Piggie Post: Nellie Turns 5!

Ohai Everybody!

While I was taking my "I suck at blogging" break in November, a certain someone turned 5 and we threw a huge bash for her. How does one go about throwing a party for a guinea pig? Well, it's quite simple really... we just obtained a bouncy castle, and by bouncy castle I mean tub of hay that we dropped the pigs in.

Aggie was the first pig in and naturally she wasted no time and started chowing down. She had a grand ol' time at the party and spent the remainder of the night wondering why she wasn't always surrounded by unlimited amounts of hay. (Yup, this totally sucked to write... miss you Aggie)

Lucy was next to have a turn in the hay bin. Much to my surprise she HATED it. She kept trying to dig her way out of the bin. She was promptly returned to her cage to make room for more willing participants.

 

Pru and Maggie were next. They were good little noodles and had a jolly time frolicking in and eating the hay.

Eleanor and the birthday girl were next. This didn't last long though because Eleanor decided to be a party pooper and bite Nellie in the ass. Once Eleanor was removed against her will Nellie happily munched on all the hay her little heart could want.

 

 

Happy birthday Nellie Bellie! Time to relax and enjoy your senior pig years! I'm sure your mommy and sisters were celebrating with you too :)

Crippie's Tippie - When in doubt just give your piggies a crap ton of hay and they'll be happy

Operation Don't Let Nellie Die

Howdy Y'all!

I know... I know... I suck at posting. Not much has been goin' on here to report on though. I did realize that I missed the one year anniversary of Fanny the Ass tumor's removal. I need to do something special to commemorate the event, and as soon as I think of something I'll do it.

The main reason I didn't post anything was that Nellie got sick, and I was genuinely afraid that I'd post anything and then the next day having to post a tribute to Nellie. Thankfully Miss Nellie Bellie is still with us *knocks on wood* so I figured I'd make a general post about it. *NOTE TO THE KARMA GODS... THIS IS NOT A CELEBRATION OF HER BEING ALL HEALED OR ANYTHING, I'M JUST TELLING THE STORY OF HOW SHE'S NOT DEAD RIGHT NOW*

Ok, so here's what happened. Last week we were cleaning the quint's cage when we noticed it... the dreaded red bedding, quite a lot of it actually. My first instinct was that Lucy had bitten someone. After a quick exam of each piggie and not finding any blood on anyone I assumed someone had a Urinary Tract Infection. Even before I knew who had the UTI I started treating Nellie for it. Why? A few reasons... One, Nellie has a personal and family history of 'em. Two, no one else in the cage has a history. Three, she's almost five. Let's just say the odd were not ever in her favor. So, I started flushing her out with the Chinese Herb "Shilintong". I take a tablet, crush it, put it in water and give it to 'em with a syringe. It smells like bad "fall" scented products if that makes sense. It makes the whole room stink to high heaven, but Nellie LOVES the stuff. While Mama and Frida tried to throw the syringes at me Nellie would attack the syringe to get more of it. Luckily for me she loved the stuff cause I'd give her a fair amount of the it every hour on the hour every night. This continued for a few days, and while I was growing concerned I did not take her to a vet. On the whole this is an extremely stupid thing to do. Let me tell ya why I didn't though. Apart from the whole occasionally peeing blood thing she was perfectly fine,  a happy lil' critter with a veracious appetite. More importantly, if I took her to the vet, they'd prescribe anti-biotics, and she has a family history of getting even sicker from the anti-biotics. She has a better track record with herbs than with actual drugs, so I felt this was her best chance. Of course if she started showing signs of pain and or actual sickness I would have taken her to a vet in a heartbeat, but that was the worst case scenario. Thankfully after a few nights of flushings and a dose of metacam later Nellie is as good as new, although I'm pretty sure she's bummed out about the lack of Chinese Herbal Drink.

