I'm happy to say that we are finally seeing an improvement! Yesterday the hand feeding went incredibly smoothly with Feather even taking a few syringefuls himself. He's also not showing any signs of pain anymore.
Now after two weeks of syringe feeding I was beginning to seriously worry about Feathers teeth and digestive system. Since he was looking so well I decided to run an experiment. I gave him his last syringe feed at 6 pm, taking his total for the day up 190 mL's. Then I sat with him for a while shoving different foods in his mouth getting him to bite and chew. Finally I filled his cage with as many types of fresh foo I could think of and left him for the night.
His weight was still steady in the morning at 787g! So I gave him more fresh food and have left him to fend for himself today with hourly weight checks. He's still not drinking as much as he should so he's getting some water syringed but it looks like I won't need to syringe feed. He's munching away and eating both his dry feed and his hay and veggies/grass. Hopefully once he gets back into the habit of eating he'll finally start to gain weight. I'm keeping a very close eye on his weight and weighing hourly just in case he starts to slide backwards but so far things are looking good!
We have less then 48 hours to his next vet appointment. I was really unsure if I'd get him through this week but it looks like we'll make it, and with a noticeable improvement.
So the next step is his x-ray on Monday at 4. If it shows a clear abdomen I'll organise for his bladder stone surgery. If it shows a cloudy abdomen still I'll arrange for exploratory surgery, hopefully include bladder stone removal.
The vets are excellent and are open 8am-7 pm weekdays so if I can arrange for the surgery on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday I can drop him off on my way to class and collect him on my way home at about 4.
In other news me and Manny are having fun. He's a very hyperactive boy and spends hours running in circles around his cage and popcorning. Making him sit still on the grooming stand is an interesting experience. Looking at his coat I'm hoping we can go another few weeks before he needs wrappers, so I don't have to worry about them until after the July show. I'm thinking I'll start him off one cotton voile wrappers, which is one of the lightest fabrics. I'm still debating where he'll need a corflute insert or if I could do the wrappers almost like ponytails. We're having a bit of an issue with kicking out too. No one seems to know how to discourage kicking, so I guess we'll just keep trying and see where it gets us. I'm wondering if a toy would calm him down a bit. Like one of those metal balls you fill with hay or something?
Interestingly I realised that Rosie has actually turned into a semi-decent rex. I bought her as a pet and her coat was sooo soft, I'm almost disappointed it's gotten so coarse. So I'm going to try her in the pedigree class in July and see what the judge thinks of her. I have no real knowledge of rex, all I can really say is she has a hemmed ear and fair type. So if Manny can't cope with wrapping I'll still have a couple of pedigrees to show until Ayanna's babies are ready for the table (which probably won't be till Feb next year). I'd like to try Manny at one show at least, and even if he doesn't take to wrapping his coat could stay unwrapped until the August show, as he'd be just twelve weeks then.
So for the July show I've entered Symphonia Rosaline in the rex class, Symphonia Laertes in the dally class and Eddie's coming along as a pet. It's such a pity we don't have clipped long classes, but it would be too weird to go to a show without my boy, so he'll be a pet at this show. I'm still annoyed I had to cut him off, I was finally getting the hang of wrapping him. I also have plans for my Fancy Dress entry and my Decorated Carry cage entry, but they are far to top secret even for a blog that no one reads.
Oh and little Nia is doing well. She's already at 450g. She seems to be one of those pigs that can get fat on air. She's getting plenty of exercise in the girls cage, but you can see her growing hour by hour LOL. So it looks like she'll go in with La-La the minute she hits three months.
An endless journey in the pursuit of cavies, knowledge and joy.
Saturday, 30 June 2012
Wednesday, 27 June 2012
Feather - Day 12
Feather's finally starting to eat AND drink. He was fed at 10 pm last night and was still peeing up a storm at 9 am this morning. There's no way that he would still be peeing from his syringe feeds, so he must've been drinking water. I delayed his morning feed to 11 am and instead gave him a pile of grass and hay. He happily spent a couple of hours munching on that and when he stopped (for a nap) I gave him his syringe feed. He had 50g of syringed food without a problem. He was only 787g this morning as well, but I think if I can get him eating more food himself he may start to gain. Because I want to encourage him to eat solid food he didn't get 'lunch' until 4 pm and had 55g of food. This is the first time he willingly took food from the syringe. He ate a couple of syringes (about 6mL) entirely of his own volition before I had to go back to steadily forcing him to take it. He now also eats mouthfuls of grass between the syringes. It seems his favourite flavour is berry and grass.
He is still crying when he pees, but it's not the scream he has been doing previously. He's exhibiting virtually no pain when he poos now and his poos have returned to proper solid pig poops. He also no longer screams when we touch his abdomen, he doesn't even bother to stop chewing.
The other change is up till now he's spent all his time in a cozy, often with his head buried in the back and butt hanging out. Now although he still wants the snugglesafe he won't go near the cozy. I think this more than anything else shows that he's feeling a heck of a lot better.
So he'll get his dinner at about 9pm and I'll aim for another 55g or so of food to take him up to the requisite 160g. I'm avoiding overdoing it as I want him to feel hungry and eat on his own. Eventually if he keeps improving I'll start scaling back the size of the feeds down to about 30g each and then cut him back to two feeds and so on until he's on one small feed a day.
He is still crying when he pees, but it's not the scream he has been doing previously. He's exhibiting virtually no pain when he poos now and his poos have returned to proper solid pig poops. He also no longer screams when we touch his abdomen, he doesn't even bother to stop chewing.
The other change is up till now he's spent all his time in a cozy, often with his head buried in the back and butt hanging out. Now although he still wants the snugglesafe he won't go near the cozy. I think this more than anything else shows that he's feeling a heck of a lot better.
So he'll get his dinner at about 9pm and I'll aim for another 55g or so of food to take him up to the requisite 160g. I'm avoiding overdoing it as I want him to feel hungry and eat on his own. Eventually if he keeps improving I'll start scaling back the size of the feeds down to about 30g each and then cut him back to two feeds and so on until he's on one small feed a day.
Feather - Day 10 & 11
Feather continues to soldier on, poor little boy.
Yesterday was the vet appointment. Unfortunately it was double bad news. The bladder stone looks to have moved into his urethra, and the peritonitis hasn't changed one iota. So the vet gave us two options. Continue on the antibiotics for another week and re-x-ray or exploratory surgery. Right now in his condition exploratory surgery would be a death sentence for him, so we went with the first option. Feather is steadily improving, so we can only hope that the improvement will eventually show on the x-rays. Feather takes his syringe that bit more readily each day and eats more each feeding. He's beginning to pick at solid food again and today ate a whole handful of grass.
The bladder stone is a worry though. Starting from about midday yesterday, he stopped peeing. At best there would be a few drops of pure blood. He was screaming in pain. We'd already been told that if the stone blocked him there was nothing that could be done. The peritonitis made the stone inoperable. So we chugged along and I kept stuffing him with fluid and eyeing off the metacam bottle wondering if an extra dose could hurt him. And praying, a lot of praying. Tonight, 30 hours after he stopped peeing he's back to doing enormous clear streams of pee. He makes a slight grunt at the end, but other then that looks pain free. So I don't know if that means he passed the stone or it's just moved back into his bladder, but at least he's not in pain.
