[Gpdd] rainbow bridge: Peaches

[Mieke Staaks]

Hi all,

Three weeks ago on a wednesday, I went to the vet with all piggies (except
for Berke, though he did join (he doesn't like to be alone and walked into
the carrier with Peaches) but wasn't checked by the vet).
Tijger because eventhough her teeth/jaw seems straight she is not gaining
weight and she jumps up like she is irritated maybe painful when she poops.
Peaches, because she had bald spots again and just seemed off...
Raani because her eye was turning white, she probably got some hay stuck in
it.

Vet thought I was overly worried about Tijger because she looked fine to
him, and he thought she tricks me into getting my attention by jumping
around.
Peaches had a bit of diarrhea, he said she needed pellets and hay to get
normal poops again
Raani, did indeed damage her eye and was put on painkiller and an
antibiotic and vitamin D(? cavasan) cream for her eye.

Two days later on that friday Peaches seemed to be getting worse and her
breathing seemed labored.
By Sunday we were so worried about her, we took her to the emergency
weekend vet.
That vet thought she had either a pneumonia or a tumor around her longs.
She was having trouble breathing and had gotten very chunky and squishy
around her chest. We thought it might be fluids, but vet said it wasn't. We
were given cisaral for gas, painkiller (we already gave those 2 on saturday
because we had them still), and an antibiotic to clear up the pneumonia...

She hung in there for 2 more days but on tuesday morning I decided to stay
close as she really didn't seem okay and the antibiotics did not seem to
work yet, or just marginally. She died about half an hour later, with me
and the other piggies close. Though the others didn't like it and moved to
the opposite corner of the cage.

I feel we did everything we could for Peaches, but it is still sad we had
to say goodbye. Raani is doing fine, her eye healed completely. She can be
such a sweety, though a bit skittish sometimes. A couple of days ago I
walked past their cage and Raani was snoozing and she only noticed me when
I was right about next to her, so she raced away all scared and actually
ran over Berke, who lay on his side for a moment looking akward and trying
to process what just happened (Raani is really fast!). I checked him, and
luckily he was just fine. On her checkup at the (female) vet, the vet was
swooning over Raani and how cute and sweet she is.

Tijger is still not really gaining weight, but she is at least not loosing
weight. And she seems to be her normal cheeky self! She still does the
irritated hopping from time to time, it seems like she always poops at
those moments... a couple of weeks ago her poops would dry up looking
really dehydrated but it seems the poops are getting better looking less
dehydrated. They also feel rather raw/irregular (not the normal smooth
poops) once dried, no idea what could cause that, maybe that is why she
squeaks?
I wonder if her poops were just off because of her inability to eat well. I
think I shared this with you, she had a misaligned jaw which seemed to be
caused by locked jaw muscles, making her anuable to move the jaw in all
directions resulting in her teeth overgrowing... But multiple dental
corrections and vets to a vet that does chiropractic treatments on guinea
pigs, seems to have fixed this after 3 months!
Here's a pic of Tijger and that vet during her chiropractic treatment:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BKV1VbyhFqY/?taken-by=pandameisje
She has been on critical care for months now, and she also eats normal
food, will see if reducing the critical care will make her eat more regular
food. But we will monitor her weight carefully, I do not want her to loose
any more weight, but she does seem to be able to eat pellets, hay and
veggies just fine. So, in theory, she should be able to keep up her weight.
Anyone ever saw the irritated jumping up in their piggies?
Also suggestions on how to get her to gain weight are very welcome!

Hope all your piggies are doing well.
Apart from what I mentioned above the rest seems to be doing fine, though
Berke was a bit sad about loosing his cuddle buddy Peaches. So far we've
seen him lying with Raani. She is the only one who has enough patience to
lie still for a few minutes.

Grtz,
Mieke
p.s. Raani reached Agent weight (1 kilogram)!
p.s. Both Raani and Tijger had critical care paws form standing with their
feet in the critical care and it drying. We punt them in a paw soak, and
Raani looked so adorable (when she wasn't nipping Erwin to get away):
https://www.instagram.com/p/BM7dt28BsiB/?taken-by=pandameisje
-- 
"Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room"
Mary Schmich, 1997
(Source: http://256.com/gray/quotes/schmich.html)