ciri&corrin
New Born Pup
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2018
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- 1
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Hi everyone! I am a first time poster here. I did a lot of research on this site before I picked up my first rescue piglets about two weeks ago. They are sisters, about a month and a half old, and they are already having some health problems.
Firstly, and I don't know which sister this is because they are nearly identical PEWs, but one of them is having severe diarrhea and they're both headed to the vet Wednesday to see what's going on with that. I'm concerned, though, that Wednesday might be a little late and I'm considering calling around to see if any other practices could see them sooner. They are still happy and popcorning around, so I might just be overthinking it. Ciri had diarrhea her first day home, too, but I was told that was my fault for giving her too many cucumbers and it cleared up the next day.
Secondly, Ciri is leaving bladder sludge everywhere! This one I know for sure is Ciri because her sister doesn't understand why she shouldn't pee on me during lap time (don't worry, it's not that I'm ignoring her asking to come down, she was giving happy wheeks while I fed her some carrot shreds about thirty seconds before and I was told by her foster mom that she just doesn't seem to care) and it came out clear. I am scared that there is a genetic problem, because I have been slowly reintroducing veggies after cutting back following the diarrhea incident and they only get about half a cup a day of swiss chard, romaine lettuce, bell peppers, carrot shreds, and once a tiny bit of tomato. They are only up to half a cup each every day, which is half of what I've read they should have. They are on Oxbow young pellets but they hate it and after confirming with a vet on Wednesday I am going to look into other pellets with a more middle of the road calcium content.
Thirdly, how can you tell if a guinea pig is blind? Corrin is horrible at finding her way around and follows her sister everywhere, nose right up in her butt. If Ciri is already out for floor time, when I come to pick up Corrin, as long as I'm quiet she lets me pick her up but she always seems surprised. I try and bait them both into a little strawberry cuddle cup to transfer them for floor time, but it doesn't always work out, mostly because unless Corrin is right on her sister's tail she can't find her way into the strawberry it seems. Maybe its just a personality thing, but she also seems to sniff her food much more thoroughly than her sister, which makes me wonder if she is compensating because she can't see it.
I know talking about PEWs with this many health problems makes it seem like they might be lethals, but from my understanding lethals come from roan x roan or dalmation x dalmation. Their mom was a very healthy PEW and their dad is... well a mystery because their mom came to the rescue pregnant from someone who swore up and down that mom was actually kept alone her whole life. (Separate issue, I know.) Between that and the tiny bits of gray on their ears, I suspect they're not lethals. Could a lethal male have been their father and passed down some problems?
Fourthly, and my main question is, what supplements and food do you recommend for babies who are already having this many problems? I won't say money is no issue, but I'd rather put my money on preventative supplements than tons of vet bills down the road. I would also rather give them vitamins than watch them get sick. As they say in my grandmother's favorite magazine, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!" I am located in the US quite near Sweet Meadow farms if that helps.
They also don't act like any guinea pigs I have ever heard of.
In case any of this is relevant, I'm just going to put an info dump of all their weird stuff down here:
Ciri is the dominant one, but they only scuffled a little on the ride home from the rescue and have had no fights since. I expected a lot more, considering the rescue had kept them with different pigs, but they settled in almost instantly.
The only way to tell them apart, excepting for the little dot of beet juice I put on their head to better tell them apart while I'm trying to figure out who has diarrhea, is that Ciri has a black back foot.
They are on unlimited Oxbow Essentials Young Guinea Pig pellets, but they never eat them. They poop more in the pellet bowls than the rabbit-sized litter box I put in the corner where they used to go the most. I swear, its like they aim just to show me their displeasure. (Okay, I'm probably projecting a little bit here.)
I try and give them Oxbow Vit C and Digestive Health supplements, but they hate those and I have to crumble them up and put them in rolls of lettuce like little pig blunts to trick them into eating it. They still leave most of it.
They haven't gained any weight since I brought them home, but they are still larger than average for their age. Their mom is 13 inches full grown, so I suspect they're just going to be mega pigs like her.
They only drink out of the purple water bottle, despite having two otherwise identical bottles available to them. After extensive experimentation to see if it was height, location, or some other reasonable factor, we have determined they just have a favorite color.
I have tried two different bowls and scatter feeding to see if that would help with the pellets, but no luck. They have the option of a green, tilted, ergonomic pet bowl that I got because it supposedly is better for their growing spine (I'm a sucker, I know, but it was only $3 and it made me feel like I was being a good pet parent) and a tiny white one with a flat bottom. I may out of desperation see if I can find a purple one. I wish I were joking.
