News Archives

Update on Garage Sale held on June 26, 2003

THANK YOU to ALL the Garage Sale Volunteers!
We really appreciate everyone's effort towards the garage sale. It would not have been a success without the many people who made donations, volunteered their time, and even stopped by to purchase items in donation to the rescue.

Despite having to end the sale early due to rain, we were still able to make over $700 in profit!!!
Special thanks to:

Star, Tess, Jade, and Allen for volunteering their time on the day of the sale.

Amanda for collecting and delivering items to the sale.

Star, Alysson & Micia for helping to label items in preparation for the sale.

Micia, Jenny, Brandi & her daughters, Steve, Eileen, Alannah, Lauren, Meagan and Heather for helping to clean cages, clean piggies and the rescue on the day of the sale.

And thank you to everyone who donated items to the sale!!!

Here's some pictures (taken by Jade):

Tess, Stacy and Allen taking a lunch break during the rain shower.
Where's Julia? Hint: Tess does not have three arms!

Some of the sale items in protective storage during the rain shower

"The question is not whether animals can reason or whether they can talk...
the question is, can they suffer?"

- Jeremy Bentham, 18th century English philosopher (paraphrased)

Pudsey

Update 1-04-04

We continued Pudsey on the Cyprofloxacin, which did not cure the infection, but did maintain it to the point that the socket did not build up infection causing pain, in fact we were able to take him off the Rimadyl without him becoming 'fluffed up in pain'.

After talking to several people who had first hand experience of using Zithromax as an antibiotic in Guinea Pigs, we decided to go ahead and use this on Pudsey. In vitro this does not show-up as being effective for pseudomonas, but our vet had successfully used it to cure a bunny with the same bacterial infection.

We cautiously used it for 10 days, pumping him full of probiotic to restore the good bacteria in his tummy. He went for a check-up last Friday, and although not completely gone, the discharge is now clear and much reduced.

Pudsey is now off all antibiotics for the first time since he has arrived at the rescue back in June of last year. We are applying topical ophthalmic Neosporin, which may have some benefit; he still gets his orange juice twice daily with probiotic, because he loves it so much.

Our next and final option is to have the eye socket corterized by laser, which we will schedule in the next week or two, after the full effects of the Zithromax are realized.

Darwin

Update 1-04-04

Darwin is a complete success story. After the treatment with revolution, intensive bathing with Sebolux, an antiseborrheic shampoo which removes the scaling, and a course of griseofulvesin for the fungal infection he has made a complete recovery.

He was neutered on December 16th and has taken up residence next to his future bride, Brownie.

We are hopeful that a lady from San Antonio, will be driving up to the rescue in the next couple of weeks to adopt them both.

Bramley

Update 1-04-04

Little Bramley is not our latest acquisition, but the last piggy to be found 'dumped' outside by thoughtless, irresponsible and uncaring individuals. The Wednesday following Thanksgiving, we received a call from a concerned lady in Grand Prairie, who had spotted the little piggy in the yard of an empty house. We discussed tactics for catching the piggy, which she and her husband tried the following day. Unfortunately she was unable to get the evasive Bramley. That night temperatures went below freezing, with the forecast being worse for the following night, so we arranged to meet Susan the following day. Armed with boxes, tubes and a fishing net, we managed to coax her into the net which we removed her from quickly to avoid any injury.

We got her warm, fed her hay and an apple slice and drove her home. Her breathing was raspy and her nose had a thick discharge, we started her on Baytril then got her to the vet the next day for a culture. Of course, the bacteria cultured pseudomonas, we dread that so much, being a bacteria that is very resistant to antibiotic treatment.

We continued the baytril and added nebulization of Amikacin twice per day. This treatment continues, she is much better and the discharge has almost cleared up, she has put on weight and is no longer fearful of people.

We are thankful that someone cared enough to call, and realized that she would not survive left outside. Bramley is just a baby, probably no more than 2 months old when she was dumped, she is one of the lucky ones.