So I've got the routine with Feather down pat now. He has a snugglesafe 24/7 and from 4:30 to about 10:00 PM he hangs out in front of the fireplace with a pile of grass. You've never seen a more contented pig. I feed him from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM, as I still hope that a twelve hour period without syringe feeding will make him hungry enough to eat. So far he's never gone too far backwards. By morning he's usually the prefeeding weight of his last nightly feed. Between 10 am and 10 pm he's fed every two hours. Every day I increase the amount he's fed that little bit more. Right now he's on 45mL per feed. Because hydration is incredibly important with peritonitis I make his critta care very watery. I usually use Cranberry juice to water it down (he hates plain water and he hates plain critta care and he hates baby food, cranberry is the only flavouring he likes). I figure that the Cranberry juice might help soothe his bladder as well, but I mainly use it because it's the only flavour so far that he loves enough to swallow when I stick the syringe in his mouth. I aim for at least 160mL total of this extra watery critta care. The last few days he's actually taken about 200mL. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to help him gain weight. If he's looking exhausted/lethargic he gets 3ml of a glucose solution to perk him up a bit. I've found that when he can't pee he wears himself out straining and the sugar seems to help keep him going till the pain eases. He gets 25mg of metronidazole every morning along with 0.2mL of metacam, and a few hours later if his poos are looking off he'll get a probiotic. His poos are looking perfect at the moment and he loathes the probiotic (probably because it's the only cold thing I give him), so I don't give it if he's looking good.
So I guess we'll keep chugging along and eventually something might change. I can't make him gain weight no matter how hard I try. This morning he was 816g, and I fed him 45g before I left and left him with my mother to feed as I had a uni class I couldn't miss and he fought her the whole time, so by the time I got home he was down to 799g. He's a perfect angel for me, so I think he must have just been testing his luck. He was about 870g tonight after a lot of syringe feeding, but now the floodgates have reopened so to speak I fully except him to pee his way back below 800g by morning.
Anyway I haven't got copies of the most recent x-rays as something went wrong with the CD they gave me, but these are the ones from saturday.... The little white oblong thing is the stone, and the funny swirly white stuff is the peritonitis.
Yesterday was the vet appointment. Unfortunately it was double bad news. The bladder stone looks to have moved into his urethra, and the peritonitis hasn't changed one iota. So the vet gave us two options. Continue on the antibiotics for another week and re-x-ray or exploratory surgery. Right now in his condition exploratory surgery would be a death sentence for him, so we went with the first option. Feather is steadily improving, so we can only hope that the improvement will eventually show on the x-rays. Feather takes his syringe that bit more readily each day and eats more each feeding. He's beginning to pick at solid food again and today ate a whole handful of grass.
The bladder stone is a worry though. Starting from about midday yesterday, he stopped peeing. At best there would be a few drops of pure blood. He was screaming in pain. We'd already been told that if the stone blocked him there was nothing that could be done. The peritonitis made the stone inoperable. So we chugged along and I kept stuffing him with fluid and eyeing off the metacam bottle wondering if an extra dose could hurt him. And praying, a lot of praying. Tonight, 30 hours after he stopped peeing he's back to doing enormous clear streams of pee. He makes a slight grunt at the end, but other then that looks pain free. So I don't know if that means he passed the stone or it's just moved back into his bladder, but at least he's not in pain.
So I've got the routine with Feather down pat now. He has a snugglesafe 24/7 and from 4:30 to about 10:00 PM he hangs out in front of the fireplace with a pile of grass. You've never seen a more contented pig. I feed him from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM, as I still hope that a twelve hour period without syringe feeding will make him hungry enough to eat. So far he's never gone too far backwards. By morning he's usually the prefeeding weight of his last nightly feed. Between 10 am and 10 pm he's fed every two hours. Every day I increase the amount he's fed that little bit more. Right now he's on 45mL per feed. Because hydration is incredibly important with peritonitis I make his critta care very watery. I usually use Cranberry juice to water it down (he hates plain water and he hates plain critta care and he hates baby food, cranberry is the only flavouring he likes). I figure that the Cranberry juice might help soothe his bladder as well, but I mainly use it because it's the only flavour so far that he loves enough to swallow when I stick the syringe in his mouth. I aim for at least 160mL total of this extra watery critta care. The last few days he's actually taken about 200mL. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to help him gain weight. If he's looking exhausted/lethargic he gets 3ml of a glucose solution to perk him up a bit. I've found that when he can't pee he wears himself out straining and the sugar seems to help keep him going till the pain eases. He gets 25mg of metronidazole every morning along with 0.2mL of metacam, and a few hours later if his poos are looking off he'll get a probiotic. His poos are looking perfect at the moment and he loathes the probiotic (probably because it's the only cold thing I give him), so I don't give it if he's looking good.
So I guess we'll keep chugging along and eventually something might change. I can't make him gain weight no matter how hard I try. This morning he was 816g, and I fed him 45g before I left and left him with my mother to feed as I had a uni class I couldn't miss and he fought her the whole time, so by the time I got home he was down to 799g. He's a perfect angel for me, so I think he must have just been testing his luck. He was about 870g tonight after a lot of syringe feeding, but now the floodgates have reopened so to speak I fully except him to pee his way back below 800g by morning.
Anyway I haven't got copies of the most recent x-rays as something went wrong with the CD they gave me, but these are the ones from saturday.... The little white oblong thing is the stone, and the funny swirly white stuff is the peritonitis.
Monday, 25 June 2012
Feather- Day 8 & 9
I'll do a separate post about the show at some point (was fantastic BTW, I got BIS in pedigree and RIS in pet) but just wanted to add a bit about Feather.
He went to the show with us as there wasn't much else we could do for him. He seemed to like it and was quite perky and interested all day. We got some food and water in him but I'm not really sure how much. His pee started to clear up a bit and he started showing an interest in food.
Today we've worked at stuffing him with as much as we can. He's not overly fond of plain water, so I've switched to giving him extra watery critta care which he takes happily. So far he's had 160g of food and I intend to give him another feed before bed. He was 808g this morning, and should finish tonight at about 880-890. Then tomorrow I'll try and stuff him with a good amount of food before I pack him back in the car for the drive back to the vets for another x-ray.
fingers crossed the inflammation has cleared!
He has been showing a lot more interest in food today. Not enough to sustain himself yet but he is nibbling at the hay, grass and dry feed. So he is definitely feeling better. He's also having issues with his pee. For most of today all he's managed to get out are a few drops, but he's just started doing his usual enormous pees again. He's also crying very loudly when he pees and crying and straining every time he poos. He's already on metacam so there's not much that can be done until the inflammation clears. I am hoping though that it might be a sign that Feather is about to pass the stone. If he can pass it himself it makes his treatment a whole lot simpler.
He went to the show with us as there wasn't much else we could do for him. He seemed to like it and was quite perky and interested all day. We got some food and water in him but I'm not really sure how much. His pee started to clear up a bit and he started showing an interest in food.
Today we've worked at stuffing him with as much as we can. He's not overly fond of plain water, so I've switched to giving him extra watery critta care which he takes happily. So far he's had 160g of food and I intend to give him another feed before bed. He was 808g this morning, and should finish tonight at about 880-890. Then tomorrow I'll try and stuff him with a good amount of food before I pack him back in the car for the drive back to the vets for another x-ray.
fingers crossed the inflammation has cleared!
He has been showing a lot more interest in food today. Not enough to sustain himself yet but he is nibbling at the hay, grass and dry feed. So he is definitely feeling better. He's also having issues with his pee. For most of today all he's managed to get out are a few drops, but he's just started doing his usual enormous pees again. He's also crying very loudly when he pees and crying and straining every time he poos. He's already on metacam so there's not much that can be done until the inflammation clears. I am hoping though that it might be a sign that Feather is about to pass the stone. If he can pass it himself it makes his treatment a whole lot simpler.
