Our bunny Thumper is 6 years old today! Happy birthday dear Thumper. Below are pictures of Thumper enjoying her veggie cake and also pictures of Thumper enjoying the great outdoors. It had stopped raining for a few hours so it was nice Thumps could go out.
Updates
I've made quite a few changes to Jackie's Guinea Piggies recently which includes moving many of the fun pages into one area. This has helped to make my site index shorter in length so visitors will find it easier to use. I've also added a new section to my site called Chester Zoo. I'm a member of Chester Zoo and thought it would be nice to share my pictures and videos with our visitors. I've also changed my guinea pigs movie area so that you can see all their YouTube videos in one area. Don't worry about Thumper's videos, my daughter Kathy will be having a YouTube page for Thumper and I'll let you know when its finished. I've also added new pictures of Beatrix and Squeekie to their pages and also Thumper's page. Squeekie and Thumper now have two pages as their photo collection was becoming too large for one page.
I have quite abit of news to tell you, mainly about our bunny Thumper.
After alot of thought, we decided that we would like a cage-mate for Thumper. As you may know, we lost our dear
Fiver last year who was Thumper's close neighbour. Both Thumper and Fiver didn't get along but at least they could see each other all the time and have bunny conversations but in their own territory. Well we took Thumper on Tuesday 7th October to our vet Molly Varga from Ashleigh Vetrinary Centre as Thumper
needed to be neutered if there was any hope that Thumper would share his home. Even if the opposite sex is not intact, both
buns need to be neutered/spayed. Well after Molly managed to turn a struggling Thumper over, while having his check-up before the op, Molly discovered
that Thumper wasn't a male but a female! As you can imagine we were very shocked lol
Now you know the 'surprise' I will start calling Thumper by her real gender :)
Thumper, although extremely friendly and lovable, she never liked to be lifted and because she used to kick out with such great force, I was always worried she'd hurt her spine. Thumper is also huge, so just wasn't an easy bun to pick up, so I never had the opportunity to take a closer look. I have never sexed a guinea pig wrongly lol and even though friends have said its not always easy to sex rabbits, I was still quite embarrassed.
Anyway, my vet thought spaying Thumper was a very good idea as female rabbits are very susceptible to
ovarian, uterine and mammary cancers. We was very worried because Thumper had turned 6 years old. I'm very pleased to tell you that Thumper came through the large operation and after a rocky 24 hours after the op, Thumper is now recovering really
well.
During the worrying time, Thumper didn't want to eat anything when she arrived home so after her settling down
for a couple of hours, I started hand-feeding her Critical Care, plus fluid. She was also prescribed Metacam, a pain relief. 3.7mls twice daily for three days then reduced to
1.8ml twice daily. At first it was a struggle to administer meds and food to Thumper as she just wasn't used to it, having never been poorly in her 6 years of life. I persevered and she slowly adjusted.
I think she realised that she just had to 'surrender' as I kept persevering. I kept Thumper on newspaper and towels and changed them regular to help avoid her incision area getting infected.
Thumpers first night. She was very quiet bless her. I put a towel on her for extra warmth
Next morning, Thumper started with diarrhoea, she then started producing mucus. Thumper still wasn't eating by herself and apart from a little mucus, she also stopped having diarrhoea or any kind of poop.
Having read alot about Gastric Stasis, I quickly rang my vets. My vets course of action was to prescribe Maxolon syrup (also known as Metoclopramide) at 1.9mls 3 times aday for 3 days. Maxolon helps to get the digestive system working again. We noticed a vast improvement just two hours after Thumper taking the first dose. Thumper
actually showed an interest in one food that I just knew might tempt her, just 4 Rice Krispies multi-grain shapes, a treat that she loves. Thumper begged for more but I wanted
her to have healthy food so I gave her some fresh grass and dandelion leaves which she started eating. Even though Thumper was recovering, I was advised to keep giving her the Maxolon for three days to avoid a relapse. Thumper stayed on the road to recovery and is now a very happy/healthy bun.
Here is Thumper the next evening looking brighter in herself
I was able to inspect her incision area daily as it was easy to see when she stood up and begged for food. Eventually though, Thumper allowed me to partially lift her with her hind feet still firmly on the ground. I do think with all the intensive care Thumper was receiving, she became used to things more easily.
Here is Thumper's tummy, very clean and is healing very well.
On Monday 13th, Thumper went back to see Molly for her post-op check-up. Molly was very pleased, her incision was healing nicely, just a abit of dry skin, a little Vaseline was recommended. While
Thumper was there, she also had her Myxomatosis vaccine and will go back in two weeks for her VHD vaccine.
While Thumper is recovering my hubby will be making a larger cage, big enough for two bunnies. We'll also be looking out for
a neutered male at a rescue. Will update my diary as events happen. Ending on a couple of funny notes, my brother Adrian suggested calling Thumper, Thumperlina lol A friend also asked if I was just
going to change the he to shes without saying anything on my site lol As embarrassed as I was, some of my more eagle eyed visitors may have noticed lol
Pleased to say both Beatrix and Squeekie are very well. I'll be adding more pictures and videos of them shortly. Meanwhile, here is a lovely picture of Beatrix and Squeekie enjoying the great out-doors in September.
31st October 2008
I'm glad to say Squeekie is fine now, but Squeekie had to visit Molly Varga his vet from Ashleigh Vetrinary Centre because I was a concerned about him. On the morning of October 16th, I noticed Squeekie looked a little depressed and although he was eating hay, he didn't touch his morning pellets which just wasn't like like him. Vet Molly couldn't find anything particular that would be troubling Squeekie but his teeth might have had a question mark over them. Squeekie did have a molar spur a few years ago which was treated.
Because his appetite was down, Molly had given me some Maxolon Syrup (also known as Metoclopramide), 0.5ml three times aday to keep his tum going plus Metacam pain relief at 1ml twice daily for 5 days. Further investigations would have been needed if Squeekie didn't improve. Thankfully within a short time, Squeekie was back to his happy self again. Until his appetite picked up, I did give him some Critical Care. When I popped Squeekie back after feeding him, Beatrix always very kindly washed Squeekie's face for him. She was either being very thoughtful or she was just after little bits of Critical Care lol. I have mentioned Molly quite a few times in my diary and will shortly be making a page about excellent guinea pig vets, but meanwhile, here is a picture of Molly holding Squeekie.
Vet Molly Varga with Squeekie
Thumper is also doing very well. Thumper's vaccinations are up to date and she has healed very well after her spay operation. We are now planning the new cage for Thumper and her future cagemate. I'm sure my next update will include our new addition to our family.
We'd like to wish all our visitors a very 'Happy Halloween'
