My Cat's Oldest Guinea Pig Gets Surgery On Monday

[lalagimp]

This is going to be a tough one. I knew last year that it was time to get Lily spayed, but Tommy's bills and Mu-Xi's bills all came through and then I changed everyone's diets and spend all my money each month. Boyfriend paid down some of the CareCredit for Tom's bills and now I get to charge it again for my guinea pig. They have to go through her abdomen, and nicely move her digestive tract around and get out her pesky uterus and ovaries that are getting cystic. She's 4 years old and hasn't lost any weight yet from the pain so she's solid for surgery. I had a 5 year old get this same procedure done and that girl lived to be over 8 years old.

 

[neely]

Sending special thoughts and good vibes for Lily. Do you have a scheduled date for her surgery? I hope everything goes okay especially since you mentioned having a 5 yr. old get the same procedure and live until 8 yrs. old. Best wishes.

 

[Kieka]

Hoping everything goes well with surgery.

 

[lalagimp]

She's up and around at the vet's office. It was definitely the right thing to do despite the risks. She was developing small cysts on her ovaries, but the inside of her uterus was a mess. It was blistery with little cysts and inflamed, and a bit of scarring. Her final litter was three years ago. I never bred her once I adopted her.

 

[neely]

Glad she came through it okay.

 

[lalagimp]

Yeah I'm supposed to pick her up tomorrow. Her daughter certainly asked what's going on, but hasn't fallen into a funk about being an only piggy for a few days.

 

[lalagimp]

We've got her on 3 different medications and now added baby gasx and hand feeding. I weighed her this morning and she's about 100 grams down from pre surgical. I just got 8mL of Critical Care formula into her and the entire time she had her front half elevated on hand #1 while hand #2 was doing the syringe feeding. My boyfriend says her surgical site looks good even though she's in such discomfort. I put her back in the hospital cage and she laid down on her fluffy hidey muff and started eating hay.

 

[Kat0121]

I'm glad Lily's doing well. Guinea pigs are adorable. I met the sweetest little boy recently. He was at the mall in a storefront run by a great local no kill shelter. Hie name was Pickle Pirate. Such a sweetie. I know the girls would torment him or he'd be here. He doesn't deserve that.

My DD's friends found a Guinea Pig on the front lawn of their apartment complex recently. No one owned up to knowing where he came from so he lives with them now. Humans.

Do you have pictures of your pigs?

 

[lalagimp]

This is Lily, about 2 days before she had her kids in 2015.

 

[Kat0121]

What a pretty girl!!

 

[lalagimp]

Lily got very sick this week with bloat and didn't recover even though I followed all the treatment plan. She was back and forth in personality each day until she completely dove Wednesday evening, and her body started shutting down. The vet told me on the phone she was likely going to die within the next few hours, and I still went ahead and gave her the medications and more subcutaneous fluids. Washed her, blow dried her, got a clean hidey warm out of the dryer, put her inside on a heating pad. After awhile she started getting twitchy, so I cradled her in my arms until she went.
Lily's exact age is unknown. She was adopted January 2015, fully grown, and within the month of moving in with us, she gave birth. I would say she was almost 5 when she died.
Murphy is the only guinea pig left from her litter and is scheduled to turn 4 in February.

My cat Tommy doesn't understand that we lost another guinea pig because the cats lost access to the guinea pig pen a while back because they kept eating hay, and it was causing more problems than it was worth.

 

[neely]

I'm so sorry to hear Lily got bloat and passed away. I know you did everything possible to help her. I hope it comforts you having Murphy, one of the guinea pigs in her litter. My sincere and deepest regrets on the loss of Lily. May she rest in peace at the Bridge.

 

[Kat0121]

I'm so sorry for your loss. Lily was adorable. May she rest in peace.

 

[lalagimp]

She made things interesting. All her daughters were unique and they ended up being the most people-social herd of guinea pigs I'd had in a long time. Ruby looked just like Lily, and died a year ago. Potsticker was a big smooth red girl. She was a massive sweetie, but a little shy, and died from heart failure in January at the vet's office. Murphy has always been my mother's favorite since she was born, so my mom still has her grand-pig. Since Murphy didn't seem to rely solely on the other guinea pigs for her social skills, she is missing the company of Lily a little bit from time to time, but easily strikes up conversation with us. She doesn't spend he free time buried in a hidey, either. She lays around out in the open because she isn't afraid of the cats, or the parrots, or us, or vacuums, or text books hitting the floor, or today it would be the window whose track is broken. BOOM. She's so well adjusted it's silly. I hope she keeps her spirits going.