Friday, 22 June 2012
Feather - Day 6 & 7
I didn't post yesterday as I felt sure that I'd lose Feather, but he lives to fight another day.
Yesterday morning I booked him another vet appointment for Saturday (today) because there was still no improvement and yesterday afternoon he took another sudden downturn with burning hot ears and a clearly very sore tummy. I spent hours working to convince him to take just a bit of food and water, as I knew he had no chance of survival without food. All up he would've had 72g of Critta Care and over 100mL of water.
This morning he was back to his bright perky self, though still refusing to eat or move. So off we went to the vets. I was offered two choices, stronger AB's or an x-ray. I went with x-ray as I wanted to be certain what we were dealing with. So I left him there and drove back at midday. They were able to x-ray him without anaesthesia which was a plus but the results weren't so good. Firstly the bloody urine is caused by a very small bladder stone, one that's rather pointy and clearly cutting into the bladder wall. The constant pain, weight loss, refusal to eat and drink etc is cause by peritonitis. Basically an inflammation of the abdomen wall. The bladder stone is small enough that Feather 'could' pass it, but if he can't surgery isn't an option until the peritonitis is fixed. Right now if they attempted surgery he would die pretty much instantly.
So Feather's back home with a very large amount of metacam so at the very least we can keep him comfortable. He's also on a large dose (for a guinea pig anyway) of metronidazole. American's would call it Flagyl, English call it Torgyl and us aussies call it metronidazole. Unfortunately, since in Aus it's not normally given to pigs, it came in pill form, at a dose more suitable for large dogs. So I'm left splitting the tablets and suspending the crushed half tablet in water to get a semi-accurate dose. The vet originally wanted to prescribe oxytetracycline, but although I know some pigs can stomach it, a lot can't and I'd rather keep it for use solely as a topical antibotic. But my handy Disease of Domestic Guinea Pigs book helped us find a suitable alternative.
So Feather is to be given the metronidazole and the metacam daily, plus he has to be kept over-hydrated and well fed to see if we can flush his system out and nip this in the bud. He'll go back to the vets on Tuesday for another x-ray.
Anyway I brought home copies of Feathers x-rays so when I get a minute I'll post em up.
Best of all? two weeks worth of metronidazole and metacam plus the xrays only came to $162. So I'll be able to afford the next lot of x-rays and surgery if that is what is needed.
Yesterday morning I booked him another vet appointment for Saturday (today) because there was still no improvement and yesterday afternoon he took another sudden downturn with burning hot ears and a clearly very sore tummy. I spent hours working to convince him to take just a bit of food and water, as I knew he had no chance of survival without food. All up he would've had 72g of Critta Care and over 100mL of water.
This morning he was back to his bright perky self, though still refusing to eat or move. So off we went to the vets. I was offered two choices, stronger AB's or an x-ray. I went with x-ray as I wanted to be certain what we were dealing with. So I left him there and drove back at midday. They were able to x-ray him without anaesthesia which was a plus but the results weren't so good. Firstly the bloody urine is caused by a very small bladder stone, one that's rather pointy and clearly cutting into the bladder wall. The constant pain, weight loss, refusal to eat and drink etc is cause by peritonitis. Basically an inflammation of the abdomen wall. The bladder stone is small enough that Feather 'could' pass it, but if he can't surgery isn't an option until the peritonitis is fixed. Right now if they attempted surgery he would die pretty much instantly.
So Feather's back home with a very large amount of metacam so at the very least we can keep him comfortable. He's also on a large dose (for a guinea pig anyway) of metronidazole. American's would call it Flagyl, English call it Torgyl and us aussies call it metronidazole. Unfortunately, since in Aus it's not normally given to pigs, it came in pill form, at a dose more suitable for large dogs. So I'm left splitting the tablets and suspending the crushed half tablet in water to get a semi-accurate dose. The vet originally wanted to prescribe oxytetracycline, but although I know some pigs can stomach it, a lot can't and I'd rather keep it for use solely as a topical antibotic. But my handy Disease of Domestic Guinea Pigs book helped us find a suitable alternative.
So Feather is to be given the metronidazole and the metacam daily, plus he has to be kept over-hydrated and well fed to see if we can flush his system out and nip this in the bud. He'll go back to the vets on Tuesday for another x-ray.
Anyway I brought home copies of Feathers x-rays so when I get a minute I'll post em up.
Best of all? two weeks worth of metronidazole and metacam plus the xrays only came to $162. So I'll be able to afford the next lot of x-rays and surgery if that is what is needed.
Thursday, 21 June 2012
Feather- Day Five
Feather's still chugging along. He was 834g this morning and I've been feeding him throughout the day. He's been given the requisite 60g of Critta Care but I've no idea how much water I got into him. He dribbled out half of every syringe of water and peed the whole time so I couldn't get an estimate via the syringes or the weight changes.
But he's peeing a lot and the blood indicator on the urinalysis test strips is beginning to pale out which can only be a good sign. He's actually peeing a tonne, but I'm stuffing him with water so that could be the cause. I still can't convince him to eat on his own but we're getting this syringe feeding thing down pat. He'll take 24mL of Critta Care per feeding without making the slightest bit of mess now. Water on the other hand goes everywhere.
I go back to uni on Wednesday and Feather won't be able to come with me, so I'm praying he'll be fine by then. Otherwise I'm just going to have to hope he'll be okay for the eight or so hours I'll be away.
Anyway he's at 880g now, and I guess we'll see how he is in the morning.
I'm also trying to decide whether I should take him back to the vets this Saturday or wait till Monday, I'm still not sure.
But he's peeing a lot and the blood indicator on the urinalysis test strips is beginning to pale out which can only be a good sign. He's actually peeing a tonne, but I'm stuffing him with water so that could be the cause. I still can't convince him to eat on his own but we're getting this syringe feeding thing down pat. He'll take 24mL of Critta Care per feeding without making the slightest bit of mess now. Water on the other hand goes everywhere.
I go back to uni on Wednesday and Feather won't be able to come with me, so I'm praying he'll be fine by then. Otherwise I'm just going to have to hope he'll be okay for the eight or so hours I'll be away.
Anyway he's at 880g now, and I guess we'll see how he is in the morning.
I'm also trying to decide whether I should take him back to the vets this Saturday or wait till Monday, I'm still not sure.
Wednesday, 20 June 2012
Changes
I've still no idea whether Feather will make it. I had the idea that there might be kidney issues, so I figured the best bet now would be to flush his system. So I'm cutting down on the syringe fed food a bit in favour of water. He is still getting Critta Care but right now it seems a shortage of water in his system is going to kill him faster then starvation and I can only treat one thing at a time. There seems to have been some improvement since I started pumping him with water. He's showing less pain when he pees and a lot less blood. He seems a bit more energetic as well. He happily munched some parsely for me, though not much. One thing that really woke him up though was Lavinia. Before someone freaks they weren't allowed out of our hands but I had Lavinia out for her last treatment of Ivomec and was carrying both her and Feather to the table and wow did Feather get excited. Lots of sniffing and activity and much more activity looking for her after I took her away. I think if I'm struggling with him and food I might pop Nia (Lavinia) in a cage nearby and let him chat to her. I might be able to sneak the syringe in while he's busy.
In other news Nia's completely clear of her running lice so she's been introduced to the girls cage. Ebbie's been chasing her around for the past hour, but there's no sign of true aggression. Ebbie's just a strong believer in young sows having manners. But with three girls together it will make it that much easier to introduce Ayanna in once I'm sure she's pregnant. I've always had more success introducing a girl into a larger group rather then to just one another.
