Dido Update

Update on Dido, Agent Lettuce.

First Off, thank you everyone for the advice on how to help my little angel, she is an awful lot better. I have been dissolving part of a vitamin C tablet in water and adding it to her Critical Care, she loves it and hops all over her cage, my bed, the sofa, or however she is sitting on when she decides it is time for more food. She is nibbling on her hay and pellets and we have another appointment with the vet tomorrow to check on her progress. I wish she would chew on some of her chew toys to help wear down her teeth but she is such a brat! 

Help Needed!

Hi Secret Agent Guinea Pigs and human slaves of guinea pigs,

Followers of our Twitter feeds probably know that Dido has been having severe dental problems, today the vet put her on Critical Care Fine Grind. I've been doing my research on this and it does not seem to have a vitamin C supplement. Can anyone recommend a good Vit C supplement to add to the Critical Care? I would rather avoid giving her pureed veg as I don't want to over-load her fluids as the Critical Care is diluted in water, so any recommendations would be much appreciated.

thanks

Mopsy

Fatty Eye

Agent Silver Streak reporting on a Guinea Pig Health Issue.

If you look at my pigture, you will see that the lower part of my eyelid looks strange. This is a condition called Fatty Eye and I believe that in the US they call it Pea Eye as well. It is not caused by me being a fat piggy as I am one of the smallest of the boars at Piggyfriends. I run around a lot and am definitely not fat.

It is just a bulge in the lower eye muscle and is nothing for Slaves to worry themselves about. It doesn't bother me one bit but our Rodentologists have said that surgery is possible if it affects the vision.

I have read that this may be hereditary but my mother and siblings do not have it so that may not be true.



For those of you waiting to find out Agent Silver Streak is also known as Dorian Piggyfriend

Thanks for your report Silver Streak

Ghost

Guinea pig bloat

Hi there. Came across your website today and thought I'd contribute this. Don't know if you're still up and running but thought it worth trying.

 

We've had 3 cases of bloat in guineas so far and have treated 2 successfully after losing the first pig due to our personal and our vets' ignorance. My first piece of advice is to always treat withboth antibiotics and a fungle treatment when confronted with bloat, as it is practically impossible to tell which kind of bacteria is causing it without some intrusivce and dangerous testing. We always use Ceptrin, and Nystatin together. Ceptrin twice a day at 0.6 ml per kilo of weight and Nystatin once a day at 1 ml per kilo of weight. The Nystatin apparently has no side effects as many other fungle infection treatments do so it is a good option. Ceptrin is also much better than Baytril for treating for bloat. I personally don't rate Baytril very highly at all for dealing with any piggy complaints.

 

I aggree that giving Infacol is a great idea, I personally would give 1 ml roughly 3 times a day, to ensure it does it's job well. Keeping them moving is good too. I've never heard of giving olive oil before but am intending to try it out in our latest case of bloat. Also, Buscopan is a good pain killer and helps immensely. The recommended dose I've found online is 1 tablet crushed in about 2 ml of water an syringed to piggy. I also give Metacam too, roughly 0.2 ml per kilo, but you don't want to overload an already struggling system with too much new medication.

 

Also, my main discovery has been the giving of Lactobacillus, one capsule opened up and put in to about 15 ml of water, and then about half of this or more if piggy will take it, given once a day helped immensely with our pigs. I get this from health shops, try to get the dairy free varietty. This bacteria is not usually present in the gut but seems immensely useful in times of crisis. It can be found in Avipro, the probiotic also, but never seems to help in the same way in that form, for some reason.

 

I also recommend not feeding green veggies or fruit when trying to get rid of bloat, it can't help. Just hay and critical care, and leaving some of their regular nuggits around should be enough. Orange seems palitable though and in it's case the vitamin C and natural sugar can give a much needed boost. Personally I wouldn't let my guineas graze on grass when they have bloat, but that's personal choice. I would always recommend a good grass hay like meadow hay, rather than something Alfalfa based or anything like Timathy hay because this may be a bit too rich in ill piggy's systems.

