[Gpdd] RAINBOW BRIDGE, HEALTH: miss fergusson is gone

[karen mims]

yesterday, shortly before 11am, miss fergusson died. 

she was my sweetness, my cuteness, my fuzzy little piece of heaven. she was 
seven and a half, which is pretty ancient for a guinea pig. but when it's an 
animal you love, of course no length of time is enough. 

she'd been sick for a couple of days. on tuesday evening, i noticed that she 
hadn't moved all day. she'd been in exactly the same spot. she was lying 
next to her pile of hay, but i don't think she'd eaten any of it, and she 
definitely hadn't had any water, or the veggies i'd put in her cage. i know 
that a guinea pig that's not eating is in serious trouble. so i got her out 
of her cage and forced her to eat some pellets. she wasn't interested in the 
piece of cantaloupe i'd left for her, which was unusual--she usually loves 
cantaloupe. i also made her drink some water. my boy sat up with me for a 
long time, making her eat and drink. 

eventually, we went to bed. when i woke up the next morning, i dreaded going 
downstairs, worried about what i'd find. when i did head downstairs, she was 
still alive, but hadn't moved from where i'd put her down the night before. 
i made her eat a few more pellets and drink a bit of water, then went up to 
shower and dress. i called the vet (the amazing Penn Vet School), to try to 
get her an appointment, but of course they were all booked up. so 
mid-morning, i headed to the ER at the penn vet school. they took her from 
me to examine her. after a long wait, the doctor came out to tell me she'd 
put miss fergusson on oxygen because she was worried about her breathing. 
during the examination, dr. adams had noticed a change in fergie's breathing 
that is often a precursor to death from stress, and stopped the exam. she 
didn't know what was wrong with her, but was worried. whatever it was seemed 
serious. she gave me the options: admit her and get an x-ray, to see what 
was going on inside my little piggy, or take her home with some pain 
medication. dr. adams was worried about the stress of an x-ray and 
admittance, so i took her home with pain meds. i asked the doctor about the 
possibility of it being bloat, which killed sweet wuza three years ago 
nearly to the day, and she said it may be. i had bought some infant gas 
medicine specifically in case fergie ever got bloat, so i started giving it 
to her (.1ml every 2 hours). i spent the rest of that day giving fergie her 
medicine and force feeding her oxbow's critical care. she was not happy 
about it, and in fact kept looking more and more miserable. she couldn't 
really walk, and just lay there limp on whatever surface she was on. it was 
so sad. 

yesterday morning, i again woke up dreading finding her dead. she was still 
hanging on, but was in bad shape. the boy and i gave her some more medicine, 
and some more food, and he went off to work. i stayed home to take care of 
her. she was on my lap while i was checking my email when she started to 
convulse. [it's harder than i thought it would be to even write that]. poor 
little piggy, she was in such pain. it seemed really bad, but i had a crazy 
last-ditch hope that she was about to pass whatever was blocking her system, 
then a whole big pile of poops would come out, and she would be ok. but no. 
after about 10 minutes of intermittent convulsions, she was dead. i was a 
mess. i called the boy at work, sobbing. i could barely say anything, but he 
knew what had happened and said he was coming right home. 

i sat there on the couch, holding my tiny furry lovely piggy, crying on her, 
petting her, apologizing to her. i watched as her eyes, which i tried to 
close, but they wouldn't stay shut, got cloudy, then wrinkly, then started 
to sink into her head. i felt, for a short time after she died, little 
gurgles in her stomach. i felt her get cold and stiff. karl came home, and 
we sat there on the couch for a couple of hours. i smelled my little piggy 
for the last time, smoothed her fur, tried not to get her too wet from 
tears. karl called the vet school to see about bringing her in for an 
autopsy and a cremation. they do autopsies and (group) cremations for free 
if your pet has been a patient there. we put her in a box on the towel i'd 
been holding her with, and got in the car. at the vet's, we explained who we 
were, and gave my sweet piggy to a nurse. 

i know she lived a long and happy life, but i feel terribly guilty about how 
she died. i don't know for sure that it was bloat, and i know i did what i 
could for her, but i can't shake the feeling that it was something i did 
that caused the bloat. did i feed her too much cantaloupe? did all that 
sugar give her bloat? i know that she didn't die of old age, and i know that 
she died in pain. and i'm so sorry for that. 

miss fergusson. she was probably the best piggy i've ever had (including the 
5 (cinnamon, nutmeg, nugget, priscilla, cleo) we had when i was a kid, plus 
sweet wuza). she survived 3 years with a recurring ovarian cyst and 2 times 
getting her eye ulcerated on something or other. she never bit anyone. well, 
there was the one time karl had red pepper juice on his finger and unwisely 
stuck it in her mouth, but that cannot be counted as her fault. she didn't 
squeak annoyingly at mealtimes. she liked to have her head rubbed and didn't 
mind being picked up. she wasn't afraid of the cats. i'll miss so much the 
way she smelled, her cute little furry lips, and the tiny tiny tongue that 
would sometimes like the salt off my skin: piggy kisses. her little piggy 
paws, and floppy big piggy ears. the way she would scamper up my chest and 
cuddle up in my neck. 

miss fergusson
1998-2005