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

Guinea Pig Music Video.

Hi my name is Tim Wigley and I am a musician in Houston TX.  I recently made a music video that stars my pig Lester.

Hope you like it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw25baSGwzE

Friday Video: Pig Beach

We stumbled across this video of pigs living on an uninhabited island (Exuma Bahamas). Legend has is that sailors left them there with the intention to pick them up later. Even though they are wild, they seem friendly enough (source).


Have a nice Wheekend!

Smart piggie?

Hi all,

Just wanted to share this little story of Roos.

the culprit...

On New Years' day we found her eye was wet and it turned out she got a husk from her hay stuck in her eye. Of course all the vets were closed this day, but with some cautiousness my sister Janneke and my boyfriend got it out.
A vet visit followed and we got a salve to put in her eye. Luckily her eye was not really damaged.

So every morning my boyfriend E would get downstairs to give the girls their veggies. But before giving that to them he would pick up Roos from the cage. However, she quickly realized that and would hide in their wooden house every morning and afternoon when she knew E would come and pick her up. Of course she would keep an eye out to see if E was bringing veggies.
So once E would finally manage to catch her, get the salve ready to put in her eye, she had another little trick up her sleeve... uhm.. fur?
She would squeeze her left eye that needed a drop of the salve shut. She only squeezed shut her left eye, not the other one...

Luckily now everything is back to normal and she no longer hides for E..
Is she a smart piggy, or what?

Do you have stories to share of your bright pigs?


Just a few remarks:
If you find your guinea pig with something in its eye, only get it out when it comes out easily! If it is problematic I really advise you to go and see a vet.
In general even when you can get it out easily, I would always advise a vet visit because they can check if anything was damaged and maybe prescribe some salve. I think it had a vitamin in it,vitamin D I thought, which really helps in the eye's healing process.

Friday Video: 15 Incredible Guinea Pig Trics

J'adore!


Bonne fin de semaine!

The Piggyfriends review a puzzle

We do not have a book to review so we thought that we would write about Slave's jigsaw puzzle. Every Christmas, she buys a puzzle for the family to complete during the festivities. Last year, she had a HUGE four foot long puzzle with an underwater scene, which took up most of our floor space for weeks on end but this year she had a smaller one with pigtures of Guinea Pigs and veggies.

Here is a pigture of the box.

 Slave did not expect the puzzle to be as difficult as it turned out to be.
Here it is nearing completion.

Some of these piggies looked familiar to us and we were so pleased
when Slave completed the puzzle. Here it is at last.
 

This one...                                                         looks a lot like our Agent Mouse aka Angelina

Agent Big Red aka Garnet thinks he looks a lot like this piggy...      but Garnet wants to know
                                                                                             where his dandelion is.

But we think that Toffee is nearer to his colour.

Slave's family enjoyed completing this puzzle and give it 5 stars for both difficulty and the lovely pigture and we give it 5 stars too as we loved seeing the piggies being put together and love the different yummy veggies in the design. Slave is glueing it together and will hang it up for us to enjoy all year round. One more coat of glue and it should be ready. Hooray!!

Our guinea pig ~ Tonka RIP_2014

My name is Tonka. I died on Saturday January 11^th, 2014. I had a wonderful owner named Owen that would snuggle me every minute he could. I couldn’t wait for him to come back from school as I would wait anxiously to hear him walk through the front door and I would squeak like crazy.  I loved Owen feeding me snacks especially my favorite… carrots J  I loved resting on his chest watching him play his video games. I know Owen is very sad and misses me tremendously but I would like him to know that I am over the rainbow bridge now will all of my friends warm and happy. I will always be looking down on you Owen making sure you are alright. Please keep my brother Kiki safe. I had the best life a guinea pig could ever ask for. I will see you in your dreams.

I love you Owen!

Tonka

xoxo