 

Hope this contribution will be of some use to you. Feel free to change lay out or whatever, I realise this is a bit slapdash. Also, piggy owners out there stick up to your vets! Present them with the success of others who have treated bloat and insist they use the correct drugs and the correct doses. I've been walked all over by vets in the past and lost so many dear pigs, but it won't happen again! Their the vet, but your the poor sole who has to sit and watch and feel useless if piggy gets worse and you don't know what to do. Never be left feeling that if only you'd stood up for your piggy they might have given this or that, and because they didn't you're now blaiming yourself! It's not worth the heartache for you or piggy! Be strong piggy owners everywhere! And vets, please get your acts together! We are only interested in our pets' health and well being, not in having a row and hurting feelings!

 

If possible, would you mind sending me a brief message to let me know whether or not this information has been of any use to you and your informative site?

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Kaycee.

Agent Weigh-in

Hello, I finally managed to get my Aunty Loosy to buy some new scales and check it I was weighed. My weight is 2lb 6, 1/4oz (don't forget that 1/4 oz), I'm sad not to be able to join LAPS yet but have a strict eating regime planned over the winter. We also weighed my little sisters, Agent Beefy (2lb 4,1/8 oz) and Agent Marshmallow (2lb 3, 1/8 oz).

Agent Cannonball Weigh-in Report

This is Agent Cannonball and me has been trying very hard to pack on the ounces. Me finally achieved my goal of 3 lbs (1360 grams) and am now able to join LAPS! Here I am being weighed (me overheard that me barely fit on the scale, me is proud) and discussing secret piggy plans.

Piggyfriend agent's weigh-in.

All of the Agents at Piggyfriends were weighed this afternoon. Slave is tired after all that heavy lifting so Agent Minty is typing this message. Slave apologises for the lateness of my report.

 

Agent Badger        5 years 3 months    2lb. 12oz.    ( 1K 200 )

Agent Thorntons    3 years 5 months    3lb.  1oz .    ( 1K 400 )

Agent Big Red       2 years 1 month      3lb.  10oz.   ( 1K 640 )

Agent 101               2 years 2 months    3lb.  1oz.     ( 1K 400 )

Agent Carrot           Age unknown          2lb. 12 oz.   ( 1K 250 )

Agent Minty             1 year 9 months      2lb. 9oz,      ( 1K 280 )

 

Agent Thorntons has been on an exercise regime and has lost 3 ounces. He looks the same size to me. From these weights it seems to me that Agent Big Red needs to run around a bit more.

 

Slave did the conversions from our familiar pounds and ounces to metric so if they are wrong please blame her. She can't do metric and used the GuineaLynx chart.

 

 

More floor time!

I want to share another video with you. This is agent Thunderbear, together with Lotje and Guiny.
It looks like Lotje is being mean nipping agent Thunderbear. But have a good look at what she is doing exactly and then realize that Lotje adored her food...

See what I mean?

Agent Not-so-Lil'Woop

Weighing report of the Guinygirlz (and boar)

Hi there,

We had a weigh-in tonight.
Auntie Janneke took some pictures when we were staying over and slaves were on holiday, they are too cute to not share. But of course we have grown since then!

Daisy: 540 grammes, 3 months old
lowest weight: 320 grammes, she was a little over a month old


Lily: 640 grammes, 3 months old
lowest weight: 290 grammes, also a little over a month old


Woopy: 960 grammes, 2 years old
lowest weight: 107 grammes (wet) when born on 16 - 04 - 2008,
Highest weight: 1020 grammes, July this year


Chico: 1280 grammes. 3 years old on the 6th of September, 2010
lowest weight: 1160 grammes, in october 2008, he was then a little over 2 years old coming to live with us from the shelter
Highest Weight: 1360 grammes (LAPS!) April to June 2009, almost 2 years old!


Our slaves keep a spreadsheet in Excel with graphs and our weights and ages in days, weeks, years and so on.. Do you also have those geeky scientific slaves?

Love,
Valentino
Not-so-lil'Woop
Lily'explorer
Lil'wheeker

The importance of floor time!

Hi there fellow Agent piggers.

We want to tell you something about the importance of floor time...

First of all, what is floor time?
Floor time enables us to see a different part of the house we live in, and is ideal when our slaves need to change the bedding in our cages.
Floor time is also a good way for us to get some exercise, and if we get exercise we will be healthier and probably happier. Our slave Mikey makes sure we always get at least one bowl of pellets (we got three in our cage), some hay and a water bottle when we are out. Ghost has a ramp from his cage to the floor area so he can decide when to come out and when to stay in and eat or drink.
Our slave Mikey likes to give us obstacles and challenges, in the video below our slave made a little maze with fences and in the middle was a house upside down filled with hay!