Now that we've gotten Nellie through the week we want to keep her alive for as long as freaking possible. The last thing I need right now is another dead guinea pig. The key to keeping Nellie with us is to prevent her from getting sick. She has a history of bladder issues, so we do our best to prevent 'em. She is on a low calcium diet because calcium can build up in her lil' bladder and cause stones. I'm probably going to give her Shilintong even when she's not in the midst of a UTI, help clean the pipes if you will.  Nellie also gets a daily vitamin for urinary health.

We use Oxbow Natural Science vitamins for the piggies. They've got several varieties and I completely and totally would recommend them from your piggies. Nellie loves these vitamins more than life itself. She now recognizes the sound of the jar opening and popcorns at the thought of the yummy treats. 

IT'S MY TWEAT!

A word of caution though with those vitamins... make sure the other piggies have lots of treats, because they will try to steal the 'em. Here's Eleanor trying to Nellie's precious vitamin. Let's just say Eleanor got a flickin' and Nellie got to continue nomming on her treat. 

Apart from prevention the only thing I can do I watch her like a freakin' hawk. Nellie is very predictable, and the moment she stops being predictable will be the moment something goes wrong. She gets weighed every couple of days, again her weight is stable and if she loses a noticeable amount of weight I'll take her ass to the vet. And as always I have an "emergency kit" of metacam, critical care, and pedialyte for the very likely chance that someone decides to get sick in the middle of the night. Seriously, what is it with animals getting sick AFTER the vet closes?!?!?!

Well, I think that's it here. Nellie doesn't particularly care about ninja vibes, but Lucy requests that you send them on Nellie's behalf, just to make sure everything is ok.

Crippie's Tippie - Shilintong can be purchased HERE. Apparently humans can use it too.

Seven Nation Arm-y

Ohai!

Sorry I've been away from the blog, I do have an explanation though. But first... PIGGIES!

The piggies are continuing to settle down and accept their roles in their little "society". Nellie is the boss pig, and Lucy has lovingly turned into her evil little minion. Lucy will gladly do Nellie's bidding. Recently Nellie's bidding mainly consists of nipping Eleanor in the butt. Lucy has been put in time out on multiple occasions for cornering Eleanor and repeatedly biting her. NOBODY BITES BABY IN A CORNER! Eleanor has kinda turned into a lil' recluse, she enjoys her hide-y places. It's funny how the song she's named after fits her personality. Prudence has probably taken the adjustment the easiest, her hobbies include comfortably lounging wherever possible and hanging around Maggie. Maggie has grown to accept the babies and she's actually quite fond of the attention they give her.

Last night I gave Eleanor some extra attention because miss Lucy-fer decided to block her into a corner on two separate occasions in one day! Poor baby needed some snuggles. So she got some extra cuddle time with me watchin' TV. While her experiences with "Wheel of Fortune" didn't amaze her "The Colbert Report" blew her little mind. She stood on my hand and watched the entire episode. She then browsed reddit with me and eventually fell asleep on my arm. Too freaking cute.

God I'm adorable...

Selfie! #NoMakeup ;)

Taking a snooze on mommy

Told ya she was freakin' cute.

Ok... moving on to why I was absent for a lil' over a week. Well...

Yup, BOTH of my arms have been bothering me for the past week or so! GO ME! Bothering is a wee bit of an understatement... MY ARMS FREAKING HURT! I think something either in my right forearm or elbow caught, basically rendering my entire arm useless. I used my handy dandy ace bandage to alleviate the problem for the time being. As for my left... I'm pretty sure something caught in my forearm towards my wrist. Again, ace bandage and hope I can manage it on my own. I wasn't posting because while I technically can type with one hand, I only do that when I HAVE to. Not exactly a comfortable thing to do. Plus, it would take ages to write the damn post! Oh well... fingers crossed that I won't need surgery for these bastards.

At least my nails look awesome :D

The tumors seem to have unhooked themselves for now *knocks on wood*. If it keeps happening then it's off to the orthopedist I go! If it's a problem with the arm I can deal, that would be a fairly simple surgery. If it's in the elbow region... eh... that could be trickier. Anything near a joint is always harder. Even then, it's my right hand... not my dominant one. It would probably be a harder recovery... but I'd live. Meh... in the meantime I'm just gonna act like it won't be a massive problem and hope that my tumors listen.

