Pig Notes

Pet Expectations Presentation in Shelton

On Saturday, August 9, 2008, from 1-3:30 p.m., Written Words Bookstore in Shelton, CT, is teaming up with Our Companions and The Critter Connection to talk about picking the right pet, where to find reliable information, and the wide array of resources available to you for Q&A about specific species and breeds.

The event kicks off with story time for the kids, featuring "The Perfect Pet," a book the whole family can relate to! Our Companions will then present on dog and cat adoption and ownership, followed by the The Critter Connection on adopting and owning small/exotic pets of the furry persuasion.

The human educators will be accompanied by kid-friendly furry ambassadors. In addition to Q&A opportunities with the presenters, there will be handouts, fact sheets, rescue lists, and book lists available for you to peruse and take home.

Rethinking The Vitamin C Supplement

For some time now, Cindy has been using a different Vitamin C supplement for guinea pigs needing an extra nutritional boost due to illness or prior neglect and malnourishment. The supplement comes not from the pet store, but from the baby supply aisle.

Natra-Bio Children's Vitamin C comes in a sweet, citrus-flavored syrup. Unlike vitamin supplements available in pet (supply) stores, this is not a multivitamin -- it's all Vitamin C. (Guinea pigs don't need multivitamin supplements.) Cindy says the rescue pigs she's given it to have all lapped it up. Look for it online for the best price (and make sure you check the expiration date when it arrives). Any local drugstore, vitamin shop, or natural grocery should be able to special-order it for you if their distributor carries Natra-Bio.

Another option is actively recommended and prescribed by South Wilton Vet. Maxi Baby-C Liquid from Country Life is a vegetarian/kosher supplement that comes in an all-natural cherry flavor. Guinea pigs that don't like oranges, or orange-flavored treats, will likely respond more favorably to this supplement. Look for it online to get the best price (and check the expiration date when it arrives). Like the Natra-Bio supplement, if your local store doesn't already have it on their shelves, they should be able to order it for you.

In both cases, you'll have to have your own syringes in order to administer these supplements to your guinea pig(s); supplements are administered orally. For an adult guinea pig (average weight: 2.5 pounds), give 1.0ml daily. You can administer 0.5ml twice daily if your guinea pig doesn't have the patience to sit for 1.0ml in one dose.

(NOTE: Just as your own doctor needs to be aware of what vitamin supplements you're taking regularly, your veterinarian needs to know what your guinea pig is being given.)

If you find other options on the market, be mindful of the ingredients. Watch for milk, lactose, or any ingredients derived from milk (like sodium caseinate); guinea pigs are herbivores (no milk, no meat). And, again, always check expiration dates.

Sometimes They Don't Know They Can Talk To Us

Monty and Mia came to the rescue with breeder's tags on their ears. Generally good-natured, they had some hallmark characteristics of guinea pigs that hadn't received a lot of attention and socialization. Still, they warmed up to Cindy and the other humans who held them.

While Mia proved quickly to be Miss Social Butterfly, chatting it up with her neighbors, actively watching all that went on around her, and engaging with the humans, Monty was comparably quieter, stand-offish. Kept to himself, and Mia, most of the time. Responded well to affection when he was picked up, but didn't work the room for it either. Given the environment he'd come out of, it was plausible that he'd be reserved. Given the extroversion of his mate, it was plausible that he'd be introverted -- that's often how the dynamics shake out in pairs.

Still, Cindy occasionally wondered if something might be wrong with Monty. Guinea pigs are very good at hiding symptoms of illness; sometimes the only (ambiguous) clue that something might be brewing is that a pig becomes quiet, reclusive. But not having a true baseline for his temperament, we couldn't be sure.

Cindy got Monty neutered, and things rolled along well -- until what appeared to be an abscess developed at the neutering incision site. One course of antibiotic proved to be ineffective, so a second course with a different antibiotic was started and surgery was expected early in the week. Through it all, Monty seemed to have some fight in him; he did his best with (syringe) feedings, but Cindy wasn't certain how much strength he had or if his will to live was strong enough to make up for a lack of physical strength.

On the last Saturday morning of May, as Cindy was preparing to go to a memorial service for a family member, she picked up Monty to check on him -- only to discover that the abscess had ruptured. She held the poor little guy over the sink as blood and other...stuff...drained out of the abscess. A call to the vet, an appointment scheduled.

