[Gpdd] [RAINBOW BRIDGE] Cinnamon has made the crossing

sherry bevins ssbjune9 at hotmail.com
Mon May 16 16:40:37 EDT 2005


Dear Piggies and their People Friends,

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved piggie 
pal, Cinnamon. He left us to cross the Rainbow Bridge last night around 
10:15 P.M. I hope that what I am about to relate will help those of you who 
have older boars...this was something that I was not aware could happen and 
I hope to spare others the heartbreaking experience that we endured 
yesterday. A few days ago I gave Cinnamon a bath and, after returning him to 
his cage, I noticed some pink staining on the towel that I had used to dry 
him. He was not whining when he passed urine, as he had before his stone 
surgery, so until this I had not noticed anything unusual. I made an 
appointment to see the vet. Since we couldn't get in to see him right away, 
he gave Cinnamon some Baytril tablets cut into quarters ( which we had 
successfully used during his bout with bladder stones) to get us through the 
weekend. On Saturday afternoon, he had begun to whine when he passed urine. 
I thought this odd, since he was now taking an antibiotic to clear the 
infection. I checked him throughout the day to make sure that he was passing 
urine...I was beginning to suspect that he might be having a bladder stone 
recurrance and I was always afraid of a stone blocking his urethra. By 
Sunday afternoon he was really crying with each attempt to urinate and when 
I checked his bottom, it was dry. Usually, after I would hear him cry, I 
would lift him to check for wetness. There was none. The area above his 
penis, where the bladder is located, was rigid. I was certain that his 
urethra was blocked. After several unsuccessful attempts to contact our vet, 
I took Cinnamon to the only emergency veterinary clinic that would treat 
guinea pigs...quite a few miles from where we live. The vet on duty agreed 
that Cinnamon did have a blocked urethra and would need to be cathetarized. 
However, an x-ray revealed that he did not have bladder stones of any 
significant size...not enough to cause him to be blocked. The blockage was 
caused by a mucus plug, something that sometimes happens in older boars. He 
may not have been able to freely pass urine for some time, and this was 
probably the reason for the infection which developed in his bladder. He 
didn't move around all that much, so he often lay in one place and just peed 
without getting up...he was often wet on his lower tummy. This I attributed 
to him getting older...he was over 4 years old. The x-ray also showed that 
he had severe arthritis in the knee joints of his hind legs, so now I know 
why he didn't like to move around alot. The saddest part of this story is 
that my dear friend died because of the effects of the anesthesia used to 
sedate him. He never moved again after I brought him home, and his breathing 
was rapid and shallow. I asked the vet how long it would be before he began 
to come out of the anesthesia and was told that it would be later on in the 
night. I couldn't remember how he had behaved after his stone surgery, but 
it seems as though he began moving around much sooner. I know that he wanted 
to eat as soon as he got home. I thought that the trauma of the experience 
had probably exhausted him, so I let him rest. Later,as I sat stroking his 
head and shoulders, he began convulsing and died in my hands. He is the 
third piggie pal that has left us since our Golden died in February. We pray 
that there will be no more partings for a long, long time. Love your piggie 
friends as much as you can for as long as you can...they are with us for 
much too short a time.

Sadly,
Sherry and the Piggie Pals






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