Guinea Pig Pain

Writing about a sick guinea pig isn't fun.  I am sure it's not uplifting reading, either, but I hope this is informative.

A somewhat puffy Pinni

It has been said, again and again, that guinea pigs are masters at hiding illnesses.  They can be stoic little creatures when they want to be.  Pain and illness can show up in some odd ways; not all of them are obvious.

First, there is the classic puffy-corner-sitting.  This behavior is the easiest to observe and understand.  I've seen this with Victoria, Willow, Bertie and Pinniped.  They'll huddle into a corner of their cage, nose pressed into the corner, curled into a ball and fur puff out.  It would be cute, if they didn't look so darned miserable doing it.  Willow and Bertie did this in the open and in cozies and cuddle cups, too.  My pigs gravitated towards any spot that they felt somewhat removed from everything else around them.

A Solo Anniversary

It was three years ago tonight that I picked up a frightened Bertie and curious Pinniped from the Dedham shelter to bring home and be friends with Willow.  And what a three years it has been!  We've had adventures in stew pots, trips to pignics and many outings in the back yard.  We had a brief period with one big happy herd, then a couple of years in which we were content with no fighting during floor time.  There's been popcorning around in clean cages, exploring on the floor, lounging in hammocks, careful arranging of the cage contents and time spent storming the hay rack. 

Pinniped:  then and now

2012 was a rough year for the herd.  We lost Willow in February, which wasn't entirely out of the blue; she was already an old lady when the Newbies were adopted.  Pinniped was diagnosed with an ovarian cyst (which appears to be in remission).  Then we lost Bertie in December, which was very unexpected.  Although she'd been battling illnesses for over a year, she had been holding together quite well.  I wasn't prepared for the outcome.  Bertie was only three and a half.

So my trio has become a solo.  We are celebrating Pinniped's adoption by herself.  My little nosy rodent has grown to be a big, chubby, nosy rodent, in constant need of squeezes and love.  Pinni could do without the squeezing.  She'd also be happy if I limited my showering of love and affection to melon rind and tomatoes and skip the kisses and snorgling.  Sorry Pinni - it's a package deal.  You should be used to it by now.

Happy Anniversary to my old Newbie!

Guinea Pig Shaming

Bertie wonders where the corn husk went

Have you heard about a website called Dogshaming?  I discovered it through the Guinea Lynx forum in an inspired post labeled Guinea Pig Shaming.  Dogshaming has spawned similar sites for different pets, including rabbits and cats.  I even found a Guinea Pig Shaming page on Facebook and a brand new tumbler blog.

The forum post inspired me to start taking photos.  Or perhaps I should blame it on Pinniped's recent behavior.  It's amazing how much badness can be wrapped up in a little rodent.

Rodent Relations II: Bickering

Today's topic:  Bickering.  This, honestly, is a variation or escalation of Biting to include chasing, screaming and the occasional rumblestrutting (and possibly teeth chattering, although my current girls don't do that to each other).

Everyone has a day that nothing seems to go right and you take it out on whomever is closest to you.  It seems that guinea pigs go through this, too, and it's especially true when sows go into heat.  Both Pippin-Willow and Pinniped-Bertie were experts at all out screaming matches. 

And they're impressive:  Pinni and Bertie caterwaul at each other worse than a pair of fishwives.  When the screaming is at its worst, it's enough to make me lose my mind.  The hollering usually starts when one or the other is in heat, so it can last as long as two days.  All.  Day.  Long.

Bar-Chewing Badness

Bertie applies herself while Pinni acts innocent

As the loss of Willow starts to fade, Bertie has been stepping up to the plate to be the bad, bar-chewing rodent.  Pinniped has no interest in chewing on the bars (just stuffing her nose through them).  But when the sounds of the cutting board and veggies emanate from the kitchen, it's often accompanied by the rasping of teeth against bars.  <chomp> <chomp> <ping!>

Pinni will wheek to get my attention, but Bertie takes out her impatience on the bars of the cage.  Hey, Mama!  Veggies!  Now!  What's the hold up?

I am not happy with the development.  The grids already look shabby; Willow, Pippin and Vicky chipped a significant amount of paint from the front of the cage during their tenure.  However, I am amused to think that Willow passed on her love of the bars to the next generation before she went.

