Harvey's illness

Harvey had the sniffles so we took him to the vet. Luckily we were able to find an exotic vet much closer to home. I'm so glad we took him in because it turns out what I thought was just sniffles was actually pneumonia. After doing some research, pneumonia is the most common cause of death with guinea pigs. 

As you can see, his lungs are very gray. The vet said that there should really be more black. The gray means there is fluid in his lungs.

We have him on antibiotics and also probiotics (strawberry flavored Activia). I completely changed his environment so that hopefully he isn't surrounded by the bacteria that caused this in the first place/Biscotti's stuff.

Below is an X-Ray of Xabi. As you can see, his lungs show a lot more dark space (air). 

Saying Goodbye again - Chief Engineer Biscotti Pippin

Last night we said goodbye to Scotti-boy. That makes it sound peaceful. It was not. But now he is out of pain and at peace. Luckily, we caught it early and within an hour he was out of pain. We do not know what happened. Heart failure, stroke, kidney stones, bloat, omental torsion, a combination of any of those - we don't know. 

It is hard to not think of those last moments. It was scary and shocking and I was in denial that we couldn't save him. After calling three emergency vets, two exotic vets, and one the best in the nation back in Indianapolis, which would have been at 1 am EST, (I wasn't kidding when I said I was in denial), we made the decision to euthanize Scotti. His condition was disturbing, and that is not what I want to remember.

So this is my attempt at remembering the good times with my little piggy. He was the sheriff of the town - always rumble strutting his way around the cage. He was the king of the pip-pip-pip exploratory noises and the loudest wheeker of the bunch. We buried him next to Xabi and in guinea pig burial fashion, he was laid on top of a bed of timothy hay. 

I have posted my favorite photos of him below. Rest in peace little guy.

This is the first week of when we moved into our house. The grass was overgrown and I set the boys to work at mowing it down.

Curious Scotti.

Jedi Biscotti. We often would hold the piggies in our hoodie pockets. Justin, in particular, would have "study sessions" with Scotti while working on homework in grad school.

What a feast! Biscotti loooooved corn and parsley.

Classic Scotti move. Sit IN his hay bin.

Enjoying the loft and bed. 

This was when we went on a "pignic". 

Thanksgiving glamour shot.

Another one taken at our house. Here he is on the cool sidewalk during a summer day.

One of the first photos of Biscotti. I used to bring home boxes from the deli for the pigs to run around in. He's so little here!

Chilling out in the pig castle.

 Here is one of my favorite photos. This is me skyping home when we were living in Indiana. He's my buddy.

Black & Orange & White

These are a few of my favorite things.

Happy Pigversary!

Three years ago yesterday we adopted the three little pig pig pigs. We celebrated with carrot cake for the humans, and a fresh piggy salad for the boys: green lettuce, cucumber, sweet red, orange, and yellow mini-peppers, carrots, fresh parsley, and cherry tomatoes.

I'm really missing Xabi, but it was fun to clean Scotti & Harvey's cages and hear them squeak and pip around before discovering their delicious salads. 

Happy pigversary!

Happy Thankspigging!

Pool Pigs

Summertime and the Livin' is Easy

Lately I have been sort of happy-sad about getting Biscotti & Harvey out to eat grass. Happy because they are so happy to have fresh grass and clover. As soon as you set them down they start eating at turbo-speed.

But it's also bittersweet because Xabi never got to fully experience eating grass. When we were in Indiana, it was too risky to set them down on grass that had ticks. Then, while in Utah he got a little taste but it was in mid-March and too chilly to stay outside very long. Once it warmed up he was too weak and sick to be taken outside. Even if he had a burst of energy, he didn't have the ability to eat anything that wasn't in liquid form. So although it's really fun to take the two pigs out, I always feel a twinge of grief for Xabi.

Anyway, I didn't actually mean to make this a sad post, so I'll continue to the happy parts of the post. When we first moved to the house we're now in, the lawn had not been mowed in a really long time. In other words, it was piggy heaven! Here are some photos of Biscotti and Harvey in their dream environment.