Big Pigs.

When I go on holiday, I always miss my herd of Piggyfriends, so I was delighted to find a few of their big relatives, some lovely capybaras, in Dartmoor Zoo in Devon, England. I am always wary of zoos and am the first to complain if the animals' quarters are not up to scratch but these lovely capybaras had a huge enclosure, which they shared with two nice tapirs and some rheas.

When we arrived, it was a hot day and the first animals that we met were these capybaras, basking in the sun beside their pool.

 

And as you can never have enough capybaras, here are some more. The one beside the tree was obviously having a nice dream as he kept waving his paws around!

Here are their friends, the two tapirs, who were also fast asleep when we arrived and were snoring very loudly. Sorry about the wire but I could not climb in to take a better shot.

Later in the day it rained and the capybaras all woke up and went in search of lunch. Just like our piggies, they love their fresh grass.

When we were leaving, the capybaras were walking in a line like a piggy train to go to their big wooden shelter where they had lots of hay but, unfortunately, there was too much wire in the way for me to take a good pigture so here is one of the tapirs, one of whom was in the pool that they share with the capybaras.

I wish that I had room at home for a capy but their pool was bigger than my garden.

 

Daisy had a bladder stone part 2

I wrote this part last Sunday, when I did not know yet how she would be doing on Monday... 

So after we took Daisy home on friday we force fed her some science recovery and she seemed to be doing pretty well. Our vet was saying we had a really strong piggie, as she thought earlier that day that she would not make it.
I forgot to mention they also removed a polyp from her bladder.

On saturday, we kept a hawk's eye on her most of the day and she ate some chicory (see the video), drank a little and nibbled some hay. Of course we kept up with the force feeding and medicine, and she started to object quite violently. Which of course did not make it easier for us, but I was glad she was this feisty as it meant she was feeling better.

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Look Daisy is eating chicory! #guineapig #eating

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Today, sunday, she is still hanging in there, but she seems a bit less than the day before... It does get faster to hand feed her though but she does not want to eat by herself. Though I do think she ate a little parsley on her own. As we put in quite some food the day before, but did not see her dump any of it on the back side, I tried to separate her from the rest. I put up some C&C grids, gave her hay, a drinking bottle and pellets, put her in to see if she did poop. Within 5 minutes however she escaped, and to my surprise she left at least one poop. I felt like she was saying. "Hey mom, I did a poop, i'll let myself out now, okay?'
A bit later that day she seemed a bit more perky and that was when I think she ate the parsley. Also hand feeding her went a lot smoother. I did notice her tummy seems really swollen, also when she walks she sound like something inside is really sloshing... Anyone have a clue what is happening there?

We are keeping up the force feeding, she had less at this time of day, then she had yesterday. She has antibiotics (novadox: which is doxycycline), Carprofen as painkiller (this is rymadil I think) and cysaral for getting her gut to keep moving (it is cisapride). Today I also syringed her some water inbetween the force feeding, and some oil in case she was so swollen because of gas.

Right now she seems okay-ish, and I really hope she gets through another night, so we can talk and maybe take her to the vet again tomorrow.

I'll keep you posted and hope you will keep your fingers and paws crossed for her. She fought so hard to stay around, so she really deserves to get better soon!

On a happier note: Berke turned 3 yesterday, and he plus the others were happy to see Daisy back. They are sweet to her, and keep her company some times.

Hugs to all your Piggies,
Mieke of the Guinygirlz: Woopy, Daisy, Roos and Berke

Friday Video: when JoeJoe the Capybara meets Puppies

Today we have a suggestion from Pat and the Prairy Pigs (thank you Pat!). She sent us a video with JoeJoe the Capybara and puppies. Since we found lots more video's from JoeJoe with puppies and we couldn't choose. We've decided to post them all. Hope you won't mind ;-)


Puppy play time


Trying to nap with puppies



JoeJoe loves puppies


Joe Joe and puppies

Have a nice Wheekend!

Daisy had a bladderstone :(

Hi all,

Unfortunately we found out our Daisy was ill, this is her story.

We noticed her weight dropped 200 grammes in only a month, and she was wet underneath. So I
suspected cystitis. We tried her on one of Peter gurney's remedies of barley water. But after a few days it was clear to me that wasn't helping enough...
So of to the vet it was. She confirmed my theory of Daisy having cystitis, but she was also doubting a bit if maybe she had a bladder stone, as she thought she could feel something in the bladder area..
We tried antibiotics and a painkiller for almost a week, but Daisy was not really improving.

