[Gpdd] Care: Re: Appeal to all slaves whose piggies reach 5 years & over

[leah.mcneil at wachovia.com]

Hey Deb,
First, I'd like to Thank You for asking these questions.
Cuz Lord knows whee all want our piggies to last a long
time, but it's not always in our hands, I suppose.

I've only had one piggie live to be older than 5 yrs old.
And that would be Miss Sassiness, herself, Brownie Bear.
She was almost 5 1/2 years old when she passed away.

1. In the beginning, I fed her the wrong type of pellets, so
when whee found out that she was a stone/sludge piggie,
I switched her to Oxbow Cavy Cuisine. She also got
Oxbow's timothy hay (free choice). Yum Yum! Her fresh
veggie list was limited since she was a stone pig and
included red/green leaf lettuce, endive, green pepper,
and the occassional cucumber. I gave her very little
Vit C supplements (Oxbow Vit C tablets) because I started
to suspect that they were one of the causes of her bladder
stones. But, I couldn't take it out of her diet because when
I tried to, her back legs started acting up. I think I ended
up only giving her 1/4 tablet every 2 or 3 days. And that
seemed to work for her.

2. BB lived indoors and was a free range piggie for most
of her life. She was a solo-pig for the first 2 years/9 months
of her life, and at some point it had become apparent to me
that she needed piggie companionship. She just wouldn't
bond with me the way my first two boys did. Some pigs are
that way, I guess. I thought it was a girl thing, but Princess
Snowflake is proving me wrong on that one. After Butterscotch
came to live with us, BB turned into a whole different pig. It
was Amazing. She became much more happy and lively.

3. Brownie Bear has been on so many medications, I
couldn't even begin to list them. But, her antibiotic of
choice was Baytril and she had to do a round of that
every couple of months the last couple years of her life
because of her bladder stone problems. Also, she had
bladder stone surgery/spay when she was 2 years old.
She also had bladder stones removed through her urethra
(she was not cut) when she was 4 years old, I think. Her
pain medication of choice was Metacam. And I gave her
Shilintong religiously. Oh, and she had mites when she
was going on 5 years old and was given Ivermectin for that.

4. BB's weight varied, but I think her 'normal' weight was
2.75 lbs. (1247 grams). After her spay, she gained a lot of
weight and for a while was a LAPS piggie (over 3 pounds),
but LAPS wasn't around then. I was supposed to put her on
a diet, but I really couldn't because of Butterscotch. She
eventually lost the weight on her own and evened out at
about 2.75 lbs (1247 grams). She did lose weight as she got
older but not until a couple of months before she passed
away. I think she got down to 2.3 lbs. (1043 grams).

Whew! That was a lot of information, wasn't it? Well, I
hope that it helps you and of course, the Lovely Dolly
Mixtures. I think it's Wonderful that most of them are
coming up on 5 years old. I'm sure that has something
to do with their Slave too. :-)

     Love 'n Wheeeeeeeeeps,
          Leah...Slave to Princess Snowflake :-)