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

An Ounce of Prevention…

An Ounce of Prevention…

The Boy Scout motto is “Be Prepared!” It should well be the motto for all guinea pig owners too when it comes to the skill of syringe feeding. Because syringe feeding may save your pig’s life, it should be something you are ready for and are familiar with.

A guinea pig that has stopped eating for any reason is in serious jeopardy. There are many reasons why it may have stop eating. Often it is caused by pain from an illness or injury. A very common cause is an antibiotic intolerance. Malocclusion of the molars will cause a pig to stop eating and require a dental grinding at the vets and often syringe feeding to save the pig.

Because time may be of the essence, a pig that has stopped eating needs an immediate evaluation by a cavy savvy vet to determine the cause of the problem and (except in the case of an intestinal blockage), immediate syringe feeding should be started. To do this, you should plan ahead and have the items available to you BEFORE the need for them arises.

The first item you probably already have and are already using…a digital kitchen scale to weigh your pig weekly. Next, you should have a pouch of Oxbow brand Critical Care on hand (keep it in the freezer to keep it viable) and several 1 cc syringes (no needle).

Cut just the tip off one of the syringes. Mix the Critical Care (CC) with warm water until it is the consistency of pureed baby food (a bit of baby food carrot or sweet potato may be added to make it more palatable). Place the pig on your lap facing away from you. An uncooperative pig can be wrapped “burrito” style in a small kitchen towel. Draw CC into the syringe and place the syringe into the pig’s mouth far enough back so the tip is behind the front incisors. Gently depress the plunger on the syringe.

You will know that the pig is swallowing if it begins to chew. An adult pig should be syringe fed 15 to 20 cc’s of Critical Care during a feeding and should be fed 100 cc’s a day to put back on the weight that was lost and maintain the pig. More information can be found about syringe feeding in the Guinea Lynx online Health Care Guide here: http://www.guinealynx.info. Read up on it before you need it and be familiar with how it is done.

The important thing to remember is that you cannot count on your veterinarian to keep a stock of Oxbow brand Critical Care on hand for when your pig needs it or count on your vet to TELL you to start syringe feeding when it is required. YOU need to be prepared and have the items on hand yourself. You need to take the initiative and start syringe feeding, even if you were not told to do so.

If your pig is dropping weight…it needs syringe fed. It’s that simple. Your pig’s life may depend on it.

From Charlene here in the Janesville Pig Pen

Calling on friends of Wisconsin Guinea Pig Rescue!

Freddie wants your vote!

Will you vote for us? The Animal Rescue Site, together with Petfinder, is sponsoring a challenge to grant money for users' favorite animal rescues.

Please go to:
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/shelterchallenge.faces
and type in the name of our rescue (Wisconsin Guinea Pig Rescue, Lake Delton) to help us win money for our rescue. You can vote once a day! Can we have your daily vote? It's so easy to do every day and it could be a lot of help for our rescue pigs. Thank you so much!

April's Guinea Pig of the Month - Bebe (the baby)

Bebe (in the center) with his brothers and sisters

Please help us raise money for Bebe's surgery! This is Bebe, born April 16 to one of our foster pigs who came in pregnant. This beautiful little baby has a condition called entropion eyelid on his left eye and he will need surgery to correct it. If left untreated, it can lead to scratching and scarring of the eyeball and, eventually, blindness. However, he needs to be around 6 months old to have the surgery (he's too little right now!). Can you help? We need to raise $250 for the surgery and will need an additional $50 for vet care and at home care until he is ready. He's just started out in life. We want to give him a chance to live pain-free and to be someone's pampered little darling. If you can only spare a few dollars (we know things are pretty tight right now) it still adds up and it is much appreciated.

Please donate to help a pig!

April Showers bring May... BABIES?!

Some of the babies born in the shelter.