So back to the vet to see if she did indeed have a bladderstone. This vet gave the same diagnosis: cystitis and she could feel something in her bladder. So I came back in the next day (this was last friday) to have her x-rayed (I had the last appointment the day before) and see if she really
had a dreaded stone.
So I got a call later that day saying she could see 2 things on the x-ray.
2 things? I did not like that...
The first thing was she indeed had a bladder stone, and it was to big to flush it out. The second thing was that she had a huge amount of something in her tummy... it looked like have her belly cavity, and the vet suspected a huge ovarian cyst... She had to puncture these first before she would do an operation to get the stone out. As it took up so much space, it would very likely be in the way for the removal of the stone. We agreed to get the liquid out of the ovarian cyst and then have the vet remove the stone.

Daisy's x-ray, the stone is clearly visible on the top photo.
In the bottom photo you see almost have of her tummy looks dark..

After some time I got a call again, the operation went well, the stone was removed (and about 1 cm in diameter). And she did not find an ovarian cyst.
When puncturing all that came out was air... apparently the huge bubble that showed up on the x-ray was air. The theory was that it was in her appendix that contained all the air, and as she was in pain, she inhaled a lot of air... (Anyone ever heard of this?)
However, she was having a lot of problems recovering and waking up, she started bleeding from her bladder, and it was not getting less so far....
She could put Daisy under again and see if she could fix it, but she was very hesitant to do that, as giving her that extra anesthetic the vet was afraid would give Daisy that last push to cross the bridge...
So she suggested we wait for her body to fix this...
I asked if I could come and see her... and a little bit later I was there.

Daisy was not looking good, cramping a lot because of the pain (she did have painkiller of course, but she was obviously still in a lot of pain) and her lower half was all bloody...
After about an hour the cramping became less, and the bloodflow seemed to almost halt. After a while her temperature was getting back to normal, so the heating in her intensive care unit was turned off.
About an hour later, she seemed to have improved even more, and she seemed more alert, and at some point I think she even tried to nibble the fleece she was on. This is a typical thing Daisy would so in a healthy state. She also moved around a bit more.
At that point I had already spend some hours watching her and they said I could go home, eat something and then get back in 2 hours to pick her up, if she seemed good enough.
And luckily we were allowed to take her home! At that time it was 7 in the evening. So it was a pretty tiring day for me.

Daisy back home, and picture of her stone,
the bottle is one of those small 10 ml medicine bottles

Daisy :'(

Just to let you know: we found Daisy had crossed the bridge early on last monday morning... I am devastated as she was doing so well on saturday after a bladder stone surgery on friday. \Her belly was really swollen, we suspect her bowels were punctured when trying to get air out with a
needle... that caused fluids/air to leak in to her belly cavity and madeher belly make sloshing sounds...
The vet's assistant punctured her swollen belly when I took her body in on mondag, and said only blood was coming out. She suspects she had an internal bleeding.

She was pretty certain whatever it was that they could not have done much
about it, and she was impressed we got her through the weekend at all...

Hug all your piggies from me!
Mieke, Erwin and the remaining Woopy (almost 6,5!), Roos and Berke

P.S. I will post what happened in the upcoming days... (If you are on the GPDD you probably already read it...)

This is Daisy with her boyfriend Agent Zeppelin,
they met when we drove south to get Bérke

Friday Video: Assassin's Kittens Unity

Have a nice Wheekend!

Preparation for Calendar 2015 and new topic: Piggie breeds?

Hi all,

As it is already October, it is time to start gathering photos again for the calendar of 2015.

As always I will collect photos of your guinea pigs. By sending me the pigtures you allow us to use it in the calendar, and on the blog for calendar related posts.
The proceedings will be donated to a guinea pig shelter somewhere in the world, which you can nominate and vote for.

This year I would like to try a slightly different format. Before, we let people send in pigtures of their piggies, and every (group of) piggie(s) would get their own month.
For the upcoming year I would like to give all months a piggy breed theme: so for example one month for short/smooth-haired, one for abyssinians, one for rexes, one for US/CH teddies, one for crested, longhaired piggies and so on. I am not sure we can actually find 12 different breeds but I think we can also fill 2 months for some breeds...

Every month we can have a different breed, that will be discussed on the blog. So describing what the traits of a breed are, and other interesting information about that breed. Maybe we could also have a look at the different colorings?

For both gathering pigtures and more information about the different breeds I will need you help!
So what do you think, are we up for this?

Up to now I have always used Vistaprint for the calendars, because they have offices on all continents it seems, which reduces the shipping costs. I have not really found a better candidate yet, but if you have good suggestions for a company like Vistaprint, let me know.

So assuming we will do the next calendar is a Piggy breeds format, I made a list of what breeds I could think of. Please add a comment if you have piggies in those or other breeds and you can provide pigtures of your current or late piggies.