Crippie's Tippie - If you use ace bandages, try to obtain ones with velcro and or some type of self-adhesive capability. Nothin' worse that getting poked by those stupid pointy metal fasteners. (the ace bandage in the picture is velcro BTW, pretty sure I saved it from a surgery)

One Week

Yes I am singing that Barenaked Ladies song to myself right now.

I hope y'all have had a fabulous week. I've been pretty busy with the family and of course the n00b piggies.

Lucy, Eleanor and Prudence are slowly but surely adjusting to life with their new cage, new humans, and new buddies. Over the past week their relationship with Nellie & Maggie has grown from "We'll let you live... for now" to "I tolerate you, but I will keeeeeeeeeel you if you steal my lettuce". The n00bs definitely look up to Nellie and Maggie and see them as annoying older siblings who occasionally bite them in the ass. Lucy LOVES Nellie, she sees her as the ultimate role model. Nellie has already taught her the art of begging for noms.

Prudence is in awe of Maggie but mainly the new contraption that is "The Giant Talking Box" (the TV) she watched "Wheel of Fortune" with us and was completely enthralled with it. Eleanor was also highly intrigued by the talking box, but it took her longer to realize how awesome it was. They have also learned the art of screaming whenever someone enters the kitchen. I'm working on teaching them that my whistling means food, not the kitchen floor squeaking. It'll probably take a little bit of practice but no one here minds the wheeking, it's adorable. In the past I taught the pigs that the intro to "Moves Like Jagger" and or "Dueling Banjos" meant food and that the theme from Jaws meant they were about to be tickled.

While they're getting more comfortable with their surroundings, Eleanor and Prudence are very timid. Here's Pru's face and Eleanor's butt. They are very comfortable with being snuggled by humans though. They really enjoy snuggles.

Nellie & Eleanor have pretty much settled their differences. Nellie is the boss, and she is completely content with that role. She's enjoying bossing the other pigs around. I do not see her moping around the cage anymore. I have not seen her or Maggie laying down where Frida died. The n00bs definitely have helped them move on.

Maggie is slowly but surely adjusting to the n00bs, she no longer cowers in fear in corners. She does however get very territorial over this hide-y. She loves it and threatens to keeeeeeel any pig that dare think they are welcome in it.

As for Aggie, Fat Bastard is still blissfully enjoying her solitude. Her new favorite hiding place is under the ramp for the second level to her cage. She's afraid to walk up the ramp, but she'll sleep under it.

Well, that's about it for now. I really should attempt to get some sleep. YAY INSOMNIA! 

Crippie's Tippie - Buy your guinea pig supplies (hay, bedding, food, whatever) in bulk

Piggie Post: NEW PIGGIES!

Greetings!

As promised, here's the story of our new additions...

Ok, well it started the day after Frida passed. As I mentioned in a prior post Nellie and Maggie were very mopey. The mopey-ness progressed over the next few days, and one of the only cures for the loss of a piggie friend is a new piggie friend, plus I really was not happy with the emptiness of the herd. So on Wednesday I started my search for a new pig, but it had to be the RIGHT new pig. Generally speaking it's easier to introduce babies and senior pigs to an existing group. A senior pig was unfortunately out of the question because I cannot stand the thought of losing another pig right now. I needed a baby pig. First I went to PetFinder. There were a few baby pigs in rescues about an hour away, they didn't scream out "MINE" but I kept 'em in my maybe file. I decided to check out Craigslist for teh lulz. Usually Craigslist pigs either come from a) Idiots who "don't have time" for their pigs anymore, or b) breeders. FUN FACT: If you see a Craigslist post for a baby guinea pig without the word "rehoming" or "adoption" fee, they are breeders. Do not support them. Most of the posts were idiots selling pigs, but none of them were close to me. I scrolled down a little and found a post from a month ago from my area. A rescue had acquired 3 young female pigs and they were looking to adopt them out. I figured I'd shoot the rescue an email inquiring about the pigs. Honestly I wasn't expecting much out of this inquiry, it was a month old after all. Anyways, flash forward to 15 minutes later. I get a facebook message from the rescue... because I went to high school with the person running the rescue! Small world ain't it? She told me that the piggies were still available, after I answered the basic adoption form questions she said I sounded like the perfect owner for the pigs.

