Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Jillian--Update

Jillian's bump does seem to be shrinking now after five days of antibiotics, so we are going to do the full 10 day course before we decide whether or not to have it surgically removed. She is doing well, eating and drinking and seems to be ok without her daughter Toffee, although I would like to reunite them asap.
Chunky, our latest neglect case, is still very thin...I can feel his hip and shoulder bones. On the upside, he is eating more foods and he LOVES his timothy hay, so we will keep feeding him to his heart's content. I am thinking of also getting him a vitamin supplement for his food to help beef him up and get his coat in better shape.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Update

We took Jillian to the vet and found out that her bump is actually a benign tumor that we plan on having removed sometime next week. We are waiting to see if it will respond to antibiotics, as it had been infected, but the only real permanent solution will be surgery, which will probably set us back about $300. Well, that's the price you pay when you have animals!
In other news, after losing his cagemate Cookie while we were in Vegas, Willy has passed away this morning. Over the last week he had stopped eating and drinking; when he quit eating dandelion leaves I knew where things were headed. He had been with Cookie ever since he was a baby so I'm not surprised that he died from grief when he lost him. I'm sure they will find each other at the Rainbow Bridge, along with all of the other furry friends we have lost over the years.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Jillian Goes to the Vet (Tomorrow)

Jillian, who came to us with her daughter Toffee, has an abscess on her backside that until today had been fine. When I cleaned the cage this morning, I saw that it had burst, oozing pus and blood. We got most of it cleaned up and I separated her from Toffee, putting her in a cage with fleece so that nothing will get stuck inside the wound. The earliest I could get her into the vet's was tomorrow at 10 a.m., and since it is not life-threatening and she is acting normal (eating/drinking and running around), I decided to go to the regular vet and not to emergency care. She will probalby get a bath tonight as she smells REALLY bad, but from the looks of it, she should be ok and I doubt the abscess will return once it's treated.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Lots of Piggies

I've had more people ask me if I can take their guinea pigs, and sadly I have to say no. One of them is meeting me Saturday to see if a female she's gotten is pregnant...hopefully not! She is the same woman who gave us Angus and Moo Moo; she has gotten three more guinea pigs since then and is trying to find homes for some. She has a lilac abby mother/daughter pair, so if anyone is interested please let me know and I can get in touch with her.
I'm also giving her one of my spare cages so she can keep the possibly pregnant female alone, and I'm getting a free bag of shavings, so that's a pretty good trade!
Tomorrow I am mailing in my registration for the Canine Carnival...I need to get a color ink cartridge so I can finish my binder of photos of some of our most severe rescue cases. They are graphic photos but I want people to know that guinea pigs can suffer from the same abuse and neglect as any other animal.

Friday, May 13, 2011

We Now Have a Facebook Page!

That's right! Just search for us under Oswego County Guinea Pig Rescue and "like" us! I just joined so I'm still setting things up but there are a couple pictures, including Chunky on my personal home page. I will keep up with this site but I wanted to be on Facebook since so many people are on it and it will help get the word out about the rescue, plus connect us with other animal lovers and rescuers.
We also just found out that Frosted, Ryan's pig, has bumblefoot, so we are treating it in the hopes of keeping it under control so it doesn't get as bad as Prescott's did.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Bumblefoot Strikes Again :(

I clipped Frosted's nails this morning and saw that he has indeed developed bumblefoot in one front foot. Hopefully we caught it early enough to treat it and keep it from getting worse. I've started giving him foot soaks and we still have the cream from Prescott. I'm not sure how he got it since it usually happens to guinea pigs that live on wire-bottomed cages, which irritates their feet. We will do our best to keep him comfortable and see if we can bring the swelling down.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

R.I.P. Cookie

Cookie was one of our older guinea pigs, with short black hair. Unfortunately, he passed away while Ryan and I were in Las Vegas this week. Ryan is going to make him a little "coffin" and we will bury him on the farm, with the rest of our lost guinea pigs. His cagemate Willy is quite depressed so we will keep an eye on him, and possibly find him a new companion.
In the meantime, we did get an e-mail from someone whose mother died and left a guinea pig behind, whose nails are overgrown and who might possibly have skin mites. I did agree to take him and hopefully he will be joining us soon.