Baby Bonding

So towards the end of the holiday break, my husband and I put our heads together and realized we had made the same discovery--Mary's guinea pig was not acting normal. 

Every night when John locks the house up, he also checks the animals.  We realize that we have children as their care-givers and food/water just might get forgotten every now and then.  Again.

Anyway, he and Cinnamon have a neat routine.  Cinnamon has gotten so used to John walking in and then handing her a handful of grass that now every time she hears his footstep, she starts squealing for it (um, even when it's NOT grass-feeding time).  So...John noticed that she wasn't squealing anymore.  And she wasn't eating the grass anymore.  And I noticed that she seemed lethargic.  And she only took one bite of the carrot Mary tried to give her.  And then we noted that the food/water was full and asked, and no, Mary hadn't had to fill them for AGES.  And...yeah, THIS can't be good.

So I called around and found a vet who saw guinea pigs and eventually got her in.  While waiting, John and I googled everything guinea pig and discovered that a) we'd been using the wrong litter forEVER (which, we had JUST changed to the proper kind, coincidentally) and b) not all of Cinnamon's symptoms really seemed to exactly fit in any of the typical pig ailments, and c) chances are, we would have to start feeding the pig by hand.  With a syringe.

The vet was very alarmed at Cinnamon's condition and wanted to keep her there.  Um, I'm sorry.  We LOVE this pig and all, but we can't possibly afford to hospitalize her!  I told the vet that I was willing to do whatever care the pig needed and then bring her back, but a few days' stay at the vet was just not doable.

Anyway, after examining our squirmy pig, the vet determined that a) it's definitely a SHE (even the vet had difficulties figuring it out!), b) she had guinea pig LICE (breed-specific, so no fear of kidlings or myself getting it--and she probably has had it all along and got it from the pet store), c) it was no OBVIOUS ailment (it's possible Cinnamon had already been sick and gotten over something but was now so weak and lethargic due to the fact that she stopped eating and was STARVING), and d) Cinnamon had SOMETHING weird and brown and icky stuck in her mouth. 

The vet tried to remove the glop out of the pig's mouth, but getting a pig to cooperate with something like that is a chore, indeed.  Even with myself and two techs helping, the vet was only able to pull out part of it.  It appeared to be a hunk of litter.  Oh, you mean the litter that is the PROPER kind to use for guinea pigs????  Um...????  Anyway, the vet was obviously quite stressed and frustrated and almost looked as if she wanted to cry since she could not keep the piggy there to anesthetize her and try to get the rest of the glob out of her throat.  Really.  I'm sorry, lady.  But I'm unemployed.  (And I don't even want to get into the scary possible future of my husband's job while we have a surprise fourth kid on the way!)  And we're a bit tapped out right now due to the holiday after-math.  And...really, it IS just a $20 pet store guinea pig.  (Oh!  The guilt of not having the money to hospitalize my poor daughter's pig!  But REALLY, the poor pig is lucky we decided to put some money into taking her to the vet to see what we could do in the first place!) But yeah, the hunk of litter may have been the key to ALL of this--it's kind of hard to eat when you've got something stuck in your mouth.....   GUILT, WRACKING GUILT!!

Yeah....  So, I accepted and got sent home with a treatment plan for our poor Cinnamon.  I have to syringe feed her this mashed food three times a day.  She is getting some other med--I think like a pedialyte--twice a day.  And an antibiotic once a day--which must have been a five day treatment since we just ran out.  (Vet:  I'm being over-cautious here.  I don't see any signs of an illness, but we've had pigs die before, and when the bodies were checked [wow--pig autopsy?], one was found.)  They also dumped a ton of fluids into her and even sent me home with some lice/critter killing medicine to use for FREE (it was part of a dosage not needed for another tiny animal).

So since last Wednesday, it's been like having a baby in the house again.  Sort of.  I'm having to mix food and feed this pig three times a day and give her meds, and I'm watching her pee/poop.  And she looks at me with her cute little brown eyes while I'm feeding her (baby bump makes a nice, convenient shelf), and Oh, am I going to be sad if this little girl doesn't make it after all of this!

The good news is that we can tell she's feeling a bit better.  There is definitely more pep in her step (and more pee/poop in the cage!).  She has even squealed a bit over her grass.  The bad news is that she's still not eating her regular food and while she has been eating tiny carrots, it's still not with the vigor of before.  And she doesn't eat nearly the amount of grass she used to.

*sigh*  Poor pig.  All I can say is that she's lucky she's so darn cute!