Team Cheer!

Agents Peanut and Schilling here - we are cheering on our favorite football team, the Denver Broncos, in tomorrow's Super Bowl!  We also have our new sidekick Astrid, she still needs a secret agent name but The Piggy Slaves have been so busy just trying to contain all of her youthful excitement and get to know her that they haven't picked one yet.  

Friday Video: SPCA of Wake County Lip Dub Video

You know what is more fun than a lip dub video? A pet shelter lip dub video!

Have a nice Wheekend!

Calendar Piggies of January: Puff and Hershey

Baby Puff

Puff came at a very difficult time. Hershey was dying of misdiagnosed E cuniculi, and my husband, Gary, knew I'd be needing another piggie to bring me cheer. So, at work, he shopped around by phone all day until he found just the right piggie. I was coming out of a doctor's appointment in Sacramento, and the pet shop was on the way home. It was love at first sight, and you can see why when you look at her pigture!  

Hershey

Three days later, Hershey passed over the Bridge, and there was this cute little soul in an adjacent cage to ease my pain with her cute antics and sweet face. A few days later, my sister, Annie, a prize-winning photographer, dropped by with a camera for Puff's first photo shoot. It was then that we discovered she is (Puff, not Annie) a jumper--not a good candidate as a lap piggie, as she'll deliberately hurl herself off of every surface, not for fear, but just to find out what's down there. I even have to block her cage door when it's open during feeding time! You'd think she'd outgrow it.

 Oh well, my son does sky diving, and I guess this is her version of it. Anyway, I was holding little Puff to my chest for a close up of us together, and up she went, over my shoulder, to the floor, and she scrambled for a spot under my dresser. We caught her, unharmed, in the nick of time.

 She's a sweet little girl, very cooperative with her grooming sessions, as long as there's yummies involved. Even fully trimmed, you can't see her short little leggies, so it looks like she's floating as she bounces along. She's also a chirper and has done more of it than any piggie I've ever known. Of course, she won't reveal the meaning of those birdlike chirps, which remain a mystery to us all.

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.