WGPR at Animal days

Piggie ambassadors - Teensy and Sidda

On June 20^th, The Wisconsin Guinea Pig Rescue was invited to Animal Days at Oakview Veterinary Medical Center in Plover, WI. We definitely recommend Oakview for those of you up north near Stevens Point. They have a very cavy-savvy vet named Dr. Diane Scott. Anyway, Rachel (Director, Baraboo) took Teensy and Sidda to be our pig ambassadors, and boy, were they put to work!

We had them in a 2 grid by 3 grid pen underneath our table and while Rachel was busy fending off nosy dogs, many many little fingers were in the cage petting Teensy and Sidda. Gentle, gentle! Teensy stood still for lots of love pats while Sidda played hard-to-get. These two make a great pair; they are very easy to hold. Teensy isn't that hard to catch; Sidda is a bit of a runner, but catch her and hold her for a while and she'll tell you lots of stories! After the four-hour event, Teensy and Sidda continued their adventure. They are going to be featured in the front room at Waupaca Humane Society in a C&C cage.

One of our foster moms, Monica, is the director there and is in charge of making sure that the families adopting from Waupaca Humane are held to the same standards as people applying from Wisconsin Guinea Pig Rescue. So if you're in Central Wisconsin, drop by Waupaca Humane and visit Teensy and Sidda! Thanks to everyone who stopped by the booth and donated money to help us feed these pigs.

--Rachel Sincere

June Pig of the Month: Vivi

Baby Vivi came into our rescue from a local Wisconsin shelter and she was hugely pregnant. On April 16, she gave birth to 5 beautiful pups. Despite her youth (we are thinking around 4 months) she set about to take good care of her very large family. We hoped that the pups and Vivi would thrive without a problem (problems with pups and mothers during pregnancy, labor, birth and lactation are many), but it was not to be so. When the pups were 13 days old, Vivi suffered a nipple injury from the constant nursing of vigorous, growing babies. Bacteria entered the wound and Vivi developed a raging mastitis infection and abscess.

Vivi was immediately taken to the vet where she was put on a course of Bactrim (antibiotic) and had to be separated from her pups. Seven days later, she had to return to the vet, as the antibiotic was not healing the infection. The pain was so severe, that Vivi hobbled around the cage, trying not to put any weight on the leg on that side. She returned to the vet the next day and underwent a procedure to lance the abscess and have it flushed. A culture of the infection was also done at that time to try and determine what antibiotic would best fight off the type of infections she had.

For weeks, Vivi had to endure having her abscess flushed and packed with Silverdene and was forced to take her antibiotic (now Chloramphenical). Her weight plummeted and she also had to be force fed. Gradually, the treatment worked and she is well again and gaining weight. We are amazed that she is still sweet and docile despite the pain that we must have caused her during her treatments. What a wonderful baby/momma piggy!!

But now we need YOUR HELP! Vivi's vet bill has come to $245.15 and our medical fund is empty. If we cannot pay for Vivi's bill and replenish our medical fund, we may not be able to help other wonderful darlings like Vivi. Can you find it in your heart to send us a few dollars? We thank you, thank you, thank you, ahead of time! It's your donations that allow us to give pigs like Vivi a chance at life.

Please donate to help a pig!

Shelter News

Recent Adoption: Cassie and Carley
Congratulations to Cassie and Carley who went home to live with their new family in Madison this week. (pics to come!)

Tribute to Freddie






We are sad to say goodbye to Freddie, one of our wonderful rescued pigs who passed away on May 15th.
Freddie was a very sweet and special pig who came into the rescue in January of 2008 after being passed around by multiple owners on Craigslist and Freecycle. Unfortunately, they did not see what a great friend they would have had in Freddie had they taken the time to get to know him.

Freddie was only in our house as a foster for a few weeks, and he was such a cool little guy. He was crazy over Critical Care, and he loved attention. He would get super excited when he would hear us coming up the stairs, and his face would be right at the bars when we walked into the room. He was one of the friendliest guinea pigs we had ever met. He had such a bright and mischievous look in his eyes. Freddie was adopted by one of the volunteers for our rescue, where he had the loving care he deserved and new guinea pig friends to play with. We'll miss you, buddy.

If you would like to read more, please visit the All Creatures Rescue Blog.

-Vinod and Emily in Trolltown