Ayanna's been with Sterling for ten days now and he's been driving her bonkers. Ebbie always stood up to him but Ayanna just shrinks away. I was hoping once she settled in she'd get a bit more attitude but oh well. I'm going to start giving her breaks from Sterling. Sterling never minds hanging out on a lap pad while I'm on the computer so I'll just let him spend more time with me. But I guess this does mean that he's likely to catch Ayanna the first time she comes on heat, he mounts her even when she's not. Which reminds me I need to stick some apple cider vinegar in the water to make sure Sterling doesn't give the poor girl a UTI.
Oh and I also picked up something interesting today. A loose leaf tea for expectant mothers made of raspberry leaves, rosehips, peppermint, ginger and a few other herbs. I'm thinking I'll make it up and keep it in the fridge and syringe it to Ayanna cold as her due date gets closer. As a youngish girl I'm not expecting too many issues, but it certainly can't hurt.
Nia who will be my other breeding girl already weighs in at 350g at just 6 weeks old. Once she hits 550g which will be about 3-4 months she'll go in with Laertes. Blacks are notorious for being overweight and going toxic when littering so she'll have the best chance as a young mother rather than waiting till she's older.
In other news Nia's completely clear of her running lice so she's been introduced to the girls cage. Ebbie's been chasing her around for the past hour, but there's no sign of true aggression. Ebbie's just a strong believer in young sows having manners. But with three girls together it will make it that much easier to introduce Ayanna in once I'm sure she's pregnant. I've always had more success introducing a girl into a larger group rather then to just one another.
Ayanna's been with Sterling for ten days now and he's been driving her bonkers. Ebbie always stood up to him but Ayanna just shrinks away. I was hoping once she settled in she'd get a bit more attitude but oh well. I'm going to start giving her breaks from Sterling. Sterling never minds hanging out on a lap pad while I'm on the computer so I'll just let him spend more time with me. But I guess this does mean that he's likely to catch Ayanna the first time she comes on heat, he mounts her even when she's not. Which reminds me I need to stick some apple cider vinegar in the water to make sure Sterling doesn't give the poor girl a UTI.
Oh and I also picked up something interesting today. A loose leaf tea for expectant mothers made of raspberry leaves, rosehips, peppermint, ginger and a few other herbs. I'm thinking I'll make it up and keep it in the fridge and syringe it to Ayanna cold as her due date gets closer. As a youngish girl I'm not expecting too many issues, but it certainly can't hurt.
Nia who will be my other breeding girl already weighs in at 350g at just 6 weeks old. Once she hits 550g which will be about 3-4 months she'll go in with Laertes. Blacks are notorious for being overweight and going toxic when littering so she'll have the best chance as a young mother rather than waiting till she's older.
Tuesday, 19 June 2012
Feather - Day 4
Well it's beginning to look like whatever's wrong isn't an infection. Even after the 60+g of food I stuffed into him last night he was back down to 817g this morning. He also seems to have stopped fighting. He just sits. He's started frequently choking on the Critta Care formula and is a lot less interested then he was before. I'm still praying we can pull him through this. So I gave him his Baytril and his last dose of metacam this morning as well as a good amount of glucose water to try and perk him up. The urine tests today showed that he's got a lot more blood and protein in his urine then before and the pH has dropped to 6.5. Then he got 24mL of Critta Care. This took him up to 840g. But if anything he's now looking much worse again. He's breathing heavily and beginning to go floppy. With pigs as long as they fight they can get through the worst things. But when they give up, they go downhill rapidly. I've never managed to save a pig after they've given up. I'll keep trying but it's not looking good at all.
Right now he's snuggled down on a snugglesafe in some sunshine and if nothing else is very comfortable. I'm not really sure what else I can do, he's passed the point where it would be safe to anaesthetise him for x-rays/scans, nor id there much evidence that an x-ray or scan would show anything. Most likely cause would be some sort of congenital kidney problem, that was exacerbated by the cystitis.
Right now he's snuggled down on a snugglesafe in some sunshine and if nothing else is very comfortable. I'm not really sure what else I can do, he's passed the point where it would be safe to anaesthetise him for x-rays/scans, nor id there much evidence that an x-ray or scan would show anything. Most likely cause would be some sort of congenital kidney problem, that was exacerbated by the cystitis.
Monday, 18 June 2012
Feather - Day Three
Not so good this morning. It's incredibly cold and poor Feather didn't do so well through the night. Even with the snugglesafe he was down to 806g this morning. So he got his medication and then 30g of Critta Care and is pretty much glued to his snugglesafe. He's still bright and happy just skinny. His butt was actually clean and dry this morning which was a definite improvement. He's still crying when he pees but his pee is now dark brown like old blood instead of the bright red it used to be. So it looks like the cystitis is starting to clear up, I just hope it was the cause of the weight loss, so Feather starts gaining soon.
Edited to add: His weight stayed sort of steady around the 820's for the rest of the day and I just gave him a big dinner. He ate 41g of Critta Care. I haven't actually reached the point where he absolutely refuses to take it but I can't see a piggy tummy holding much more then 40g or so of feed. Before his feed at 8 PM he was 819g and after 860g. Guess we'll just see how he goes through the night. He did pee bright red blood again as well today.
He's only got one more dose of metacam left and this Saturday will be day seven of the antibiotics. If he's still unable to gain weight by then, it'll have to be back to the vets for an x-ray/ultrasound and a detailed blood analysis. I really hope that's not needed, I've lost pigs under aneasthetic before and I prefer to avoid the need for anaesthesia wherever possible. Makes me kind of wish he showed signs of malocclusion. I have all the equipment needed (professional files and buccal pad separators) and some vets who would be willing to give it a go. But hopefully he will start improving soon. If nothing else he hasn't gone backwards by much. He's lowest weight since medication is just 4g less then his lowest weight before. His butt hair has dried out and he's stopped smelling and he's peeing less (he's always peed about three times the amount of any other guinea pig). Now he just needs to gain weight, and stop having red painful pee.
ETA 2 - I convinced him to eat another 23g of food leaving his final weight for the night at 873g. I was a bit worried about keeping him warm tonight and then realised I had totally forgotten about Fortinbras. So I've popped both Feather and Fortinbras into a carry cage together with food, water and a snugglesafe and set them near the fireplace. Hopefully that'll help Feather stay warm through the lovely -4 degrees night.
Edited to add: His weight stayed sort of steady around the 820's for the rest of the day and I just gave him a big dinner. He ate 41g of Critta Care. I haven't actually reached the point where he absolutely refuses to take it but I can't see a piggy tummy holding much more then 40g or so of feed. Before his feed at 8 PM he was 819g and after 860g. Guess we'll just see how he goes through the night. He did pee bright red blood again as well today.
He's only got one more dose of metacam left and this Saturday will be day seven of the antibiotics. If he's still unable to gain weight by then, it'll have to be back to the vets for an x-ray/ultrasound and a detailed blood analysis. I really hope that's not needed, I've lost pigs under aneasthetic before and I prefer to avoid the need for anaesthesia wherever possible. Makes me kind of wish he showed signs of malocclusion. I have all the equipment needed (professional files and buccal pad separators) and some vets who would be willing to give it a go. But hopefully he will start improving soon. If nothing else he hasn't gone backwards by much. He's lowest weight since medication is just 4g less then his lowest weight before. His butt hair has dried out and he's stopped smelling and he's peeing less (he's always peed about three times the amount of any other guinea pig). Now he just needs to gain weight, and stop having red painful pee.
