» Pig Stories http://bluestonecages.com Sat, 31 Dec 2011 05:25:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 BlueStoneCommerce – Scooter’s Misadventures http://bluestonecages.com/pig-stories/bluestonecommerce-%e2%80%93-scooter%e2%80%99s-misadventures http://bluestonecages.com/pig-stories/bluestonecommerce-%e2%80%93-scooter%e2%80%99s-misadventures#comments Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:00:51 +0000 bob http://bluestonecages.com/?p=127 BlueStoneCommerce – Scooter’s Misadventures

Scooter (the guinea pig in the guitar case) was our friendliest pig and loved to be petted all of the time. If you remember we thought he was a she when we first brought him home but soon discovered otherwise. We have a wonderful vet that is very skilled and knowledgeable about exotic pets, which guinea pigs are considered to be exotic. Therefore, we had Scooter neutered so Pepper, our shy and nervous female and he could live together in wedded bliss. About 7 months later we noticed a large bump underneath him, near to the area that had been neutered.

We took him to the vet immediately after spotting it. It turned out that he had an abscess that needed surgery to remove it. At the time he was only 1 years old and the vet never really figured out the cause of the abscess. She didn’t think it was from being neutered since it had been many months later that the abscess appeared.

After bringing Scooter home after surgery he proceeded to chew on his stitches and they were coming apart. Of coarse, it was the weekend and we had to bring him to the emergency vet hospital. The vet there tried to stitch him up again but discovered that there was a large amount of dead skin that needed to be removed. This resulted in a quarter-sized open wound on his belly. She devised a gauze bandage that was sewn in a way that could be removed and replaced with a new one everyday. We brought Scooter home again but he started chewing on his bandages. Then we took him back to our vet to see if we could figure out a way to stop him from chewing on the bandage. At first, they tried to put a cone around his head, like they do with dogs. Since, a guinea pig is shaped like a potato they had to wrap gauze strips under his front legs to keep the cone on him. Needless to say it stopped him from chewing but the gauze strips rubbed into his skin and caused huge sores under his front legs. You never saw a more pathetic and rejected looking pig. They had to figure out something else. Eventually they made him essentially a body suit out of this material that looked like an ace bandage. It was like a sock that had cut out holes for his legs. Our vet never had this kind of problem before with a guinea pig and it was a huge learning experience for all of us.

After repeated attempts with me going back and forth from the vets office to try to figure out something that would keep Scooter from chewing on his bandage and something he wouldn’t just walk out of because he has no shoulders, the bodysuit idea worked. We had to put honey on his wound everyday and change the gauze bandage. The honey was used like an antibiotic cream. The first time my husband and I tried to do it ourselves I almost fainted. It was a large sized open wound and I now know I can never be a nurse. So, we took Scooter everyday except Sunday to the vet’s office to have his bandages changed for a month. Finally, it was healed enough that Scooter had another surgery to close the wound up. He had to wear his bodysuit until the stitches healed but at least we did not have to go to the vet’s office everyday. Through this whole ordeal with three surgeries in about a months time Scooter was the best pig ever. The techs that changed his dressing everyday were amazed at how good he was at laying on his back to get his bandages changed. He took it all in stride even though I felt we were torturing him when the initial cone rubbed his skin so bad that he had sores from it. After putting antibiotic cream on the sores did heal. There were times I thought Scooter would never recover but he did until a year later……… Stay Tuned for Part II!

To Happy and Healthy Pigs!
Nancy from BluestoneCommerce Cages and Guitars
(Your eBay, Bonanzle and iOffer Guinea Pig Stores)

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]]> http://bluestonecages.com/pig-stories/bluestonecommerce-%e2%80%93-scooter%e2%80%99s-misadventures/feed 1 BlueStoneCommerce – Life Goes On http://bluestonecages.com/pig-stories/bluestonecommerce-life-goes-on http://bluestonecages.com/pig-stories/bluestonecommerce-life-goes-on#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:00:27 +0000 bob http://bluestonecages.com/?p=124 BlueStoneCommerce – Life Moves On

Scooter, our friendly neutered male pig and Pepper, our nervous female pig settled into life in their Penthouse cage. Scooter was always showing Pepper how manly he was by doing his rumble strut. Pepper mostly ignored him unless she was in the mood. Sound familiar?!


The Penthouse cage was the first Cubes and Coroplast (C & C) cage we had ever designed. We enjoyed the open top level because it gave us easy access to our piggys and made it easier to clean. There were no cats in our household, just frogs, a bunny and a small terrier dog. So, the pigs could not be harmed by our other pets because it was raised to waist level with two levels of storage underneath the one 28”Wx56”Lx14H” cage level. Guinea Pigs are not known to escape their open top cages and therefore a top/lid is not necessary unless you have other creatures, including toddlers that can harm your pigs.

The Penthouse Cage with the two levels of 28” Wide and 56” Long of storage space provided more than enough room to store all of the piggy’s supplies. We had all of their big bags of hay, pellets, treats and the cleaning supplies, like the vinegar and water spray bottle I used stored below the cage right at our fingertips. This made it very convenient with everything I needed so close at hand. We were very happy with our C & C cage design and so were Scooter & Pepper.

