[Gpdd] [MISCELLANEOUS] Dolly Mixture Scoot needs a wing and a prayer
Debbie Jones
pals4pets at cheerful.com
Mon Feb 2 06:44:48 EST 2009
Dolly Mixture Scoot has been losing weight recently, and eating less
of his veggies. I thought he was just fed up of the lack of variety
caused by winter - he is a lone pig and they do tend to be more
fussy. But then 2 days ago he ate nothing - panic stations. Out came
"Piggy Potions", and I dosed him with Gentian and Vitamin C and
Metatone .... but then, as I tried to tempt him with slivers of his
favourite veggies, I realised the awful truth. It's not that he
doesn't want to eat, it's that he can't. I am pretty sure he has a
dental problem - something I have always dreaded. I have the fact
sheets from the CCT on corrective dentistry, and the buccal pad
separators, and a file, but I have never been able to attend a
practical workshop because I don't live in the UK, and I have never
bought a bone rongeur. I have tried practising inserting the buccal
pad separators on deceased guinea pigs, well aware that this might
one day save the life of a living piggie, but I have never been able
to master the skill, and dare not try with Scoot as I know a mistake
could dislocate his jaw.
When I opened my emergency supply of Critical Care, I found it had
gone mouldy, so I have been soaking Cavies Cuisine and syringe
feeding that. The poor boy is hungry and so taking a little, but I
know I can't keep him alive permanently like that. I either have to
watch him starve to death before my eyes, or take him to be
euthanised (but Scrabble's horrible departure still haunts me), or
get him to Cavies Castle, Penny's rodentologists, who I am sure could
save his life.
I was going to book a ferry for overnight tonight, but then heard
that there were blizzard conditions forecast for the South of England
all day today. So I have booked to travel tomorrow evening, hoping
the snow may have cleared by then, and plan to stay overnight with my
daughter then drive to Cavies Castle on Wednesday. I have to return
home to France Thursday, as I have to take someone else's cats to the
vet, and then look after our own animals as my partner is booked to
go petsitting.
Scoot has a long hard adventure ahead of him. He has never been a
very people-orientated pig, so being syringe fed is traumatic enough
for him. But then I need to put him in a different cage for
travelling, and I must somehow ensure he keeps warm in my car on the
ferry (I'm thinking a covered hot water bottle on the floor of the
cage, and a blanket over the cage - anyone any other/better ideas?),
then he has to cross the Channel and we have to make the journey,
possibly through snow ...... . Chris, the rodentologist, has agreed
to hang onto him until they can be sure what the problem is and that
it won't recur - but then after speaking with her I came online and
read Penny's account of how people take advantage of Chris's good
nature, so now I feel a bit embarrassed about that, but I see no
point bringing him back to France if he is going to need regular
teeth trimming. Naturally I will want him back as soon as he is
better, if he can be "cured".
So, I feel we are launching ourselves into the unknown on a wing and
a prayer. I'd be grateful if you could think of us as we embark on
this "mercy dash", and WILL us to make it to Cavies Castle in time to
save Scoot's life. He's not even 2 yet, and deserves a few more years
yet.
Debbie and the 8 Dolly Mixtures
"We patronize them for their incompleteness,
for their tragic fate of having taken a form so far below ourselves.
And therein we err, and greatly err.
For the animal shall not be measured by man.
In a world older and more complete than ours
they move finished and complete, gifted
with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained,
living by voices we shall never hear.
They are not brethren, they are not underlings;
they are other nations, caught with ourselves
in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners
of the splendour and travail of the earth".
Henry Beston
--
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