ETA 2 - I convinced him to eat another 23g of food leaving his final weight for the night at 873g. I was a bit worried about keeping him warm tonight and then realised I had totally forgotten about Fortinbras. So I've popped both Feather and Fortinbras into a carry cage together with food, water and a snugglesafe and set them near the fireplace. Hopefully that'll help Feather stay warm through the lovely -4 degrees night.
Sunday, 17 June 2012
Feather - Day Two
Well, I do believe we have improvement. Feather was 834g at about 11pm last night and 820g at 10am this morning. Since he hadn't gone completely backwards I decided to take a chance and skip his breakfast in favor of a mass amount of grass. Something which he clearly approved as he's currently sitting at 849 without any hand feeding.
I gave him 0.65mL of his Baytril and 0.2mL of his metacam at 10 and then a good dose of probiotics at 1 and he's looking quite chirpy. He's now sitting out in the sun with his favorite human and a selection of his favorite garden weeds. If he wasn't spoiled before this... LOL
Fingers and toes crossed his weight keeps going up! If he's over 850 tonight I'll skip his dinner as well and instead give him some nice veggies of some sort or other.
The ag store also finally called to let me know they have my lupins back in stock so I'll pick them up this afternoon and that should cheer all the pigs up. None are very fond of my replacing the lupins with oats in their mix.
I gave him 0.65mL of his Baytril and 0.2mL of his metacam at 10 and then a good dose of probiotics at 1 and he's looking quite chirpy. He's now sitting out in the sun with his favorite human and a selection of his favorite garden weeds. If he wasn't spoiled before this... LOL
Fingers and toes crossed his weight keeps going up! If he's over 850 tonight I'll skip his dinner as well and instead give him some nice veggies of some sort or other.
The ag store also finally called to let me know they have my lupins back in stock so I'll pick them up this afternoon and that should cheer all the pigs up. None are very fond of my replacing the lupins with oats in their mix.
Seven day count down.
I think I've mentioned before that my next show is on the 24th and is the ACA's second show out at Inverell. Hopefully this one will be a bit bigger then the last one and we've been working hard to advertise it. I'm quite looking forward to it. Apparently we'll have seven studs in attendance, so there may be some actual competition.
Currently my entries stand thus...
Symphonia Laertes - Black Dalmatian Class
Pipsqueak Sterling - Clipped Longhair Class
Pipsqueak Edmund - Clipped Longhair Class
Pipsqueak Ebony Charm - Clipped Longhair Class
(Because of the small turn out the clipped longhair class will be competing for BIS)
Then in the megapet show I have entered
Symphonia Rosaline in Best Baby, Plain Paula, Best Conditioned, Prettiest Pet, Best Presented, Best Coarsecoat and Senior Handler.
Pipsqueak Fortinbras is entered in Fastest Eater, Best Conditioned, Fluffiest and Best Rosetted.
Pipsqueak Feather is currently entered in Cutest Face, Faster Eater, Prettiest and Senior Handler.
Obviously if Feather is still ill he won't be competing however he's still going to have to come along. If he's well he'll be competing, if he's not he'll still need his syringe feeds meaning I can't leave him at home for a whole day. But I have plenty of time to change entries if needed and I will just enter Fortinbras into the classes I had intended for Feather.
I also need to start planning my entries for the Xmas in July NSWCC show which is four weeks away. I'll be staying with a friend so I need to economise on caging but I think I can afford 3-4 pigs. Obviously Laertes will be attending and I think I'll enter Ebbie in the pet class. But there'll be extra themed novelty classes on so I'm thinking I might take Sterling and Rosie too. I need to put thought into the fancy dress class. And the decorated carry cage class of course (I have some EXCELLENT ideas for that at least LOL).
Anyway Feather is all tucked in for the night and I'm beat so I think it's time to head off with Luther to bed.
Currently my entries stand thus...
Symphonia Laertes - Black Dalmatian Class
Pipsqueak Sterling - Clipped Longhair Class
Pipsqueak Edmund - Clipped Longhair Class
Pipsqueak Ebony Charm - Clipped Longhair Class
(Because of the small turn out the clipped longhair class will be competing for BIS)
Then in the megapet show I have entered
Symphonia Rosaline in Best Baby, Plain Paula, Best Conditioned, Prettiest Pet, Best Presented, Best Coarsecoat and Senior Handler.
Pipsqueak Fortinbras is entered in Fastest Eater, Best Conditioned, Fluffiest and Best Rosetted.
Pipsqueak Feather is currently entered in Cutest Face, Faster Eater, Prettiest and Senior Handler.
Obviously if Feather is still ill he won't be competing however he's still going to have to come along. If he's well he'll be competing, if he's not he'll still need his syringe feeds meaning I can't leave him at home for a whole day. But I have plenty of time to change entries if needed and I will just enter Fortinbras into the classes I had intended for Feather.
I also need to start planning my entries for the Xmas in July NSWCC show which is four weeks away. I'll be staying with a friend so I need to economise on caging but I think I can afford 3-4 pigs. Obviously Laertes will be attending and I think I'll enter Ebbie in the pet class. But there'll be extra themed novelty classes on so I'm thinking I might take Sterling and Rosie too. I need to put thought into the fancy dress class. And the decorated carry cage class of course (I have some EXCELLENT ideas for that at least LOL).
Anyway Feather is all tucked in for the night and I'm beat so I think it's time to head off with Luther to bed.
Saturday, 16 June 2012
Feather at the Vet
We just got back from the vets. Feather was an absolute darling and spent the morning in the vestry of our church singing along to the hymns (he was so cute LOL). Because of the timing he had to come with us as we didn't have enough time to get home from church collect him and go back in, so he went along.
The vet was fantastic. I gave him the urinalysis results I had done with the test strips, and he agreed that Feather was too young for kidney failure anyway and the results proved it wasn't that or diabetes. He thought that stones were unlikely considering his age as well. He also thought the weight loss was probably stress induced from the UTI. So he gave Feather an injection of Baytril and some Metacam (first vet I found who wasn't reluctant to give it to me) as well as another weeks worth of oral baytril and three days worth of metacam. He thought that the antibiotics should have kicked in, in three days meaning further pain relief wouldn't be necessary. And the best bit? he only charged me $31.90 as it was my first visit he waived the consultation fee. I was happy, I was prepared to pay whatever was needed but it's nice to not have a vet charge through the nose for once.
So Feather is now back in his cage with his cagemate and a snugglesafe. He's still eating fine, still pooping and peeing and looking like, well, Feather so we'll see. He was 818g this morning, I gave him 20g Critta Care before we left but he was down to 815g when we got home. So I'm going to keep the critta care up for the next few days in the hopes of preventing further weight loss. Hopefully once the antibiotics kick in he'll start gaining weight on his own. So the plan is three 'meals' a day for him of about 20g each (or more if I can convince him), plus constant access to some nice diuretic veggies (celery etc) to give his system a good flushing out as well as his usual dry feed, hay and fresh water. Plus a dose of baytril and metacam each morning followed by a probiotic two hours later.
And if all goes well he should be back to his usual weight within a few weeks. If not we'll go back in, in a week and get him xrayed and a blood analysis done.
Edited to add: I just gave Feather his 'lunch'. Have to say, it's a treat to hand feed a pig that hasn't lost it's appetite. Generally I end up trying to just get a few mL's into a sick pig. This time though I got 33g into Feather before running out of made up critta care. So I've left him munching on cucumber. He peed again and this time it was only light pink, which suggests the damage isn't too bad, so hopefully he'll heal quickly. I spoke to Mum and she held him on Monday and there was no sign of blood or pain, so what i noticed on Wednesday was probably the start of the bleeding, so he should be fine soon. Once his pee does become clear again I'll use the test strips to ensure his urine is totally clear of blood cells, once it is I'll assume he's fine.
