Eye Carumba!

Salutations!

I hope all my crippled comrades had a lovely "Oh right, today's Thursday" day. Crippie's day was certainly interesting to say the least. I spent most of my day taking care of the piggies. I gave Mama Pig a quick once over and she seems to have fully recovered. Mama Pig is going to be 5 soon, and thus she'll be a "senior pig". I'm going to do everything in my power to keep her here for as long as humanly possible, but I'll do a post on senior piggies another day.

Keeping your piggies healthy is a challenge. Apart from the whole "you need an exotic vet" thing, it can be very hard to tell when your pig is sick. Why? Because they hide it like nobody's business. Piggies are animals of prey, so their instinct is to hide whatever ails them so that predators won't see them and think "LUNCHTIME"! Vigilance is key with piggies. You have to know them, what their normals are, how guinea pigs are supposed to be. If your pig is acting "weird" chances are something is wrong. If something is slightly wrong with your pigs appearance, something is wrong. If anything is out of the ordinary... something is probably wrong.

Why am I going on like this? Welllllllllllllll... earlier today all of my pigs were happy. They were in watermelon induced food comas and everything seemed fine. Tonight they got their salads... Aggie starts wheeking and everyone else follows. They all eat their salads without issues. About two hours later I take Aggie out for cuddles. She seems perfectly fine... at first. As soon as looked at her face I knew something was wrong. Her eye was cloudy. The first thing I did was checked her eye in different lights, and it was definitely cloudy. Then I gave Aggie a once over, and I check her for signs of pain. I opened and closed her eyes without any issue. She didn't seem to be in pain, but she could've been hiding it (and probably was). Next I took a really good look at her eyes. Aggie's eyes are black and their eyes are normally clear and bright. Her eye was without a doubt cloudy and the parts of her eye that were supposed to be white were red.

At this point I know what the problem is... Aggie got hay stuck in her eye. Upon closer inspection I found the piece of hay and removed it. It wasn't an easy thing to do, but I put her on her back, I let her fight me for a minute, once she realized that she couldn't win she let me remove the hay. I used a tissue and my fingernails to carefully extract the inch long piece of hay from her eye. I then cleaned her eye, gave her some pain medication, and most importantly some watermelon because Aggie likes to eat her feelings.

Hay pokes are a somewhat common problem for piggies. They eat hay all day, every day. Aggie love her hay and dives into it as soon as I bring it to her. Frankly, I'm surprised she's managed this long without getting a hay poke.

Well, now that she's been poked, here's what were are going to do... Aggie NEEDS to go to the vet ASAP. The vet will prescribe either drops or an ointment for her. We'll treat her, and she'll be better in a week or two. It is essential that you take your pig to the vet for this issue. If not your pig will develop a nasty eye infection, go blind in that eye, or possibly lose the eye.

We are going to call the vet first thing in the morning, in the meantime Aggie is stoned off her chubby little ass. She is quite content with the world and thinks everything is pretty. Here are a few pictures so that other piggie owners will know what an eye injury looks like (the photos aren't graphic or anything)

Her good eye. Black, clear, and bright. (Also slightly glassy from being stoned)

The bad eye. Grey, cloudy, weird texture on eye, slightly closed

Close up, you can see the general area effected

Crippie's Tippie - Stay informed about general pig illnesses, I knew this was a hay poke and I began treating her immediately. For more information about piggies and eye issues go to http://www.guinealynx.info/eyes.html

Piggie Post - Nurse Mode

Greetings,

Crippie swears that she will return to talking about living with disabilities really soon, but for now this is kinda consuming my life. 

As most of you know Mama Pig has been sick for a little over a week now. If you've missed it here's what happened so far.

1st- She started peeing blood, a lot of blood. Either a sign of a UTI or a bladder stone (bladder stones can be very hard to treat and fatal). First we monitored her and tried to flush out whatever was bothering her. 

2nd- She stopped peeing for a while. This event could have been FATAL if left untreated. Thinking this was a sign of a bladder stone I put her in a warm bath and gave her massages with my hands and with the all glorious electric toothbrush. I was eventually able to stabilize her. After this incident we knew she needed to see a vet ASAP. We couldn't get an appointment immediately but Crippie was able to keep Mama stable until she was able to pay a visit to the vet.

3rd- Mama sees the vet. She is prescribed anti-biotics to help with the UTI. We also receive pain medications, motility drugs, and emergency food. 

