Me Has A New Favourite Word

FUGACIOUS it means elusive, ephemeral and fleeting.

Me thinks it brill coz it starts the same way as my real name.

It will make me sound mysterious, and we all know the girls love a mystery man.

Rumble Rumble

Me Can See You

Me was having my afternoon nap, me curled up on left side of cage and Ghost was curled up on the right.

Me sleep with eye half open and me saw Ghost yawn, that was ok but he also shuffled slightly towards me.

A few minutes later he stretched, again he shuffled towards me.

Well me let this go on until his nose was about 2 inches from my nose, then me gave him a glare and backed all the way away from him into the corner.

Dont try and fool a sleeping agent!!

Terrific Tricolour

[caption id="attachment_390" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Agent Patchwork "][/caption]

Agent Patchwork is a tricolour of very unusual colours.

Tricolour literally means that a piggy has 3 colours of hair, we cant find a breed standard for tricolours apart from the tort and white.

Patchwork is lilac, white and tan (ginger) she has red eyes and we and her human Mummy have never seen anything like her before.

Patchwork is definetely one of a kind.

Guest Number 4

Agent Patchwork (you will know why when you see the photos)

Patchwork is a girl piggy in an all girl herd in the UK.

She joined the herd when her previous owner could no longer give her the time she deserved.

Her real name is an alcoholic drink usually served with salt and lime/lemon.

Not many clues to work with this time.............

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.

He Made It

Me knew me should have made the target higher but a promise is a promise.

Spooky is now 1kg and me must allow him to become a secret agent.

Me had trouble with him choosing a name, first he wanted to be called Spooks like the TV program, me said thats not very secret is it.

Then he wanted to be called Phantom, til me told him there was a cartoon with a human man in a skin tight purple jump suit called Phantom and that was not a good look.

We have finally agreed on Ghost so from now on Spooky is secret agent Ghost.

Me thinks me may regret this...........

Blonde Moment

Spooky had been annoying me so me backed him into a corner and humped him to show him who was boss.

What me didnt notice was that Spooky had run out of the corner and me was really humping a roll of hay (blush).

For some reason Mummy found this highly amusing.

Awesome Abby's

Whorlwind is an awesome Abby also known as Abyssinian guinea pig.

As you can see from the gorgeous photo Abbys have very unusual hair. Abbys are a variety of short haired piggy.

The name Whorlwind comes from the fact that Abbys have Whorls or Rosettes all over their bodies.

Breed standard for Abby's require 10 Rosettes in specific areas, 1 on each shoulder, 4 down the back, 1 on each hip and 2 on the rump. Where the rosettes meet should also make a straight line.

But what do we care about breed standards? WE DONT!!

Is that me hiding in the background? NOPE its a lookalike wheeeeeeeeeeeeek

My Next Guest.......

Agent name Whorlwind

Your clues are; Whorlwind is a female piggy.

A member of an all female herd in the UK.

Her Mummy once belonged to the late great Peter Gurney and arrived at Whorlwinds home complete with 5 little surprises one of the surprises was Whorlwind.

Her real name is sweet sounding and her colour is chocolate sweet again.

She appears to enjoy honeydew melon.

Why Does He Do It??

For no reason at all Spooky will suddenly stop what he is doing look at the ceiling and wheeeeeeeek really loudly.

His ears move back and forward in time to him wheeking his lungs out.

This is not because me is mugging him of food, or because the fridge door has been opened or a bag rustled.

Me dont know why he does it, its so random!!

Me is a BOY!!

As if shampooing MY carpet wasnt bad enough, Mummy has bought some rugs for us to use during floor time.

They are PINK!!

Does she not know guinea pigs can see in colour??

Humans Grrrrrr

Me has spent ages glanding the carpet during floor time so Spooky knows its MINE.

The stupid humans has only gone and shampooed it all.

Me now has to spend ages dragging my butt all over it again.

Pffffffffffffttttttttttt

Capybara's on the TV

Here in the UK last night.

There was a very short clip on BBC1's Walk on the Wild Side.

Needless to say Mummy got all silly over them

Why are His Ears so Hairy

OK me knows one of my ears is bald due to fungal infection, but even my good ear is nowhere near as hairy as Spooky's.

He appears to be growing a small dense forest of hair on his inside ear flap.

Is this yet more evidence that he is not really a piggy?

Or should my ears be hairer?

Nah me is perfect

While Mummy isnt Looking

Me is gonna grab a dead leaf and eat it.

Ok Mummy is engrossed in her book, target dead leaf is just outside the bars of my outdoor run.

Right keep belly right on the ground stretch out as far as me can and creep slowly forward........now stick teeth through bars and grab dead leaf.

CRUNCH

Pffftttt why dead leaf so noisy the crunch made Mummy look up and now she has stolen my leaf!!!

Mummy Needed a New Pet.........

so me and Spooky hid under our pop up tent and made it move around.

Hey presto one giant snail pet!!

What is it about Humans..............

and Capybara??

Dont get me wrong Caplin Rous is my hero me is eating to be like him, but Mummy dragged Daddy all the way to somewhere called Beale Park just to see 2!! Capybara.

She is still on about this divorce thing as Daddy run the camera battery out taking photos of Praire Dogs and shouting Alan at them (Walk on the wild side explains all)

There was only enough battery left for 2 photos of Capybara Mummy not happy she took some more on her phone but they are not as good.

Heres a Capybara fix for you all

He is at it Again

We have a cardboard chube to run through and hide in but Spooky keeps pushing it round cage with front paws.

Worse than that he is trying to climb on it!!!