[Gpdd] Health: Spunky

[joedee1986 at verizon.net]

Birdie,

This happened to my sister's piggie and she followed Peter Gurney's advice and her piggie got well.  It took about a month, and she also did what she called pigsical therapy (physical therapy) everyday.  She moved the piggies legs and soaked her in warm water.

This is what Peter Gurneys has on his web site:

Paralysis.

There is a kind of paralysis that can occur in guinea pigs which is a great puzzle and no one has ever been able to give me the answer to the question why. It happens very quickly, over night as a rule. You will wake up to find the animal down at the back, pulling itself along by it's front legs. In all other respects it is alert, lively and as keen to get stuck into it's breakfast as ever. 

WARNING ALL OTHER FORMS OF PARALYSIS NEED EXPERT ATTENTION. By this I mean those that occur after falls, or accompany other illnesses or ones that come on gradually. 

The cure, and it invariably works, for the over night paralysis are heavy doses of calcium, in the shape of Osteocare. One ml night and morning for two days, slipping back to one ml daily for the following three days. Usually within twenty four to forty eight hours of beginning this treatment the animal begins to recover mobility. 

Calcium is a vital mineral for muscle contractions and the nerve impulses that trigger them. Therefore I must assume that somehow there is a deficiency of this in the animal's system when it goes down. 

Though myself and many other people have asked all the obvious questions when coming across this paralysis such as has there been a change of diet, has the animal been stressed or had a sudden change of environment, invariably the answers are to the negative. 

We guess, but we have no scientific proof to back this up with, that there has to be a gut absorption problem which flooding the gut with calcium manages to put right. 

The good news is that this phenomenon is a once in a lifetime thing, it certainly is in regards to my own stock, though I have heard of one other animal belonging to a friend where it happen twice to the same animal.



> 
> Hello fellow slaves,
> I am sad to report that just over the 
> wheekend my Spunky?has become
> paralyzed. He was dragging his back
> legs on Saturday and by Sunday he 
> wasn't moving in his cage at all.