A week in the life of me and the animals!

Eriathwen

Eriathwen

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Welcome to our "Week in the life of.."

By some miracle, Saffron actually came out this morning 😅 I suppose she wanted to welcome you all too, in her own way, as she wasn't very cooperative. So...

Day 1!

Every single day kicks off, and ends, with medications. For those that don't know, I have a passion for special needs, palliative and behavioural small animals, especially guinea pigs.

So before I even have breakfast, I get meds done. Luckily a good few of the piggies enjoy these and will sit happily to take them, there's currently only 3 that need catching for them, and I don't blame them as they get, among other meds, gabapentin, which doesn't taste very nice compared to all the others!

Between them they get metacam, gabapentin, infant paracetamol, extra vitamin C and 4joints extra strength which is a glucosamine supplement.

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So, these guys are Delilah who has arthritis. Finley who has fibrous osteodystrophy..a painful renal and skeletal condition caused by the satin gene that creates his extra shiny coat. Tilly who has e.cuniculi, arthritis, an ovarian cyst that we can't remove due to her advanced age (we recently learned from her previous owner she will be 8 in August!) as well as a likely tumour somewhere we can't find.
And then we have Silver and Forrest my 2 lethal white brothers, these guys are similar to eyeless white Syrian hamsters or double merle dogs (although they're named after the lethal white condition found in horses I believe, which is also similar but as far as I'm aware, always fatal close to birth) so these guys are deaf, blind, immunocompromised, have misshapen and missing teeth, neurological issues, digestive issues and a bladder condition called interstitial cystitis.
 
Mabel and Ebony are also on meds, Ebony also has arthritis and interstitial cystitis as well as an ongoing dental issue where she has created extra slivers of tooth.

Mabel has had digestive issues since we rescued her in September last year, which we are unable to figure out, she is one of 3 who are back to the vet tomorrow! For some reason without her pain meds she stops eating, but we aren't sure why or what is causing the pain.

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So, now meds are done and Ebonys flamazine cream and bio oil has been put on her feet as she battles foot infections also!

The star of the show wanted some attention. Hopefully we will see more of her this week than I think we will, but she is quite a ghost hamster so I can't make any promises 🤣

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This is going to be an interesting week!
Lovely to hear how you’re taking care of all those with special needs, it sounds like quite a busy life but must be very satisfying to be able to help them live the best lives they can.
Lovely to see Saffron too, she’s such a beautiful little ham, nice of her to put in a star appearance!
 
That was a very impressive start to your week and sounds like a fulltime job taking such good care after all your animals.

I'm very much looking forward to the rest of your week.

Hello Saffron! Lovely to see the little beauty making an appearance.
 
Lovely photos and a great start to the week :-). The piggies all look so well behaved taking their meds from their syringes. Mabel looks a bit shy but very sweet. It’s fascinating hearing about your care of special needs piggies.

Saffron is looking happy and adorable!
 
I'm so glad everyone is looking forward to the week, with doing what I do every day I wasn't sure if it would be worth including or if it would be boring 😅 being a Sunday though it's quite a quiet day so figured it would be the best one to include it in. It is very rewarding though, I love what I do. You can't beat watching a terrified little animal come out their shell and make themselves at home, especially given some of the awful conditions some of them have come from.
 
Like the others before me, I am looking forward to your updates about Saffron and all the piggies. You must have learnt a great deal over time looking after so many special needs piggies and I am not surprised you find it very rewarding.
They are very lucky to live with you.
 
Really looking forward to hearing about your week. The photos of all the piggies are simply gorgeous, they are so lucky to have you and are looking in good health, even with their ailments, you are clearly doing an amazing job. Saffron is gorgeous too, what a cutie, how lovely she'll just sit in your hand 😃
 
Day 2!

3 of the 22 piggies had an appointment at the vet today, which was a bit of a juggling act as none live together and had to go in seperate carriers.

Tilly went due to her age, fluctuating weight and to check her ovarian cyst. Turns out thar she now has a second one on the other side. All in all she is doing well, at 8 years old we will only be monitoring her for now and keeping her on her painkillers, but nothing concerning that we need to worry about.

