Hello readers! We are Lulu and Mimi Piggyfriend. Agent leader Tyrion has finally allowed us, with misgivings, to be Agents. He calls us his Divas so that is what we are going to be known as - the Diva Agents 1 and 2. We are not sure which of us is 1 and which is 2. We are sisters and are easily confused.
He won't let us go out on a mission as he says that we are too noisy so we have been allowed to get as far as the sofa and we are going to tell you about Dermisol.
Slave does not have the box anymore so you cannot see the name but this is a tube of Dermisol. It is an antiseptic cream for use on wounds. She says that it is especially good for use on an abscess ( ooh nasty! ) and that it comes in a liquid form too. The liquid can be drawn up into a syringe, which can be inserted into a cavity. Sounds like useful stuff to have in our first aid kit.
"Hey Mimi, where do you think that you are going? If you can't sit still for a photoshoot then you are going to be Agent Diva 2 and I will be No.1" says Lulu.
"If being an Agent means that we get paid in chicory, then I am all for it," says Lulu. "Maybe we can even learn to be quiet and sneak up on humans."
"Slave is going on holiday next week so we have time to practice," says Lulu. " We might be able to take a picture of our pigsitter."
" How was that, Tyrion?" "Not bad for the first time," he replies, " but Mimi could do better at sitting still!"
"It is alright for you, Tyrion. You are a Peruvian and they always sit still".
Our Tijger had been slowly losing weight due to teeth problems... We are trying to find a solution but so far she had 2 dental corrections of her molars in the time frame of a month. Vet and slave are trying to find the cause and it seems to be a problem in a her jaw muscles... guinea pig jaws can make quite a lot of movements. Tijger can do back to front grinding and from right to left. But left to right is something she cannot do (well). Tijger and slave visited a vet an hours drive away who also does chiropractic treatments. He is one of three vets in The Netherlands who does this. He loosened her muscles, so she should be able to do left to right grinding again, but unfortunately we haven't seen (much) improvement.
She really wants to eat, and tries it all the time, getting extra pieces of veggies all the time (not fair!). Slave made a mix of bran and oatmeal mixed with hot water, which we seem to enjoy more than Tijger does... she also gets pellet mush. But our question, because we really like to keep Tijger in our herd and we are a bit worried, is do you know of any other fattening foods or mixes to feed her? Also tips on how to get her to eat that, she can eat by herself just really slowly, are welcome!
Slave is planning another trip to the vets: one to probably get her teeth filled down again and one for another treatment to loosen the muscles (we think it was called a locked jaw). In the meantime we really want her to fatten up!
Here'so a picture of Tijger looking happy, this was after dad shoving pieces of chicory down her throat!
This will have a video, but I am mostly writing because I am curious if you ever heard of this or possibly even have experience with it....
So in the last month, we have visited our vet twice with Tijger. She is a feisty little girl, but she was getting even littler...
Turns out she had her molars forming a bridge over her tongue, making it very hard for her to eat. This was corrected 3 weeks ago, and again on yesterday. If we continue at this rate, it will mean monthly dental work session for Tijger (and very empty wallets for our slaves, but that is not the most important thing).
So our vet wants to find out what is causing this quick recurrence of overgrowing molars. Because she feels, like us, that monthly dental work is not a preferred treatment. She took x rays of Tijger's jaw and corrected her teeth yesterday. It seems to her there are no big problems in her jaw, and she did not see any infections or other irritations in Tijger's mouth. Her theory is that this problem could be caused by Tijger's jaw muscles, which could be locked or something, not enabling her to make all the necessary jaw movements. A possible treatment for this could be to get her to an osteopath for guinea pigs... Unfortunately here in the Netherlands, there are only 3 vets knowledgable and certified to do this. Fortunately the Netherlands is not a very big country and 2 of the 3 vets are within an hours drive from us...
So I am really curious, have any of you, our readers, ever heard of Osteopathy of chiropractic threatments for Guinea pigs? Or do you even have experience with this? We would love to hear your thoughts on it!
Our vet thinks there are 3 options: Do dental corrections probably every month,
See an osteopath to see if we can correct her problems by giving her chiropractic treatments,
or give up (and basically have her put to sleep, or let her suffer).
Tijger is about one and a half year old, and when she is not having teeth problems, she is feisty, smart and loves to eat. She really wants to eat as well, and keeps trying. Yesterday after the aneastethic seemed to have worn of, she was even rumbling at the others...She seems to be doing far too well to say goodbye to her already, in our opinion.
We found 2 videos of a guinea pig having trouble eating (it's kind of eerie how much alike the wear on that guinea pig's teeth(Zenna) look compared to Tijger's front teeth):
One of her eating very slowly, basically Tijger eating parsley looks pretty much the same
And a video of how she could eat again after two chiropractic treatments:
Love to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Have a good wheekend,
Slave Mikey and our Guinygirlz: Peaches, Tijger, Raani and boar Berke
You might remember that when Ivan and Magnus came to join us all at Piggyfriends, they were part of a huge rescue co-ordinated by Palace Piggies.
When our Slave looked at their website this week, she saw that the final two babes born to one of the rescued mums were up for adoption and decided to call and reserve them. Their pigtures can be see here - fourth row down.
The girls at Palace Piggies have named them Fernando and Martin.
Well now they are here with us and here are their pigtures. Fernando first.
And here is his brother, Martin.....
Slave does not know how they came by their names but will keep them, even though they are not the usual type of name that she gives us. Although they are brothers, they are not at all alike. Fernando looks as though he will grow to be a Sheltie and has a little crest but Martin has a fuzzy coat and curly whiskers so may well be part Texel. We shall see.