Edited to add 2 - Feather just got his 'dinner' tonight at 8pm. So before his lunch he weighed 812g, after he weighed 845g. This was at 1pm. By 8pm he weighed 828g before and 853g after. This morning he was fed at 7am and was 818 (he ate 25g) and was down to 812 six hours later. So at least he lost less between lunch and dinner, only 17g rather then the 31g of before. So hopefully he'll keep the trend up. I'll phase hand feeding out once he can gain on his pre dinner weight up through the night. He is still eating at least. Fortinbras is being a pest so I've moved Feather to a carry cage with food, water and a snugglesafe near the fire. He's been slowly munching at things the whole time and is definitely drinking by himself. If I can get him back to 900g I'll be certain he's on the mend. So we'll just keep chugging along and I'll keep my fingers and toes crossed for him. The cystitis doesn't worry me but the weight loss really does.
The vet was fantastic. I gave him the urinalysis results I had done with the test strips, and he agreed that Feather was too young for kidney failure anyway and the results proved it wasn't that or diabetes. He thought that stones were unlikely considering his age as well. He also thought the weight loss was probably stress induced from the UTI. So he gave Feather an injection of Baytril and some Metacam (first vet I found who wasn't reluctant to give it to me) as well as another weeks worth of oral baytril and three days worth of metacam. He thought that the antibiotics should have kicked in, in three days meaning further pain relief wouldn't be necessary. And the best bit? he only charged me $31.90 as it was my first visit he waived the consultation fee. I was happy, I was prepared to pay whatever was needed but it's nice to not have a vet charge through the nose for once.
So Feather is now back in his cage with his cagemate and a snugglesafe. He's still eating fine, still pooping and peeing and looking like, well, Feather so we'll see. He was 818g this morning, I gave him 20g Critta Care before we left but he was down to 815g when we got home. So I'm going to keep the critta care up for the next few days in the hopes of preventing further weight loss. Hopefully once the antibiotics kick in he'll start gaining weight on his own. So the plan is three 'meals' a day for him of about 20g each (or more if I can convince him), plus constant access to some nice diuretic veggies (celery etc) to give his system a good flushing out as well as his usual dry feed, hay and fresh water. Plus a dose of baytril and metacam each morning followed by a probiotic two hours later.
And if all goes well he should be back to his usual weight within a few weeks. If not we'll go back in, in a week and get him xrayed and a blood analysis done.
Edited to add: I just gave Feather his 'lunch'. Have to say, it's a treat to hand feed a pig that hasn't lost it's appetite. Generally I end up trying to just get a few mL's into a sick pig. This time though I got 33g into Feather before running out of made up critta care. So I've left him munching on cucumber. He peed again and this time it was only light pink, which suggests the damage isn't too bad, so hopefully he'll heal quickly. I spoke to Mum and she held him on Monday and there was no sign of blood or pain, so what i noticed on Wednesday was probably the start of the bleeding, so he should be fine soon. Once his pee does become clear again I'll use the test strips to ensure his urine is totally clear of blood cells, once it is I'll assume he's fine.
Edited to add 2 - Feather just got his 'dinner' tonight at 8pm. So before his lunch he weighed 812g, after he weighed 845g. This was at 1pm. By 8pm he weighed 828g before and 853g after. This morning he was fed at 7am and was 818 (he ate 25g) and was down to 812 six hours later. So at least he lost less between lunch and dinner, only 17g rather then the 31g of before. So hopefully he'll keep the trend up. I'll phase hand feeding out once he can gain on his pre dinner weight up through the night. He is still eating at least. Fortinbras is being a pest so I've moved Feather to a carry cage with food, water and a snugglesafe near the fire. He's been slowly munching at things the whole time and is definitely drinking by himself. If I can get him back to 900g I'll be certain he's on the mend. So we'll just keep chugging along and I'll keep my fingers and toes crossed for him. The cystitis doesn't worry me but the weight loss really does.
Friday, 15 June 2012
Feather
Well I went and spent a fortune today on some urinalysis test strips to check Feather. The results have left me a bit confused. I was expecting a result suggesting diabetes or kidney failure, but I got neither. He's negative for ketones, glucose and bilrubin. His urobilinogen and protein levels are normal (at 0.2/dl and 0.3g/l respectively). pH is at 8.5. The only abnormal reading was for large amounts of blood, which well, you can see when he pees anyway.
None of that explains the weight loss... His cage mate (Fortinbras) is as fat as ever so it's not an environmental issue, and neither is territorial about their food bowls.
So I still have no idea. Though the tests did make me feel better. If it was kidney failure or diabetes his symptoms would place him at the end stage which would show up clearly on the test strips.
The Ural is having some affect, he's still showing pain when he pees but it's a lot less then it was. Also now that there is no sign of kidney damage he's on pain medication. According to the probabilities this is more then likely a UTI, at eleven months old Feather is very very young to develop bladder/kidney stones but they aren't out of the range of possibilities.
So we'll get him through today and tomorrow and if there's still blood he's off to the vets on Monday, probably for an ultrasound and a course of baytril. It's times like this I am ever so grateful for the savings I have that are specifically for veterinary bills.
Weight wise Feather was 827g yesterday morning and rose to 840g by eleven at night. This morning he was 825g at 8am but now at 11 is closer to 840g. Which shows that he is still eating which is really the important bit.
Edited to Add: I forgot (again) that we have seven day vets up here. So Feather's booked in for tomorrow morning at one of the bigger vet centres. They apparently have a rabbit expert there which is a lot close to pigs then a dog expert but still. Anyway I'll post up how it went. Poor lil guy.
None of that explains the weight loss... His cage mate (Fortinbras) is as fat as ever so it's not an environmental issue, and neither is territorial about their food bowls.
So I still have no idea. Though the tests did make me feel better. If it was kidney failure or diabetes his symptoms would place him at the end stage which would show up clearly on the test strips.
The Ural is having some affect, he's still showing pain when he pees but it's a lot less then it was. Also now that there is no sign of kidney damage he's on pain medication. According to the probabilities this is more then likely a UTI, at eleven months old Feather is very very young to develop bladder/kidney stones but they aren't out of the range of possibilities.
So we'll get him through today and tomorrow and if there's still blood he's off to the vets on Monday, probably for an ultrasound and a course of baytril. It's times like this I am ever so grateful for the savings I have that are specifically for veterinary bills.
Weight wise Feather was 827g yesterday morning and rose to 840g by eleven at night. This morning he was 825g at 8am but now at 11 is closer to 840g. Which shows that he is still eating which is really the important bit.
Edited to Add: I forgot (again) that we have seven day vets up here. So Feather's booked in for tomorrow morning at one of the bigger vet centres. They apparently have a rabbit expert there which is a lot close to pigs then a dog expert but still. Anyway I'll post up how it went. Poor lil guy.
Worries...
Okay so I've had enough sleep, so this post might make a bit more sense then the last.