Here's the thing, there was always a chance that the new pigs would not get along with Nellie and Maggie, if that was the case I offered to foster the pigs until a better home could be found. We settled on that agreement Thursday. So... when I wrote that post about wanting new pigs I actually had these pigs lined up. I would've mentioned 'em, but I didn't want to jinx anything.

I arranged to pick them up yesterday. Once I met the new pigs I knew they'd be mine. They were so friggin cute! First thing I did though was double checked that they were all girls. Seriously, whenever you obtain a guinea pig CHECK THE GENDER FIRST! Once I was certain they were all girls they were placed in a box and into my car (the box had a seatbelt around it). They were very good during the car ride and barely made a peep, granted that was probably because they were freaking terrified. By this point Nellie and Maggie were clearly sad so I wanted to get this introduction over with ASAP. They needed friends damn it! So the new pigs were placed in a giant playpen in my living room with Nellie, Maggie and a big ass bowl of salad. The biggest tip I can give anyone who is introducing pigs is feed them. The food distracts them enough and kinda works as a "peace pipe". The introduction went fairly smoothly. Two of the new pigs and Maggie quickly accepted recessive roles. However Nellie and one of the new pigs did not. New pig thought SHE was the boss and Nellie thought SHE was the boss. So they spent an hour running around the cage and biting each other's butts. I supervised with a towel to break up any bad fights, but I mostly let them work it out. Remember, as long as no blood is shed they're ok. Eventually they got tired and stopped fighting. By this point all of the other pigs were sleeping so I declared the introduction a success. I put all five pigs in their new cage expecting a new battle but I was pleasantly surprised. The new pigs were like "THERE ARE SO MANY TOYS HERE" and happily roamed around the cage. Nellie would periodically bite one in the ass, but again to be expected. Maggie clearly does not like change as she spent a few hours hiding in a corner. The cute thing was one of the new pigs loves Maggie, she would sit by her while she was cowering in fear. Again, no blood was drawn so that means that over the next few days the "Quints" will learn to be buddies. That also means that I am again the proud owner of six guinea pigs.

Wanna meet my new babies?!?!

This is Eleanor, she is a grey, cream, roan and white shorthair. Her coloring is so unique, I love it. She is the one who was fighting with Nellie. Even though she is the dominant one of the new pigs she's very timid at the moment. She SCREAMS when you touch her in the cage (she's louder than Aggie which says something) but once you remove her from the cage and put her on your lap she turns into quite the snugglebug. She kinda reminds me of Emma sometimes.

This is Prudence. She's a white, cream, black, and chocolate brown shorthair. Again, beautiful color and such a pretty face. She is, without question, the sweetest freakin' thing I've ever seen in my life. She is enthralled with Maggie and she LOVES her new humans. She loves to give nuzzles and kisses. She was actually kissing my grandma's face earlier. SO DAMN ADORABLE!

Last but not least, this is Lucy. She's a black, red and white shorthair. She has the same coloring as Frida and some of her marking are similar. I think she is a month or two younger than the other two. Here she is sleeping through the introduction. Lucy can be best described as "special", apart from sleeping through intros her hobbies include fearlessly wandering the cage, outsmarting other pigs for food, sleeping by water bottles, and apparently swimming. As if her having similar markings and colors to Frida, they also share a similar manner when dealing with humans. Lucy's idea of being affectionate is nibbling you. Not quite as painful as a bite, but not a pleasant experience. Oh well... nothin' time won't fix. In the meantime, Lucy can only be handled by people who don't mind the nibbles.