They are only 7 weeks old and understandably very nervous and Slave picked them up for their photoshoot as they prefer to hide in their little house at the moment. They are eating up all of their veggies except for cucumber but prefer to sneak out of their house under cover of darkness to clear their plate!
Please welcome these dear little fellows, Undercover Agents in the making!
We used to have piggies with names starting with a D, so for our Piggy A-Z we got Dunya and Daisy!
Dunya was a lovely himalayan, and Daisy was a gorgeous round silver agouti US teddy.
We never had them together, but they were (more or less coincidentally) named after the main characters of a Dutch TV show named Dunya and Daisy. Only we liked the spelling for Daisy better, in the tv series it is Desi, read a bit more about the series here
As with many popular youth series they also had their own movie. Dunya and Desi is about two friends, Dunya is from Moroccan decent and Desi is a very dutch girl, the series shows differences in how they were raised and how that influences their friendship.
Here are some videos of Dunya and Daisy from a few years ago...
This a video of Dunya and her old cage mates Lotje and Guiny (my first group of piggies).
Look closely to see why Lotje seems so mean to Dunya...
And Daisy sleeping... Daisy is sleeping in the middle (see her ears flap?) other silver agouti is Lily. Woopy is lounging under the hay rack...
And Roos disturbs Daisy's slumber...
Have a great wheekend,
The guinygirlz Peaches, Tijger, Raani and boar Berke
We found this supercute video of our friends the Cali Cavy Collective doing some post bath grooming... Humans get ready the ooh and ahh at all the cuteness ;)
Have great wheekend!
The Guinygirlz and boar Berke
As mom was a bit to early with the friday video yesterday (Maybe it was friday already in Australia?), we have some other news to share with you today!
A donation of 46.66 USD was made today to the excellent adventure sanctuary in Northampton, UK!
Thank you to everyone who bought a game and/or supplied a pigture, for making another donation possible!
It is very hot here today at Piggyfriends. The weatherman called it a mini heatwave. The minier the better as far as us piggies are concerned. He said that this weather had come up from Spain. We are glad that we don't live there.
Slave has lots of fans going to keep us all cool and she decided that all of the Peruvians should have a haircut.
First of all she gave us a shampoo. Here I am looking very bedraggled.
Slave cut a lot of my hair whilst I was in the bath and then, when I was nearly dry, she cut off my fringe. I don't look much like a Peruvian any more but I will be cooler without my long coat.
We do not have air conditioning as it is rarely hot in England and Slave has moved those of us who normally live in the conservatory into the dining room, where my home is and which is easier to keep cool. We are getting extra cucumbers as they are nice and juicy so the heatwave is not all bad.
Tyrion Piggyfriend here again. I thought that you might like to see some pigtures of our other Agents in Training, Mimi and Lulu. They have grown a lot since you last saw them and, although they are certainly big enough to go out on missions now, I hesitate to send them as they are extremely NOISY and would be useless at any work involving stealth. I call them my Diva Agents. They shout at anyone passing their home in the expectation of yet more food.
Mimi must have a little bit of Peruvian in her as her coat grows forward just like mine and she has this ridiculous rooster tail. Take a look at this.....
Lulu is good at reaching out for food without actually getting up. I cannot think where this might come in useful unless they are infiltrating a carrot farm. Here she is.......
My little cadets, Magnus and Ivan are quiet in comparison. They just make little squeaky noises as they bounce around our home.
After the excitement of voting for our favourite shelter, it is back to the Piggy A-Z.
Today it is D for Daktarin. When piggies have had dental work, sometimes their mouths are sore and this is where Daktarin comes in.
I am Louis Piggyfriend and I came here with overgrown molars so I need occasional trips to the Rodentologist who trims them.
I have put on weight since my arrival now that I can eat properly. Here is a tube of Daktarin. Slave squeezes a blob onto a cotton bud ( shown here ) and swabs it around my mouth. It stops my mouth feeling sore and it tastes good too.
I don't know if it available in other countries ( we live in England ) but I do hope so. Slave buys it at the pharmacy as it is made for humans.
Hello readers. Tyrion Piggyfriend here. I thought that you might like to see how my students are getting on.
From the next pigture you can see how much they have grown. They actually look bigger than they really are in the pigture as their coats stand straight out whereas mine lies flat.
They are not as brave as they think they are as, when they saw Slave with her camera, they ran and hid! Ivan disappeared into a pile of hay so missed out on having his pigture in the blog but Magnus ran into the hay tube and he thinks that we can't see him.
Whilst I am here, I want to tell you that Slave recently went to the Summer Fair at our local rescue. I came from there, not as a rescue but from the gardener, who breeds a few piggies and enjoys showing them. Otto and Rafferty also came here from her as they were the wrong colour for showing and I was a little runt in need of a good home. At the rescue, she saw these giant guinea pigs and took a pigture.
They sat still for their photo unlike my little rascals.
The Excellent Adventure Sanctuary (TEAS) in the UK!!
Soon we will let you know what the amount of donation is, we just received 2 more orders for the card game (at time of writing this there are only 1-2 games left!)
Here are some more statistics of the vote:
Where did your votes come from (Geographical responses)
The vote results in a Pie chart
Votes on a timeline, as you can see at first Sharna's cavy sanctuary was in the lead,
but eventually TEAS took over..!
Congratulations to The Excellent Adventure Sanctuary in the UK!
By selling our undercover guinea pig card games (btw there are still a few available) we made a little profit which we want to donate to a shelter somewhere in the world.
Please cast your vote for one of the shelters. The voting will be open for a week, you should be able to vote once a day, on monday 20 June I will count the votes.... So start voting!