Yup.  Somewhere in the guinea pig Elysian Fields, Willow is giving Bertie the thumbs-up.  Thanks, Willow.

Bad Pig Stew

I had never heard of threatening a bad guinea pig with being put into a stew pot until I joined the Guinea Lynx forums several years ago.  Since then, I've known a number of people who said that their bad, behavior-problem pigs were headed for the pot.  I usually threaten my bad pigs with kisses and squeezes and the occasional wuzzing, which all tend to get a "do not want!" reaction.  But when my girls had a falling out a couple of years ago, I found myself inspired by a combination of rotten rodents and a brand new stew pot.  A photo shoot soon followed and the story of Bad Pig Stew was born:

Willow, Pinniped and Bertie during peaceful times

Once upon a time there were three little guinea pigs that lived together:  Willow, Pinniped and Bertie.  Willow ruled the roost with an iron paw.  The two younger pigs were scared of Willow, but all was peaceful as long as they obeyed her.

Remembering Willow and Pippin

I adopted Willow and Pippin (then named Alberta and Sheba) in 2005.  They were supposed to be friends for Vicky, but that didn't work out quite how I wanted.  They were a mother/daughter pair that had been surrendered because the landlord discovered the tenant had too many guinea pigs.

Pippin was 9 months old; Willow was a few months older.  These two were the most people-oriented pair I've had.  Both Willow and Pippin loved to be the center of attention and would be charming to any human that walked into the room.

Both of them were diagnosed with ovarian cysts in 2008.  Both of them got injections and the cysts went away.  Truly amazing.

Willow

I picked Willow up on Saturday morning to weigh and medicate her and immediately knew things weren't right.  She had a sudden jump in weight since Friday night, but her belly was enlarged and squishy and her bottom was swollen.  I immediately called Windhover, but my vet was not in and the other vet does not see guinea pigs.  The staff told me Willow should be seen by a vet immediately.

I was distraught, calling veterinary practices in the area, trying to save us from driving into Boston.  No guinea pig vets were working that morning, so Rob called Angell Memorial to say we were coming and off we went.

The drive up was rough.  I could see Willow was hurting.  She didn't flirt or seemed interested in the drive, which was unusual.  She chewed on the towel eventually sat very still in one place and her eyes become dull.  I don't know how else to describe it -- I just watched the spark go out of them.

Woeful Willow

The stone has returned.

Willow took a sudden nose-dive on Saturday.  She spent the day begging for food and attention and would devour what was put in her cage.  But at the end of the day, for all this apparent appetite, I saw that her pellets had not been touched.  I picked her up to weigh her and was horrified at how frail she felt.  I put her on the scale:  690g.  She's been steadily weighing in the last several weeks at 770g.

I syringe fed her some critical care and began to watch her closely.  On Sunday and Monday she stopped inhaling some of her favorite treats; I found bits of tomato and banana left around the cage. Monday morning, with no real sign of improvement, and a couple of days of  metacam and critical care, I made the appointment for the vet.

Healthy Competition

If you have ever watched guinea pigs eat, you know that the best tasting food is that which is being consumed by another guinea pig.  We have witnessed Bertie drop what she's eating to snatch the piece of food Pinni is devouring, even when it's all the same.  I've seen Pinni start eating the other end of a blade of hay Bertie is eating, to end up in a tug-of-war over the last two inches of the hay, even though there's a pile of hay right next to them.

Being separated from the Newbies, Willow doesn't have to race the others to finish her food first.  I wondered if she was eating less hay/pellets because she lacked the competition that most pigs seem to thrive on.  I'm concerned:  Willow has been dwindling very slowly over the last several months.  It's probably a mixture of old age (she'll be 8 in May!), arthritis and possibly another bladder stone.  So I want to encourage her to eat as much as possible to keep her weight up.

History of Cages

Like many misinformed guinea pig owners, I let my first pair of guinea pigs live in an aquarium.  I was told that drafts were bad for guinea pigs and the aquarium kept them from getting a chill.  It was tiny and I had to clean it often.  What a cramped, boring life for those pigs!

Years later, when I got guinea pigs as an adult, I bought a plastic bottomed cage with a wire top.  It was still unbelievably tiny.  I am embarrassed to even post the dimensions of that cage and two pigs lived in it for a few years.