4th- Mama willingly takes her medicine and shows signs of improvement. She's still a little lethargic at times, but she is recovering from a massive UTI

5th- Mama starts crying in the middle of the night. She cannot poop. This event could have also been FATAL if left untreated. Crippie flushes her out with pedialyte and massages her with a toothbrush for a few hours. Eventually Mama passes some poops and some gas. BTW, gas can be a very serious problem for pigs. She stabilizes and I decide to use some pain medication from the crisis kit.

6th- The following day Mama seemed relatively normal, until she started crying again. She can't poop again and she seems gassy. Again, FATAL if not treated. Continued with the toothbrush and pedialyte method although it is not a successful as the last night. She stabilizes again.

7th- She starts crying during the day. Same possibly FATAL problem. Crippie treats her with the pedialyte and toothbrush but it is not working well. We also try to give her a hot bath. It yields some results, but not enough. We start to suspect she is having a reaction to her antibiotics and we decide to stop giving them to her. We also decide that another visit to the vet is in order.

8th- Mama sees the vet. It's been 24 hours since she's had medicine, so she's feeling slightly better. The whole experience of going to the vet scares the crap out of her... literally. She manages to pee and poop for (and on) the vet. The vet does NOT think Mama Pig has a stone of any kind. She agrees with our treatment of stopping the meds. The vet gives us more pain meds and tells us to make sure Mama Pig eats.

9th- Mama starts to feel better. She remembers that food is delicious and starts eating everything in site. While it is still challenging, Mama is able to pee and poop all by herself. Crippie will help Mama Pig clear out her system over the next couple of days by giving her pain medicine at night and flushing her with a water and pedialyte mix. The toothbrush is not needed for now. In other words Mama Pig has taken a turn in the right direction. 

Yup, for the time being Mama Pig is getting better, but Crippie isn't celebrating just yet. Mama could take another turn for the worse at any time and I can't lull myself into a false sense of security. You've gotta keep an eye out for suspicious behaviors like being all puffed up in a corner, or crying, not wanting treats, etc. 

Mama Pig wants to thank everyone who has been sending purrs and prayers. She says she can feel the ninja vibes penetrating her tummy and making it easier for her to poop :)

A very relaxed Mama Pig after taking some pain meds

Crippie's Tippie - Remember people, Guinea Pigs live for eating, pooping, and peeing. If they are not doing one of those things something is horribly wrong. 

Guinea Pigs = Serious Business

Hi Y'all

Crippie's just popping by to say that posts are probably gonna be very short and sporadic this week. The reason being is that Mama Pig is still very sick. It seems that she manages well enough during the day, but she struggles at night. Crippie has been up taking care of Mama Pig well past 3am for three days straight now. We're gonna try and take her to the vet tomorrow. Mama Pig is one tough cookie and Crippie is gonna do everything in her power to keep her alive.

Crippie's Tippie - Guinea Pigs require a lot of work. Crippie literally spent three hours today pumping Mama with fluids and physically helping her urinate and defecate. This is by no means easy or glamorous, but piggies are completely worth fighting for.

All Hail The Magic Toothbrush

Greetings,


 I hope everyone enjoyed their May 4th. Before I begin my post Crippie wanted to pay tribute to the 4 students killed in the Kent State Massacre 42 years ago. May we never forget Jeffrey, Allison, William, and Sandra and may we never let it happen again.

Crippie's day was certainly interesting to say the least. The weather is changing again and that caused my hip to hurt a lot. I tried to sleep it off once I got home from work, it kinda helped. Crippie spent most of the night chilling cause I was achy. Pretty much a normal "its gon rain" night. Well, at least I thought it was.

I was getting ready for bed, just relaxing when all of the sudden I hear one of the guinea pigs crying. Their cries are very loud and you can tell that something is wrong when you hear it. At first Crippie thought it was Maggie, because she get can a little screamy when she's in heat. I went to check it out and much to my horror it was Mama Pig. Frida and Nellie were sleeping far away from her so they weren't harming her or anything. She was just sitting there crying. This is reaaaaaaaallllllllyyyyyyyyyy bad. It means that it is hurting her to pee and poop.