I cannot begin to describe how happy all of the humans in house are. We felt incomplete before them. Losing Mama Pig and Frida in such a short time put a massive hole in our hearts. I'm actually getting kinda emotional right now just thinking about them. Lucy, Eleanor and Prudence are not "replacement pigs". I will never be able to replace Frida, regardless of how Lucy is eerily similar to her at times. Prudence is quite the cuddler, but she's not Mama Pig. Eleanor is a cuddly lil' butthole, but she's not Emma. Now that all the pigs are settling in everything feels as it should. Everything is back to normal, a new normal, but a normal nonetheless.

Crippie's Tippie - Never buy a pig from a pet store, always adopt

Lovely Frida

Hey Guys,

I don't know how to even start this post, so I'm just gonna say it. Frida got sick over the weekend and she passed away early this morning. To say that I'm devastated is a vast understatement.

We originally got guinea pigs for my sister. We intended on getting two, BUT there were three babies. My mom picked out baby Emma first, because she was s'darn cute. My sister had the choice between picking Nellie and Frida and she chose Nellie. Thus Mama and Frida were left at the pet store. I didn't mind at the time because believe it or not I didn't want any pets, at all. Well, over the next couple of months I realized how awesome piggies were, so when we spotted Mama Pig and Frida still in the store a few months later we happily scooped them up. 

Nellie was my sister's pig, Emma was my mother's, Mama Pig was my Grandmother's and Frida was mine. I named her Frida after my favorite artist, Frida Kahlo. The black stripe over her eye reminded me of her unibrow. FUN FACT: I was originally going to name her Zora, because the black markings on her face kinda reminded of Zorro's mask. She didn't look like a Zora and she became Frida. Anyway, as soon as Frida got home she snuggled up with me, she was extraordinarily content, then I touched in a spot where she didn't want to be touched and she bit me. In other words, she was always a cuddly, vicious little butthead. 

Frida was always above the other pigs, literally, as she would use the faces of her cagemates as step-ladders. Need a carrot? Just step on Mama Pig's face! Need lettuce? Just step on Mama Pig's face! Want to see out of the cage? Just step on Mama Pig's face! Need to make sure you are fed before Mama Pig? Yup, you guessed it... FACE. Mama Pig usually forgave her though, I mean how could you not forgive that face.

Don't let the cuteness fool you, she was an asshole at times. She used to nip and occasionally bite people frequently. Guests were urged to approach Frida with caution and children were NOT allowed to touch her. People admired her from afar. In her younger days Frida was the reason she and Mama were not housed with Emma and Nellie. The one time I had Frida and Emma together for a playdate Frida almost bit Emma's leg off (And Emma could hold her own in a fight). Over the years though she learned that she could love piggies other than Mama.

Once they were combined into a cage, Mama Pig, Nellie and Frida became best buddies. Frida and Nellie hardly fought and having a new friend made Frida so much happier. She was a changed piggie! No more were the days of constantly yelling "GET OFF OF HER FACE FRIDA! SHE'S YOUR MOTHER!" Frida was now a kind, snuggly, no bite-y pig. She didn't even mind when I added Maggie into their mix. I thought that Maggie and Frida would kill each other but surprisingly they became fast friends. Maggie was even seen giving Frida kisses last night. Nellie would snuggle up to Frida whenever I put her back in the cage after giving her medicine. 

Frida loved food. I mean she LOVED it. And it showed, she developed quite an impressive double chin which she used as a comfy pillow. If you pushed all of her fur up she kinda looked like a lion, and her head would almost be in the shape of a perfect circle. 

She was funny, for a guinea pig she had very specific tastes when it came to music. She loved Lady Gaga, particularly the song "Pokerface". I played it for her last night on my phone, she perked up and relaxed. She was also a champion tinkler. God help you if her butt wasn't on the towel. One time she shot pee clear across my sofa, the entire couch had to be washed. 

She enjoyed a good nap

A good grooming

And a good snuggle

She let you know when she was going to keeeeeeeeeeel you

Even if she was going to kill you, she'd forgive you if bribed her with food and or tummy rubs.