When she took him in, the vet rushed Monty to emergency surgery. Knowing she wouldn't be able to bring him home after surgery that night, Cindy drove home. As she and I washed water bottles, we silently hoped that Monty would be okay.

The vet called from the operating room. The problem at the neutering site was not an abscess, but an infection that had spread from the real problem -- an abscess in his stomach, which had eaten clear through the abdominal lining and wall. The problem clearly had started before he ever came to the rescue. There was only one decision that could be made. Monty was never brought out of anesthesia, and passed peacefully into the next world.

There are a lot of wishes that things would have turned out differently...but wishes won't bring Monty back. So instead, we're turning our wishes in a different direction.

When Monty and Mia arrived at the rescue, Mia was pregnant. At the time, we were disappointed by the human carelessness that led to her getting pregnant while she was still so small. In the wake of Monty's loss, though, we find ourselves wishing that Mia gives birth to a boy...a mini Monty.

Sometimes, We're Sure They Talk To Us

Cindy's been taking care of surrendered guinea pig, an older male she's named Stash. He's a cuddly, good-natured, pretty boy who hadn't been feeling his best since he arrived.

She took him to the vet, where they discovered that his front molars had overgrown, trapping his tongue and, thus, making it difficult to eat (but not drink). During the visit, the vet was able to sedate Stash and trim his molars back down to proper size. Cindy then took him home, cleaned his cage, and restocked his food.

That was when one of those mission-affirming moments that animal rescuers live for happened. She wrote me later:

"He started eating immediately, like he had never eaten before. At one point, I walked past his cage and abruptly stopped. Stash stopped chewing, turned around, and looked at me...and gave me the most penetrating stare I've ever had from an animal.

After several moments of this I blurted out "you are welcome" without even thinking. After I said that, he started eating again. I swear he was talking to me." 

I'm convinced he was.

How 'bout you?

Myth #10: Small Cages Don't Do Lasting Harm

Sparky came to us by way of a thrift store, an abandonment case that involved pre-teens who were not taking proper care of him and a newly pregnant mom who thought she couldn't be around him. (Sparky was the inspiration for our Myth #9 posting.) When I arrived at the store that Saturday morning two weeks before Easter, I wasn't sure what I'd find. When you're picking up an abandoned guinea pig, you're never entirely sure what you're going to find; too often, it's a sad, thin, unkempt piggie.

Sparky turned out to be a beautiful black Peruvian-Abyssinian mix with a swipe of white on his nose. Despite the commotion of the thrift store, and all the people who stuck fingers through the cage bars or put their faces up to the cage, he was remarkably even-tempered. He was sociable, clean, healthy, and overall well cared for.

Except for his cage.

The cage was about 22" x 14", thinly lined with pine bedding. The wire cage top was falling apart pretty much every way that it could fall apart and was held together by binder clips and twist ties. Sparky was sitting on the right side of the cage; his food dish, water bottle, and pile of hay was on the left. He had less than 10" of space for moving around. And no hidey house.

When I brought him home to foster, he was placed in a C&C cage. For three days, he stayed on the right side of the cage...not venturing more than six inches in any direction. I spent an evening coaxing him to be a brave piggie and walk around the cage. For four days, I had to artfully position veggies around his cage to encourage him to move around. And he was obsessed with his waffle-block house.

Once he was comfortable with the cage, I put him in a play area that was bigger than his cage. Again, he would not venture more than six inches in any direction. Even the girl piggies in the neighboring play areas could not lure him out. Strategically placed veggies didn't either. It was all enough to bring tears to my eyes.

Finally, after four days, I put my male in the play area with Sparky. In a few minutes, they were doing a piggie train around the perimeter of the play area and criss-crossing back and forth across the middle. The next night, though, Sparky forgot what a brave little piggie he'd been the night before and Winston once again had to pay a visit and coax Sparky around. And had to for several more nights.

I eventually got Sparky to the point where he'd run around my dining room or, at least, around the perimeter. In his cage and play area, he still favors the right side. And whenever he's introduced to a new environment, he reverts to his old habit -- right side of the cage, six inches in either direction. It's all still enough to bring tears to my eyes.

We can't stress it frequently or loudly enough -- pet store cages do not give guinea pigs enough room to live and play. The single best cage environment that owners can give their guinea pigs is a C&C cage. Your pigs will love you for it!