They are remarkably active and destroyed the homemade fleece bedding I painstakingly hand sewed for them, because somehow in my twisted mind they would understand that I made it for them out of love and like it more than anything I bought in a store. I woke up and found the bedding torn to shreds and them burrowed inside. They have similarly destroyed their first cuddle cup. They are now on Guinea Dad fleece and they do in fact like it more. They haven't damaged it yet, at least, plus the consistent color makes it easier to spot bladder sludge so I like it more too.
They have also shattered the second ceramic green bowl I got them. I have no idea how, because the other one has survived short drops (I'm a clumsy sort, from the sink to the floor while I was putting it aside to wash) without a scratch. I say this to emphasize how wildly active these girls are and why I'm concerned that they're only running for twenty minute bursts. While for most pigs that's pretty active, it's a sharp decline from the hour plus of laps I've seen them do, or the destruction I've woken up to.
They love the sound of violent video games. Again, I wish I was trolling, but given a choice between peaceful Bob Ross videos or my roommates screaming at Monster Hunter, they will popcorn to MH but hide during Bob Ross. I used to lecture and nag when they got too loud, but after a while I realized the pigs would go up to the top layer of their cage and run around when they got loud but tended to hide during quiet times.
They run to the edge of their cage and squeak whenever they smell meat, the same way they do for fresh hay in the morning. Obviously I haven't given them any, but burgers, hot dogs, and especially pepperoni will get them really excited. I like to sit next to them while I have my lunch, and they are way too eager to have sandwich meats.
They get at least an hour of floor time every day, during which they either hide under my legs like they're a tent or run out of control. I use pretty heavy metal shelving (like this) flipped sideways to keep them contained during floor time and they have managed to push it enough to squeeze out while I went to pee one day. Ciri is the ringleader here, Corrin just follows suit.
I am 99% sure these are guinea pigs and not just some other bizarre heretofore unknown species, but goddamn if they aren't the weirdest pigs I've ever heard of. I'm concerned that with their odd behavior (or, at least, behavior I've never seen mentioned on a pig forum anywhere) it might be some neurological thing. Or that I got mutants.
Just an FYI, I am horribly sleep deprived at the moment because they have gotten sick during my finals week so between homework stress and pig stress even when I do take breaks I can't sleep, but everything I mentioned has been witnessed by three much more rested people so I know I'm not hallucinating. For any of you who have ever read Bunnicula, I think I got Pigcula. So please don't write me off as a troll, I really do need help, and dry humor is just a coping mechanism that kicked in around the 36th hour without sleep.
Firstly, and I don't know which sister this is because they are nearly identical PEWs, but one of them is having severe diarrhea and they're both headed to the vet Wednesday to see what's going on with that. I'm concerned, though, that Wednesday might be a little late and I'm considering calling around to see if any other practices could see them sooner. They are still happy and popcorning around, so I might just be overthinking it. Ciri had diarrhea her first day home, too, but I was told that was my fault for giving her too many cucumbers and it cleared up the next day.
Secondly, Ciri is leaving bladder sludge everywhere! This one I know for sure is Ciri because her sister doesn't understand why she shouldn't pee on me during lap time (don't worry, it's not that I'm ignoring her asking to come down, she was giving happy wheeks while I fed her some carrot shreds about thirty seconds before and I was told by her foster mom that she just doesn't seem to care) and it came out clear. I am scared that there is a genetic problem, because I have been slowly reintroducing veggies after cutting back following the diarrhea incident and they only get about half a cup a day of swiss chard, romaine lettuce, bell peppers, carrot shreds, and once a tiny bit of tomato. They are only up to half a cup each every day, which is half of what I've read they should have. They are on Oxbow young pellets but they hate it and after confirming with a vet on Wednesday I am going to look into other pellets with a more middle of the road calcium content.
Thirdly, how can you tell if a guinea pig is blind? Corrin is horrible at finding her way around and follows her sister everywhere, nose right up in her butt. If Ciri is already out for floor time, when I come to pick up Corrin, as long as I'm quiet she lets me pick her up but she always seems surprised. I try and bait them both into a little strawberry cuddle cup to transfer them for floor time, but it doesn't always work out, mostly because unless Corrin is right on her sister's tail she can't find her way into the strawberry it seems. Maybe its just a personality thing, but she also seems to sniff her food much more thoroughly than her sister, which makes me wonder if she is compensating because she can't see it.
I know talking about PEWs with this many health problems makes it seem like they might be lethals, but from my understanding lethals come from roan x roan or dalmation x dalmation. Their mom was a very healthy PEW and their dad is... well a mystery because their mom came to the rescue pregnant from someone who swore up and down that mom was actually kept alone her whole life. (Separate issue, I know.) Between that and the tiny bits of gray on their ears, I suspect they're not lethals. Could a lethal male have been their father and passed down some problems?