The evolution of the guinea pig cage

I eventually realized that guinea pigs required more space to be happy and active and splurged on the biggest guinea pig/rabbit cage I could find.  It cost me nearly $100 and it was (as I discovered later) still too small for a pair of guinea pigs.

Not A Creature Was Stirring

...not even the bad squirrels in the attic.

The stockings were hung on the cage grids with care... in hopes that they were good pigs and will get carrots instead of coal.  If it was up to me, I'm not sure.  Bertie and Pinni were causing such a ruckus last night I feared Bertie was going to take a flying leap from the balcony to get away from Pinni.  Bad pigs.  Pinni needed wuzzes.

A friend of mine knitted the stockings for me as a present.  Aren't they cute? One for each guinea pig.  I think the blue and grey one is my favorite.  The pigs think they are the perfect size for a big fat carrot.  I may have to agree.

So they're keeping their paws crossed and being good pigs tonight.  Don't they look like good little girls?

Merry Christmas from Pinni, Berie and Willow

The Girls Next Door

The twin girls that live next door recently discovered that we have three guinea pigs.  A week or two after this discovery I answered the door to find the twins and a friend standing on my porch.  Could they visit with the pigs? 

I suspected that the friend was added in hopes that if I let them play with my guinea pigs, no one would feel neglected:  there would be one little girl per one guinea pig.  And their timing couldn't have been better.  They rang the doorbell just as I was getting ready to clean the cages. 

I invited them in and told them they could hold the pigs for as long as it took me to clean the cages.  They swept through the living room descended on the cages like a force of nature, a whirlwind.  I pig-proofed the kitchen and ushered the girls in.  They sat on the floor, each with their own pig, asked me questions and babbled to each other all at once.  Wow.  The pigs didn't know what to make of it either.  Bertie was terrified; she wouldn't come out of her cozy.  Pinni managed to pee on one of the girls, twice.  Willow, meanwhile, charmed everyone and basked in the attention.  The girls were thrilled - they got play with the pigs and feed them bits of lettuce and cantaloupe while I cleaned the cages.

One of them asked how often I cleaned the cages and was surprised that this was a weekly chore.  Every Saturday?  Oh, joy!  I now listen for the doorbell on Saturday afternoons, when they know I should be cleaning the cages.  The pigs require supervision, right?

Subsequent visits have been calmer, if not quieter.  Even Bertie has relaxed a little.  Pinni still manages to pee on at least one of the girls each time.  None of the pigs are too certain about being bundled up in cozies then cradled, rocked and cooed over like babies.  That may take a bit more adjustment.

I find myself attempting to answer questions asked by two or three kids at once.  Occasionally I'm answering one's question while another is relating some story of family pets.  It's tricky keeping track of pigs, kids, stories and questions all while I'm trying get things done.  It's a lot like juggling.

Pinniped is exhausted after entertaining three little girls.

After an hour or so, I finished cleaning the cages.  The pigs went back into their cages with sighs of relief.  The little girls, for the most part, were sated.  They gave  farewell pats to the pigs, parting questions to me and informed me they'd be back next week for another visit.

My trio were exhausted; I soon found them flopped all over their cages.  I was pretty tired, too.  It's a lot of work to clean two pig cages while supervising kids and pigs to ensure they don't accidentally hurt each other.  I don't think the pigs or I could handle this much excitement more than once a week.  Don't get me wrong - it's a delight to have the little girls for a visit.  They were so excited to have some one-on-one time with my pigs.  I'm just glad I have enough well behaved (non-biting) pigs to go around.

Pinniped Guards Hay

I had separated Willow from the Newbies for a number of reasons.  One major issue was that Pinni was guarding and eating all of the hay and pellets to prevent Willow from eating any.  Pinni became a moose of a pig and Willow kept losing weight.  It was an unacceptable situation.  So I split them, and arranged the cages so they could interact with each other.

I regularly stuff hay between the grids, so that the three guinea pigs can spend some time in close proximity.  It's the guinea pig thing to do:  the best food is always what everyone else is eating.  So the fact that Pinni will eat hay on one side while Willow munches on the other side is not unusual.  But what I witnessed the other day indicated that I have little chance of reconciling these three sows into a single herd.

