Samsara Cavies on the road again.

Can you say busy? My life reached the point of beyond hectic a few days ago and hasn't slowed down yet. The interest in the Compendium has been well beyond expectations and I find myself rushing to fill orders while I try to complete university assessments and get my traveling menagerie prepared for another trip. It is all good, just very busy.

So the news of the hour is that I have arranged to buy another stud boar. Yep another one... I'm a wee bit hopeless. This boy is everything I could ever want though. He's a tri colour coronet (no agouti whooo!) who carries texel and may possibly carry satin. This means that when bred to a texel sow he can give me shelties, coronets, merinos and texels. Plus that gives me two potential satin carriers in the stud. Which leaves me with the teensiest of chances of producing satin longs, which is better than no chance at all. Of himself he comes from an absolutely amazing stud and has won a Reserve in Show, his offspring also seem to do quite well at shows. I'm quite excited. A friend is collecting him from the National for me.

In other news Ayanna feels to be at the six week mark so Sterling has performed his duty admirably once again and I'm now just impatiently waiting to feel movement so I can more accurately guesstimate her due date.

Feather and Tommi continue to gain weight and both seem like they are passed the worst of it.

Oh and there are two other girls who will be joining the Samsara menagerie. I uh fell in love with a gorgeous crested sable and I just couldn't resist her. I'm going to show her on the weekend and probably bring her and her cagemate home with me.


As to the weekend it's the August winter show and AGM for the NSWCC and I have entered Laertes in his dally class, Manny in his sheltie class and Ebbie as my requisite pet. I'm taking down a whole tonne of CD's of the Compendium and some hard copies as well and we'll see how they sell. I've had no NSWCC members contact me about the Compendium which either means they aren't interested or I'll be besieged at the show. I don't really mind either way. The orders I've had will cover my petrol for several more shows which is more then I could ask for as is.

Random comments of the day.

Just figured I'd post up the random thoughts and occurrences of life at Samsara cavies. This is after all more a record then anything else.

The Compendium has been met with great interest and I've had 19 orders for it so far in the past two days since advertising it. Might not be much to some, but that represents two separate Sydney shows worth of petrol right there, which in my books is absolutely excellent! I have a very busy week ahead of me to get it all loaded on CD's and ready to be posted out, or available for sale at the NSW show or sent with a friend to the National.  I now need to buy more supplies for it....

Manny managed to keep his butt wrapper in overnight which made me very happy. I've put the side wrappers aside for now as his coat just isn't long enough. I also need to talk to some longhair show people about trimming the hair around his privates. He keeps getting his coat stuck in his penis and it's clearly uncomfortable, but I'm not sure how much I can trim.

Ebony had her first proper haircut since her coat grew back from her hormonal hair loss. She has a nice respectable uber thick bowl cut without all those weird wispy bits now. I also gave her a very good comb to make sure there's no mini knots developing (there wasn't). So apart from needing a good wash she's now ready for the show Sunday week. She's entered as a pet. When I have a minute I really have to bring up the possibility of introducing clipped long classes.

Eddies diarrhea finally abated after multiple doses of probiotic. It wasn't true diarrhea, just mushy and annoying. I'll just ahve to be careful to keep him away from corflute in the future.

Feather is up to 780g and is slowly but steadily working his way back to health.

All pigs are up 20-60g in the past week. Nia and Manny are both up 60g and the older pigs are up 20-30g. Manny is going to be ginormous as an adult, he's at 680g already at just two and a half months old. Nia is at a more respectable 580g as Ebbie is working diligently at keeping her in breeding condition.

Life goes on.

Figured another update was in order. I've been incredibly busy as we are getting to crunch time at uni as well, buy busy can be fun.

I'm still getting settled back into the cavy fancy. In many ways it's odd to be back, the same faces and new faces. There have been reminders as well that people are people, some good, some not so good.

I thought I'd share some of the lessons I've learned from the fancy, both as a child and now, back as an almost adult (I refuse to accept that being twenty makes me an adult).

You aren't a hundred dollar bill, you can't expect everyone to like you.

There are amazing people out there, even willing to open their homes to you solely from a shared love of cavies.

Cavies attract a varied crowd of people, a shared passion can bind people closer then anyone else.

It's not about winning, it's not about the competition, it's about having fun.