Plus floor time can be so much fun!!
Here you can see lily'Explorer, Lil'wheeker and not-so-lil'Woop in action, Valentino was hiding somewhere out of view:


Getting used to your slave
Floor time is also a good way for our slave(s) and us to get used to each other. Slave can sit in our play area and not move to much at first, maybe talk softly to us. After a couple of times (or maybe even from the start) he or she can try to get our attention by calling our names, or just the name she used for all of us, like little monsters or guinea piggies. And if we come to her or him, maybe tempted by the sound of a plastic bag or veggies tearing, we get to have a piece. Our slave Mikey always gives us a house or something to hide in. We also have one of our travelling cages lined with newspapers in the kitchen (our floor time area) available in case we need to go... but we don't always use it ;) Ghost likes to sit under the ramp on the floor area and have a poop, his humans would rather he used the ramp to go back into cage and have a poop, silly humans...

Floor time outside?
What is also nice is piggies having floor time outside. We loooove eating the grass or other yummies, but if we have never had grass before (remember agent ghost and his early tummy upset) make sure we get used to it slowly! Your human can cut you a handful of grass with the scissors and add it to your food bowl before you actually get to go out and mow the lawn. Remember humans are lazy and if we don't mow the lawn they have to mow it themselves and they don't like that.

Be sure we cannot reach any poisonous plants, animal droppings or other things we cannot have...
Always make sure we are safe, we don't want any other animals getting in our play area.
Best is to use a pen or run and cover the top. Covering the top also gives us some shade when it is very sunny outside. Some boxes or houses to hide in would be nice too...
Ow yes don't put us indoor piggies outside when it's raining or cold and windy, we might get ill. And don't put us on grass that has recently been mown. But I am sure we don't have to tell you that!!

Here you can see our late leader Agent F and Agent ghost having 'floor time' in the grass


Now its your turn, we want your floor time stories, pigtures and videos, get working!!


Agent Valentino and Agent Ghost

Medical Update

Now me doesnt want you to worry (trust me Mummy is worrying enough for the world) but those of you who have followed my blog for a while will know me has been causing concern with my unexplained weight loss.

Me has been to the normal vet several times in the last few months only to be told they can find nothing wrong.

Mummy was not happy with this and finally managed to find a vet who had trained with Peter Gurney.

Well yesterday they have run all sorts of tests on me including x-rays and blood tests and what they have found is that me has kidney stones.

Me has 2 stones stuck in the uretha (tubes between kidney and bladder) one from each kidney and it looks like me has 2 more forming again one in each kidney.

Well these stones have caused kidney and liver damage and where they are at the moment they are inoperable.

Me is at home with Mummy and Daddy (and Ghost) now but we dont know how long me has left before me goes to join Agents Thunderbear and Master of Disguise at the bridge.

Mummy is going to try some herbal remedies that have been recommended Hydrangea Root Tincture and Chanca Plus Powder to see if this helps break the stones down.

My weight is now down to 925g and me looks very skinny but me is still keen to get my veggies and of course me makes Mummy's life difficult by fighting the syringe and refusing to co-operate.

Me will give you regular updates on what is happening with me, but me doesnt want you to stop your good secret agent work.

Me still wants to introduce new guest and to hear about different celebrations so keep me updated, me needs you lot to keep me entertained.

Mummy says if anyone has any suggestions please let her know.

Now get back to your secret agent work.

Another Update

Agent F is back up to 1081g, he is acting normally again.

That means he is chasing me and pulling my ears, I had more peace when he was ill.

Mummy has banned him from the puter until he gets back to normal weight so he has 40g left to go.

Ghost

Agent F Health Update

Ghost here again just to let you know F is doing better today.

Here is what has been happening......

Regular readers may remember that not long after I arrived F begun losing weight at first Mummy thought it was because he was much more active chasing and humping me but when he continued to lose weight she got worried.

Mummy wormed F with Panacur but that didnt help, she took him to the vet who said his tummy was tender and gave him a shot of metacam that didnt help, then the Piggyfriends recommended giving him Acidophilus.

