Unfortunately I'm back, this time to tell of the passing of Denny Pig.
Denny, and his brother Alan (named after the characters from Boston Legal) were "rescued" from a woman selling a guinea pig hutch with "extras" on eBay by Julie and myself back in June 2008. They had been living together in a very small hutch outside but had fallen out after she unwittingly introduced females to them. Initially we weren't going to keep them, but find them a good home instead but they were so cute that they had to stay.
Unfortunately we could never get them to properly bond again, they would happily play together for several hours but would eventually get bored and start bickering so they always had to be separated and so ended up living in cages next to each other, coming out for play time once or twice a week. Whenever they got back together they would popcorn around the run like it was the first time they'd been together, Denny in particular would have multiple popcorn fits, often bumping in to Alan in the process.
He was such a happy piggy with a real cheeky face, and never seemed to mind Alan bossing him about, but he could also be quite quiet at times. He was a little fussy as to what he ate (he'd often randomly decide not to eat his corn/carrot/cucumber etc. on a particular day) and he had, without, doubt the longest whiskers I have ever seen on a guinea pig!
Other than suffering from an embarrassing case of "cauliflower willy" and one instance of bladder sand a few years back he was generally in good health so when he suddenly went completely off of his food on Sunday we knew something was wrong. I took him to the vet on Tuesday morning but she couldn't find anything outwardly wrong with him so gave him some Metacam to see if, with pain relief, he'd start eating again, but he just wasn't interested. Syringe feeding him the recovery food was a massive effort and I knew last night when he looked thoroughly dejected and downright miserable that his time was almost up. He had a cuddle with his brother and I put him to bed fully expecting him to pass during the night.
He was still with us this morning, but looking just as dejected, so I made another appointment with the vet who booked a 45 minute slot to give him a full check up, which revealed via x-ray, kidney, lung, and possible heart problems so based on this, and my own gut instinct about how ill he seemed I made the hard, but I think correct, decision to have him put to sleep.
I will miss him terribly, as will his brother, but I know he will be out of pain and can meet up with all our other boys, Scampy, Blaze, Oscar, Boomer, Bear, Leo, Pepe and Dylan at the Bridge where I’m sure he's already popcorning away to his heart's desire.
Run free little man, love you always
Martin x
With his brother:
HUGE Whiskers
Denny, and his brother Alan (named after the characters from Boston Legal) were "rescued" from a woman selling a guinea pig hutch with "extras" on eBay by Julie and myself back in June 2008. They had been living together in a very small hutch outside but had fallen out after she unwittingly introduced females to them. Initially we weren't going to keep them, but find them a good home instead but they were so cute that they had to stay.
Unfortunately we could never get them to properly bond again, they would happily play together for several hours but would eventually get bored and start bickering so they always had to be separated and so ended up living in cages next to each other, coming out for play time once or twice a week. Whenever they got back together they would popcorn around the run like it was the first time they'd been together, Denny in particular would have multiple popcorn fits, often bumping in to Alan in the process.
He was such a happy piggy with a real cheeky face, and never seemed to mind Alan bossing him about, but he could also be quite quiet at times. He was a little fussy as to what he ate (he'd often randomly decide not to eat his corn/carrot/cucumber etc. on a particular day) and he had, without, doubt the longest whiskers I have ever seen on a guinea pig!
Other than suffering from an embarrassing case of "cauliflower willy" and one instance of bladder sand a few years back he was generally in good health so when he suddenly went completely off of his food on Sunday we knew something was wrong. I took him to the vet on Tuesday morning but she couldn't find anything outwardly wrong with him so gave him some Metacam to see if, with pain relief, he'd start eating again, but he just wasn't interested. Syringe feeding him the recovery food was a massive effort and I knew last night when he looked thoroughly dejected and downright miserable that his time was almost up. He had a cuddle with his brother and I put him to bed fully expecting him to pass during the night.
He was still with us this morning, but looking just as dejected, so I made another appointment with the vet who booked a 45 minute slot to give him a full check up, which revealed via x-ray, kidney, lung, and possible heart problems so based on this, and my own gut instinct about how ill he seemed I made the hard, but I think correct, decision to have him put to sleep.
I will miss him terribly, as will his brother, but I know he will be out of pain and can meet up with all our other boys, Scampy, Blaze, Oscar, Boomer, Bear, Leo, Pepe and Dylan at the Bridge where I’m sure he's already popcorning away to his heart's desire.
Run free little man, love you always
Martin x
With his brother:
HUGE Whiskers
He was a truly gorgeous boy. Sleep soundly little guy xx
