Shelter News

Recent Adoption: Abbott

Congratulations to Abbott! (He's the white pig) Abbott went to his new home in Janesville where he will now live with his brand new buddy, Elmer. Here are some slightly fuzzy pictures of Elmer and Abbott getting to know each other. A big thank you to Andrea for opening her doors to our wonderful little Abbott. We know he's going to have the very best of everything!

Shelter News

Recent Adoption: Teensy and Sidda

Congratulations to Teensy and Sidda who went home to a nice couple. Have fun, girls!

Teensy

Sidda

Shelter News

Recent Adoption: Spud and Jasper

Congratulations to Spud and Jasper who went home to Madison (Thank you so much, Sara and Aaron, for giving the boys a home!). We just know those lovely boars are going to enjoy doing their parrot imitations (perching on top of their hidey stools) in their new place.

From Charlene here in the Janesville Pig Pen

Jasper

Spud

Food Time!

Shelter News

Recent Adoption: Cash

Congratulations to Cash! He went home to Madison with his new best friend, Iggy. Iggy and Cash were so happy to finally meet each other that they had trouble keeping their feet down to earth (lots of leaping for joy!)! Cash is going to get a lot of attention from his new "Mom" and will have lots of fun being buddies with Iggy. Thanks Iggie's Mom for giving our Cash a new home!
(we'll try and get some pics soon!)

From Charlene here in the Janesville Pig Pen

July Pig of the Month: Rudy

Rudy is a young American boar with beautiful stripes on his side. He also has a really neat marking on his lower lip that makes him look like he has half of a mustache.

This guy has been in our shelter since April'08. All of his brothers have been adopted and he is waiting for his time to be adopted, too. He would get along well with your lonely boar or live side by side with a female.

Rudy is still leery of people and skittish, too. He will come around and be a wonderful pig for someone that will spend time with him and show him what love it. He may be hard to catch but will sit in your lap as long as you let him.

Rudy is located at our Rhinelander foster home.
Check out his Petfinder page:
http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=10574817

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!