Eriathwens piggies

Wow, exciting times, hope everything goes to plan, looking forward to see them all settled once you get your Internet sorted x
 
Bill & Ted said:
Wow, exciting times, hope everything goes to plan, looking forward to see them all settled once you get your Internet sorted x
Click to expand...

Thankyou! I cant wait to see what its going to look like all finished. Hopefully the Internet won't take long to be sorted, we were told the 8th on the phone, but then one of the emails said the 15th..so I'm not sure 🤦‍♀️ but oh well, I'm sure I will find something else to amuse me for a while.
 
Hope all goes well with the move and I hope you will be very happy in your new home 🏠
Don’t forget to make sure the kettle is readily available.
Moving house is stressful and tiring so block in some ‘me time’ every day to rest, walk, sit and talk to guinea pigs etc.
The boxes will still be there but you’ll feel more able to tackle them when you’re rested.

We will look forward to seeing you back soon.
 
Here's a tip my lovely late Mum gave me on moving house. Once your bed is insitu make it before you do anything else. Then you can collapse in it when you feel tired and ready for bed instead of having to make it first. Nothing else matters other than a good night's sleep.

How exciting! See you on the other side!
 
I'm back! I hope everyone and their piggies have been well. Just as a quick (🤦‍♀️ turns out it wasn't very quick, sorry lol) update, Clover and Fern joined their respective herds, Clover has done OK, a few little nips but she's OK and everything has calmed down now, Ebony seems to really like her and I think Poppet recognises her.
Fern has taken over the entire all girl herd, Shelly was more than happy to step down and even Misty and Delilah have been submitting to her.
Everyone is calm and relaxed, totally enjoying their new set up and family members.

Oliver and Finley are booked to be castrated on the 25th, Finley will join Tilly and Hazel, Oliver will be reunited with Fern and meet her new herd :) (after the post op waiting period of course)

Paddington developed a cyst next to his spine which was opened and cleaned out by my vet, I can continue to empty it at home if it refills unless it refills too quickly/often, in that case it will be surgically removed.

Ebony has been doing really well, id say she was almost back to normal to be honest. She only has a few days left of her panacur and we seem to have got on top of the situation with the lice.

Now for some pretty rubbish news, Thistle is believed to have cushings disease, she went to the vet last week with what I believed was ovarian cysts presenting differently to usual, but the signs point more to Cushings. I'm waiting for my vet to get back to me after contacting their lab to see about having her tested. But if that comes back negative, we will spay her to see if it helps. If positive, we will manage her condition as best as we can for as long as we can.

I think that's everything? 🤔 anyway, some pictures!

20210302_102124.webp20210302_102143.webp20210304_124746.webp20210306_173425.webp20210308_181914.webp20210308_185722.webp20210307_182030.webp20210307_155649.webp20210304_184622.webp
 
I am loving your pictures and most of your news, I am so sorry to hear about Thistle. Fingers crossed it's not Cushing's and a spay will sort things out for her.
 
Thankyou! It could well be both too, which is unhelpful.. spaying may ease some of her issues but the cushings will hinder her recovery so it's a bit of a gamble, which is why I opted to test her first. The original option was spay or don't spay, but I dont like making uninformed decisions. Shes acting normally for her at least, shes still enjoying her life, eating well and interacting with her friends, so I'm pleased about that :)
 
Hope it’s good news for Thistle and not Cushings Disease X
Gorgeous photos, glad you are all settled in now 😁
 
So sorry to hear the news about Thistle.
Hope the test results are not positive for Cushings, but if it is then she’s in the best hands with you.
Good to hear all is well the rest of your gorgeous herds
 
We're still waiting to hear about testing, but I decided to take some action ahead of time to make her more comfortable. Its become clear she is really not capable of keeping her long hair clean, even with my help. Her back end is always trimmed short for hygiene reasons, but she's become greasy from the excess production from her ears, and the sheer volume of her floof is stopping her reaching most of it, and definitely not down to the skin.
So! Off it all came 😅 I lost my clippers in the move, I'm sure they're in the bottom of a box somewhere but for now I made do with scissors. I'm taking comfort in the fact that it's probably not the worst haircut that's happened during lockdown, but its certainly not the best, either 🤣 she doesnt seem to mind though.

20210317_162808.webp20210317_162650.webp20210317_162802.webp20210317_164419.webp
 
Eriathwen said:
We're still waiting to hear about testing, but I decided to take some action ahead of time to make her more comfortable. Its become clear she is really not capable of keeping her long hair clean, even with my help. Her back end is always trimmed short for hygiene reasons, but she's become greasy from the excess production from her ears, and the sheer volume of her floof is stopping her reaching most of it, and definitely not down to the skin.
So! Off it all came 😅 I lost my clippers in the move, I'm sure they're in the bottom of a box somewhere but for now I made do with scissors. I'm taking comfort in the fact that it's probably not the worst haircut that's happened during lockdown, but its certainly not the best, either 🤣 she doesnt seem to mind though.

View attachment 170426View attachment 170427View attachment 170428View attachment 170429
Click to expand...
Aw, what a pile of hair, I could do with a haircut too! I’m sure she’ll feel much better now. When I cut Posh’s hair last summer she was like a spring lamb
 
The boys have been to the vets today to be castrated, I got a call a little while ago that they're all done and waking up nicely, ready to be collected at half 2! Hoping to hear about what's going on with testing Thistle soon too, the nurse I spoke to was chasing that up today.
I'm just taking a break from getting their pens ready for them to come home to.