Apparently tis the season for the health issues to appear. I'm not worried about the running lice (I think I mentioned I brought some home from the last show) and it already seems to be clearing up nicely with ivomec and Fido's Free Itch, but what I am concerned about is poor Feather. Poor little guys not even a year old and already Murphy's showing his face. He's suddenly dropped weight, 150g in the past six weeks. The problem is that life got so hectic I haven't been weighing weekly and since he looked and felt the same I thought all was well. He doesn't look or feel like he's lost weight, he just looks and acts like, well, Feather. But he also has some sort of UTI. He's squeaking when he pees, and lifting his butt and each pee ends with a few small drops of blood. So right now he's on Ural, if it is just cystitis he'll be fine in a day or two, if it's not, well then a trip to the vets is in order. My issue is that if it isn't a run of the mill UTI, that leaves two options, stones or kidney failure. Neither are exactly treatable. I still haven't managed to find a vet I can trust up here and I can't exactly drive him five hours back to the Sugarloaf vet hospital, who are one of the few places I would trust to do something as touchy as an operation for stones on a boar. Feather doesn't travel well, it's why I never take him to NSWCC shows. I'd assume an ill Feather would be even worse. An kidney failure is well, kidney failure. Only option is to keep them comfortable and when you can't do that, you euthanise.
The weight loss would suggest kidney failure. He was 850g on Wednesday, 840 on Thursday, and 827 this morning. I dosed him up with critta care and apple sauce (about 20g in one sitting) and then kept an eye on his weight all day, he steadily gained back up to 840g, so that's something at least. All I can do is wait and see his weight in the morning.
Other then that he's the same as always. Bright, bouncy with a touch of pure insanity, the true sheba personality. He's eating like a little pig and has everything he could want in his cage.
I'm praying that it's just a UTI. I can't see how an eleven month old boar could end up with stones or kidney failure, unless it was congenital? It's not like he's been mainlining calcium or anything, he gets the same diet as every other boar I own and they are fine. Only difference is Feather likes to pick the oaten chaff out of his feed and avoids his lupins, which would have no effect on the calcium level of his diet.
Apparently tis the season for the health issues to appear. I'm not worried about the running lice (I think I mentioned I brought some home from the last show) and it already seems to be clearing up nicely with ivomec and Fido's Free Itch, but what I am concerned about is poor Feather. Poor little guys not even a year old and already Murphy's showing his face. He's suddenly dropped weight, 150g in the past six weeks. The problem is that life got so hectic I haven't been weighing weekly and since he looked and felt the same I thought all was well. He doesn't look or feel like he's lost weight, he just looks and acts like, well, Feather. But he also has some sort of UTI. He's squeaking when he pees, and lifting his butt and each pee ends with a few small drops of blood. So right now he's on Ural, if it is just cystitis he'll be fine in a day or two, if it's not, well then a trip to the vets is in order. My issue is that if it isn't a run of the mill UTI, that leaves two options, stones or kidney failure. Neither are exactly treatable. I still haven't managed to find a vet I can trust up here and I can't exactly drive him five hours back to the Sugarloaf vet hospital, who are one of the few places I would trust to do something as touchy as an operation for stones on a boar. Feather doesn't travel well, it's why I never take him to NSWCC shows. I'd assume an ill Feather would be even worse. An kidney failure is well, kidney failure. Only option is to keep them comfortable and when you can't do that, you euthanise.
The weight loss would suggest kidney failure. He was 850g on Wednesday, 840 on Thursday, and 827 this morning. I dosed him up with critta care and apple sauce (about 20g in one sitting) and then kept an eye on his weight all day, he steadily gained back up to 840g, so that's something at least. All I can do is wait and see his weight in the morning.
Other then that he's the same as always. Bright, bouncy with a touch of pure insanity, the true sheba personality. He's eating like a little pig and has everything he could want in his cage.
I'm praying that it's just a UTI. I can't see how an eleven month old boar could end up with stones or kidney failure, unless it was congenital? It's not like he's been mainlining calcium or anything, he gets the same diet as every other boar I own and they are fine. Only difference is Feather likes to pick the oaten chaff out of his feed and avoids his lupins, which would have no effect on the calcium level of his diet.
Tuesday, 12 June 2012
Ramblings...
Okay, so I'm pretty exhausted so I apologise in advance for the meandering confused nature of this post.
I got back today from my five day trip for the NSWCC double show. It was great fun, but incredibly exhausting. I think five days was too long to be away as well, both me and the pigs were pretty frayed by the time we got home.
Disaster unfortunately also struck. Eddie now has a neat bowl cut. He was twitchy at the show and I did my usual routine to settle him down by leaving him up on the grooming stand where he could watch the crowd. A child decided that her pet pig needed to meet Eddie and held it up for kisses before I could stop her. At that point my best guess is Eddie picked up some sort of parasite, a flea or a tick or something. Within minutes of pulling out of the show ground Eddie flipped out spinning, kicking and biting even rolling on his back. It was dark and raining and I was by myself with no place to pull over so I ended up driving for two hours with him on my lap trying to keep him calm till I got home and into the light.
Even that wasn't enough and even after redoing his wrappers once we got home he was still freaking out and tore a wrapper out. So I cut his coat off, and he kept flipping out. He only stopped after a long dip in Fido's Free-Itch, a pyrethrin based shampoo I had luckily picked up at the show. So it's a pity he's lost his coat but I was more concerned for him and I'm glad he seems okay now. He's very touchy over the area where he tore the wrapper out but I would be in pain too if I'd torn a massive chunk of hair out.
But before he flipped out Eddie did have a good time at the show. He took out a BIG for the Chocoholics show but didn't place at the Queens Birthday Show. Laertes didn't win BOB at either show as he was beaten by an extraordinarily beautiful black dalmatian adult show (I must find out what stud she's from). But he did take out Best Baby Marked at the Chocoholics show.
Sterling took out Best Pet again and the judge thought he was magnificent, actually everyone thought he was magnificent. He spent much of the day hanging out on the grooming stand and certainly caught the publics attention.
Now as to purchases. I came home with three newbies again. I picked up Chantilly Emmanuel and Chantilly Ayanna from Chantelle of Chantilly Cavies. Emmanuel is an absolutely gorgeous young sheltie who will begin his show career at the August NSWCC. Ayanna is here to replace Ebbie and as already been popped in with Sterling. Finally I picked up a little self black sow who is half sister to Laertes. They share the same father Bakerville Zircon. Though I haven't met Zircon I have seen his progeny. He throws pigs with good blazes and the most amazing dark feet, though the spotting is a bit hit and miss. But because Symphonia Lavinia possesses the genetic modifiers needed (though she is not a dalmatian and does not 'carry' dalmatian, as dalmatian is not a gene that can be carried there is no chance of micros) she should ensure the babies have the right demarcation, blazes and feet while Laertes helps with the spotting... Little Lavinia is only five weeks old so she's got quite a bit of growing to do until she's ready to bred. Until then Ebony will teach her her manners.
I got back today from my five day trip for the NSWCC double show. It was great fun, but incredibly exhausting. I think five days was too long to be away as well, both me and the pigs were pretty frayed by the time we got home.
Disaster unfortunately also struck. Eddie now has a neat bowl cut. He was twitchy at the show and I did my usual routine to settle him down by leaving him up on the grooming stand where he could watch the crowd. A child decided that her pet pig needed to meet Eddie and held it up for kisses before I could stop her. At that point my best guess is Eddie picked up some sort of parasite, a flea or a tick or something. Within minutes of pulling out of the show ground Eddie flipped out spinning, kicking and biting even rolling on his back. It was dark and raining and I was by myself with no place to pull over so I ended up driving for two hours with him on my lap trying to keep him calm till I got home and into the light.
Even that wasn't enough and even after redoing his wrappers once we got home he was still freaking out and tore a wrapper out. So I cut his coat off, and he kept flipping out. He only stopped after a long dip in Fido's Free-Itch, a pyrethrin based shampoo I had luckily picked up at the show. So it's a pity he's lost his coat but I was more concerned for him and I'm glad he seems okay now. He's very touchy over the area where he tore the wrapper out but I would be in pain too if I'd torn a massive chunk of hair out.
