mneo
Junior Guinea Pig
Dear All,
I am very lost now and my friend suspects that I'm suffering from mild depression. Although I'm 31 yo but I totally lost myself in the past 2 weeks as 2 of my 4 girls decide to leave me. I really have no idea why I'm so obsessed with guinea pigs and it really pains me that despite giving my girls my full attention, proper food and veterinary care they are not able to live long lives.
I'm currently on my 3rd batch of piggies. It took me a few years to decide to start caring for them again. Experience from the previous two batches were great and the only issues I had with them were very mild mites so I thought this time I will get 4 of them! I started with adopting Miffy (22/9/12), Buffy from pet store (21/10/12-31/8/14), then Paffy (22/6/13) and Ruffy (22/6/13-17/9/14) from the same breeder.
Ever since I had all 4 of them I could tell that Buffy and Ruffy had some issues.
Ruffy was very small and thin but very active when I got her, hyper active I would say to the extend that her other 3 sisters got annoyed and started picking on her. She then became very skittish and is always hiding. Early May she contracted URI and I was devastated as I didn't expect this to happen to my piggy thou I've read about it. Vet 1 says she's very small and the next one week is very critical and I have to force feed critical care every 3 hours plus her other meds, which I did for a week and I was almost a walking dead at work. 1 week Later I brought her back for review and because she still looked the same, this Vet 1 told me that it's unlikely that she will make it for another week and if she does to go back for review and this time I need to feed her once every 2 hours! As there's no one taking care of her at home I brought her to work with me everyday. Yes it's really draining but I can't give up on her when she's still hanging in there. Alas! She made it past another week and vet says she can be off baytril and I never felt so accomplished in my life before! But at the same time she has gunk in her ears which clearly Vet 1 doesn't seem too bothered by it and wants me to just keep cleaning it. Frustrated I seeked second option with Vet 2 and Ruffy has to be on antibiotics ear drop. A month has passed and Vet 2 says it's looking good so we can stop the antibiotics and replace with normal ear wash but 3days before her passing while I was cleaning her ears she did a 90degree head tilt which scare the out of me and the next day I took her to the vet where they suggested flushing her ears. After the flushing she seems moody but could still eat n two days later she completely lost her balance ans started rolling about in the cage. I rushed her to the vet and they say she's in a critical condition where I need to decide to do a cpr or dnr on her. Anyway as much as I hate to I opted to euthanize her as shes starting to have seizures. Sigh.
For Buffy, she always coughs once or twice when she's eating dinner (vege) but other than that she's fine but she's quite a quiet girl. When I brought them for routine check up vet says her molars look a lil overgrown but if she's still eating it's fine but should it pose as a problem she will need surgery to trim it but Buffy is a lil slim so I hope that day won't come. Fast forward to a few days before her death, I noticed that her eyes got a lil crusty, she looks a lil lethargic but was still eating so I brought her to the vet and she's diagnosed with pneumonia and vet wants me to take good care of her but I thought with my previous success of caring for Ruffy who had URI this should be easy but the next day Buffy was wheezing very loudly and is squealing in pain, it really pains me and I rushed her back to the vet where she crashed she moment they look at her and I even got them to resuscitate her but
so I lost Buffy on 31/8 and shortly I had to put Ruffy down on 17/9
I am really devastated and I am worried sick as I only have Miffy and Paffy left. I'm so Friggin worried that bad things will start happening to them. So like a mad woman I'm always by their cage spying on their every move just to make sure they are fine. I've disinfected their cage with bleach and till now I am praying that I won't lose the last two. They are not like Buffy and Ruffy who have "issues" from the start but I'm just worried.
In the past when my previous batches of piggies passed on I thought it was torturous to have to live with the guilt of not paying enough attention to them but now I know the worst pain is when u did all you can but you are still not able to keep them by your side.
