[Gpdd] [HEALTH] Batman's vet visit and Guido's worms

[Janna Willard]

Hello all, I wanted to update the group on our status over here in
Saskatchewan.

Batman's appointment was in the afternoon on Thursday, and since we only
have one vehicle at the moment, I had to go in with my husband when he went
to work and bring Batman with us. So I set him up in the cat carrier with a
towel in the bottom, his food bowl full of pellets, and his water bottle
hooked to the wire door, and I brought along some lettuce to feed him over
the course of the day.

Once in town, we had a lot of time to kill, so I found a nice spot on some
unmown grass near the river and we spent the morning there. Batman didn't
really come out of the carrier, though he did poke his head out and eat some
grass. I used the time to do some music theory review.

After lunch I had a doctor's appointment, so he had to stay in the truck
alone for a little while. I made sure it was cool and cracked the windows to
get some air flowing through. Luckily he didn't drive off without me. ;)

We spent the hour in between my doctor's appointment and his vet appointment
sitting in a park. He again stayed in the carrier and tried a bit of grass.
He did come out when I took him out so a girl who was coming by after school
could hold him. She used to have a guinea pig. We had a nice chat.

Then we headed up to the vet's clinic. His lungs are clear, so no URI, and
of course he's been gaining weight, so hooray on that count. The vet also
proclaimed Batman one of the cutest guinea pigs she's ever seen. He also
gave me nose kisses during the exam.

I described the worms I found on Guido to the vet and she said that they
sounded like pin worms. The females migrate out and lay their eggs around
the anus, and they are big enough to be seen with the naked eye. They are
cross-species worms - people can have them, too - and they are itchy when
they are coming out. The vet also said that if Guido's left hind leg was
sore, he would chew at it. So that explains the bald patch I found on his
side just above his haunches there. I was worried it was from having the
worms in his gut or something because Batman scratches himself on his side,
too. (I have since realized that he's an equal opportunist and scratches
both sides equally.) The vet gave me Panacur for deworming him and said to
wet a raisin and roll it around in the granules, then feed him the raisin.
Just curious if that is how others dose their pigs with Panacur.

After the exam was done, I put the cat carrier on the table and Batman
looked at it, then came over to smell it, made his whirring sound, and went
right in. Of course, he'd spent most of the day in there, so I'm not
surprised he liked it by then!


There was still some time after the vet appointment, so we sat in the truck
in my husband's work parking lot and he rested from all the excitement while
I read and crocheted.



When we walked in the door at home, Batman recognized the smells and ran to
the door of the carrier, wheeking. He was so excited to be back in his home
cage!


Sometime in the next little while we'll be taking Roy the cat to the vet for
her shots and deworming. The cool thing is we can take all of our animals to
the same place - the vets there are all trained for exotics as well as small
animals! (I think that is the bonus of living in/near a city with a strong
veterinary program.)

-Janna and Batman (and Roy the cat and Juniper the husband)

"Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be
normal." Albert Camus
"I want to remake the world; anything less is not worth the trouble." Karen
Cushman