[Gpdd] Gpdd (Care) (Piggies in Warm Weather, and Some Other Things)

[Ellen Garrison]

Hi everyone,

After what I posted about Li'l Guy, I feel even more awful.  I guess no one
knows what to say to me about it.  I just want to reiterate that I loved
Li'l Guy completely.  I did not know much about guinea pigs when I first got
him.  I did not mean for him to overheat and I think that was part of the
cause of his death.  I really did think that when I went to work he was
going to be too cold from the ice bottle water, that is why I did not put an
ice bottle in his cage.  I knew he was old and I did not realize that he
would become convulsive, nor did he ever show any signs prior of not being
able to use his back legs to walk.  I do not know if he had arthritis which
caused paralysis or what, and he was not like that when I went to work (I
only lived 5 minutes from my job).  The average high temperature in Napili
where we were living at the time, in the summer, is about 85 degrees
Farenheit (29.444 Celcius).  It does not get hot like the mainland summers,
just humid, which makes it feel hotter.
  I worry too much sometimes anyway, and if I had been sensible about it I
would have just left the A/C on when I went to work.  After all, I was
paying $1100 a month for a section in someone's plastic-walled house (you
could hear them downstairs all the time) that did not even have a kitchen,
lived there for 11 months. It was just a room with bathroom and small front
room.
 I decided to put my small A/C in on July 4th, which I already possessed,
because of the noise of fire works. It was also becoming warmer as I
mentioned above.
 I did not tell the landlord I put in the window A/C, and when he found out
he raised my rent $100 more, making it $1200 (after chastising me for it.)
I felt scared of him, not that he would do anything, but he was just being
an a_ _ hole.
 I know that of course I put myself in that situation, and I probably could
benefit from going into some kind of healing/therapy for guilt, but I did
not mean to cause any more damage to Li'l Guy than he was already
experiencing.  When I told to my sister, Laura, about the land  lord raising
my rent, she said that was ridiculous and that a window A/C would never take
up that much electricity.  I was so infuriated, especially when he said he
"felt sorry" for me that I love my pets so much.  I guess he had no clue
that it was because of people like him that drive people like me away from
people like him and towards the loving unconditional hearts of sweet piggies
that don't have a mean bone in their body.  Also this landlord works where I
do (a large resort hotel), so he knew I had a steady income and took
advantage: nearly 2/3 of my net income was going to him and his family. So I
did not have any money for the vet to take Li'l Guy; if he had a URI, he did
not show many signs of it anyway. The only way I thought he had an URI was
his breathing had a clicking noise.  Anyway, Li'l Guy had passed on July
24th, '08; my mother 4 months after him (Nov. 28, '08); and I did inherit
some money from her so I decided to move out of there and when I decided,
the "landlord" got all bent out of shape (I could tell). I ended up leaving
(and reporting him to the IRS!) because it really made me so upset how badly
he was behaving to me, and I put myself in that situation, no one else was
going to get me out.

As for Li'l Guy, he was already about 5, maybe even 6 years old, I mean he
even looked old, and I cared for him every day. I only had 4 piggies at that
time, and I know he missed Gin Gin who had gone onto the bridge 3 months
before him.  It's funny but I thought 4 was a lot. Now I have 8 and a bunny
and a chin.  I think I have just allowed myself to rise to the occasion for
it.
What I am worried and wondering about, though, is can a piggie who is sick
and old possibly get worse by being in a damp cage, or from damp water
bottles? At the time, I always used terry cloth towels and newspapers, with
the towels on top, in their cages, and I would change their bedding every
day.  I did have Li'l Guy on a bed inside a rodent "fence" (with plastic
under- neath of course) and covered with towels and newspaper.  This made it
easier to pick him up and clean him instead of reaching into his cage, where
he would always try to bite me.  But he kept knocking over his pigloo, so on
that day, I had put him in a smaller cage (without the pigloo) before I went
to work, because I was afraid he would knock it over and injure himself.  At
that point he was still walking, and eating and drinking, but he was just
clumsy and falling into things.  If only I had known better.  He had his
food, hay and water in the smaller cage, but it was just that when I came
home, he was flipped over on his back and was shaking with convulsions, and
I had to pick him up in a towel and he kept trying to bite me. So I called
vet right away, who asked if I had baby aspirin but no I did not. So I had
to give him what I did have, and he passed.
I do not want to think that it is the end, and that is why I post some
things about spirituality
sometimes that others may find hard to understand, it is just that I have to
think there is more to all of this creation than just this.
Can someone please give me some feedback?
Thanks, Ellen