Baby Sitting Piggies!

Meet our guests, the three little piggies! They originally belong to Mochi's previous human, she had to leave her pets for a while to go on a family trip out of the country. We're not really open for fostering, adopting, or piggy sitting, but their human was so desperate to find a care taker, eventually we said okay. And now here we are... Temporarily living with six piggies (including me, Panda).

We forgot their real names, so we're calling this guy Kevin...

Fluffy...

and Bryan...

Loki's 3rd URI Vet Treatment

There's something wrong with our SD card and/or computer, it keeps deleting photos from the card. We did have recent pics, but it all disappeared by the time we placed it in the SD slot. We took so many cool pictures of out selves, but we turned into sad piggies when we learned that they disappeared. So here are a few of my pics taken before. Enjoy!

I don't know what's up. I've been showing signs of URI (upper respiratory infection) on and off since I was first diagnosed with it, which was last year the same time baby Jonsi left us. The signs that told the vet that I have URI are; crackling sound in the lungs, discharge around the nose and eyes, weight loss, difficulty breathing, strange noise like hooting and snorting.

The first time I was diagnosed was by Doc Nielsen at VIP (Vets in Practice). The second time was at the same clinic, it was months after my last visit, but this time it was another vet. I continue to show signs weeks later after medications but it went away on its own.

In the middle of cage cleaning I decided to rest on Human.

Because of the reoccurring URIs, we stumbled upon an article at Guinea Lynx about heart problems in guinea pigs. The symptoms exactly matched mine, even the stories from other guinea pigs who have heart problems matched mine. Fortunately with the right meds, I can live a happy normal life. The down side to this is that heart problems in guinea pigs are somewhat new and a little unheard of.

The trip to the vet wasn't fun at all (it never is, but this was probably the worst). I was placed in a small box with noms. It was okay at first because I get to have complementary snacks, but then it all got bumpy and hot inside. Gah!

 Human tried to talk the vet into checking if I do have heart problems, but I still end up getting prescribed meds for URI since the vet is not yet convinced. The vet claims that this always happens to me because I'm prone to it, and summer makes it easier for us to get URI. I was also given a shot of anti biotics on the back, it was horrible. My meds shall be taken for ten days or until I lose my appetite and continue to decrease weight, then I will have to go see doc again. Hopefully the meds work and everything will be okay. Wheek!

Over Grown Teeth

I recently had a case of over grown teeth commonly found among my rodent family, called Malocclusion.
This usually happens when we have nothing to chew on hence we don't have anything to grind down our teeth on. Omnivorous rodents like my cousins; mice, rat, and hamster, need an object to constantly gnaw on. My herbivorous relatives like the rabbit and chinchilla can completely depend on grass or hay to keep our teeth healthy and happy. In our happy cavy place, we're provided with unli hay 24/7, but in my case, it doesn't really help because my malocclusion is more likely to be genetic according to the vet, which means I'll be expecting another dental appointment in the near future.

Day 1
It all started when I was feeling very depressed and puffy. I was depressed because my whole mouth hurts, and I was very hungry. My puffy-ness is my way of saying "Hey. My whole mouth hurts". It was complete torture to watch Loki eat my share of noms, so I tried to sleep off the pain. Avoid all piggy and human contact.

Picture does not do justice at how puffy I was.

Day 2
Human doesn't notice my pain. Loki is still heartlessly taunting me with food. I'm puffy and I think I'm starting to lose weight.

Day 3
Still hungry, I continue to lose weight. Human keeps poking me, chasing me around, and pushing food down my mouth. As much as I wanted to eat my delicious foods, the pain is still too much.

Day 4
I'm placed in a box, leaving Loki. I'm hungry, scared, and alone in a dark room. Human transported me somewhere familiar. A huge dog started barking at me, I hope my box is strong enough to protect me. If anything goes wrong, I can still rely on my human to serve as a distraction while I cleverly scurry my way back home.
All went well, the large dog went away, but now I have to face getting examined by humans I've never seen before. It took me a while to realize that human took me to the vet. The vet and I have a very complicated relationship, so I was very annoyed how my own human dragged me into this awkward situation. Judging by the way they (yes there were lots of them) prodded every inch of my my body, combined with confused faces; they were not sure what was wrong with me.
Another vet came in (Doc Nielsen), examined me, and confirmed that I have malocclusion. It wasn't obvious at first because it was only my molars (teeth at the very back of my mouth, responsible for grinding food) was over grown, my front teeth (incisors) are fine.
There's only one way to correct my teeth, and that is a minor surgery. By using a special machine especially made for cutting rodent teeth, I can soon happily eat again. Problem was that the machine is at another clinic. To top it all off, only doc Nielsen knows how to use it, he'll only be available in another clinic (miles away) the next day, and the day after that he'll be out of town for a week.
It's been very stressful for everyone. I can't wait another week of not eating, but we can't find a ride to go to where doc is the next day. For now we are advised to mash all my food, feed me by syringe, and hope things get better. Human feeds me mashed pellets soaked in ascorbic acid with mashed apples. Using a 1cc syringe with the tip cut off to make a bigger opening. She also bought us wheat grass. I could only nibble on a few.

Day 5

They see me rollin', they hatin'...

Although I've finally eaten a decent amount of food yesterday, I continue to lose weight. We've successfully found a ride to the clinic. It was a long trip, but we have no choice. When we finally made it to the clinic, we had a little problem, the machine wasn't there. There was some kind of miscommunication the day before, a mistake we had to pay by waiting at the clinic the whole day. We waited for a staff to bring the machine from one clinic to the one we're currently at. The time finally came where I had to say good bye to human and go under the knife (or the drill/mini saw... Or whatever doc used on me... Actually he did use a tiny knife). I don't remember much, after leaving human. I was placed on a cold table, blinded by a bright light. It didn't take too long before I blacked out.
I wake up on my back, feet in the air, and feeling horrible. My mouth felt weird, and I could see humans looking down at me. More poking. I finally found strength to get up on four paws. Doc wasn't done with me yet, he rubbed a cotton bud around my inside cheeks. I was still a little too weak to protest. *mur mur mur*

Feeling good and ready for world domination!

I was placed in my box again where I try to recover from my anesthesia. I stayed puffy and vibrate-y. I soon found my self in the car again, on our way home.

Doc prescribed a special soothing mouth gel to ease the pain from surgery. I also had antibiotics to prevent infection (doc had to remove a really bad ulcer on my tongue caused by scraping it on my over grown molars). I couldn't eat normally for another three to five days, so I had to rely on critical care.

It has been two months since the incident, and I'm happy to report that I've fully recovered. Wheek!

More information on malocclusion on guinea pigs.