Reputation means nothing in the grand scheme of things. What matters is that your animals are well loved and well cared for.

Even the hardest parts of life are also lessons, listen to them.

There are people out there who are the most generous amazing people I've ever met.

I guess I am still learning, not just about cavies, but about people. About who they are and what drives them. Cavy people in some ways are easy to understand, and are totally incomprehensible in other ways. But that is life and the cavy fancy has been wonderful to return too.

Okay philosophy aside, the pigs are doing well. Feather has climbed to 760g and seems to finally be on the up and up. Little Tommi has made it to 150g and will spend one more week on her own so she can have access to a sipper bottle of milk (someone *cough* Ebony *cough* guzzles divetelac, so she can't go in the girls cage till she's off milk). I'm no longer handfeeding and she's still gaining so she should pull through.

An Australian Compendium to Cavy Health is nearly finished. I'm still looking for images though. I've had a few people get a bit defensive about the idea, as if I am accusing them of keeping sick animals if I ask for images. But I've had a lot of people help out as well both breeders and rescuers, which has been amazing. I still have about twenty illnesses without images but most now are well illustrated with photographs. I think I may have to get a bit more creative with the final images in order or produce something to illustrate the page.

All the other pigs are normal, everyone's gaining a bit of weight with the addition of Dairy Meal to their feed. And no Dairy Meal is not dairy, it's the stuff you feed to dairy cows. Eddie has managed to give himself diarrhea twice by eating 10cm x 10cm chunks of corflute so he's now in one of the less destructible pet store cages. Manny got his very first wash and blowdry and his first wrappers put in. He's being an absolute angel about them! Looking back I guess I should have taken the advice given and not persevered with Eddie as he still cannot bear being combed or even clipped. But it did teach me that I can cope with the really really grouchy pigs and to win BIS was absolutely amazing, though had more to do with his breeding than my grooming. But Manny has been wonderful and has no issue with having his butt wrapper put back in 3-4 times a day, since it falls out constantly.

I've made Many's first wrappers out of cotton voile with a small piece of corflute sewn into them. This way they are about half the weight of the paper towel wrappers and impossible to tear or chew. I'm using the horse hair ties to hold them in as they are nice and loose so if the wrapper does annoy him Manny can pull it out without damaging his coat.

The Travelling Menagerie is home again!

I got home rather late yesterday from the Christmas in July show. Had a blast at the show, though I didn't win anything. As always I have a lot to post so I'll try to stick to a summary.

Firstly the show, this time round I stayed with another stud who were absolutely brilliant, it was great to spend time with someone else has obsessed with cavies as I am. Plus we carpooled to the show which was even better. Laertes got best Junior Black Dalmatian but got beaten by the same drool worthy sow who I now know is CH Piggily Rosalie (thanks Cavy Capers!). Eddie went into the pet class and got second place. I was surprised he even placed, he'd managed to pee all over his stomach seconds before the class began. Eddie was also entered as a Christmas Pudding in fancy dress and placed second to an elf. Rosie went into the rex class as I was hoping for a judges comment. Didn't get one unfortunately but a few breeders looked her over for me. Basically she is still soft, though not as soft as she was, but she is incredibly dense. She's also one of the few rex sows around who's in breeding condition. So I've left her at a stud with a nice golden agouti rex boar (he won BOB on the day) and I'll collect her in a few weeks. I'll keep one baby from the litter, probably a boar and the rest will go to the owner of the boar. Hopefully that way she'll be able to get some more sows. Lets see the on;y other things I organized at the show are I've ordered a coronet sow from a stud with drool worthy longs, so I can finally get the crests bred into the texel line to create some merinos. Oh and I'm borrowing a gorgeous gold/lilac argente boar for a couple of months to take to the ACA as a representation of true quality. I collect Rosie and the Argente at the next show which is August 5th. I also got several people to review my medical guide (which is finally finished BTW) and got very positive reviews. So it just needs some intensive editing and I'll start selling it at the next show.

Secondly, Feather. I'm at my wits end with him, it doesn't matter what we do his weight keeps dropping. I put him back with Fortinbras last night as my final hope is that a bit of competition and running around might finally stimulate his appetite. He does eat, just never enough. His current lowest weight is 702g. He was 730g this morning so I hope that means that something is working.