Crippie had to spring into doctor mode and fix Mama. First I gave her some pedialyte and then I observed her for a few minutes. She tried to wee and poop but she started screaming again. Next step was to get her to empty her bladder. Crippie did this by massaging her tummy with an electric toothbrush. I covered the toothbrush with a ziploc bag for sanitary reasons and I held part of the toothbrush to ease the amount of vibration she would feel. After about 2 minutes of massaging her tummy (with a focus on the bladder) she started defecating. Boy howdy did she ever need to poop. How do I phrase this lightly? Mama Pig probs got a little constipated by the meds. The pedialyte and toothbrush fixed the hard poop problem and once the poop was able to come out maaasssssssiiiiiivvvvveeeeee amounts of crap came out. Sorry if this isn't the most pleasant topic, but this kinda stuff comes with territory of pig ownership. After Mama passed the massive amount of crap she still needed to wee (to prove there is no stone blocking the path). All I can say is all hail the magic toothbrush. After a few more bladder massages she started weeing. Crippie continued the massages for two hours, periodically giving her water or pedialyte. Eventually massive amounts of wee and crap were freed from Mama's tummy. After that ordeal she was pooped (pun intended) so I put her back in the cage. Before I put her back I gave her some pain medicine. Metacam is also an NSAID so it should also help with any inflammation. Poor Mama Pig, as soon as she got into the cage she got comfy and fell asleep.

So yeah, Mama Pig is definitely not out of the woods. I'm gonna keep a super close eye on her for the next few days. If the medicine is making her constipated we'll just have to constantly keep her hydrated and keep giving her pedialyte. I don't think she'll object to that ;)

Crippie's Tippie - Electric toothbrushes can help save piggie's lives... good to know

I'm Not Afraid

Greetings!

Sooooooooo sorry I wasn't able to post a blog update yesterday... internet crapped out :(

Anyways... Mama Pig's vet appointment was on Tuesday. From my research I made an educated guess that Mama Pig either had a bad UTI or bladder stones. Bladder stones killed Emma. The vet agreed with my educated guess and put her on some anti-biotics in a hope that it is a UTI. They're pina colada flavored and Mama Pig is very happy about that. She seems to be responding positively to the meds thus far but it's really to soon to tell. Crippie will be monitoring Mama for the next 3 weeks. Crippie also requested that the vet provide us with a "crisis kit" in the event that Mama Pig (or any of the pigs for that matter) take a sudden turn for the worst and we are unable to get to a vet. A guinea pig crisis kit consists of the following items...
1) Oxbow Critical Care - If you ever need to force feed your pig... this is what you feed 'em. This can be purchased online as well.
2) Metacam - Pain medicine, sometimes it will help ease the problem enough so the pig will make it through the night... other times it helps your pig cross the bridge without pain. Either way it's a must have.
3) Reglan - It's a motility drug that can help if your pig stops pooping and weeing and/or if your pig develops bloat. Bloat is damn near always lethal. Emma's bladder stones caused an inability to wee which caused bloat. I had some Reglan in the house so I gave her a 16th of a pill and it helped ease the bloat a little... it didn't save her, but I think it helped a little.
4) Pedialyte (you can obtain this yourself) - Its just a good thing for a sick pig to have in general, plus they freakin' love this stuff! I bought a little four pack of it in a "mixed fruit" flavor for the pigs (don't buy one big bottle... buy several little ones because this stuff expires within days of being opened). Anyway... I was giving to Mama Pig in the syringe and while she was happily drinking away all the other pigs had looks on their faces and were practically saying "DO WANT NOW' so Crippie had to gave everyone some. Aggie damn near ripped the syringe out of my hand she loved it that much.

Mama Pig like Pina Coladas & Getting Caught in the Rain

So yeah, that's the story there. Oh, almost forgot to tell you... throughout this whole experience the person most affected (besides Mama) is without a doubt Frida. She looked so concerned whenever we took Mama out of the cage to take of her and she would nuzzle and kiss her as soon as we put her back in. If Mama was sleeping in a tunnel Frida would sleep right beside that tunnel even if that meant that she wasn't hiding somewhere (most pigs like to be hidden when they sleep). It's probably the cutest thing I've seen in a good long while.

Moving on to cripple news, tomorrow is my orthopedist appointment. People ask me if I get nervous about doctor's appointments, especially one's that could deliver bad news. Honestly, I don't get nervous.  When Crippie was younger, you bet your ass I was nervous... I wasn't used to being sick. Now I'm used to this stuff. Crippie's actually looking forward to my appointment. I'm rather curious as to what condition my hips are in now. As soon as I get a copy of my x-ray I will totes post a comparison of the old and new ones. Judging by my recent problems I don't think this visit will bring much of good news, but as long as the bad news can be treated I'm OK. Of course, I hope that I won't need surgery... or least if I need a surgery I hope it's an easy one, not one of those "LOL... LET'S REPLACE YOUR HIP" kinda things. I will definitely keep y'all posted with what the doctor says.

Crippie's Tippie - When going to a doctors appointment of this nature dress accordingly, no metal, tanktop under your shirt, shoes that the doctor can properly gauge your gait in, etc.