MintyAndGarry (TEAS)
Adult Guinea Pig
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2007
- Messages
- 3,282
- Reaction score
- 647
- Points
- 705
TEAS can be truly rewarding, when a piggy who arrived with us in a poorly state recovers and gets back to full health. Our temporary residents are predominantly dental and, while we have two fantastic vets with the skills to deal successfully with their symptoms, it is the supportive care that can sometimes be the most challenging.
The thought of nursing a group of sick piggies, while sitting at home all day could sound quite appealing. However, in reality, there are many varying degrees that can make it so frustrating. A dental pig is normally initially entirely reliant on syringe feeding; completely reliant on you, in order to survive. Depending on the state of their mouths and the level of any discomfort, syringe feeding can be anything from a breeze to an absolute struggle, with the piggy unable or unwilling to take food at all.
At the moment, TEAS has two temporary residents who are fully reliant on syringe feeding. On average, it takes 4 hours every day to administer the syringe food to one piggy, over four or five sessions. Speed of consumption can vary from session to session. Couple this with having daily commitments to paid work and having to feed, clean, care for the other animals and attend vet appointments, time in the day soon runs out. It is absolutely exhausting. This is why we can only offer very limited places to temporary residents at TEAS.
It is something we do on a voluntary basis, something we do for the love of the piggies in our care and the desire to see them back to their former selves and enjoying life again. It really is difficult to appreciate just how much work and dedication goes in to the day to day running of a Sanctuary like TEAS and how much of an impact it has on the lives of those involved, especially as we have grown and developed over the years.
The thought of nursing a group of sick piggies, while sitting at home all day could sound quite appealing. However, in reality, there are many varying degrees that can make it so frustrating. A dental pig is normally initially entirely reliant on syringe feeding; completely reliant on you, in order to survive. Depending on the state of their mouths and the level of any discomfort, syringe feeding can be anything from a breeze to an absolute struggle, with the piggy unable or unwilling to take food at all.
At the moment, TEAS has two temporary residents who are fully reliant on syringe feeding. On average, it takes 4 hours every day to administer the syringe food to one piggy, over four or five sessions. Speed of consumption can vary from session to session. Couple this with having daily commitments to paid work and having to feed, clean, care for the other animals and attend vet appointments, time in the day soon runs out. It is absolutely exhausting. This is why we can only offer very limited places to temporary residents at TEAS.
It is something we do on a voluntary basis, something we do for the love of the piggies in our care and the desire to see them back to their former selves and enjoying life again. It really is difficult to appreciate just how much work and dedication goes in to the day to day running of a Sanctuary like TEAS and how much of an impact it has on the lives of those involved, especially as we have grown and developed over the years.
Am working on a 5ml at a time process...grrrrr!