Acidophilus comes in capsules your human opens the capsule and mixes a third of the powder with 1ml of water and syringes it into you, well F he hates the syringe and after lots of fighting Mummy came up with a new plan she sprinkles the powder between 2 slices of cucumber leaves it a while for the cucumber to absorb it and feeds it to F he is quiet happy to eat this.

F put some weight on not all that he had lost but he stopped losing and got to a steady weight.

Next he had 2 fungal infections one on his ear and one round his testicle these were treated with canaural (ear) baytril (testicle) from the vet, and Gorgeous Guineas Lavendar and Myrhh lotion on both, they both cleared up.

Last Sunday F stopped eating he was sitting hunched over and fluffed up his poops got really small and then stopped altogether.

Mummy gave him 0.4ml childs liquid nurofen and 0.5ml metatone she then syringe fed him food and water and he perked right up.

Monday and Tuesday he was fine.

Wednesday he was hunched up again so Mummy took him straight to vet they could find nothing wrong, but his family all knew something was wrong.

The Piggyfriends suggested the following treatments and Mummy says she owes her sanity to the support of all her friends in the piggy world but especially to the Piggyfriends Mummy.

Mummy tried giving him 3ml Gripe Water as well as the medicines above he still lost weight.

Thursday Mummy gave him 1ml Infacol as well as medicines but he still lost weight.

Friday Mummy gave him 1 Buscopan tablet crushed and mixed with 1.5ml water and syringed into him he stayed the same weight.

Mummy gave us lots of treat foods corn on the cob, strawberries, beetroot, yellow pepper and romaine as well as giving F his medicines.(nurofen and metatone)

Sunday F has gained weight he is back to 1039g from 970g.

We still dont know what made him stop eating but we are glad we have found something that helps.

Mummy wants to get him back to 1120g which is what he was before he got ill last weekend.

She would also like him to stop getting ill at the weekend when no vets are open and to stop fighting the syringe as she is only doing it for his own good.

I think her chances of success are slim but at least she has stopped crying and being stressed and is smiling again, stressed Mummy's are not good trust me...............

If anyone is interested in me Ghost I weighed a hefty 1251g yesterday and Daddy says I look like an aubergine.

AgentF is Under the Weather

Ghost here Agent F asked me to let his friends know that he is feeling under weather at the moment and so his blog may not be updated as often as he would like.

I will fill you in with more details soon, but at the moment I want to go and keep an eye on him.

Please send him all the healing wheeks you can spare.

Me is a Bad Patient

According to Mummy hmmppfff

Here is what has been happening, Mummy tries to get the syringe in my mouth to give me my medicine she gets really close and then I turn my head away.

Me struggles and acts like me is panicking to make her feel guilty and stop.

Me managed to bite her once, she said it really hurt wimp.

After watching Mummy struggle for ages Daddy tried to syringe me, he got really close to my mouth hit the plunger and covered Mummy in medicine, he gave up after that.

When Mummy does manage to get the medicine in me, me pulls a face and keeps chewing to make it obvious me is not impressed.

When she has finished instead of settling down for a cuddle to calm us both down me then starts biting the towel and moving about so she knows me wants to go straight back to bed.

Is that being a bad patient????

Quick update, my scabs have nearly all gone and me is much less swollen now.

Me Has Been to the Vet

Me has a skin infection in a very delicate place, girls stop reading now.... ok me confesses it is my testicle.

Yesterday Mummy was checking my boy bits as she bought me in from my mowing the lawn duties, when she noticed that one of my testicles appeared bigger than the other and was very scabby, she says she could almost swear they didnt look like that on Saturday.

Anyway this was not bothering me until the humans started to panic, they gave me a butt bath to get the area clean and then Mummy applied some GG Lavendar and Myrhh lotion.

Being a Sunday the vets were not open so Mummy had to wait until this morning before she could rush me there.

The vet told Mummy to stop panicking as the testicle itself wasnt swollen (me is a big boy anyway heehee) it was just the scabs making it look larger.

The vet removed what scabs she could and my skin is pink underneath not filled with pus, so Mummy could relax as it wasnt an abcess.

Me has to have Baytril 0.5ml twice a day for a week and Acidophilus as a probiotic as antibiotics can be bad for delicate piggy tummys.