But before he flipped out Eddie did have a good time at the show. He took out a BIG for the Chocoholics show but didn't place at the Queens Birthday Show. Laertes didn't win BOB at either show as he was beaten by an extraordinarily beautiful black dalmatian adult show (I must find out what stud she's from). But he did take out Best Baby Marked at the Chocoholics show.
Sterling took out Best Pet again and the judge thought he was magnificent, actually everyone thought he was magnificent. He spent much of the day hanging out on the grooming stand and certainly caught the publics attention.
Now as to purchases. I came home with three newbies again. I picked up Chantilly Emmanuel and Chantilly Ayanna from Chantelle of Chantilly Cavies. Emmanuel is an absolutely gorgeous young sheltie who will begin his show career at the August NSWCC. Ayanna is here to replace Ebbie and as already been popped in with Sterling. Finally I picked up a little self black sow who is half sister to Laertes. They share the same father Bakerville Zircon. Though I haven't met Zircon I have seen his progeny. He throws pigs with good blazes and the most amazing dark feet, though the spotting is a bit hit and miss. But because Symphonia Lavinia possesses the genetic modifiers needed (though she is not a dalmatian and does not 'carry' dalmatian, as dalmatian is not a gene that can be carried there is no chance of micros) she should ensure the babies have the right demarcation, blazes and feet while Laertes helps with the spotting... Little Lavinia is only five weeks old so she's got quite a bit of growing to do until she's ready to bred. Until then Ebony will teach her her manners.
Friday, 1 June 2012
Eight Days...
Okay so it's eight days now until the big double show. And ummm wow I have a lot to do...
Let's see, this weekend is devoted to writing an Indigenous Law take home exam and studying for my Psychology exam which is Tuesday morning. Then straight after the exam I need to head out to the shops and buy some much needed feed as well as miscellanea items for my trip. Wednesday we have a power interruption so we're spending the day out, Thursday I pack and Friday I clean all the cages out and then sale down the mountain for my five day 'holiday'.
In between this La-La needs to be groomed which normally involves a week of work, Lu-Lu the rabbit is moving from being partly caged to fully free range and is having constant arguments with me over where his litterpan should go and I somehow need to sort five days of food out. I'm one of those annoying people who is vegetarian, gluten free, lactose intolerant and with an allergy to citric acid. So basically it's homecooked or I don't eat.
I also have a lot of sewing piling up. Although the cages are at a functional level all with their own set of incontinence pads and vetbed or fleece pads (except for the girls). I have about ten more cozies to make so they don't freeze this winter, Eddie has yet again grown out of his fleece wrappers so I need to make him a new set as well and I still haven't made the bedding for the new carry cages.
Oh and to add insult to injury we have a mice and rat problem at the moment.
So life is hectic but we are steadily getting there. I always have these grand plans but I then need to actually do them which is the hard bit. Now that Lu's moved out of his cage (like he was using it anyway) I can convert it into two 120cm x 76cm cages. But I don't actually need two more cages at the moment. I am hoping that these next three planned litters work, which would then mean I might just need the cages... I hope.
But since I'm seriously avoiding study I thought I'd also add some pics of the cage system at the moment. Currently I have two 'banks' running.
Firstly the one I bought initially with two pet store cages on top (with fleece, incontinence pad and cotton cage pads) and then the girls eight foot run (still on kitty litter at the mo, will switch over to vetbed when/if I ever have four + girls in there) and the two four foot cages (both purple vetbed and chino care incontinence pads).
Then I have the new boar tower, which will be mainly for show boars and breeding boars. I really like this actually, it's three medium dog crates stacked and zip tied together with corflute bases. Eventually the boys will all get a second floor to jump on and off to give them lots of nice muscles. The bedding here is dark blue vet bed with Safe n Dry Incontinence Pads.
Laertes shows off his new digs...
And Feather and Fortinbras studiously ignore me...
What isn't shown in these pictures is my awesome new hayrack system designed to function with the vetbed and give the pigs 24/7 access to hay and prevent me from being driven insane trying to get the stuff back off the bedding. But I will show that in another post. But rest assured, all my babies have constant access to hay.
Long term cage plans are still fairly similar. I still instead to add another level of wooden cages to the big bank to create four small cages for show longhairs. Then I'm still toying with the idea of another tower for boys. Plus I'll convert Lu's cage and might buy another given me four 120 x 76cm cages.
All up that'll give me 10 'single size' cages for my crotchety boys and show longhairs, two 120 x 60cm cages, one 240cm x 60cm cage and four 120cm x 76cm cages. Which should provide me with more then enough room for a small stud with a max capacity of about 35.
Let's see, this weekend is devoted to writing an Indigenous Law take home exam and studying for my Psychology exam which is Tuesday morning. Then straight after the exam I need to head out to the shops and buy some much needed feed as well as miscellanea items for my trip. Wednesday we have a power interruption so we're spending the day out, Thursday I pack and Friday I clean all the cages out and then sale down the mountain for my five day 'holiday'.
In between this La-La needs to be groomed which normally involves a week of work, Lu-Lu the rabbit is moving from being partly caged to fully free range and is having constant arguments with me over where his litterpan should go and I somehow need to sort five days of food out. I'm one of those annoying people who is vegetarian, gluten free, lactose intolerant and with an allergy to citric acid. So basically it's homecooked or I don't eat.
I also have a lot of sewing piling up. Although the cages are at a functional level all with their own set of incontinence pads and vetbed or fleece pads (except for the girls). I have about ten more cozies to make so they don't freeze this winter, Eddie has yet again grown out of his fleece wrappers so I need to make him a new set as well and I still haven't made the bedding for the new carry cages.
Oh and to add insult to injury we have a mice and rat problem at the moment.
So life is hectic but we are steadily getting there. I always have these grand plans but I then need to actually do them which is the hard bit. Now that Lu's moved out of his cage (like he was using it anyway) I can convert it into two 120cm x 76cm cages. But I don't actually need two more cages at the moment. I am hoping that these next three planned litters work, which would then mean I might just need the cages... I hope.
But since I'm seriously avoiding study I thought I'd also add some pics of the cage system at the moment. Currently I have two 'banks' running.
Firstly the one I bought initially with two pet store cages on top (with fleece, incontinence pad and cotton cage pads) and then the girls eight foot run (still on kitty litter at the mo, will switch over to vetbed when/if I ever have four + girls in there) and the two four foot cages (both purple vetbed and chino care incontinence pads).
Then I have the new boar tower, which will be mainly for show boars and breeding boars. I really like this actually, it's three medium dog crates stacked and zip tied together with corflute bases. Eventually the boys will all get a second floor to jump on and off to give them lots of nice muscles. The bedding here is dark blue vet bed with Safe n Dry Incontinence Pads.
Laertes shows off his new digs...
And Feather and Fortinbras studiously ignore me...
What isn't shown in these pictures is my awesome new hayrack system designed to function with the vetbed and give the pigs 24/7 access to hay and prevent me from being driven insane trying to get the stuff back off the bedding. But I will show that in another post. But rest assured, all my babies have constant access to hay.
Long term cage plans are still fairly similar. I still instead to add another level of wooden cages to the big bank to create four small cages for show longhairs. Then I'm still toying with the idea of another tower for boys. Plus I'll convert Lu's cage and might buy another given me four 120 x 76cm cages.
All up that'll give me 10 'single size' cages for my crotchety boys and show longhairs, two 120 x 60cm cages, one 240cm x 60cm cage and four 120cm x 76cm cages. Which should provide me with more then enough room for a small stud with a max capacity of about 35.
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