Fourthly, and my main question is, what supplements and food do you recommend for babies who are already having this many problems? I won't say money is no issue, but I'd rather put my money on preventative supplements than tons of vet bills down the road. I would also rather give them vitamins than watch them get sick. As they say in my grandmother's favorite magazine, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!" I am located in the US quite near Sweet Meadow farms if that helps.
They also don't act like any guinea pigs I have ever heard of.
In case any of this is relevant, I'm just going to put an info dump of all their weird stuff down here:
Ciri is the dominant one, but they only scuffled a little on the ride home from the rescue and have had no fights since. I expected a lot more, considering the rescue had kept them with different pigs, but they settled in almost instantly.
The only way to tell them apart, excepting for the little dot of beet juice I put on their head to better tell them apart while I'm trying to figure out who has diarrhea, is that Ciri has a black back foot.
They are on unlimited Oxbow Essentials Young Guinea Pig pellets, but they never eat them. They poop more in the pellet bowls than the rabbit-sized litter box I put in the corner where they used to go the most. I swear, its like they aim just to show me their displeasure. (Okay, I'm probably projecting a little bit here.)
I try and give them Oxbow Vit C and Digestive Health supplements, but they hate those and I have to crumble them up and put them in rolls of lettuce like little pig blunts to trick them into eating it. They still leave most of it.
They haven't gained any weight since I brought them home, but they are still larger than average for their age. Their mom is 13 inches full grown, so I suspect they're just going to be mega pigs like her.
They only drink out of the purple water bottle, despite having two otherwise identical bottles available to them. After extensive experimentation to see if it was height, location, or some other reasonable factor, we have determined they just have a favorite color.
I have tried two different bowls and scatter feeding to see if that would help with the pellets, but no luck. They have the option of a green, tilted, ergonomic pet bowl that I got because it supposedly is better for their growing spine (I'm a sucker, I know, but it was only $3 and it made me feel like I was being a good pet parent) and a tiny white one with a flat bottom. I may out of desperation see if I can find a purple one. I wish I were joking.
They are remarkably active and destroyed the homemade fleece bedding I painstakingly hand sewed for them, because somehow in my twisted mind they would understand that I made it for them out of love and like it more than anything I bought in a store. I woke up and found the bedding torn to shreds and them burrowed inside. They have similarly destroyed their first cuddle cup. They are now on Guinea Dad fleece and they do in fact like it more. They haven't damaged it yet, at least, plus the consistent color makes it easier to spot bladder sludge so I like it more too.
They have also shattered the second ceramic green bowl I got them. I have no idea how, because the other one has survived short drops (I'm a clumsy sort, from the sink to the floor while I was putting it aside to wash) without a scratch. I say this to emphasize how wildly active these girls are and why I'm concerned that they're only running for twenty minute bursts. While for most pigs that's pretty active, it's a sharp decline from the hour plus of laps I've seen them do, or the destruction I've woken up to.
They love the sound of violent video games. Again, I wish I was trolling, but given a choice between peaceful Bob Ross videos or my roommates screaming at Monster Hunter, they will popcorn to MH but hide during Bob Ross. I used to lecture and nag when they got too loud, but after a while I realized the pigs would go up to the top layer of their cage and run around when they got loud but tended to hide during quiet times.
They run to the edge of their cage and squeak whenever they smell meat, the same way they do for fresh hay in the morning. Obviously I haven't given them any, but burgers, hot dogs, and especially pepperoni will get them really excited. I like to sit next to them while I have my lunch, and they are way too eager to have sandwich meats.
They get at least an hour of floor time every day, during which they either hide under my legs like they're a tent or run out of control. I use pretty heavy metal shelving (like this) flipped sideways to keep them contained during floor time and they have managed to push it enough to squeeze out while I went to pee one day. Ciri is the ringleader here, Corrin just follows suit.
I am 99% sure these are guinea pigs and not just some other bizarre heretofore unknown species, but goddamn if they aren't the weirdest pigs I've ever heard of. I'm concerned that with their odd behavior (or, at least, behavior I've never seen mentioned on a pig forum anywhere) it might be some neurological thing. Or that I got mutants.
Just an FYI, I am horribly sleep deprived at the moment because they have gotten sick during my finals week so between homework stress and pig stress even when I do take breaks I can't sleep, but everything I mentioned has been witnessed by three much more rested people so I know I'm not hallucinating. For any of you who have ever read Bunnicula, I think I got Pigcula. So please don't write me off as a troll, I really do need help, and dry humor is just a coping mechanism that kicked in around the 36th hour without sleep.