It's SPRING here at the Pig Pen in Janesville! I hope everyone had a Happy Easter and a relaxing spring break. And yes, our rescue is expecting babies! We have recently taken in some rescue females that are expecting. Since spring and new babies are often thought of hand-in-hand, I thought I'd take a few minutes to talk about baby pigs and some interesting facts and thoughts about them.

First of all, we hope that if anyone is thinking of allowing their guinea pigs to have a litter of pups, we hope we can talk you into reconsidering. A guinea pig female can have anywhere from 1 to 7 young, and they grow up very fast. Having two guinea pigs as a pet can be wonderful, but it makes one take pause if you realize that you may end up with the responsibility of 7 to 9 of them. And remember that the lifespan of a guinea pig is 6-8 years, so that is a long-term responsibility. Because there are so many guinea pigs that are awaiting homes in shelters and rescues, it is also not a good idea to allow more pigs to be born.

Pregnant guinea pigs sometimes come into the rescue malnourished, because people don't realize that a pregnant guinea pig needs a specialized diet to help keep her and the pups healthy during gestation and lactation. In addition to having access to an unlimited good quality grass hay (like timothy or bluegrass), the mother must be given an alfalfa-based pellet (like Oxbow brand "Cavy Performance") so that she gets the much needed calcium and nutrients that alfalfa provides. She also needs fresh leafy green vegetables and a variety of other veggies (like cilantro, green or red bell pepper, endive, etc) to provide the proper amount of vitamin C for her body and that of the growing pups. To be on the safe side, additional vitamin C should be provided. This should be in the form of liquid vitamin C (or a portion of a crushed chewable tablet mixed with a bit of juice) that can be syringed directly into the pig's mouth. The vitamin C drops that are sold to add to a water bottle are useless and a waste of money.

The average gestation period for a guinea pig is 68-72 days. It is a long gestation period for a small animal but it is necessary because the babies are born fully formed. They will be able to run around very shortly after birth. Most newborn pigs weigh between 2 and 3 ounces. It is important to note that guinea pigs do not always have easy births and there is a risk of death for the mother and the pups. It is important to be aware of this before allowing a beloved sow to breed. It is also important to know that the mother will come into heat right after giving birth, so she will become pregnant again if she is still with a boar. Allowing a back-to-back pregnancy to occur is extremely risky to the sow and should never be allowed.

Baby pigs become sexually mature at 4 weeks of age (yeah, wow!), so baby boy pigs should be removed from the mother and sisters at exactly 21 days to prevent even more unwanted pregnancies. For the first 4 weeks, they should be weighed daily on a digital kitchen scale to ensure that they are progressing well (Momma pig should also be weighed daily). A pup that is showing a failure to thrive should be taken to be examined by a cavy savvy vet to determine what the problem is in order to save the pig.

Guinea pig sows are typically very good mothers and will spend a good portion of the day cleaning and nursing her new offspring. Since they have only two teats, they can only nurse two pups at a time, but this does not seem to be a problem as the pups take turns. As the pups grow, they will follow the mother around the cage and learn from her what is edible and what is not. The mother pig herself will wean the babies when they reach somewhere between 2 and 3 weeks of age. Baby pigs are a delight to watch as they try out their legs and will run, jump and careen around the cage (sometimes running into things). Because they are so tiny, yet are so energetic and wiggly, they should never be handled by young children (tragedy can and does result!).

Baby guinea pigs should continue to be provided with hay, daily vegetables and alfalfa-based pellets after they are weaned. They can be switched to a timothy-based pellet at 6 months of age to reduce the chance of the formation of bladder stones later in life.

One myth that people commonly believe is that they must adopt a pair of pigs when they are babies to develop a close bond with their new pets. In fact, baby pigs are so energetic and skittish that they are difficult to catch and hold and it can take quite a while before they settle down and get used to cuddling with their humans (why they make very poor pets for children). It is the older pig that makes a great pet. They are more calm, easier to catch and hold and often are more open to learning about their owners.