Myth #9: Pregnant Women Can't Be Around Guinea Pigs

We've had a surge in inquiries in the last three months from pregnant women wanting to know if they had to surrender the family guinea pig(s) before the pregnancy proceeded any further.

This likely stems (somehow) from the prevailing concern about pregnant women and cats, due to the risk of exposure to toxoplasmosis. (By the way, if you or someone you know is pregnant and has a cat, you might want to read this info from Yale before you take Kitty to a cat rescue.)

We've checked with the vets at South Wilton Veterinary Group and Pieper Olsen Veterinary Hospital -- as well as several OB-GYNs in southern Connecticut -- and the consensus is that pregnant women have no need to be concerned about being around guinea pigs.

They added that if women still have residual concerns, basic common-sense hygiene practices -- washing one's hands, keeping cages clean, and so forth -- should lay those concerns to rest. If all else fails, have husbands (and/or older children) clean Piggy's cage during the pregnancy and -- while they're at it -- Kitty's litter box. 

We're In The New York Times!

We were one of several specialty rescues interviewed for an article that appeared in the Connecticut section of today's New York Times. The article, titled "For Abandoned Pets, the Kindness of Strangers," is currently available on the newspaper's Web site.

The print edition of the article ran with a great photo of Cindy and Pogo (one of the rescue's sanctuary pigs...and one of Minerva's roommates). Regrettably, the photo did not make it into the online version.

Our thanks to the article's writer, Gail Braccidiferro, for doing the article and helping to raise the public's awareness of specialty rescues in our state.

A Better Bottle Brush

Do you find yourself wishing that your bottle brush cleaned your guinea pigs' water bottle just a little bit better?

Our finned friends in Fish Land may have an option you'd like better -- a filter brush. I came across this option purely by accident years ago, when my pet supply store didn't have a critter bottle brush in stock. I bought the brush as a temporary solution and wound up liking it so much that I've stuck with. The one shown here (which is what I have) is the Aquatic Gardens Flexible Twin Head Brush, which retails online for about $3.99.

What I like about the brush is that the bristles don't mash down within the first few uses and, even if they get a little flat, they can be restored simply by running your fingers over them in the opposite direction. The flexible wire coil in between the brush ends makes it easy to twist a brush end around so that you can really scrub at the top and side surfaces of the water bottle, and even in that hard-to-reach spot just inside the bottle's opening.

The brush heads are small enough that you can run them down both ends of the drinking spout for 8-ounce and 16-ounce bottles. They are, however, just a little tight when you try to pull them back out...but I've never had one get stuck.

The brush heads clean quickly under warm or cold running water, and dry quickly as well. Because the brush is 19" long, it can be a little trickier to store than the standard critter bottle brush but its cleaning ability far outweighs this.

You'll be amazed at how much cleaner your critter water bottles can be!

Someone For Everyone

During Adopt a Guinea Pig Month, we wanted to let folks know about a wonderful little book.

"Someone For Everyone" is an enchanting story, told with full-color photographs, about a guinea pig waiting for a new home for much too (inexplicably) long after her siblings left for their new homes. Sitting sadly in her cage, this lovely and lonely little pig gets advice from the other animals in the store about why it's taking her longer to find a home.

This book especially touched us. Every once in a while we have a pig -- or a pair of pigs -- that we think are, to use Cindy's word, just "awesome" but, for some reason, take longer to get adopted out than we can understand. This book illustrates perfectly that it's all about personality and timing -- finding just the right match between humans and guinea pigs at just the right time. And, sometimes, the perfect match takes a little more time to find...but when it shows up, it's for life.

The book was written and published by two writers in Australia, and is available for purchase online. The book is $19.95 (Australian currency), which works out to about $18.66 in U.S. currency (based upon the currency exchange rate right now); when you order through PayPal with your credit card, your cardholder will handle the conversion and will likely show you the charge in U.S. currency on your next statement.

Get yours today!!

March Is Guinea Pig Month!

Our beloved little ones get a whole month of their own (thanks ASPCA!)!

We'll be appearing at Aetna on March 12 as part of their ongoing program to connect employees with the non-profits operating in their communities. Pets Press is also running several articles about guinea pigs in its March issue, due to hit stands any day now. We're also awaiting word on the publication date of an article -- featuring specialty rescues around the state (including us) -- in the Connecticut section of The New York Times. (The reporter said it's likely to be in the last half of the month.)

If you know someone thinking of adding guinea pigs to their family, please encourage them to adopt!