Mabel Bean has found a winner in the October 2003 Camera Crazy Cavy Contest

First place went to Daisy Dayzie and Walter Piggie of Guinea who are proudly owned by Athena Lewis.

Here they are as presented on the new sticker set offered by Mabel bean. 50 cents for every set purchased will be donated to the rescue.

A big Thank You to every one who entered and to Mabel Bean for hosting the competition. Please click here to see all the entires.

The rain and the cold did not keep us away from the Fort Worth Vegetarian Fair on Saturday. We had a good time mingling with like-minded vegetarian folk. Thank you to those people who came out to support us despite the inclement weather.

Darwin

Update 11-02-03

Darwin has been improving slowly. He is off the pain medication and is eating well on his own. He still requires bathing every three days which he isn't very impressed with. We got the results of his skin scrape and that showed that he has a fungal infection on top of the mange mites. He has lost more hair as you can see in the picture but the sores have healed and there are tiny tufts of new hair growth.

Darwin came to us from Flower Mound animal services on Saturday October 18. He was found beside Grapevine Lake sitting atop of his shavings with his pellets. Officers said it looked like someone had tipped him out of his cage wood shavings, pellets, and all. Who ever did this valued the cage more than his life as they took it with them.
Darwin was in a terrible state he was caked in dead skin that had formed a hard crust, he had sores, and lesions caused by scratching, and was obviously in a lot of pain. We treated him with revolution, and provided around the clock care with critical care, fluids, and pain medication until our vet could see him on Tuesday. She confirmed our initial diagnosis of Mange mites. He was treated with injectable invermectin and was bathed to remove some of the excess of dead skin cells. He is still in a great deal of discomfort, and cries out in pain while scratching. He scratched himself so severely that we wrapped his body in vetwrap to prevent further damage. It is very hard to comfort him, as the only place that we can touch him without hurting him is the bridge of his nose, which he likes to have rubbed. His current treatment includes baths every 3 days, and pain medication 3 times a day. It is hard to believe that any human being would deliberately desert an animal that was so obviously in need of help.

Thank you to everyone that came out and supported us at the Paws and Wheels Fall Event. We met many other local rescues including BlueBunnies where we met Domino

Many thanks to Albertson's for their support.

Update on Pudsey

Update (Pudsey) 9-25-03

Pudsey went back to the vets last Thursday for a check-up, progress has not been as good as we had hoped. He had lost some of the weight he had gained, the socket was still filled with puss and had to be re-opened to allow for drainage. We think because of the pressure build up he was suffering from pain, so he has been put on Rimadyl to alleviate some of that.

At home he seems happy, he has learnt to rattle the bars along with his brother, he loves floor time and was even eyeing up one of the girl pigs the other day.

08-18-03

Pudsey is still undergoing treatment for his abscessed eye. Following removal of the eye, the socket has remained infected despite treatments with systemic and topical antibiotics. The bacteria that are causing the infection were cultured as pseudomonas last week, which is very resistant to most antibiotics.

Sunday he started a course of cyprofloxacin + Tobramycin, which has to be squeezed into the now open socket.

Pudsey is still in good spirits and has gained weight; he is a very brave little guy and puts up with a lot.

Pudsey a Piggie in Need, for any of you from England, you will be familiar with Pudsey Bear, a big yellow teddy with a bandage over one eye, the symbol for the Children in Need Fundraiser. On Sunday June 22nd, we acquired Pudsey Pig after having received a call from Burleson Petsmart requesting that we come and pick up a couple of pigs that had been dumped at their store. When we got there, we found that the one little piggy had an abscessed and ulcerated eye, the poor little guy had been in pain for a long while and the eye was to the point that it was exuding puss down the side of his face. We rushed him to the Emergency Hospital, where they checked him over and we discussed how best to extract the eye. Due to him having been in this condition for some time, it was decided to put him on antibiotics and pain killers and get him to our piggy expert, Dr Giannopolous.



