No more piggy in the window - Lily

As some of you might know my Lily has been loosing weight lately.
Our vet was at a loss what could be causing this, only thing she found was a soft mass in Lily's tummy. She suggested an ultrasound to check it out, but wanted a good radiologist, because she wasn't sure she could tell what she was looking at...

So this morning we had an appointment at the vet in the middle of the country, this was at the university where animal medicine is taught.
However yesterday evening Lily started to show signs of distress. Her tummy was massive, seemed swollen with gas but the usual oil treatment did not make it better. She also refused to eat at some point...

I really hoped she would make it through the night so I could get her to the vet in the morning. She did make it and I told her to stay with me until we reached the vet, which was an hours drive.
She made it there and she was seen be a really nice vet and vet in training.

They felt a mass in her tummy, and suggested to do an ultrasound.
The results we're not good she had air in her belly cavity, so no longer just in her bowels... Which means more than just air could leave her bowels, like bacteria... And a big mass about 3 by 4 centimeters was visible near her liver.

There were two options either put her to sleep or try to operate with little chance of success. The latter did not sound appealing, at that point she was really in pain and if the tumor mass was bad it could have spread, depending on where the mass was exactly they might not be able to remove it, and of course there is the risk of anesthesia for even a healthy guinea pig. And lily wasn't healthy anymore.
So we chose for the option to have her put to sleep, which was a hard one...

As they are a teaching hospital the vet wanted to check what was wrong.
Turned out she had a big mass in and around her bowels, which also stuck to her belly, there was pus and poop in the cavity and internal bleedings already. She was in a much worse state as we and the vet would have expected, especially as she was still eating and active before yesterday evening. Quite amazing she kept going so long with all this... So though I will miss her a lot, especially this cute thing she would do standing in the window of the cage to beg for veggies, we made the right decision, the mass was inoperable...

Lily just after a bath

Luvya my little furry girl, say hi to Chico and all our other friends over the rainbow bridge... Lily was 3 year and 8 months old...

Mieke and the remaining guinygirlz Woopy, Daisy and Roos

Woopy turned 5 today!

Today, 16 April our girl Agent lil'Woop turned 5 years old!

In an attempt to actually film a sleeping Daisy (the one with grey and white head), Woopy shows us how agile she still is, putting her backleg up in the air.
Lily is munching hay and pellets on the right, Roos is mostly out of view...



Slave also did an earlier attempt to film the sleeping Daisy, but Roos barges in...



Happy birthday Agent Lil'Woop!
Even with her age, she is still the boss over the other girls Lily, Daisy and Roos.

Carrot beers or juice all around...

Friday Video: Guinygirlz new cage

Hi there,

 Auntie J is away and left us to the hard task of selecting a video.
We have had a new cage, build by our human Daddy E, for a while now. We are pretty sure we shared it already but we cannot find it on this blog...
So hope we are not annoying you with a repeat of this video of us entering the new cage for the first time... it is quite a long video, you don't have to watch it all if you don't want to ;)

 

 Some specifics:
- The cage is about 122cm by 125cm (around 48" by 49") and made out of wood, the kind that consists of layers pressed together with a shiny top and bottom.
- The see-through parts are pieces of plexiglass (hooby glass) from our old cage (see our old cage here)
- Roos has a perfect camouflage color for the sides of the cage (the wood is red brown, like Roos is).
- The back has a small ledge at the top, which can be opened, so our waterbottle and hayrack can be filled more easily. We like this, because it gives some idea of shelter when we get scared.
- The cage is on top of an 'H'-shaped stand which holds our boxes of pellets, hay, bedding.
- We had to get used to the wide open space, but now We looove the new cage!

 The Guinygirlz: Woopy, Lily, Daisy and Roos

New Agent Tortoise

Hi There,

I am new agent Tortoise!
I got this name because I like to sit under our hammock and push it up. This hammock can be moved around (because it's hanging over the side of our cage by a sturdy wire), and with me under it I look just like a tortoise... at least that is what the slaves say!

Hints for my real name, I live in a small country in Europe, where most of the land is actually below sealevel. Like my 'sisters' (2 out of 3 at least) I have a flower name, mine is in our country's native language.

I am almost 11 months old, and since I was about 9 months I already weighed a 1000grammes (1 kilo), this week the scales showed I already weigh 1050grammes!
So slave is very late sending this is, as I reached agent weight a few months ago...

Guinygirlz Photoshoot

We had our picture taken some weeks ago, slaves always do that around Woopy's birthday, this time it was already her 4th birthday! The others are now 2 years old (Lily and Daisy) and 0 years old (Roos is now 6 months old).
Slave would love to share our pigtures as she adores us...

Daisy

Lily a la Bing

Lily lying down

Lily looking up (typical 'lily-pose')
She always sticks her nose up like this after being petted.
It's like she is asking for more petting :)

Roos, I think she was never officially introduced (!)
This is our Agent in training, she is now as heavy as Woopy,
So it won't be long before she reaches a whole Kilo (1000 grammes)

Woopy

Group pigture: Lily, Roos, Daisy and Woopy

Floortime!

As you can see from the video we love floor time especially Roos.

To make play time interesting for piggies we highly recommend toys our favourite toys are simple and cheap to make, empty boxes!!

You can make tunnels or hideys out of empty boxes, you can stuff them with hay or hide nibbles in them or just use them to make a chicane to run around.

Bath Time: the Archives

We from the Winky team are fortunate enough to have never had a bath. But we do have the archives with Jan the Boar, Suus, Yaya, Lotje and Guiny. These pigtures were made when they had a minor fungal infection and had to be treated with the Gorgeous Guineas products.

Before:

Pretty Suus

First, our brave pigs would get an oil treatment

I hate you

Little hedgehog

After wearing the oil for a few hours, the bathing would start

OMG

Noooo..

Peh.

Then our heroes faced the shampooing

Jan the Boar all lathered up

After that, they were rinsed with water again to get the shampoo out. Suus used her super jumping powers for revenge.

REVENGE!!!

Finally they were taken out and blown dry

Ghaaaaahh..

Lotje had a curly belly

Look at the pretty curls

We didn't find many 'after' pigtures, we guess our heroes were not up for smiling prettily into the camera after this ordeal.

If your slave is sniggering while watching these photo's we suggest peeing during lap time.

We wish you a tasty Pigmas

We wish you a tasty Pigmas from the Netherlands! The guiny girlz are staying over at our house, while moms and dad are racing through the Netherlands, visiting grannies, grandads, uncle Rik and friends. Our Pigmas is extra special this year because we have a new boar. His name is Sjeuf, which is a local name from the south of the Netherlands. You can pronounce it like 'shuv', it's short (and dialect) for Joseph. Which is kinda appropriate this time of the year ;-)

Love and Wheeps, Coco and Bo

Coco and Bo enjoying chicory with new addition Sjeuf

A dreamy white Pigmas with Lily, Daisy, Chico and Woopy

nom nom nom

Full bellies, happy piggy faces

Hey mom and dad! *wave*