Happy wheeking,
Mieke

Guinea Pig Breeds (I could think of)
- Short / Smooth -haired
- Abyssinian
- Peruvian
- Rex
- US / CH Teddies
- Texel
- Alpaca
- Coronet
- Crested
- Merino
- Hairless: Skinny and Baldwin
- Ridgeback

I used this video for some inspiration

September piggies of the month: Anya, Boomer & Dargo

Hi all,

Sorry this is so late, but unfortunately I could not get into contact with Jan who owns these gorgeous piggies, but she did give me this info when sending me their pigtures.

Enjoy!

----

Anya
Agent Name:  Agent Demon Girl
Favorite Food:  Carrots
Hobbies:  Trying to take over the pen from Boomer

Boomer
Agent Name:  Agent Athena
Favorite Food:  Green Beans
Hobbies:  playing in tunnels and trying to put down insurrections by Anya

Dargo
Agent Name: Agent Gentleman D
Favorite Food:  Anything
Hobbies:  Staying out of the way of Anya and Boomer

Friday Video: Guinea Pig Theater

Have a passionate Wheekend!

Chaos at Piggyfriends. Episode 7. Progress at last!

Gandalf says to Tyrion,
" There has been a lot of noise outside today.
When we have finished this snack,
let's go and see what has been done."

" Ooh look, Gandalf!" exclaims Tyrion.
" There are walls now and the windows
 have glass in them. "
 " It looks a lot more like a proper room
now," replies Gandalf.

Just then a van pulls up and piles of mysterious flat boxes begin to be unloaded so the boys run back to their temporary accommodation before they are seen and tell the other piggies what they have discovered.

The next day Dorian and Rafferty 

take their turn exploring.

" Those boxes were full of tiles," says Dorian, 

" and now they are on the floor."

" They are very grey and dusty," says Dorian,
 " but they make good camouflage for me! "

" They look black in Slave's catalogue."
replies Rafferty. "I'll be able to hide
amongst them when they are cleaned  up."

The piggies hear another vehicle pull up outside
and sneak around the garage to see
 what is happening. They hide behind Slave's car
and see that a skip has been delivered.
 " Slave will be so pleased to see
all the debris being taken away." they all think.

To be continued............

Friday Video: Hotdog Eating Contest

Have a tasty Wheekend!

Chaos at Piggyfriends. Episode 6. Strange things are delivered.

Garnet looks out of the window and says.........

" Hey gang! I can see a big van parked outside."

The piggies all rush to join Garnet and see a man carrying
pieces of........"What is that stuff?" they all wonder.

" Our garden is full of windows and bits of metal.
What is it all for? " they ask each other.

"Let's all have some lunch and a nap," says Garnet.
"Yes," says Petunia, " then we can go and see
what is happening outside."

" Are you coming, Angelina?" they all ask.
" No thanks," she replies. " I'm still getting dry."
The rest of the Piggyfriends run off.
" Phew!" thinks Angelina.
" I avoided going outside again."

When they all sneak outside ( minus Angelina )
they see what all the strange things are for.
" Wow!" they exclaim, " They are all parts of a new room."
" I hope that man doesn't fall off his ladder," says Garnet.

Chaos at Piggyfriends Episode 5. Demolition!

"Hey, Rafferty," says Bosworth. "As soon as we are dry,

 shall we sneak outside and see what's going 

on with our pigroom? Hey Rafferty! Oi!  

Am I talking to the right end? I don't know. 

You are as bad as Agent Zeppelin!"

"Look, Bosworth," says Rafferty. "There are men on our roof!
What are they doing there?" " Ooh look! I can see the reflection
 of Slave's greenhouse in the window." says Bosworth.

" Those men might see our reflection too, " say the boys,
" Let's hide behind that pile of bricks."

The boys peep out from behind the bricks and.........
" Help! The roof has gone," says Rafferty.
" And the windows too," replies Bosworth,
" and that radiator is not going to be much use anymore."

" The man is using his phone, Rafferty.
He won't see us if we creep back inside."

" Gather round and listen everypig," 

says Bosworth.

 " Our room has been demolished! " 

 Piggyfriend Chorus of " Oh, no!" 

" What shall we do." " Eeek!!"

"Calm down," says Bosworth,

" I am sure that Slave has all this in hand."

 Aside....at least I hope so.

Friday Video: Be More Dog

Have a nice Wheekend!

Friday Video: Cute Pigs Playing Basket Ball

Have a nice Wheekend!

Chaos at Piggyfriends. Episode 4. Susie and Max take a look.

" I have eaten a lot of cucumber, Angelina.I think that I need a nap.
You should have come with me," says Florence.
" I'm staying here." replies Angelina,
" It's much safer even if there is less cucumber."

 

" I am going to have a look at what is going on."
says Susie.

