Ruby's Sore Eye

The good news: Subi's sore eye from this post is looking great. A couple of squirts of breast milk over the last few days and it's cleared up nicely.

The bad news: Ruby's has gotten worse. Much worse! I actually think the eyeball itself has ruptured... I've popped a pic up, so be warned, it's pretty yucky. The poor little thing is acting perfectly fine (in true guinea pig form!). But we will definately be making a trip to the vet first thing tomorrow. With toddler and baby in tow... not what I had in mind for my monday... thank you very much produce place that sold me crappy straw!



Mind you, I can't blame the produce place entirely. I did see that it was crappy quality - and still bought it. Then I saw just how crappy it was when spreading it out in the cage - but still left it there. So this is just as much my fault.

Oh, and I was giving little 3.5 week old Bonnie a cuddle today and noticed she had a tiny sharp shard of it stuck right in one of her eyes too! Luckily the eye wasn't damaged yet, and I managed to get it out. But that was the final straw for me (pardon the pun).

So the girls have been upgraded to fleece, towels and newspaper! I have no idea if this set up is going to be practical. And I'm a little sad that I have to take away the straw. They really loved burrowing under it. But I think with the addition of a few more hidey things, it will be just as much fun for them. And a hell of a lot safer!

Oh! And - in that same produce shop trip we bought a bail of 'Prime' hay. I went to pull some off to feed the pigs this morning and promptly got a hand full of prickles. On closer inspection the whole bail is riddled with some kind of prickle/burr weed. And the prickles are huge, and sharp. In the photo below you can see a small scattering that I went through by hand, pulling out all of the burrs. That took about an hour! So as much as I hate to waste things, I think this bail is going to need to be binned. The last thing I need is the guinea pigs getting prickles stuck in their mouths!

I had Custard and her 3 sisters for four years without any hay issues. And I used to buy a bail every month and pack the cage full of it!

Anyone else had any experience with a hay product that won't injure guinea pigs!?

Damn straw!

On the weekend we took the kids to the local produce place to buy another bail of hay, some straw and some more piggy mix. The bag of straw we picked up looked a little inferior, but we were in a hurry as kids needed sleeps, so we just paid for it anyway.

When I was cleaning out the mansion on monday, and scattering the new straw down in the lower level (the pigs just LOVE making tunnels through it, and hiding in it!), I got to see just how crap it was! Instead of the lovely big fat pieces of straw we usually get, it looked like it was just the dregs that had been swept up off the floor! All the pieces were short and spiky and there were lots of bits of rubbish - dirt, leaves etc all through it as well. I was a bit pissed off, but it was all I had so I had to leave it. (It was either dodgy straw or dirt!)

This morning while I was checking the girls over, I noticed that both Ruby and Subi had one sore eye each. I am assuming they have had straw-poke incidents, and the eye has gone all weepy and opaque (exactly like the photo above of a piggy called 'Cookie' I found on google). So far it's only those two. I took them inside, checked the eyes for foreign objects and applied some antibacterial eye cream. I have no idea if this is going to help them, or if the damage has been done now, but I figured it was worth a try. If that doesn't work I'll try breast milk. I managed to clear up a nasty case of conjunctivitis in Custard a few months back with a few squirts of my milk! :P Sounds really gross, but it actually works!

Here's Monday's Weigh in:

Sprout is 515g (gained 50g) - 10wks
Sparrow is 520g (gained 20g) - 10wks
Liam is 550g (gained 15g) - 11wks
Ruby is 695g (gained 25g) - 13wks
Ginger is 670g (gained 10g) - 13wks
Kobe is 630g (lost 10g) - 16wks
Alice is 580g (gained 10g) - 18wks
Beeno is 575g (stayed the same) - 16wks
Alba is 620g (gained 5g) - 16wks
Custard is 895g (gained 20g) - 4.5yrs
Subi is 1.035g (lost 35g) - 2yrs (Nursing Bonnie)
Bonnie is 330g (gained 60g) - 2.5wks old
Galaxy is 625g (gained 25g) - 25wks
Sheba is 510g (gained 20g) - 21wks
Crumble is 830g (gained 35g) - 29wks (?)


Total piggy weight 9.850kg (total gain 530g across 15pigs, average gain of 35g per animal. Some had double that, some had losses)