Piggie Post - Beat The Heat

Greetings!

Crippie hopes all of her crippled comrades enjoyed their weekends. Today (yesterday, whatever) was again stupidly hot. I didn't do a whole lot today, I mainly rested and played with the pets. Crippie did manage to take Mama Pig out for a drive. My sister needed some driving practice so this seemed like a perfect time for Mama Pig to tag along. Everything for the most part went as planned, Mama freaked out and pooped. One thing I stupidly did not think about was how hot it was going to be in the car. It was well over 90 degrees outside and an air conditioner will only go so far. Guinea Pigs are very sensitive to heat and a heat stroke can easily kill them. I realized this when Mama Pig had calmed down in the car and fell asleep. At most it could've been 85 degrees in the car while we were driving around (driving slowly so the AC isn't too strong). Luckily she wasn't exposed to the heat for a terribly long period of time. When Crippie returned home Mama Pig was wiped out. She went straight into her cage and passed out in a tunnel. After I observed her for a few minutes I realized that she didn't look happy and was probably really hot and uncomfortable. So, Crippie took the following steps to revive Mama Pig.

1) Get some cold water and put it a little bowl
2) Get an ice cube or two and put in the water
3) Let the water get really cold for a minute
4) Syringe feed the pig the water (1 or 2 cc's)
5) When you're done feeding the pig, use your fingers or the syringe to put some water on the pig itself. Just enough so the pig is slightly damp and cooled down, not so much that the pig is soaked

I cannot begin to tell you guys how much Mama Pig enjoyed this treatment. When I took her out of her cage to be fed she was tired and not happy. She started purring the instant that she starting drinking. She gobbled up the water, purred while she swallowed, and demanded more. I used the syringe to drop little drops of water on to her skin and then massaged them in. She purred even more while I was doing this. It was pretty much a non-stop purr-fest. When I was done Mama Pig looked refreshed and happy. I continued to give her freezing cold water periodically over the next hour or so just to be on the safe side. Crisis averted.

It's hot in here Mommy! 

Now, when it does get hot like this piggie owners need to make sure their pigs stay cool. When I'm not almost accidentally killing pigs I try to make sure that they are always cool when they're in their cages. We have an AC unit in the room next to them which makes for a very pleasant overall temperature, and their cages are placed near a ceiling fan, which we constantly have running on low to keep air circulating around them. Pig owners need to have a plan B for the event of a black out or a broken AC unit. Crippie's plan B includes the following...
1) Reusable cold packs are kept in my freezer at all times, in the event of a black out they would be covered with a sock or some form of fabric and put in the cages.
2) Freezing cold water - ice cubes in their water bottles to keep them refreshed
3) Portable fans placed very closely to the cage
4) Give 'em a cold-ish bath if all else fails

Also, during the summer months Piggies enjoy their frozen treats. Watermelon, blueberries, carrots, cucumbers, etc make fantastic summer treats. My piggies love watermelon more than life itself.

Crippie's Tippie - If it's really hot outside... KEEP YOUR PIG'S INSIDE AND COOL

Let the MRI's Begin!

Yo!

The Mama Pig Update - Crippie had Mama Pig out for monitoring twice today. The first time was in the mid-afternoon. She was very perky and in a very poopie mood. That was certainly reassuring to see that during the day she is more or less normal. The second monitoring was at night. Crippie decided to give her a verrrrryyyyyy small amount of baby anti-gas medicine. The medicine does cause some loose poopies so Mama Pig wasn't terribly happy. It's one of those things where it sucks temporarily but will be good for her in the long run. She was definitely less gassy by the time I put her back in the cage. If y'all are wondering, you can tell a pig is gassy by flicking their tummies. It might sound cruel but if a pig is gassy you hear a very hallow echo when you flick them. Hopefully tomorrow she'll start feeling a little better. We're also have to do some laundry tomorrow so she'll be sitting on top of the washer for awhile. If the whole no pooping trend continues Crippie's next move will be to put Mama Pig in her piggie carrier, put her in my car, and drive around for a while. The car's vibrations can help her tummy plus the car ride would scare the crap out of her, figuratively and literally. I've heard that people have had a lot of success of people helping their pigs by scaring the living daylights out of them. As for the whole "potential ovarian cyst" issue, Crippie is monitoring her and waiting to see if she shows more symptoms. The main symptom Crippie is waiting for is basically a PMSing pig. If Mama had cysts she'd be a hormonal wreck. So far she's been the same old, kind and docile Mama.

A very pooped out Mama Pig

Crippie can't thank y'all enough for your kind words over the past couple of days, your support means so much to me. Mama Pig also appreciates all the purrs and ninja vibes. Having the support of others definitely makes life easier.

Well, it took 20 days but Crippie was finalllllyyyyyyyy able to make appointments for her MRI's. They couldn't do my pelvis and my hip MRI's at the same time so I'll have to go on two separate days. I'm getting my hip MRI on Friday and my pelvic MRI next Thursday. YIPPIEEEEE! Crippie isn't nervous about the pending MRI's and their results. I'm more curious than anything. Crippie thinks Fanny the Ass tumor is the cause of my sciatica, but will the MRI agree? Crippie is reaaallllyyyyyy curious about the pelvic scan because I have no freakin' idea what's going on there. My doctor thinks it's because I'm skinny and I sit a lot, but sometimes it literally feels like I'm sitting on a rock. Only time will tell I reckon. The MRI's don't require contrast dye so I'm rather happy about that.

So that's pretty much all that's going on here, I'm gonna try and get a picture of Mama on the washing machine tomorrow ;)

Crippie's Tippie - I know it seems like a horrible idea... but sometimes scaring the bejeezus out of a pig can be helpful. Apart from the whole pooping issue it can help with a difficult introduction (they pigs focus on being scared and not hating eachother, they also bond about being so damn scared).