Pinniped, unnecessarily guarding the leftover hay

I discovered Pinniped curled up around the remaining bits of hay that I had stuffed between the grids.  At first glance it appeared she was sleeping.  I thought it was a little odd, because that's not her normal sleeping spot.  But on closer inspection, I could see her body was in "guard" position.  Sure enough, if Willow came close to the strands of hay, Pinni would suddenly wake up and start eating again.  If Willow walked away, Pinni would drift back to sleep.  Pinni is still trying to assert her dominance, even though there was no possibility Willow could eat the hay that was on Pinni's side of the grids! 

What a bad pig!  Or perhaps just a very foolish pig?  It appears that Pinni still considers Willow a threat to her standing in the pecking order.  Willow hasn't made any attempts to regain control as Boss Pig in well over 18 months.  She would be quite happy as a quiet little subordinate, but Pinniped seems unable to just leave Willow alone.  Poor pigs, caught up in the drama of social status.

Please, sir, I want some more.

Please, sir, I want some more.

The problem with a long weekend is that the girls get notions.  On a normal week day, they get fed at very regular times.  It usually takes until Sunday afternoon for Pinni or Willow to realize that the schedule has changed, and they'll try to push their luck.  Being a holiday weekend, the begging started in earnest by Saturday.  They've been inquiring about food any time either one of us has walked through the kitchen. 

It's amusing to identify who's asking.  Pinni has a fast, short wheek, that is often voiced while she's moving around the cage.  It sounds like a question:  Will you feed me now?  How about now?  Now?

In contrast, Willow demands to be fed.  She stands in the middle of the cage, to be as visible as possible and wheeks loudly.  If she's really bad, she'll chew the bars to make her point.

Bertie just needs a tin cup to bang on the bars

Bertie doesn't wheek.  She let's the other two do the dirty work.  However, she's not shy about stepping forward if there's the possibility of someone bearing food.

Initially they were told "No", or got picked up and wuzzed, but eventually their cuteness wore us down. I gave in this afternoon and they got their 3pm snack early.  And then they got their 3pm snack.  And again at 6pm.  We're currently watching football (go Patriots!), so we may succeed in giving carrots at the proper carrot time (7:30pm).

Black Friday

My Black Friday consists of staying far away from any stores.  One year I went to Natick Mall and although I had fun (and a good deal) I vowed not to do that again.  Instead, for the last several years, I spend the day after Thanksgiving wrangling guinea pigs, making toffee and cookie dough and then go to the Rehoboth Contra dance in the evening.  It's a good way to spend a day.

This morning was the shortest pig-shoot we've ever had.  Especially with these three.  In one hour we shot 130 photos in two short sessions and from that bunch found a few decent Christmas photos.  By comparison, the normal Christmas photo shoot requires at least 400 photos in four sessions to get a decent photo.  And the winning photo?  The second one taken of the whole shoot.  Figures.  I didn't even need to Photoshop out any hay, fur or poo.  Amazing!

Could you please identify the creature that stole your carrot?

I end up with several cute photos that can't be used for the card because it didn't crop well, it's missing a pig or two, or it's out of focus.  Often, we've caught some pig being bad.  The best outtakes tend to happen at the end of a session, when we're all a bit frazzled.  We had piggy porn and snowman taste-testing and goofy expressions.  My favorite non-contender was this photo of pigs and props in a row.  It was too wide to put on the card and Pinni was a little hard to see.  What a long lineup of pigs, snowmen and a penguin. 

The Swing of Things

We seem to be in-between pig dramas at the moment.  It gave me a chance to write about the goofier side of guinea pigs (see Pigs Lie) and focus on my holiday projects.  Here's a quick update on the girls:

Willow, Bertie and Pinni, all enjoying a bite to eat

Pinni is, of course, Pinni.  She's her normal cushy, nosing-around self and still complains loudly when I pick her up.  She eats like a horse and is as healthy as one, so I have no complaints.  She and Bertie do quite well together, rumblestrutting at each other and having who's-nose-is-higher contests.  I often find Pinni and Bertie sleeping near each other.

Bertie seems to have leveled off with her viruses.  She's still too light for my liking, but her attitude is back to her cheerful, goofy self.  I'm so happy to hear the random thumpa-thumpa as she runs laps around the cage.  She's keeping her weight above 900g without extra assistance from me.  I still hope at some point she'll fatten up a bit more.