I'm feeling like crap now. Can anyone tell me what's happening please? I'm so lost and the vet says they can't tell if there's a virus attack but I'm just very depressed now
I am very lost now and my friend suspects that I'm suffering from mild depression. Although I'm 31 yo but I totally lost myself in the past 2 weeks as 2 of my 4 girls decide to leave me. I really have no idea why I'm so obsessed with guinea pigs and it really pains me that despite giving my girls my full attention, proper food and veterinary care they are not able to live long lives.
I'm currently on my 3rd batch of piggies. It took me a few years to decide to start caring for them again. Experience from the previous two batches were great and the only issues I had with them were very mild mites so I thought this time I will get 4 of them! I started with adopting Miffy (22/9/12), Buffy from pet store (21/10/12-31/8/14), then Paffy (22/6/13) and Ruffy (22/6/13-17/9/14) from the same breeder.
Ever since I had all 4 of them I could tell that Buffy and Ruffy had some issues.
Ruffy was very small and thin but very active when I got her, hyper active I would say to the extend that her other 3 sisters got annoyed and started picking on her. She then became very skittish and is always hiding. Early May she contracted URI and I was devastated as I didn't expect this to happen to my piggy thou I've read about it. Vet 1 says she's very small and the next one week is very critical and I have to force feed critical care every 3 hours plus her other meds, which I did for a week and I was almost a walking dead at work. 1 week Later I brought her back for review and because she still looked the same, this Vet 1 told me that it's unlikely that she will make it for another week and if she does to go back for review and this time I need to feed her once every 2 hours! As there's no one taking care of her at home I brought her to work with me everyday. Yes it's really draining but I can't give up on her when she's still hanging in there. Alas! She made it past another week and vet says she can be off baytril and I never felt so accomplished in my life before! But at the same time she has gunk in her ears which clearly Vet 1 doesn't seem too bothered by it and wants me to just keep cleaning it. Frustrated I seeked second option with Vet 2 and Ruffy has to be on antibiotics ear drop. A month has passed and Vet 2 says it's looking good so we can stop the antibiotics and replace with normal ear wash but 3days before her passing while I was cleaning her ears she did a 90degree head tilt which scare the out of me and the next day I took her to the vet where they suggested flushing her ears. After the flushing she seems moody but could still eat n two days later she completely lost her balance ans started rolling about in the cage. I rushed her to the vet and they say she's in a critical condition where I need to decide to do a cpr or dnr on her. Anyway as much as I hate to I opted to euthanize her as shes starting to have seizures. Sigh.
For Buffy, she always coughs once or twice when she's eating dinner (vege) but other than that she's fine but she's quite a quiet girl. When I brought them for routine check up vet says her molars look a lil overgrown but if she's still eating it's fine but should it pose as a problem she will need surgery to trim it but Buffy is a lil slim so I hope that day won't come. Fast forward to a few days before her death, I noticed that her eyes got a lil crusty, she looks a lil lethargic but was still eating so I brought her to the vet and she's diagnosed with pneumonia and vet wants me to take good care of her but I thought with my previous success of caring for Ruffy who had URI this should be easy but the next day Buffy was wheezing very loudly and is squealing in pain, it really pains me and I rushed her back to the vet where she crashed she moment they look at her and I even got them to resuscitate her but
so I lost Buffy on 31/8 and shortly I had to put Ruffy down on 17/9I am really devastated and I am worried sick as I only have Miffy and Paffy left. I'm so Friggin worried that bad things will start happening to them. So like a mad woman I'm always by their cage spying on their every move just to make sure they are fine. I've disinfected their cage with bleach and till now I am praying that I won't lose the last two. They are not like Buffy and Ruffy who have "issues" from the start but I'm just worried.
In the past when my previous batches of piggies passed on I thought it was torturous to have to live with the guilt of not paying enough attention to them but now I know the worst pain is when u did all you can but you are still not able to keep them by your side.
I'm feeling like crap now. Can anyone tell me what's happening please? I'm so lost and the vet says they can't tell if there's a virus attack but I'm just very depressed now
