[Gpdd] [HEALTH] <Jan will become a you-know-what-boar>
Janneke Staaks
jannekestaaks at hotmail.com
Mon Mar 6 08:53:05 EST 2006
Hi all,
I just wanted to let you all know that my sweet boar Jan very likely will be
castrated on wednesday, so please keep fingers and paws crossed. I know that
many of you disapprove of cutting into a healthy animal, but i also think
that everyone on this list is very respectful towards eachother and might
understand my decision allthough they might not agree.
So, one the reasons why I'm having Jan castrated is because he keeps losing
wheight. I just wheighed him last sunday and i was really shocked to find
out that he almost lost 100 grams! My wheighing scale is a bit faulty, so i
hope that's the problem but it doesn't sit well with me.A while ago I went
to a vet and he suggested that jan is lovesick (he does spend most of his
time drewling on the girls's bars). When I got him, he wheighed 1200 grams
now he's down to 1000 grams, and he still is young, he should be growing.
Another reasons is Suus. I want everyone to have floortime and I bought a
fence so that everyone can run and still be not pregnant. But suus is quite
the athlete (sorry but part of me is actually proud of my little lump of
muscles). She hops over the fence as if it's nothing (I do not have a
measuring device but if i put my elbow on the ground next to it, it goes up
to my wrist)you can hardly see her touch the fence. I am scared that one of
the girls will get pregnant (yaya can do it too, but with a lot more
effort). I do not want to part with Jan and I really want them to have
floortime so i did a lot of research about castrations.
First of all, guinea pigs and hence castrations seem much more common in the
netherlands than they are in the US (i don't know how it is in other
countries). For example, an exotics vet is someone who is specialised in
weird birds and reptiles. For a guinea pig you just go to a vet who is
specialised in small animals.(when i just joined the list i was very
surprised that many of you go to an exotics vet). I checked out some dutch
forums and they just don't make a big fuss out of it.(to compare, they went
nuts when i told them about my mothers piggie and her refusal to take him to
the vet). But despite all of this i wanted the best vet i could find, so i
made a career out of being a vet bully *evil grin*. I would just call them,
ask about anesthetics, antibiotics etc. The weird thing about this is, that
when i moved to where i live now, i just got the nearest general
practitioner for myself and didn't think twice about it.
Finally I found a vet who is specialised in rodents, answered my questions
with patience, and answered them correctly(not that many got it wrong
though). Besides that, she has three guinea pigs herself and she says on her
website that allthough many people have guinea pigs, she thinks that people
should know more about them, because there still are a lot of
misunderstandings. When I told her about Jan she also insisted that she
would first check him out thoroughly to make sure that the losing of wheight
isn't caused by another problem.So I think I trust her.
If Jan checks out to be a healthy, but lovesick boar on wednesday, he will
be castrated. If not, he might temporarely move to my mothers house (still
thinking about that) because she just has one boy, thus, company and veggies
without hormones raging to get his strenght back.
Sorry this is so long but i just wanted to vent my ehm.. feelings. A very
common reaction still is: "Do you know how many guinea pigs you can buy for
that amount of money?" Response: "Do you know how much I spend on shoes...
(a lot)...Don't you think his happiness is more important than my fashion
sense?" What i also find very funny is that men, even when they do not like
animals at all and even claim they hate them, suddenly go all sympathetic
and concerned when they hear about the castration.I guess gender overrides
species in this case ;-)
Grtz and Wkz
Janneke from the Winky Girls
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