Mummy also has to remove any loose scabs heeheehee she not looking forward to that.

Me hopes this will clear up in a few days coz as much fun as having a human fondle your testicles can be me is already bored of that game.

Me will keep you updated on my progress

Guest Number 11

Agent Dinosaur (me hopes you get it when you see the pigture)

Agent Dinosaur's real name means Noble Ruler and is English in origin.

She lives in Illinois with her brothers and sisters

She arrived at her new home on the back of a moped what a brave girl eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek

Good luck guessing

Treatment of E Cuniculi

E Cuniculi is at present incurable, me hopes sometime in the future some clever person will find a cure but for the moment it can only be treated and managed as an on going problem. There is still lots of development ongoing.

Regular treatment with Ivermectin and Ivomec or Panacur appear to prevent an infestation taking hold. Ivermectin is for treating external parasites like mites while Ivomec and Panacur are worming treatments for internal parasites.

Make sure you get enough Vitamin C and water in your diet as these are essential for overall good health and its believed they can prevent infection taking hold.

When an infestation has taken hold this should be treated with antiparasitic drugs from the Benzimidazole range.Most commonly used are Albendazole, Oxibendazole and Fenbendazole (Panacur)

They antibiotic Baytril should be given in addition to the antiparsitic drug this helps fights any other infection that may be present and improves the general immune system.

To treat pain and inflammation Metacam can be given.

This is only a basic outline and me wishes to thank all the humans out there who have provided links to relevant websites, and most importantly of all, thanks to those who have taken the time to include the information on their websites.

As with any illness make sure your human seeks advise from a qualified vet as soon as possible and make sure your human goes armed with their own suggestions of what to look at.

Me doesnt know if it was E Cuniculi that made Hershey ill but me does know that her Mummy and Daddy did everything they could for her and that they will miss her terribly.

Me also knows there will always be a little piece of my heart which says Hershey in memory of my sweet shy sword wielding friend.

Goodbye Hershey may your story help others.

[caption id="attachment_402" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Hershey Mothers Day 2008-September 2009"][/caption]

Symptons of E Cuniculi

My tribute to Hershey continues with what symptons should give you a warning that E Cuniculi may be a problem, especially if you as a guinea pig live near a rabbit.

Kidney problems such as frequent urination and increased thirst

Paralysis, a weakness in the limbs and inability to move

Head tilt or wry neck

Eye inflammation, cataracts, weeping eyes and eye rolling

Loss of appetite followed by weight loss, which in turn can cause problems in the gut such as stasis

Neurological damage leading to convulsions and loss of balance.

Behavioural changes such as wanting to be completely alone, probably hiding in a corner.

While these are all symptoms of E Cuniculi infection they can also be caused by other problems, so do not immediately assume that the problem is E Cuniculi although keep it is mind for a vet to check as its rare in guinea pigs and could be over looked.

A blood test known as a titer will be needed for an accurate diagnosis.

[caption id="attachment_403" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Hershey Mothers Day 2008- September 2009"][/caption]

What is E Cuniculi

A Tribute to Hershey

Me had never heard of E Cuniculi until it was suggested as a possible cause of what was making my friend Hershey ill and eventually lead to her crossing the rainbow bridge.

With her human family at first Hershey was shy earning her the nickname Hershey the Meek, with her guinea pig friends on our virtual pirate adventure she was a CHEEKY MISS instigating the great bum pinching scandal.

When she got ill Hershey showed her Mummy and Daddy she loved in the best way she could by over coming her shyness and accepting and demanding attention even play fighting with Daddy over the syringe, the best gift of memorys she could have left with them.

[caption id="attachment_404" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Hershey Mothers Day 2008-September 2009"][/caption]

So what is E Cuniculi?

E Cuniculi is a protozoan parasite largely found in rabbits.

It is a Zoonose which means it can pass between different species eg from rabbbit to guinea pig.

The spores are eaten from infected hay where they can survive for months.

Once inside they travel round the body before leaving in the urine which in turn leaves spores on whatever is peed on to be eaten again.

Like mites in guinea pigs in rabbits it is believed to lie dormant until other factors such as stress, dehydration or a different infection allow it to take hold.

Even though a rabbit may have no symptoms they can be a carrier.