Poor Heidi

Heidi passed away from the sickness. We have only had her for 27 days. I will always love her. I will always love all of my pets.

Heidi and Belle

The new guinea pig's names actually turned out to be Heidi and Belle, not Radish and Pepper. Heidi has been sick for a few days now, but she seems to be getting better on the antibiotics the vet prescribed for her. Speaking of medicine, guinea pigs should never have penicillin, even if a vet prescribes it, because they may not be a guinea pig expert, and won't know that penicillin is toxic to pigs.

Poor Mr. Pickles or Make Sure your guinea pig gets enough vitamin C

Poor Mr. Pickles passed away.

The last time the veterinarian saw his teeth were broken off, it was from an incident. This time though, there was no incident, his teeth just broke off as a result of a lack of nutrients. The vet said that this was a bad sign, so we had to put him down.

The good news is that soon after this tragic event, we got two new guinea pigs, Pepper and Radish. From now on I will be posting on Pepper and Radish, with a little bit of posting on Mr. Pickles sprinkled in. If you have a guinea pig, make sure they get enough vitamin C so the same thing doesn't happen to them.

Guinea Pigs and Vitamin C

I cannot stress it enough how you must give your guinea pig vitamin C. My guinea pig Mr. Pickles got scurvy because he did not get enough vitamin C because I did not know that pigs needed more vitamin C than drops in their water. He first stopped eating. We took him to the vet and they said that he had pancreas levels that were well out of the range of a normal pig's levels. Our vet said that he would call an expert on pigs and that she should be able to tell us what was wrong. She said it might be Pancreatitis, but after a second consulting, she told us it could be scurvy. The scurvy caused his teeth to overgrow (as pig's teeth always keep growing because the pig normally files them down on a wood block or stick an their food (for the right kind of stick see My first post)) and they trapped his tongue. She filed them down but said they would never be normal again and if we wanted him to stay healthy we would have to come back and have them filed every week or two. We fed him mushy foods that he could swallow without chewing and he was okay until his teeth grew back. We had them filed by our local vet and they got them finally back to normal length. The problem now was that his jaw could not close because his teeth had prevented it from closing, and even after the filing, his jaw was stuck in the position that it had been locked in for so long. Unfortunately, with his jaw locked it was hard for him to swallow, so he may not make it for much longer. :(

What Not to feed Guinea Pigs

Don't feed pigs "human treats" ( like the ones listed in my first post ) even once. They will become addicted, like some humans are addicted to cigarettes- they can't stop. Your pig could become sick from these such "treats"- or even worse.

A Guinea Pig's Dietary Habits

Guinea Pigs are Vegetarians. This means that they don't eat meat. Don't try to feed your pig meat, because ALL pigs are vegetarians. Feed them plenty of fruits and vegetables instead, like the ones listed in my first post. If your pig does not like some fruits and vegetables, try others and find some that your pig likes, because all pigs like different fruits and vegetables.

Dogs and Palm Nuts

My dog, Sophie, recently ate a palm nut. We have Palms in our yard and their seeds are little nuts that fall off the trees. Sophie chews on them, and the gross-smelling juice comes out and she eats it. We try to keep them away from her, but she managed to eat one when we were not looking. She was throwing up for the next few days, so we took her into the vet and they said nothing was wrong, so we thought it was a stomach bug. When she did not stop throwing up, we took her in again and the vet gave her x-rays and found that a palm nut was lodged in her intestines, so she had to have surgery. Luckily, we could spay her at the same time, so she did not have to have another surgery, but the cost was like buying her all over again. So palm nuts are not poisonous, but very dangerous, especially when eaten.