 8:26 pm


Great! By the way, pigs can produce 200 poop/day (this is what one med book said they produced).

www.guinealynx.info/.html

klynne

Post   » Sun Dec 02, 2007 9:01 pm


"You realize, of course, that you're now destined to find it by stepping on it."

Or else it will destroy the vacuum cleaner ten minutes before your mother-in-law is coming to visit for the holidays ;-)

Great news, and so glad you were able to find a flexible, caring vet clinic.

We have the same issues here, with the ER clinics--they just refuse to even do basic things like administer fluids. Bah.

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