Thirdly the babies. Sadly these are now just the baby. Alex went into convulsions a few days ago, Natalie/Tuppence went into convulsions on Saturday. All we have left is Tommi (formally called Dylan). I'm keeping her away from the other pigs just in case whatever killed the other two is contagious. She drinks well and is up to 110g. She prefers a water bottle filled with divetelec to a teat bottle which is good. She eats by herself as well so I should be able to wean her soon.

Oh and Fourthly.... Ayanna's preggers! She's only been with Sterling five weeks and from the feel I'd say she's five weeks along. So she's moved in with Ebbie and Nia to wait out her gestation with plenty of activity and food. She was 900g yesterday, a gain of 200g in five weeks.

Quick Update

Life remains extremely hectic. Feather is still on hand feeding as are the babies, plus I'm back and forth to uni and I'm trying to get ready for another trip to Sydney for the July show this weekend.

Basically on Sunday (8/7) we noticed Feather was breathing incredibly rapidly and his body moved with each breath. On Monday he saw the vet who x-rayed him again and made sure his lungs were clear and heart was fine. Since they were she believed he was in excess pain and put him on opiate injections (temgesic). So I've been having fun giving him twice daily injections but it seems to have done the trick. He had one low weight of 718g but since then has maintained at 735g. The pain killers stop on Friday so I'm hoping when they do the glimpses of appetite we've seen will turn into actual appetite. The drugs keep him so doped up that he just sleeps through most days. He hates the hand feeding so he really has to start eating on his own soon.

As to the babies. We've had a couple of scares. Although they've been kept well away from the kitchen which we are having renovated it clearly wasn't far enough and I've had two collapse from paint fume intoxication. They've each recovered well and are back up on their feet and chirping away twenty four hours later but god it's scary. They've now been moved way away to the semi attached artists studio so they don't get affected. There's no heating out there but they seem to be keeping each other warm. The current weights are 72g for Alex and Natalie and 86g for Dylan. So They've all put on at least 10g in the six days I've had them. The weight gain is speeding up now so once they get to 100-150g I'll wean them off the milk and give them back to Ebbie.

Feather & Fun with Babies

We are now at 44 hours post surgery and all is well. Feather's still not so big on drinking water but he is eating. Of course he's being picky about what he eats (grass must be freshly picked, if its even slightly wilted he won't touch it etc) but he's eating. We're out of the danger period now so it should just be onwards and upwards for my boy. He has to spend 12 more days confined though, which if he keeps improving will send him stir crazy pretty quickly.

But new developments have occurred at Samsara Caviary. No, Ayanna didn't have the shortest pregnancy of all time. But the vets did ring yesterday to ask if I could take on three two day old babies who had been dumped there. So I of course said yes, as far as I know there aren't any breeders in the area so I was really it. The babies are quite sweet, all sows. They are all very tiny two are 62g and one is 72g. They are showing a lot of interest in solids so I'm trying to get them on to that as quickly as possible as I always stress about aspiration when I feed babies. Ebbie has adopted them and is doing all the motherly duties apart from feeding. She keeps stacking them in the food bowl so she's trying to feed them in her own way LOL. They are very cute little ones. The biggest one is a slate agouti tricolour ridgeback, seriously, I've never even seen a slate agouti in real life before but this girl is definitely a slate agouti. Then of the other two one is a golden agouti tricolour and the other is a slate agouti tricolour. All have reversed hair on their feet so must come from abby/ridgeback/peruvian/sheba background.

So I'm still on endless rounds of handfeeding but it should hopefully tail off. I've spent the last two nights sitting up with Feather and then last night the babies needed hourly feeds as well. So I am very much looking forward to actual sleep.

I still have various things that I have to do as well, as everything's been put aside while I dealt with Feather. But I have a show in just eight days. This weekend I need to finish my Australian Guide to Cavy Illness so I can bring a draft copy with me to the show to get some opinions/critiques. Rosie MUST be groomed and bathed this weekend and I need to start grooming La-La. I need to finish sorting out my fancy dress entry but I may have to skip the decorated carry cage competition. I was going to use a pink basket but if I still need to feed the babies I'll have to take the four berth carrier instead. My uni work is also piling up.