20210325_082848.jpg20210325_082643.jpg
 
The boys are home! Oliver is acting like nothing happened and he hasn't seen food in a week, bless him. Finley is still a bit quiet and eating less, but I have a feeling he may have been done second and has had less time to wake up. Both are pooping well though and have taken 24ml of critical care each and some grass. Their incisions are so good looking you can hardly see them!

Heard back about Thistles testing, theyre using a lab they don't have an account with, so it's taken a bit to work things out by the sounds of it.. they've still got to double check the drug they have is the one that's safe to use, as she needs to go in for the day, be fasted, then given a drug to make her salivate so they can collect samples of that to test. Unfortunately that's given via intramuscular injection and she has very little muscle mass, so I'm not feeling great about that, on top of the need for fasting. There's a few other things they need to sort out, but yeah, they're working on it.

Anyway, the boys seem happy to be home :)

20210325_153247.jpg20210325_155720.jpg20210325_164916.jpg20210325_165815.jpg20210325_164748.jpg20210325_152618.jpg20210325_152847.jpg
 
Eriathwen said:
The boys are home! Oliver is acting like nothing happened and he hasn't seen food in a week, bless him. Finley is still a bit quiet and eating less, but I have a feeling he may have been done second and has had less time to wake up. Both are pooping well though and have taken 24ml of critical care each and some grass. Their incisions are so good looking you can hardly see them!

Heard back about Thistles testing, theyre using a lab they don't have an account with, so it's taken a bit to work things out by the sounds of it.. they've still got to double check the drug they have is the one that's safe to use, as she needs to go in for the day, be fasted, then given a drug to make her salivate so they can collect samples of that to test. Unfortunately that's given via intramuscular injection and she has very little muscle mass, so I'm not feeling great about that, on top of the need for fasting. There's a few other things they need to sort out, but yeah, they're working on it.

Anyway, the boys seem happy to be home :)

View attachment 171365View attachment 171366View attachment 171367View attachment 171368View attachment 171369View attachment 171370View attachment 171371
Click to expand...
Aw, all done and dusted, they are gorgeous boys, glad it’s gone well, nice and neat down there 👍
 
Bill & Ted said:
Aw, all done and dusted, they are gorgeous boys, glad it’s gone well, nice and neat down there 👍
Click to expand...

I cant get over just how neat the incisions are! Although I keep laughing at them, their bits look like sad elephant seals 🤣
Finley has started to eat by himself in his cage, even his hay, so I'm happy with that. It looks like *touch wood* I will get away with not having to get up in the night to syringe feed, just one before bed to give them a boost.
 
Little man hasn't eaten much over night so we took him back today, he's got more painkillers as he's uncomfortable and has clipper rash on his little belly, bless him. Everything else looks good with him luckily.

We've decided Thistle will just be spayed, usually intact dogs with cushings are spayed anyway apparently, so same logic probably applies to piggies, so it would need doing anyway. But my vet is more convinced that it's ovarian cysts or something more than cushings now, her thin skin and excessive drinking could be from age? I do think she is older than I was told. But we're waiting for the boys to get back to normal first, 2 surgeries at once is more than enough.

20210326_120553.webp20210326_120532.webp
 
Just dropping by to give some updates :) Oliver has healed up wonderfully and is back on shavings waiting out his 6-8 weeks, Finleys remained a bit scabby so he stayed on soft bedding..more on him in a little bit!

Shelly had an appointment this morning to ensure she isnt in pain as she has been staying mostly in the corner of the cage by the radiator. Shes still eating, drinking etc perfectly fine but after losing Leonard, I worry. She is going to be 5 on Friday! With being 1/4 cuy, having the osteodystrophy and being on a fair whack of pain relief, that's pretty good going, so no wonder she's started to slow down. Fern took over the herd when she was added so I'm under the assumption Shelly is just feeling a little kicked out, although she is still bright and happy, I'm sure the new dynamics will eventually settle. If not we can trial a 2 week course of gabapentin to see if its just well hidden pain, but I dont think it is.

After getting home from Shellys appointment I may or may not have taken a quick nap 🤣 and then realised I hadn't checked Finley, Oliver, Thistle and Ebony, so off I went!
Thistle has been gradually losing 10-15g a day for a while and while that isn't ideal, nothing I've tried short of stepping in with syringe feeding has helped.
On top of that, Finleys incisions were crusty and not great looking so I was called the vet, luckily I was able to be seen about an hour later. He has reacted to the tissue adhesive, which is better than it being infected, which was my concern. So I just have to clean it with warm water once a day and make sure it's healing well, if not, take him back.
While I was there I booked Thistle in for her spay for the 15th, I'm really running out of options for her but I really think that it's hormonal and the spay will help, if she survives. Until then I will be syringe feeding her to try to slow the weight loss as much as possible to give her the best chance of surviving the surgery and recovering well.

I think that's everything? Everyone else is the nosy, happy little selves luckily! 🙂

20210404_140013.webp20210329_010851.webp20210402_213605.webp20210405_095508.webp20210405_134438.webp20210404_182750.webp20210404_183555.webp
 
Aw sending best wishes for Thistle, hope the spay makes a big difference for her x
Gosh you have been so busy, glad the boys are doing well 👍 and hope Shelly is ok
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top