My Little Piggins

Post Reply
User avatar
cathystev

Post   » Sat Aug 17, 2002 11:24 pm


My husband enjoys the Cavy Chronicles and has asked me to post our cavy story. We have been married for 8 years and since the beginning, I told him when we buy a house I´m getting guinea pigs. We bought a house last Aug, and by Oct, I had adopted 2 piggies, Cocoa and Timmy, from the Loudoun County animal shelter here in Va. They were my pride and joy! Timmy contracted a URI in the spring. By the time my vet and I realized what was the cause of his lethargy, he was on his way out. I spent 3 days after diagnosis trying to syringe feed him, but he kept deteriorating. The last day I had covertly brought him into work and stowed him under one of the doctor´s desks who wasn´t there that day. (I work in a peds office) I tried to feed him, but he would fight me. Even the nurses tried to help out. He was the luckiest pig that day with all the attention he recieved. Alas, I was holding him at lunch and he squeeked louder than I had ever heard him squeek before. I placed him back in the cage and put the towel over it. He was so weak by this point, he couldn´t even walk on his own. When I lifted the towel again, he was gone. I then had to get him covertly out of the office while crying hysterically, and then drive to my vet to cancel the appointment while still crying hysterically.
After that trauma, my husband felt so bad for me he bought me a beautiful silver agouti female, Polly. Of course, she came from a pet store. Forgive Jim, he didn´t know any better! Well, guess who was pregnant! Yup, she kept getting bigger and it wasn´t the lettuce! I had no clue about pregnant guinea pigs. My vet suggested I try the internet, and that´s how I found guineapigs.info. (I wasn´t on this forum yet). The advice was fantastic and I attribute Polly´s survival to the info I got there. One day I saw memhrane coming out of her and rushed to the vet, who referred me to the emergency place since it was evening. There, they took an xray, which showed 2 ENORMOUS babies in the breach position. They wanted to do a c-section, which I was totally unprepared for emotionally. I told them I was hoping for a home birth, since she was not contracting at that time, and took Polly home. She spent the next day at my vet´s, who scheduled a section for the next morning. It was Jim´s turn to watch her and she started to contract at about 2:30 am. We rushed her into the car and went to the emergency place again. Well, different doc on duty. He says, "I don´t do small animals" and promptly told us to drive 45 min to Alexandria Va. Can you believe it??? I was totally overwhelmed. So, there we were, driving around the Wash, DC capital beltway at 4am, Jim in the passenger seat and the poor little piggy in the back!! We received outstanding care there and were blessed with 2 sqeaky little babies by c-section at about 5am. They also spayed her while they were at it. I picked up all 3 the following morning and went back to the vet´s. By now, we are the talk of the animal community in town.
We successfully went through recovery, nursing, and weaning. I was so happy with my 4 piggies. So happy, that I got the great idea to adopt 2 more females to keep Polly company when I separate the baby males, Otto and Braunie! The shelter had a bonded pair of females, Snowflake and Boston. Snowflake is a white himalayan and Boston looks like a Reeses peanut butter cup! They are sweet, but I think were neglected. They hardly sqeaked at all when I brought them home and were FILTHY. Snowflake´s nails were never trimmed and she was more a dirty blond before the bath. Four days after adoption, Snowflake started to pee blood. After quickly checking the forum for advice, I called my vet who could see her right then. My vet probably thinks I´m insane or a magnet for piggies in distress. To make this story short, we spayed her. Her uterus was 6 times the normal size and full of green pus. Her ovaries were tumerous. Everything was removed. Her bladder was normal, with no stones. She recovered well, also. Now, after a week, Snowflake is very energetic. She and Boston both squeek like the other piggies and seem to be more lively.
I still have not separated Polly and the babies. They are 2mo old. The squeek and cry and carry one when they are not together so I have decided to just leave them be. The best plans..... Oh well, I just keep getting bigger cages! I built the 1st phase of the c&c cage. As I explained in one thread, the cage is 6x3 feet - a little too big, as they walk, not run, to the other side of the cage because they know I can´t reach them!! I know they are laughing at me!! As long as they are comfortable, it´s alright ! Boston and Snowflake have their own cage, and Cocoa, the bachelor, has his own pad by himself.
I am now thinking about fostering some piggies in the fall. There is a rescue about 45 min from me. I´m addicted to helping needy piggies, I guess.
If I ever become less computer impaired I will post pictures!! Thanks for a great forum!
Cathy :)

User avatar
Seansfamily

Post   » Mon Sep 02, 2002 2:34 am


Wow!

You have certainly had some medical excitement since you started taking in piggies. Your stories made very dramatic reading. I think you have written season´s worth of scripts for a guinea pig version of "ER"!!!!

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Sep 02, 2002 7:40 am


I don´t know how I missed your post (my system must be faulty) -- great story! I am so glad you have so many piggies to love and they are so lucky to have found you. Really happy the c-section went well. Too often the pig is really in distress and doesn´t make it.

I hope you have alot of healthy pigs from here on out.

User avatar
Sunny

Post   » Tue Sep 03, 2002 12:55 pm


Cathy - I enjoyed reading your story. You and your husband have been through so much...

Enjoy those addicting little pigs and keep us posted on what they are up to.

BTW - Most my pigs have been very non-vocal. I´ve only had 4 total and only one has really squealed much. Maybe it´s because that one is REALLY vocal... the spokes-pig of the group perhaps.

Lynx - my system didn´t mark this as "Unread" either. I almost missed it.

User avatar
cathystev

Post   » Thu Sep 05, 2002 12:35 am


You can view my new pigs with my sig. at bottom of original post. I am now helping out the Metro GPig Rescue by fostering one piggy (Butters). The 3 brown babies were unwanted from a family here in town. I know the woman´s neighbor and she said her female had babies and she was "getting rid of them." I picked them up the next day. 2 males, 1 female, and mama all together in an aquarium tank. Oi. I´m slowly making more cages. The boys took my last cage so Celine lives in the kitchen for now!
Last edited by cathystev on Thu Sep 05, 2002 12:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

Post Reply