My Feather Baby

Well I figured it was time to update (with lots of prayers that I'm not jinxing myself). Feather pulled through his surgery yesterday and we brought him home that afternoon. No one mentioned that I should expect a dopey unresponsive pig sitting in a pool of blood... But after an emergency run back into the vet clinic we were all set for a sleepless night. I didn't want him left alone in that condition so we took shifts staying up with him and forcefed him hourly. I doubt he enjoyed the experience but he started to snap out of it at about midnight. We are almost at twenty hours post surgery and Feather's looking good. He's awake and alert and even felt well enough to eat some grass on his own.

I'm thinking that once we reach 48 hours post-surgery I can begin to fill confident that he might pull through all of this.

I also had a good chat to the vet about preventing another stone forming. To be honest if Feather does get another stone I'm not sure I'd go through this with him again. It is major surgery and one of the big reasons I was willing to do it was that Feather is only twelve months old. He's at the strongest and healthiest he'll ever be in his life and that gave him that bit more of a chance. If we faced another stone surgery he'd have already had one lot of major surgery and he'll be older. I guess it would still depend on the circumstances.

But as to prevention. Feather will be going on a lifetime course of potassium citrate to help prevent calcium binding in his pee. He'll go on a low calcium diet. I'll add just a touch of his favourite raspberry pedialyte to the water bottle to encourage him to drink. Finally I need to limit his vitamin C to 10mg a day instead of the 20-30mg he has been getting as hypervitaminosis is a possible cause of stones. So he'll be on a special diet for life with daily medication but potassium citrate is beyond cheap ($20 for a kg, and he needs like 0.25g a day) and everything else is simply management.

As to a low calcium diet he can still have the extrulupins (0.2% calcium) and the wheaten/oaten chaff (0.13%-0.3% calcium). I can buy a bale of oaten/wheaten hay for the sheba boys to share with Luther. When I get a minute I'll also do up a list of 'safe' veggies so it'll be easy to know what he can and can't have. But it shouldn't require me to buy anything different. The pigs always get a range of veggies so Feather & Fortinbras will just get the low calcium ones and just a teensy portion each of the vitamin C ones. 10mg is still within the recommended daily intake, I've just always done 20-30mg because I have babies and pregnant sows.

I may also add Cranberry capsules to his daily medications to prevent UTI's as bacteria can also be the cause of bladder stones.

An update

So I figured I'd stick all the random things I keep forgetting to mention here.

Firstly for those readers who have only just looked through this blog, I should probably explain the purpose. I'm a big believer in sharing experiences and a lot of cavy breeders don't. It could just be because they don't have time, or are technologically challenged but I find it a real pity that such knowledge isn't readily available. My experiences are a poor comparison to those of breeders who have been doing it for years, but looks like mien are all you've got. This blog also stands as a record of my own journey. I was never good at journal writing but I find blogging really easy.

Secondly Feather. My boy is still hanging in there. His last x-ray showed no change so Feather goes in for surgery tomorrow. I'll say no more as I'm afraid I'll jinx myself.

I've also been shopping (what else is new?). Since Lu has moved to being a free range bunny I've been meaning to convert his old cage into a big lofty cage for the shebas. I've got the corflute all ready and just bought the vetbed (grey paws on charcoal). Since the boys tend to pee in traditional food bowls I also bought them a solid plastic gravity feeder/hopper that they can't climb in. Other purchases include calcium carbonate powder because I'm sick of my sandoz syrup going out of date and some wire veggie balls to keep my longhair boys entertained.

I also uh amused myself on vistaprint. I spent $37 and bought an absolute tonne of stuff. Most is advertising type things for the stud... business cards, a banner etc. I thought it'd be useful especially for the Inverell shows.

All the other babies

It's been a while since I did a post about the other pigs. I've been so focused on Feather they've mainly just been fed, watered and brushed. However, here's an update on my other nine babies.

Chantilly Ayanna - I am in love with this girl, she has the sweetest, prettiest face I've ever seen. She has a very timid personality unfortunately and seems very cowed by Sterling, but she shouldn't have to live with him for much longer. I'm thinking I may need to add some apple cider vinegar to their water though. Sterling misses his aim rather a lot, and I don't want poor Ayanna to end up with cystitis.  On the 13th of June she was 718g, today she was 820g. I 'think' she was on heat on the 24th of June, which would make babies due on the 3rd of Sept. I could be very wrong though, but I'll post once I can feel babies which should give me a fairly good idea of due date. I don't think I've posted pics up as of yet so here's a couple of darling Ayanna. Sorry for the fuzzy photos, my cameras not behaving. Just look at those chops!

