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