Frida would have turned 5 in October. She is predeceased by her sister Emma and mother Mama Pig. Frida is survived by sister Nellie, roomie Maggie, loud neighbor across the room Aggie, those giant creatures who stayed with her last night Helen and Angel, and her humans all of whom miss her greatly. Goodnight Frida, I hope you have an unlimited supply of peppers, watermelon, and faces to step on. You were the best guinea pig anyone could ask for. Mommy misses you so much and I'll never forget you.

Viva Frida

Crippie's Tippie - Don't take your pets for granted, their time with you is far too short :(

Crippie's Back!

Ohai!

Wow, I've been a terrible blogger recently. Ugh, what can I say... pain, achy-ness and fatigue definitely got the best of me. Anyways, I missed y'all. Figured I'd give y'all an update of what I've been up to for the past two weeks (with pictures of animals to make up for my suckiness)

- It's been a month since Mama Pig's passing. The pigs and the humans are adjusting. Frida definitely misses Mama Pig. I've seen quite the personality shift with her, she's turned into the little asshole she once was, nipping Nellie and Maggie, starting fights, using faces as step-stools, etc. That being said, she is bonding more with Nellie, when she's not biting her butt that is...

See, I'm being nice to Nellie

But I miss my mommy sometimes

- Angel has recently been scratching her ears and face quite a bit (ear infection) it got to a point where we had to put her in a "cone of shame". Whenever I saw her walking around, sleeping, or doing anything with her cone of shame I couldn't help but do my best "Up" impression, shouting "CONE OF SHAMMMMEEE". She's on the mend though, gettin' better every day.

CONE OF SHAMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

CONE OF SHAMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEE

- Helen has spent every last waking moment of the past 2 weeks either sleeping, or barking at minorities on the TV (apparently Helen is a racist, don't know how she managed that one).

I might be cute but...

I'm probably dreaming racist dreams

- As for me, I've been trying to grin and bear whatever discomfort I've been having and am trying my best to be a social creature. I'm definitely getting better at it. I hang out with friends on the weekends sometimes, last weekend I went to a flea market with one of my friends. Got to hold a grenade, that was quite the experience. Said table looked like a scene from "The Walking Dead"... WEAPONS EVERYWHERE! If ever there is a zombie apocalypse... these people will be just fine.

I regret not buying the daggers...

- I've also driven to a few strange new places all by myself. I went to get gas in my car all by myself (which is kinda a big deal cause I hate some of those roads). Not to mention I drove on some roads with scary intersections! And I didn't have a panic attack! YAY ME! Granted I was probably screaming at other drivers more than I usually do, but whatever. I've been using the Google Maps App as a GPS, I rather enjoy it. It doesn't judge me when I miss a turn. Three cheers for progress! 

- My sciatica has been a bitch and a half recently. I've heard that exercise helps that whole problem. But the thing with exercise is that the whole "my body is riddled with tumors" thing makes it kinda painful and extremely challenging. I had to think of something I could do without injuring myself. Fun fact: Crippie is surprisingly good at Hula Hooping. I can walk while using a hula hoop, I can go up and down stairs, plus a few arm tricks. A couple of days ago I remembered that weighted hula hoops exist. I figured I could probably do that without hurting myself so I obtained one. I've been slowly starting to use it every day, just a little to start... but so far I haven't dislocated a hip or anything, so that's a plus. Even if this doesn't help the sciatica, a medication I take has made me gain a couple of pounds (nothing much, just 4 or 5 pounds) so I'll be nice to my hips and legs and try to remove that. I hate to sound like Regina George but...

So that's about it, the weather is starting to level out, and hopefully the exercise will make me feel better. Let's hope I can seriously get back to being a good little blogger.

Crippie's Tippie - If you can hula hoop, you should totally try a weighted one. It's fun AND it's exercise! 

PS - My grandma is on twitter now. Her name is @The_AltaKaka. LET'S GET HER SOME FOLLOWERS!!!