If you have adopted a pair of pigs for Easter, please take the time to read up on their care to keep them happy and healthy (check out our links for some great information!). Give 'em PLENTY of room to run and PLENTY of good food (you know by now that they LOVE to eat!). Please keep our rescue pigs in your thoughts as we hope for the safety and health of our expectant little girls.

From Charlene here in the Janesville Pig Pen

What YOU can do to help homeless pigs

We need more stuff for me to poop on!!

Many of you have asked us how you can help out our rescue. We know that not everyone can be a foster home but there are many things that you, as an individual, can do to help. Collecting and providing items for our rescue can also be a great community project for elementary school classes and scout troops. We know of one 10 year old who collected items for orphaned animals at his birthday party (Way to go, Andrew!) instead of having his friends bring birthday presents. Here are just a few ideas.

-Collect the following from your area and contact us to arrange a pick-up:
-Gently used cotton towels
-Gently used polyester fleece blankets (any color)
-New bags of loose bedding like aspen or pine shavings, or Carefresh brand bedding
(No Cedar please)
-Used plastic kennel carriers (small) in good condition
-Used plastic stools (any size or color)
-Small kitten sized litter pans
-Any brand of timothy or alfalfa hay
-Bags of Oxbow brand Cavy Cuisine or Cavy Performance Guinea Pig Pellets
(sold at Mounds and other pet supply stores)
-Donations made directly to KM’s Hayloft (see our list of links) to go toward the purchase
of hay and pellets
-Donations made to our paypal account for our medical fund
-Donations made to our paypal account towards the purchase of gas to
transport guinea pigs

In addition, we are always looking for people who are willing to transport guinea pigs. We often need to get pigs between Baraboo and Madison and between Madison and Janesville.

If you garden and you have a surplus of vegetables in the fall, and/or if you are near one of our foster homes and often have a surplus of fresh vegetables in your home (red or green leaf lettuce, romaine, carrots, red or green bell pepper, cilantro, parsley, spinach, beet tops, etc…no iceburg lettuce, please) then we could use it to feed hungry guinea pigs.

There are a few things that we DO NOT need, so we list them for clarity:

-Pet store cages (too small for housing pigs)
-Wooden hidey houses (too difficult to clean)
-Edible hidey houses (not healthy)
-Exercise balls (cause spinal injuries in guinea pigs)
-Salt blocks (guinea pigs do not need these)
-Any kind of guinea pig food that has bits, nuts or seeds in it (poor food and a choking hazard)
-Harnesses and leashes for guinea pigs (impractical and dangerous)
-Cedar bedding (causes dangerous fumes)

-From Charlene here in the Janesville Pig Pen

Recent Adoption - Eva and Kate!

Eva and Kate went home to a wonderful family on 3/22. This family also has a pampered pet rabbit, so they already have lots of hay laying about the house!

Have a good time with your new family!

March's Guinea Pig of the Month - Tuxedo (again)

Until our little blog gets some more traffic we're re-listing Tux as our March pig of the month! Read on to find out more about his difficult life before he came to the WIGPR.

Tuxedo had a tough start in life. He was cruelly abandoned with his friend Louis in a cruddy motel. Both boys got very sick and Tuxedo very nearly died after they were covered with a dog flea treatment toxic to guinea pigs to get rid of a bad case of parasites. A shelter called our rescue and we were able to bathe him immediately, but unfortunately not before Tuxedo ingested the toxic powder while trying to groom.

The result was a bad case of intestinal problems including anorexia and diarrhea, which is deadly to guinea pigs. After his recovery from that illness, Tuxedo came down with a respiratory infection. He was seen by a veterinarian and was placed on a course of antibiotics. Because of his weakened immune system, he developed an intolerance to nearly every antibiotic tried and only improved after many months of special care under the guidance of the veterinarian. Tuxedo will never be perfectly healthy, but he is a wonderful, happy pig.

Unfortunately, we still owe the vet! Can you help us repay Tuxedo's debt so we can continue to save other wonderful pigs like Tuxedo?

Please donate to help a pig!