The interesting outcome of Bertie's illness is that she developed a taste for Critical Care (amazing, eh?) and she actually likes being held (not for long, but she no longer quakes at it).  She isn't as skittish as she was just a few months ago.  It's an unexpected change.

Exit Stage Right

Let's face it:  guinea pigs are goofy.  It's one of the things I love about them.  You never quite know what's going through that little pea brain of theirs.  Popcorning is always entertaining.  I love when Bertie does donuts in the cage.  Sometimes their begging will make us laugh, especially if one or the other of us has just fed them.  Occasionally, it's the simplest of actions that will get me to chuckle.  This video is a perfect example.

Willow, being Willow:

I have no idea what could have been so riveting that she needed to drop everything and go.  With traveling noise to boot.  Such a peculiar rodent.

Back for More: Adopting Willow and Pippin

This is the sequel to Discovering Adoption: Athena and Victoria.

I have yet to have a pair of guinea pigs with such a strong bond as Vicky and Athena.  They would bicker and hassle each other like a pair of siblings and yet would cram themselves in their hidey house to sleep together every day.  When we lost Athena, Vicky quickly became lonely and depressed without her constant companion.  This was new for me - my previous single pigs had done well, even thrived, on their own.  I feared for Vicky's well being, so I began my search for suitable companions.

Willow and Pippin

I visited the MSPCA in Boston soon afterward, having seen a pair of guinea pigs on Petfinder.com that  fit my requirements: a pair that were no more than 1 year old.  I brought carrots tops in a plastic bag in hopes of making friends (I had checked with the shelter about bringing food).  I walked into the "small animal" room and discovered that the reaction to a crinkling plastic bag is universal:  an entire wall erupted with frantic wheeking.  Fresh greens were a rare treat for these guys.

The shelter had a dozen guinea pigs, far more than what was posted on Petfinder, aged from 3 months to a few years old.  I wanted to take them all home with me.  After spending an hour observing and examining all of those cute pigs, I finally settled on a mother/daughter pair.  They were  named Alberta and Sheba.  I soon renamed them Willow and Pippin.

Wrangling Wired Pigs

One decent group shot

If I didn't know better, I'd swear my trio of guinea pigs had gotten into the Halloween candy yesterday.  They were certainly jacked up on something!

All I wanted to do was a quick November-themed photo shoot.  I put them in their scenery around 3:30 so they could get used to their surroundings.  I figured they'd be done sniffing and taste-testing in about 20 minutes and we could get to work with a minimum of fidgeting.

Ha.

In 20 minutes Willow was yelling that she was tired of Pinni chasing and climbing on her.  Bertie was taking pot shots at Willow whenever she ran by.  There was rumblestrutting, butt-dragging, teeth-chartering and humping galore.  It was like I suddenly had a trio of boars.  What gives?  It was chaos.

Bertie on the move

So I gave up and let them loose on the floor.  I hoped some more space would let them burn off the extra energy.  The noise!  Pigs were percolating all around the living room and kitchen.  Willow was still squawking at Pinni because she wouldn't leave her alone.  Pinni was grousing at everything.  Only Bertie was fairly quiet and placid, only reaching out to bite Willow as she ran by.

At 5pm I decided to get something productive done and clean their cages while they were on the floor.  The girls get pretty excited when I scoop out old bedding and wash down the cage.  But they get truly hyped up at the sound of fresh bedding getting dumped in the cage.  They line up at the edge of the kitchen doorway and look longingly at their cages.  Please, can we go home now??

Sweet, innocent Willow

Fine.  I put them in their cages.  I figured they'd been running around enough that they'd spend 10 minutes checking every nook and cranny, then plop down for a nap.  Wrong.  Those pigs were so wired, it was nearly another hour before they started to settle in.  Three hours of running around, non-stop, and they still showed no indication of sacking out.

It was getting late I needed those photos.  I decided to take my chances.  Stuffing the cornucopia with hay, parsley and Willow helped a lot.  In the end, after all of that waiting, the photo shoot went pretty smoothly.  One set of shots did the trick.  Amen.

Aren't they adorable?  Such lovely photos with apparently calm, well behaved guinea pigs.  Who would ever believe me if I said it took over three hours to get those little hellions to pose for a few deceptively simple pictures?  They're lucky they're cute or I'd be contemplating Bad Pig Stew for dinner.