We have a joke around here "and so begins the circle of guinea pigs." I guess we are guinea pig people now. Before our move to Spanish Fork, Danelle had been begging me for years to let her get another pet and I always told her she could when we moved into a bigger home. Within the first week of our move, Danelle reminded me again of our promise and sure enough, by week two in Spanish Fork we had two adorable baby pigs.
When S' mores died, I didn't think much about getting another guinea pig for Chocolate Chip (her sister). We talked about it but worried more that the pigs wouldn't get along with each other and were NOT convinced Danelle was ready for such a big responsibility. If you know S'mores tragic story, you understand why we didn't want to risk anymore animals being hurt. However, keeping her alone ended up being a terrible decision.
Little did we know that guinea pigs get depressed when they are left alone for too long. They are considered social animals and need interaction. I had a guinea pig alone for years, and would have never guessed they did so badly alone when they are used to a cage mate.
It all happened one day in early November. Chocolate Chip was sharing a room with Danelle and she seemed to be doing pretty well, I thought. We bought her a log to hide inside and gnaw, and I made sure she was held, fed, and watered everyday. Much of the day though, she was all alone in the solitude of the room. Then one morning, I noticed her water bottle was still filled to the top, and her food dish too. I just thought that Danelle had done it for me that day, so walked on by. When the water and food was full the next day however, I was more alarmed - especially since Chocolate Chip looked puffy and had crustiness around her eyes. Danelle said that she had never fed Chocolate Chip or changed her water.
I was a little panicked at this point realizing she was going on at least two days of no water or food. I gave her carrots, celery, lettuce. None of which really enticed her. Monyka asked her aunt to give me advice, and her aunt immediately suggested I take her to the vet but try grinding her food up and giving it to her as paste from a spoon. After a full day of this, I knew Chocolate Chip was in serious trouble. She was now starting to urinate blood, and we took her right in to the vet.
Although we didn't have the money at the time, we needed to help our little Chocolate Chip survive this. The vet suggested hooking her up to an i.v. and re-hydrating her which we did. They also sent home an antibiotic, hoping it would help. They told us to give her the medicine, Baytril, twice a day and syringe feed her two cc of water and food every two hours. We paid the bill with our Christmas money.
We hoped that Chocolate Chip would come to about a week of treatments, but no. We were still syringe feeding her baby food every two hours and giving her water, even to the point of setting alarms at night. Shayne did hours of research reading about guinea pigs nutrition, what might have triggered her illness, and off the wall ways to make her better. After Chippy being sick two weeks, we realized her best hope was to buy another guinea pig and increase her chances of survival by 80%. Milkshake was a welcome addition and the two pigs took to each other right away.
Chippy now had a friend to snuggle with. Milkshake was surprisingly loving and understanding of our little sick pig. We worried about Milkshake getting the illness too, but had a strong feeling that everything would be alright. Chocolate Chip seemed to do better, but unfortunately she was too far gone. December 7th, she took a turn for the worst. She had given up the fight. Wouldn't raise her head to head, and was sprawled out lifeless. She died the morning of December 8th.
We were heartbroken for our little pig. We did everything for her during her time of need. I hoped so much that our "little pig" would kick this illness. Shayne had gotten close to Chocolate Chip and even shed a tear and had dreams about her after she passed.
We almost had a moment of post traumatic stress disorder about leaving guinea pigs alone, so not wanting Milkshake to get sick, we found Carmel. She came from a similar home as Milkshake. The owners were breeding them (poor things)and decided to keep a baby and get rid of the mother who had probably "done her time" with them. We were happy to give these momma's a good home, and got them at a clearance price.
It's been a month since we've had these guinea pigs... We are raising them the right way now that we know everything about guinea pigs from our month of research for Chocolate Chip. They have a new "used" cage, a food hutch in the cage that keeps the food flowing, Timothy Hay stacks, and at least a cup of fresh veggies a day.
Milkshake never did get sick, but she did develop a condition over the past seven weeks.... she is expecting baby pigs any day now! It was totally unexpected and something I never thought I would experience, and never wanted to (and never will again!). Apparently, they didn't know she was pregnant when they sold her to us. We are doing hours more research as we prepare for the babies. I have to add that it's helping us cope with January blues. We can't wait to see them.
Like I said, "and so begins the circle of guinea pigs." We've had four guinea pigs this year, and babies on the way. Bring it on.
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