Specialty Vet

This past weekend started with taking Xabi to the vet (and picking Erin up from the airport!!!).

The vet visit was a bit of a doozy. The vet listened to Xabi's heart and lungs-nothing abnormal. They sedated him and took an X-Ray-nothing abnormal. They took a blood sample and did a full panel-nothing abnormal.

The vet said that
a) He was a bit more gassy than she likes to see, but that could be from the sedative.
b) His eye has more discharge than is normal, even with a nerve deficit. She suspects maybe an Upper Respiratory Infection.
c) His head tilted a little bit when he was sedated, (I think it's because he can't see out of his right eye very well, but I kept that to myself) so he might have a lingering ear infection causing head-tilt.

So we have him on antibiotics and also a G.I. tract mobilizing...stuff. His poops are back to normal, so hopefully by the end of the antibiotics, he'll be feeling much better.


Now who wants to see an X-Ray of a guinea pig?! I know I do!

Xabi's Progress

I am VERY happy to report that Xabi is up to 1022 grams! He has not been in that weight range since June. He has gained 148 grams in 3 weeks! That's a 1/3 of a pound! Go Xabi boy! (Unfortunately, Harvey has also been packing on the weight, and is now in the 1300s, so we'll be scaling down his pellet portions.) And cute Biscotti is nice and athletic as always. :)

EDIT: He's back down. :( Not sure what's going on. Looks like another vet visit is in store.

Escape Artist

Look at Xabi go!

Harvey Therapy

Sometimes, when you're on your period, you hate your job, your car doesn't work, you can't seem to lose weight, and it's really humid outside, you just need to lay down and have a 3-pound guinea pig sit on your chest and stare at you.

Therapy that works!

Xabi Vet & Cage Update

News from the vet:

Xabi is at a low weight, but not UNDER-weight. However, if he drops below 900 grams, she would be concerned. At the time of the vet appointment he was at 914 grams. 

She listened to his heart, lungs, guts, ears, mouth, and eye. She said to just keep putting ointment on his eye. It's really difficult to do without it getting smeared all over his fur by his eye. Then, when it dries, the fur around his eye gets pulled out in clumps when he cleans it. He's developing a little bald spot. :( She also said that what he has is called Horner's Syndrome. Which I think we knew, but had forgotten. Or didn't know the name of, but knew his symptoms.

The next thing she said is that with the bickering going on between Harvey and Biscotti, Xabi is probably not getting as much food as he normally would. We decided to do away with the current cage design, and make a simple, no-loft cage (which is a shame, since the loft minimizes hay debris getting everywhere), with 3 separate sections. It has worked out really well! See below:

Originally Harvey was on the left, Xabi in the middle, and Biscotti on the right. I figured Xabi could be a good buffer between the two trouble-makers. But then Scotti just bit the cage incessantly until we decided to try putting him in the middle. He is much happier now. He just needs to make sure he is in charge. He's the center of the universe! 

It has also been kind of fun making sure the pigs get exclusive rights to their favorite things. Harvey got his straw teepee, Biscotti got his pigloo (although he prefers the tent, but it's dirty right now), and Xabi got his barn. He LOVES to lay on top of it. He has always loved being on top of things. I've wondered if it makes him feel more secure, since he has worse eye sight. 

It's also really easy to clean. Plus, all 3 pigs have separate food bowls, hay racks, and water bottles. It is easier to monitor their droppings, as well. Before it was impossible to tell which droppings belonged to which pig. 

Xabi, before the vet visit. D'awww

I'm happy to report that he is now at 924!

Xabi's Weight Problem...

Poor Xabi keeps losing weight, despite the fact that I always see him muching on pellets and veggies. We're not sure what's going on, but he has a vet appt. on Friday, and I'll keep this blog updated with the diagnosis. Hopefully it's nothing serious. Poor pig!

Piggy Picnic...Pignic

My mom bought us this little pig-carrier that we can take to the vet, or, as I decided yesterday, on a picnic! The pigs were nervous-squeaking the whole walk (which is like 2 minutes) to the green area at the center of our apartment complex.

 

"IF YOU THINK I'M GOING TO COME OUT OF THIS CARRIER, YOU THOUGHT WRONG!"

"Oh, you brought parsley? You didn't mention that..."

"Um, excuse me? What incentives do I have here?"

"Oh, well, this is acceptable."

(I LOVE this photo! Hahaha!)

Here's Biscotti the Not-So-Brave. For all of his rumble-strutting, he is the most nervous in situations like this. He is cautiously testing the waters, here. 

Carrots make everything easier.

Isn't that right, Scotti boy?

Xabi Chops, being cute. (And in focus, for once!)

Eventually they all got out of the bag! Aren't they adorable?

Favorite Spot

Now that we have a loft, the pigs have found their new favorite spot. It is on top of a little bed that my mom made, that I put in the corner of the loft. 

Post-feast fatigue. "So...full...can't...move..."

 Xabi has a fiesty side-eye. Reminds me of Lucille

Biscotti, the bossiest of them all, taking a nap. Probably exhausted from all of his rumble-strutting.

 Isn't he so cute? This is before they spread hay everywhere. Here Biscotti is soaking up the morning sun on a weekend. (Although, to guinea pigs, every day is a weekend)

Harvey, settling down for a 15 minute interval of sleep before going back to the regularly schedule program (eating).

More Loft Pictures

I'm really happy because the piggy boys seem to be really liking the loft. In fact, it is now Xabi's new favorite place. This doesn't surprise me because he has always loved getting up high. Whether it be his barn or on top of the pigloo, he always wants up high. 