             Pudsey before surgery                 Pudsey after surgery

Pudsey had his eye removed this past Tuesday and is doing really well, he has just started to talk, he is active and is eating well. He continues with his antibiotics and pain killers and is growing accustomed to his surroundings. It is quite possible his eye could have been saved, if he had received medical attention when the eye was first noticed as having been infected, what is certain, the length of time this piggy suffered could have been prevented from prompt medical attention. It is important to understand that Guinea Pigs are just as likely to require medical attention, as cats and dogs. If you are not prepared to take the piggy to the vets or do not have the finances to spare on medical treatment, then do not bring a Guinea Pig into your home. You have a choice in the matter, they do not.



Pudsey enjoying his orange juice

Update on Nibbles.

Nibbles has fully recovered from his mite infestation, as you can see his hair has already grown back. Treatment comprised of 2 topically applied doses of revolution, 30 days apart. His sister Gidget, who was also afflicted with mites, was given a clean bill of health and adopted this past weekend (see adopted)

Mr. Nibbles was rescued from animal control after being dumped with his sister (Gidget) and their dad (Spot). Both baby piggies, we learned, were taken from their mother when about 1 week of age and were severely infested with Mange / Sellnick MITES Trixacarus caviae, this condition is life threatening if not treated due to dehydration and abstinence from food due to severe pain

Texas Rustlers and the Round Grove Church Youth Group joined forces to organize the first Car Wash Event for both groups on Sunday June 1, 2003.

Even though it was extremely hot and we were a little under staffed we managed to raise $109 and sold 4 cuddly cavies.

A really big THANK YOU to Pastor Byron Wells for hosting the event, Lisa Mathis for organizing it and feeding us all, her husband Mike and daughter Jordan who mucked in and especially to Fred Crable (Youth Sponsor) Sara Grobowsky, Dan Homeyer and Cody Belcher (Youth Members) and last but not least to Micia Thorn from Texas Rustlers.

Nebulizer Update

Thank you to everyone who has donated to Max’s nebulizer fund. I would like to announce that both Texas Rustler locations are now fully equipped with nebulizers. I would also like to thank Judi Lainer from the Metropolitan Guinea Pig Rescue in Springfield, Va. who gave us the information we needed to buy and set up the units.

Here is one of the units ready for use. It is a Devilbliss pulmo-aide Model #5650D. To make the unit suitable for use on small animals I attached The mouthpiece to a Rubbermaid storage container. For detailed instructions please see http://home.houston.rr.com/lundquist/Purrie/Nebulizer/Nebulizer.htm

http://homepage.mac.com/nalyne/nebulizer/PhotoAlbum30.html

A good time was had by all at the “Paws and wheels adoptathon” in Lewisville on 3 may. A big thank you to everyone who donated time to man the Texas Rustlers Stand.

Remembering Lilly

Lilly was a very brave and affectionate guinea pig. She came to our rescue last summer with chronic breathing problems caused by being kept on toxic bedding. Her previous owners bedded her on cedar and pine. Lilly passed away on 3/28/03.

Rest in Peace

Meet Max

Max Died 1-22-03

He came to us August 30th 2002 from a local animal shelter who had found him washed up beside a creek. He was incredibly lucky to survive. He did however suffer constant respiratory problems and chronic sinusitis and our vet tried unsuccessfully with 5 different antibiotics to get him well. On 1-22-03 he took a turn for the worse and developed a chronic ear infection and was so sick we had to put him to sleep. He was such a cheerful little chap, He loved to run around, eat tomatoes and hide out in paper lunch sacks. That was the one of the hardest things we have ever had to do and we feel so sad that we couldn't save him as he was a real trooper. Rest in peace little guy we will love and remember you always.

We are saving to buy a small animal nebulizer to help all piggies that come through our doors. It will help to treat piggies with hypothermia, upper respiratory problems, heart failure, and asthma.