What should I put I’m my guinea pig emergency kit for my two boars?
I have childlife liquid vitamin c, nail clippers, I pouch of fine grind critical care, oxbow vitamin c tabs, two 10 Ml Syringes , food scale for weighting them, styptic powder, 3 ml dropper, and a log of their weight. What should I add? And where should I get it?
Hi and welcome!
You may find our comprehensive emergency care information collection link helpful. It contains a first aid kit and tips on how you can improvise with providing support care until you can access vet care and any medication can kick in fully. We have bundled all the necessary information with further links into one guide so you do not have to waste vital time looking for information, epecially during the quiet hours on the forum. The guide also contains information on what constitutes a life or death emergency and a list of how soon you need to see a vet over the most common problems. You may want to bookmark the link:
Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment
I would recommend not to have too much at home since things won't keep indefinitely. Just make sure that you have 1 ml syringes, a small medicine bottle and something to stench blood at home.
Vitamin C is added to pellets and to any recovery formula as well as to probiotics etc, so it is not necessary to have it. What most people are not aware of is that there is actually vitamin C in good quality hay, which should make around 80% of the daily food intake - which is the reason why guinea pigs never had the need to make their own and why piggies on a good hay and not mainly veg based diet don't suffer scurvy unless their owner overdo any additives - ironically, the body adapts to very high levels and then causes scurvy symptoms as soon as those levels drop even though those piggies are still on higher than normal levels of it. Overdoing the vitamin C is definitely NOT worth it!
A hay based good diet with only a modicum of preferally green leafy veg and fresh herbs and some cucumber but no root veg, corn and a little fruit only as an occasional special treat plus no more than 1 tablespoon of pellets max per piggy per day is crucial for long term overall health and can minimise the risk of many a common health problem. Go VERY easy on treats and rather turn feeding time into enrichment time. It is the best prevention you can do - and also the way to get a healthy piggy from living to the lower end of the average life span to the higher end.
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets
Enrichment Ideas for Guinea Pigs
Make sure that you save or write down your local (if necessary general vets) and your out-of-hours contacts for an emergency so you do not have to fumble around in a panic and know where you turn to for accessing vet care at any time as quickly as possible.
All the links above and LOTS more very helpful practical information on a wide range of aspects can be found in our New Owners guide collection, which is one of the most comprehensive information collections around. Unlike a book, the guides format allows us to update and extend our information at need, and unlike far too many books, we don't gloss over the sticky points that throw many a new owner.
Here is the link, which again you may want to bookmark, browse, read and re-read at need. You will get different layers of information out of the guides as your experience grows.
Getting Started - New Owners' Most Helpful Guides
You can access our even more extensive full information collection on an even wider range of topics best via the guides shortcut on the top bar where it is listed in thematical order.
Of course you are welcome to ask any questions you have in one of our Care sections at any time. We have specially designed knowledgeable members who have our full trust monitoring the most sensitive sections (they have the badges in the signature) but we would appreciate it if there is a clear emergency that you please tried to make a vet appointment first before coming on here. Please also accept that we are all doing this for free in our own free time. We are a lively enough forum that you will get answer pretty quickly during UK daytime hours but you may have to wait at times.
Since we have members and enquiries from literally all around the world with very different backgrounds, climates, vet and rescue access as well as brand names (including medical brands) we find it very helpful if you please added your country, state/province or UK county/major city to location in your account details. You can access those by clicking on your username. This makes it appear with every post you make and allows us to tailor any recommendations and advice to what is relevant and available where you are with just a quick glance to the left and to help you on a much more personalised basis than the basic standard advice you will get otherwise. For your own protection, please do not mention the exact place name where you live unless it is a large city that everybody can be expected to know about. Thank you!