I'm also really happy because 1) I have been able to feed the boys separately much more easily. And 2) the loft gets messy with hay all over, but the rest of the cage doesn't. 

Clean(ish) cage. You can see Harvard in the Pigloo and Xabster up top.

"Everything the light touches is my kingdom."

Messy loft. It will be much easier cleaning one small blanket than a full sized blankie. 

Cage Expansion...again

I recently made yet another expansion to the pig cage. It is something I'm both proud of and a little embarrassed by. I'm not sure how long it will last, because it's going to be a pain to clean, buuuuut, let's just let the illusion play itself out, shall we?

Ta-daa! A new loft! We'll see how long it lasts. They don't seem overly excited about a new ramp. I'm not entirely sure they know how to climb it yet. They can also run all the way around underneath the loft, and there is a little cubby with a bed, too. 

Fancy ramp with side walls.

Xabi, the forever black blur.

"Oh, you just spent hours expanding our cage to an even larger size and added on a new fancy loft? That's nice. I think I'll sleep in my tiny, shabby, old teepee instead. Night night!"

Xabi's Progress

I weighed Xabi a couple of days ago and I'm happy to report he is doing better. Slowly but surely he is gaining weight back.

(It probably helped that I weighed him after he had a hearty dinner of romaine lettuce)

Vet Visit Follow-up

We took cute Xabi to the vet in our brand new piggy carrier! It worked great. It has mesh sides so he had plenty of air flow (pigs can get overheated very easily) and the top AND side opens completely, which made it easy to check in on him and get him out when it was time.

I took my weight chart of Xabi:

I was happy to see that the vet took my weight chart seriously and even made a copy of it! That little kitchen scale has paid off. I'm really glad we got it and so I can monitor my pigs' health.

The vet tech was really funny and loved Xabi. The vet quickly agreed that it is probably malocclusion, and looked in Xabi's mouth. He was really squirmy and bite-y, which is as expected. She gave us options. We could sedate him and have her file down his teeth. We could sedate him and have her take an X-Ray to see if he has elongated roots, or we could masticate all of his food for him and avoid sedation. 

We went with the teeth filing. It was actually really cool. She said that she could do it out on the table with us, as long as Xabi's heart rate and breathing were stable. It took about 5 minutes before he was out. Cute little piggy boy. It is always sort of startling to see an animal go from jumpy and active to limp and motionless. Poor little pig.

She pried open his mouth with a tool, then looked inside with a scope. She let me look, too! It was pretty cool. His mouth was pretty green, though, so she cleaned it out, haha. She filed down his molars and clipped his front teeth. As in...clipped with fingernail clippers! CRAZY! Below you can see pictures of our little sedated Xabi boy. Poor little guy. I have to admit, it's a little funny seeing him so relaxed!

Ooftah!

So relaaaaaaaaaxed

The vet said the goopy eye might be related to his teeth, but most likely is a separate issue. She gave us ointment to put in his eye so it doesn't dry out. Because the tear duct is paralyzed, his eye just gets really dried out. We also bought "Critical Care" which is a powder to mix with warm water, like oatmeal, and syringe feed the guinea pig. If he doesn't gain weight in the next while, we'll give him that until we can get him in again. I think it's good to keep on hand, too. 

Xabier Vet Visit

Xabster has been losing weight. I first noticed how skinny he was when I gave him a bath and cut his hair. It disguises his skinny little body! Since March 29th he has lost 110 grams. This is quite a lot for a little pig.

We are taking him into the vet for the following symptoms:

• Goopy eye. The eye on his paralyzed side has been really goopy and runny. It is also sort of sunken in and dull. I figured that is probably due to him not having motor control on that side of his face. But the goopy/runny eye has me worried. We also thought it might be due to hay fever, but his weight loss makes me think it is something else.
  Drooling. 
• Doesn't eat very fast.
• He has an interest in food, he just doesn't eat very much.
• Gets lots of crumbles of food. He drops food easily. I also figured this was because of his previous condition, but now I'm wondering if it's all related.
• Uneven teeth. <- This is what makes me think all of the symptoms are related. My theory is that he has malocclusion. Possibly just on one side (because he only chews on the other side)

This page is what made me think it's malocclusion: http://www.guinealynx.info/malocclusion.html

We'll see what the vet says! Wish Xabi luck!

Remind you of anyone?

Biscotti

Xabi Bath time!

Fresh Cage

Yesterday the piggies got a nice, fresh, clean cage. They are always much more active and curious when this happens. I wish I started recording right when we put them in. I also wish the lighting was better, but oh well!

Sleepy Xabi

We're not sure if Xabi is starting to become less skittish, or if his natural defense mechanism is to shut-down, but recently while I was cleaning the cage, I put all 3 pig-pig-pigs on Justin's lap. While the other two were stress-squeaking, Xabi just laid down and fell asleep while Justin stroked his little nose. As soon as Justin would stop he would look up like "hey, what's wrong with you? moaaaar!"

"I'm getting sleeeeeepy..."

"This lap is so comfy, if only I could get a nose rub"

"Oh, it feels so good"

 

"This is the beeeeest"

"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?!?

"That's right."

"Floor-time"

The thought process started out along these lines:

"I think I'll make a little expansion for the guinea pigs, right on their cage. I can just do it for Floor Time only. That way, we just open the little gate and once a day they can have a whole extra place to run around. Then, at night, we can close it."

Wayullll...floor time all the time! Haha, we, uh, didn't close the gate, and now they have double the space of their already large cage. Because they neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed it!

Xabi Waddle Butt