Mikatelyn's Piggies

How lovely for you and sweet Bandit
Always so sad to have a piggy die after surgery and Bunker was a lovely piggy
Hoping this is helping you to cope without Bunker
Can’t wait to hear about the bonding soon 🥰
 
So I just have to gush about Blaze a little bit. He's just the sweetest littly piggy! He's already accepting pets and getting less wriggly with being picked up. I do believe he's starting to learn to come when called. I was expecting it to take months to get to this point and it's barely been a day and a half! And he's so soft! I'm just a sucker for soft fur.
When Bunker passed I was thinking that I'd be done with keeping piggies after Bandit passed as well, and maybe give Blaze back to the rescue if it was in the next 90 days (the rescue has a 90 day return policy) or adopt him out, but now that I've met Blaze I just couldn't do it! This little piggy already has me wrapped around his tiny paw!
17372645613091.webp17372645401690.webp
 
I am sorry to hear about Bunkers passing.
May he popcorn high at the rainbow bridge. 🌈

Welcome to Blaze, it sounds like he has found his forever home. Hope you enjoy getting to know him.
 
I have decided to move up the bonding schedule. Bandit is acting listless and not interested in doing much except staring over toward Blaze's side of the divide. There's a cloth barrier over their dividing grates, otherwise he'd be chewing at the bars incessantly.
Blaze is 3 days shy of his 2 week quarantine.
To minimize risk of Blaze having something infectious, I'm doing the following:
Per Saskia of the LA guinea pig rescue, I gave Blaze a bath with head and shoulders shampoo to minimize risk of ringworm, and gave a drop of 1% ivermectin on his ear to minimize risk of mites. I don't plan to apply routinely every 3 months as she suggests, as I don't want to risk treatment resistance. I've cleaned his cage, and now he's exploring my bathroom while a portable heater slowly dries out his fur.
17373018156792.webp
Blaze not super happy about bath time, although was happy enough to find some bell pepper show up halfway through!
17373018403943.webp
17373017981421.webp

17373018619974.webp

Could it be that he is litter trained? I had a small tub under the sink. While he was towel drying he got really insistent that we was done (a couple of nips) so I let him wander. He ran around the bathroom floor until he plopped himself into the tub and peed and pooped there, then plopped himself back out of it!
I'm thinking I may have a very smart piggy on my hands!
 
Some piggies do seem quite fastidious about where they "deposit". My Dignified Sir George earned his title because of this. If given the chance he will get the poo outside of the cage, it's always in nice neat piles one upstairs and one downstairs. Never in his bed or hammock, so unlike his cagemate who poos anywhere.
 
Ah Blaze is soooooo sweet
It does seem as if Bandit is lonely …..
I’m so hoping that when you bond them it goes smoothly 🥰
It’ll comfort you while you get used to lovely Bunker not being there 💔
 
Well I guess I'll go ahead and give you all the blow by blow. Bandit wasn't really wanting to take any treats at all today, his weight was 20g below his low normal (I started weighing daily when Bunker died). When I heard some occasional squeaking from him i realized it was more than depression/pining, which wad my initial thought. He's had a small bladder/urethral stone maybe 2 years ago, for which he had to have a brief anesthetic to express from his urethra. So I popped him into a clear tub to see if he was peeing blood (no) but i did feel something kind of hard around his bladder/anal area. I knew from this forum and the LA guinea pig rescue videos that it could be an anal sac problem (Bandit is over 4.5 years old now), so I checked it (first time didn't do it right and didnt find it, had to review saskia's videos and retry) and sure enough he had an impacted anal sac! So I expressed out the material (yes indeed i can verify it smells terrible), gave him a dose of metacam for the pain, and force fed him a few CCs of critical care. 2 hours later he is now looking better and eating his veggies again!
What are the odds?!? Bunker dies then Bandit gets an anal sac impaction a week later!?! So I guess Bandit is going to get daily inspections of his bits and pieces for a while now until I figure out how often he'll need a clean out! I think I'll hold off on attempted bonding until he's back up to fighting shape (maybe 1-3 days? I'm planning on just trying to read how Bandit is feeling). Thank goodness for all of the knowledge in this forum's guides and for saskia's videos! I'm sure Bandit would thank you all if he knew how this forum has helped educate me on piggy health issues!
Any tips, comments or suggestions are welcome!
 
Oh gosh poor old Bandit - well done you tho for spotting that and acting quickly
My Geoff is nearly 5 and has partial impaction - he still produces perfect poops but he does get stuff impacting there
I think as guineas get older this can happen as the muscles there become weak.
I’d keep a close eye on him and weigh him daily just to be sure
Maybe get the Vet to check him as he had a stone before and just reassure you 🥰
 
@Roselina I'm curious how often Geoff needs a clean out? Do you use a q-tip to clean or just sort of milk it out like an oversized pimple (what I ended up doing)? Poor Geoff and Bandit! The indignities of aging!
 
I do it every 2-3 days
I use a q tip dipped in warm warm and I do squeeze gently with my fingers to open it up , after I gently wipe the area with the remaining water , dry it and place a little aloe Vera gel and of course give the necessary treat 😂
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top