Chantilly Emmanuel - This boy is just all personality. He's a cheeky little boy who turns into a total sook when he gets cuddles. I can see he's going to end up as a lap pig. We are working on the grooming bit. I've combed him a few times and the last time he kicked out. So i spent some time with him and found some gunk low down in his coat. So he got a very very teeny butt wash. Just enough to wash off a couple of cm on hair. He adored the blowdry after. And he was fine with a comb through after that. So I think the comb must've pulled a bit because his coat was dirty. I can see Manny will be another pig that needs a lot of entertainment, I'm thinking of buying one of those metal hay ball hay rack things for him. He was 315g when I bought him and 460g today.

 

Pipsqueak Ebony Charm - Is her usual gorgeous self. She's really enjoying ruling the sow run and spends an inordinate time eating, as if she'd be able to feel cold under all that hair.  She's up to 1170g and is showing no sign of stopping. I've found her voluptuous bulk makes an excellent hand warmer, as long as she has food in front of her she has no issue with spending hours on my lap while I'm on the computer.

Pipsqueak Edmund - Eddie's enjoying life as a snuggle pig. He still kicks when combed so I'm careful to keep his coat clipped quite high so he doesn't kick out and a catch his foot in his coat. He won Best in Show at the Inverell show even as a clipped longhair. Right now he's just waiting, as he's not due to bred till November. He's entered into the July NSWCC show as a pet though, and he'll be part of my fancy dress entry. I'm still disappointed I had to clip him off, but at least he'll be able to share his excellent breeding with his offspring and I hope one day to show Eddies daughter/son. He's currently at 930g and rapidly gaining weight.

Pipsqueak Feather - Well I've already talked about him a lot. But put simply if the x-rays aren't good tomorrow I may have the vet help him on his way. If he can't be cured it's cruel to allow him to linger. I'm fully aware the sole reason he's still alive is the round the clock force feeding I've been doing. At least euthanasia is a quick death, starvation is a slow one.

Pipsqueak Fortinbras - Poor Fortinbras' not doing so well. He desperately misses his buddy but Feather's too weak to spend time with him. If all does go wrong for Feather I have actually organized for a baby boy for Fortinbras if needed. I have no-one who would be suitable. Eddies my only spare boy and he and Fortinbras hated each other on sight. Because poor Fortinbras been pining he's down to 840g, a loss of 50g over two weeks.

Pipsqueak Sterling - Sterling is having the time of his life. I don't think I've ever seen a boar so enthusiastic about his duty. Even so he's holding his weight nicely and is sitting at 920g. I clipped his ponytails off too as Ayanna kept pulling them out, so Sterling's back to his usual bowl cut.

Symphonia Laertes - La-La is doing well, and is as always insanely clean and neat. He's got his own little pee corner and a separate poo corner. He rarely even needs his cozy washed. He's still a lovely and clam pig, though he does need to be handled regularly. He's sitting at 830g. He's entered in the July show in the self dally class.

Symphonia Lavinia - Nia is a very sweet quiet pig, she seems to have a similar personality to Laertes, one can only hope she passes it on to the babies. Ebbie's done a very good job of teaching Nia her manners and she should grown up into a very mild-mannered sweet-natured sow. She weighs 442g at 8 weeks old. I've no doubt she'll be well over 500g by the time she reaches three months. At the moment I'm planning to put her in with la-La about the 15th of July, assuming she's a good weight and in good health.

Symphonia Rosaline - Rosie's doing well. She's turned into the prettiest little sow you've ever laid eyes on. She and Ebbie get on well and Rosie seems to enjoy being second in command. Interestingly her coat has also coarsened up a lot and she's looking more like a pedigree rex. So she's entered in the July show. Since I did buy her as a pet I'm not expecting much but it'll be good to get a judges opinion. If she is show quality I'll add her permanently to my show team. My one concern is she is a small pig. At six months old she's only 770g. She does have decent condition though, so perhaps she's just fine boned. An adult pedigree show sow need only be over 900g, so I'm sure she'll reach that by the time she's an adult, but she's certainly not on Ebbie's standard of condition.