 

" Come with me, Max! I've packed a pignic basket. "
" I hope that there is enough for two." replies Max.

 

" The man has knocked down the whole wall!"
says Susie. " Look, Max,
I can see the tool shed outside."
" Surely Slave must know about this."
says Max.
" That could be why she moved our homes."

"Let's sneak outside and take a photo"
" Oh dear", says Max."Look at Slave's terrace.
Such a mess. Where are all of her plant pots?
Auntie Ann will be sad to see this pigture."

"Max! There's a big hole in this wall.
Let's go back inside and tell the other piggies
but we'll finish our pignic first."

Piggies of the month: Winky Team

Hurray! We are Piggies of the Month! You probably know who we are, but we're going to introduce ourselves anyway. We are a herd of three and we live in the Netherlands. It's a small country just between the UK and Germany. People think we eat lots of cheese and tulips, but we've never seen any of those. We live in a really big cage and we have many hobbies, including eating chicory, eating parlsey, and eating dandelions. When we're not eating, we sleep, deconstruct cardboard boxes or try to coax more food from our staff. Ow. And we're the pigs behind the Friday Video blogposts.

In the calendar you see Bo (the abby), Coco (the coronet) and Sjeuf (the sheltie). Unfortunately, Sjeuf is no longer with us. He passed away on Christmas morning, leaving us in quite a shock.

RIP Sjeuf

Coco and Bo always had a sister-like relationship. They quarreled quite a bit when Sjeuf was still alive (but when the J was not looking Bo would lovingly wash Coco's ears). But when Sjeuf passed away the quarreling got worse, so we decided that it was time to find a new boar to blame for everything.

Ties

So, after a mourning period, we went on a speed date with Ties in the Kuufke shelter. We quite fancied him and we took this tall dark and handsome man home with us. We actually dated Berke first. But WE didn't fancy him *cough* (and we're sticking to that story!). Ties is a very gentle man, and a gentleman and he tolerates almost everything. Barbering, cutting nails, baths, and all the other horrors J has in store for us. He is also extremely tall (27cm nose to tailbone) and heavy (1400 grams) which is very convenient when the girls are having a bit of a tiff. He just plunks his big body in between the girls and then they will forget what the fight was about. What is also very cool about Ties, is his resemblance with the illustrous agent Zeppelin. That hair is just awesome; our staff frequently tries to feed him veggies on the wrong end, which gives us more time to snag it away.

Bo. Always hungry.

Bo is not to be trifled with either. She came in a tiny hairy ball of energy, and nowadays she is a 1360 gr ball of energy (mainly in the butt area). Not to mention; still hairy. Regardless of her weight, she still is the fastest pig in the cage and she hold the record when it comes to eating veggies. She practically inhales the stuff. She is also very inquisitive. It may or may not be related to her love of food. But to be fair; Bo is a very adventurous girl and not afraid of anything.

Sleepy Coco

Coco had us worried this summer. It started with teeth problems, and a week after visiting the vet-dentist where she had the hooks on her molars removed, she was so weak that J had to syringe feed her. She lost a lot of weight (it went down to 750 grams) so off she went to the vet and became the most expensive pig in the Winky team history (lots of tests). The vet suspected artrosis and maybe dehydration. She actually advised us to put her down, but since miss feisty was still stealing chicory off Bo in the morning, our J wanted to give her a chance. So after an IV with fluids, a vitamin shot and armed with critical care, something to improve bowel movement and a painkiller, Coco and J came home. We're happy to report that after a week or so miss Diva was back to her old self. She still has to take the painkiller twice a day, but otherwise she is happy in between her diva tantrums, lunches and beauty sleep.

Pretty Coco

Friday Video: PETA President's ALS 'Ice Bucket Challenge' Response

Have a nice Wheekend!

Friday Video: Marmot Licks GoPro

People often mistake us for marmots (at least in the Netherlands) and we have to admit, they are pretty cute.


Have a nice Wheekend!

Agent Zeppelin: he does it again!

Which way is agent Zeppelin facing? Right, or down?

Get guessing!

Chaos at Piggyfriends Episode 3. Piggies getting messy.

" The girls have been gone a long time,"
says Gandalf.  " I'll go and look for them
when we've finished lunch,"
replies Tyrion.

" You can come out now, girls" says Tyrion.
"The man has gone to have his lunch.
Don't stay out here too long. It's very messy."

"Ooh, He's left some tools on the floor.
They look interesting. Take a photo, Lola."

" I'm hungry." says Lola. "Is that a carrot?
Oh......maybe not."

" I've found a cucumber" says Florence.

" Can I share?" asks Lola. 

"As you can see, Florence is busy eating
right now." says Lola. " So we'll report back
later. Tyrion is right. It is very messy out here.
We'll be needing a bath."