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Bailey went due to having a cyst on her ankle that had left an open hole. She had that cleaned out and checked, I will have to empty it as needed and keep it clean, she had a cyst on her shoulder checked that we had found last year as there were some unusual cells last time she had a fine needle aspirate done on it but it hasn't grown, so it's still very unlikely to be cancerous or need removing.
She decided to attempt to leap off the table, luckily my vet is a good catch 😅

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And finally Mabel went due to ongoing digestive issues. We've tried all sorts, all the medications usually given for gut issues which have caused her diarrhoea and not worked, I've tried the majority of commercial probiotics for rabbits and guinea pigs which again just made things worse, our current plan of action is to take the poop from a healthy piggy twice a day, liquidise it and feed it to her to attempt to balance the bacteria again. Sounds delightful. He will speak to one of the exotics vets tomorrow for a plan B and we will see how she goes!

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Something non guinea pig related.. every year we get swifts nesting in our eaves, I've tried getting pictures of them bit they're faaaar too fast! I have been hearing rustling about and the tell tale peeping of babies these last few days and it would seem I was right. Today they've cleaned out the old eggshells and dropped them around the garden. I found one while I was checking and watering all my plants!

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And one of my cacti have been ready to bloom for a while but just wouldn't open, today was the day!! I took a picture in the morning and an hour or so later went back out and it was open!

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It sounds like you've had a very busy day! The Piggies are all gorgeous and getting the greatest of care. Although poop in the liquidiser! :oops: We have birds nesting in the eaves as well, and I know Swifts are known for that, but OH says they are Swallows. I also can't get a photo of them! I'd like to get a good look to see if they are Swifts or Swallows.

The Cactus is beautiful! :love:
 
Very interesting update on the piggies, it sounds as though they are doing well in spite of their health issues.
Lovely to hear that you have swifts nesting, they really are super fast & amazing to watch.
That is quite a grand flower on your cactus, when they finally do flower they do it in with style!
 
Thankyou! It's certainly been a long day, the piggies are in the middle of a 4 week long antiparasite treatment too so I need to go and do that once they've eaten their veggies, but that's not particularly interesting, photograph wise 🤣

Honestly the flower is almost bigger than the cactus 😅 they really do over achieve. I've got a succulent that is also about to flower, I'm not sure it will fully open during this week though!

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Eriathwen said:
Welcome to our "Week in the life of.."

By some miracle, Saffron actually came out this morning 😅 I suppose she wanted to welcome you all too, in her own way, as she wasn't very cooperative. So...

Day 1!

Every single day kicks off, and ends, with medications. For those that don't know, I have a passion for special needs, palliative and behavioural small animals, especially guinea pigs.

So before I even have breakfast, I get meds done. Luckily a good few of the piggies enjoy these and will sit happily to take them, there's currently only 3 that need catching for them, and I don't blame them as they get, among other meds, gabapentin, which doesn't taste very nice compared to all the others!

Between them they get metacam, gabapentin, infant paracetamol, extra vitamin C and 4joints extra strength which is a glucosamine supplement.

View attachment 3040View attachment 3041View attachment 3042View attachment 3043View attachment 3044View attachment 3045

So, these guys are Delilah who has arthritis. Finley who has fibrous osteodystrophy..a painful renal and skeletal condition caused by the satin gene that creates his extra shiny coat. Tilly who has e.cuniculi, arthritis, an ovarian cyst that we can't remove due to her advanced age (we recently learned from her previous owner she will be 8 in August!) as well as a likely tumour somewhere we can't find.
And then we have Silver and Forrest my 2 lethal white brothers, these guys are similar to eyeless white Syrian hamsters or double merle dogs (although they're named after the lethal white condition found in horses I believe, which is also similar but as far as I'm aware, always fatal close to birth) so these guys are deaf, blind, immunocompromised, have misshapen and missing teeth, neurological issues, digestive issues and a bladder condition called interstitial cystitis.
Click to expand...
Thank goodness there are people like you who know how and can help elevate these poor creatures suffering with the care you give
 
Day 3

I tackled the veggie beds that I've been putting off, it still looks a bit of a mess but it had got really wild while I've been recovering from a back injury 😅 I really need to make room for my veggies though so had to be done!
I found some very pretty beetles while I was there, and a massive spider carrying an enormous egg sac, although she disappeared before I took a picture, I'm sure some of you will be relieved to hear that 🤣

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Oh, I also found my first tomato growing! And first ripe raspberries!

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Saffron also came out to inspect some oat sprays I'd put into her cage as well, I was quite surprised to see her during the day!

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That looks like a good job done! It's wild here right now too! The beetle is pretty - and a lovely ladybird too :)
 
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