[Gpdd] [MISC] Brave Bess's story (long message)

[Dr Kay Dudman]

I would like to thank everyone for their kind messages of support after my
little Bess made her trip to the Bridge a couple of weeks ago.  This is
her story...apologies as it is fairly long.

A family who lived not far away from us had bought two guinea pigs for
their daughter, both of whom were pregnant...we had all the babies, one of
whom was Bess.  (The others were Pearl and Adam, sister and brother to
Bess, and the other little family were Felicity, Adrian and Maxwell).

Bess was a happy little piggy, even though she did have some health
problems, she always came bouncing back.  The first problem was a bladder
stone, which was removed by manipulation rather than surgery, so we then
cut back on curly Kale and parsley as these can contribute to stones.
Next, Bess developed a cyst on her side which was removed by surgery;
luckily this was a benign cyst.  After that, Bess needed to be spayed for
medical reasons.

In March last year, when I got home from work, I found that Bess was
having difficulty breathing, so I took her in to the vet as an emergency
and Neil saved her life - she had a build up of fluid in her chest which
meant she couldn't breathe normally.  At this point, she was diagnosed
with dilated cardiomyopathy; the vets thought she might only have a week
to live, but this was in March 2007, so she had over a year of further
good quality, happy life!  She was on frusemide three times a day, and one
drop of metacam for her teeth, and this kept her condition stable.

In November 2007, I was going to give Bess her night-time dose of
frusemide and I saw that the toes on her right back foot were sticking out
at an odd angle, where they had been perfectly OK earlier in the evening.
Back to the vet again first thing in the morning, and it turned out she
had broken her toes.  What we think happened is that she lifted her cocoon
in the air (she would move her cocoon around her cabin, not just leave it
in one place) and that it must have come down on her foot breaking the
toes.  We tried to save the toes, but they did not heal (the blood supply
to the foot isn't all that good in guinea pigs) and they had to be
amputated.  Bess recovered from this well, and after getting over the
surgery, she was able to walk about normally and groom herself - you would
never know that anything had happened!

In February this year, I came home and found that Bess had hurt her eye -
it looked as if she had caught some hay in her eye and it had resulted in
a corneal abrasion.  Down to the emergency vet, who prescribed atropine,
viscotears and fucithalmic eye drops every 4 hours (bit not all at the
same time).  We had several trips to our regular vet, and within a few
days the eye had healed so well, you couldn't tell which one had had the
problem.

In early May, Bess wasn't eating as well as she usually did, so back to
the vet again.  She used to need her teeth trimmed regularly, but had only
needed them done once after she was diagnosed with her heart problem.
This time, an abscess had suddenly developed between two of her upper
right molars, and was starting to push on the eye making it appear more
prominent.  Bess had surgery to remove the tooth where the abscess was;
there was half an inch of root, and at the top of the tooth you could see
that there was some necrosis.  Immediately after the surgery, Bess was
doing really well; she wasn't eating her normal food, but she was enjoying
grass, carrot tops and parsley - a variety of favourites to tempt her
appetite.  Sadly, after a couple of days, her appetite began to fail, and
even with daily visits to the vet for sub-cutaneous fluids, metocloprimide
to stimulate the gut and some vitamin B she wasn't her usual self, even
though  I had been syringe feeding her to supplement her intake.

On the Saturday, I took her out in the garden and sat with her as it was a
sunny day, and picked her some grass, but she didn't want to eat it.

On the Sunday, John the vet suggested that she might enjoy some pineapple
juice, and that it might help her appetite and digestion.  I offered Bess
some science recovery mixed with pineapple juice, and also some pineapple
juice on its own, and she enjoyed both of these, but by the late evening I
could see that her time had come, and I sat cuddling her and talking to
her.  I rang the emergency vet to check whether anything could be done, as
I didn't want her to have a long journey for no benefit.  Matthew the vet
said he was happy with what I was doing for her, cuddling her and keeping
her warm, but to let them know if she was showing any signs of distress.
He said she had done wonderfully well to have lived so long with the
dilated cardiomyopathy.  Bess was very comfortable, sitting on my lap,
talking gently, singing her little pig song, and then I held her up on my
shoulder where she also liked to sit.  Her passing was so very gentle, she
just gradually breathed more and more slowly until she was gone, she was
never in any distress.  My beautiful, bold, brave little Bess crossed
gently over the Rainbow Bridge after a very happy life.

My little piggy became known as Brave Bess a couple of years ago.  My Mum
was suffering from dementia, and thought she had switched the oven out,
when in fact she had switched it on, and the things on top had started to
burn.  I was in bed as I wasn't well, but my little Bess could smell the
smoke, and knew that something was wrong, so she raised the alarm by
calling to me.  It wasn't her normal call for food, she woke me and I
could tell there was something wrong by the sound of her voice.  As soon
as I opened the door to my room I could smell the smoke, and I was able to
put things out and open the windows to clear the air.  Bess had saved us
all by her quick thinking and alerting me to the problem.  She was a truly
wonderful well-loved little pig.

I will reply to everyone who has been kind enough to contact me.  My home
computer is broken, so it might take me a little while.  I also want to
thank everyone who emailed me about my little Patchouli who crossed over
the Bridge in December, the support means so much to me.

As Peter Gurney used to say: guinea pig people are the best people.  I
really appreciate all the kind words digesters have sent me.

Thank you,

Kay



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