Sadly, after about 3 ½ years Pepper became ill. It was around Christmas and my usual vet was on vacation and I had to take Pepper to the Emergency Vet Hospital. She had stopped eating, which is always a sign that your pig is sick. She ended up having a lung infection after the vet x-rayed her. We were given antibiotics to give her by syringe and they thought she would get better. Pepper wasn’t eating so we also had to feed her Critical Care by syringe every 4 hours. When my vet returned I took Pepper in to see her because she still wasn’t eating on her own and nothing was coming back out. If you ever lived with a guinea pig you know something is really wrong if that is happening. The vet gave us some medicine to get her to poop again and it worked at first. However, it stopped again and she was not eating on her own. On January 1, 2007 Pepper had a stroke and never recovered. My vet was surprised and said there must have been more going on with her then we realized. Guinea Pigs live an average of five years so she was relatively young when she passed away.

Scooter changed after Pepper died. He became more easily frightened and stayed on one side of the cage. I had to move his water bottle over to the other end of the cage because he wouldn’t drink from it because something had scared him from going over to it. He began to chew huge chunks out of the corrugated plastic because he was bored and stressed without Pepper. Scooter never became ill from chewing on the corrugated plastic because it is not digestable and comes out the other end. After awhile we discovered if you put the white, hard plastic molding on the edges it stops the pig from chewing on it. Scooter never chewed it again after we used it to make the edges chew-resistant. BluestoneCommerce sells the Chew-Resistant upgrade package in our eBay and Bonanzle stores for pigs that like to chew the coroplast. Guinea pigs are social animals and like to live with other pigs. Scooter was listless and slept a lot more until we brought a new pig to live with him. Stay Tuned!

To Happy and Healthy Pets,
Nancy from BluestoneCommerce Cages and Guitars
(eBay and now Bonanzle and iOffer Guinea Pig Cage Stores)

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]]> http://bluestonecages.com/pig-stories/bluestonecommerce-life-goes-on/feed 0 BluestoneCommerce’s First Penthouse Pig Pen http://bluestonecages.com/pig-stories/bluestonecommerces-first-penthouse-pig-pen http://bluestonecages.com/pig-stories/bluestonecommerces-first-penthouse-pig-pen#comments Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:00:32 +0000 bob http://bluestonecages.com/?p=53 BluestoneCommerce’s First Penthouse Pig Pen

Scooter and Pepper now needed a larger cage than the cramped pet store cage that Pookie had lived in. We went online and found a wonderful guinea pig rescue organization called Cavy Spirit. On their website they included instructions on how to put together a C & C cage. The mysterious name C&C originates from the two main materials used to construct this category of small animal cage: Cubes and Coroplast.The frame and wire lattice portion of the cage is built from wire grids normally used in the assembly of wire grid storage cubes. The grids are usually 14”x 14” coated metal grids with nine 1½ inch spaces between the bars. The second C in C&C comes from the other fundamental material used in C&C cage construction — Coroplast. Coroplast is a trade name and is essentially a contraction of the product description: corrugated plastic. Coroplast is corrugated polypropylene plastic sheeting and is used to form the litter pan or bin in the bottom of the cage.C&C cages are almost always built as do-it-yourself projects and tend to be very much larger (and therefore healthier for your pig) than standard manufactured “pet store cages”.


We had some chrome grids left over from the wire grid storage cubes that were in the study and bought some more black ones from the store. Then we called a sign shop to order the Coroplast cut to the size we needed. Now my husband came up with the idea of having two levels of storage cubes for the base of the cage and one level 28” wide by 56” long by 14” high for the actual cage where Scooter and Pepper would reside. This design really worked out well for us and the pigs. By raising the cage level up 28 inches with two levels of storage, the cage was at waist level and easy to feed the pigs and clean the cage. Since, we did not have a cat or any other pets that could harm the pigs we had an open top with no lid. Without a lid it was easy to walk by and give Scooter a pat on the head, which he loved. Pepper was always the nervous type and would run into her nest box. The two levels of storage gave us plenty of room to store their food, hay, treats and cleaning supplies. We had this cage for over five years until we ended up with five piggies and needed a larger cage. Of course, that is a whole other story!

*** Important Safety Note *** We were notified by a guinea pig rescue organization that the Target department store chain now sells grids that are a safety risk for the pigs due to a chance of strangulation. The wire grids need to have 9 spaces across by 9 spaces down or 1 ½ inch spaces between the bars. Target grids are now 8 spaces across which makes the spaces large enough for a pig to put their heads through and choke. Last time we checked the Chrome grids at Target were still 9 spaces across. If you decide to build your own C & C cage make sure you use the grids with 9 spaces or 1 ½ inch spaces between the wires. BluestoneCommerce Cages always uses the wire metal grids that are safe for your pigs!

To Happy & Healthy Pets, Nancy

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]]> http://bluestonecages.com/pig-stories/bluestonecommerces-first-penthouse-pig-pen/feed 0 Scooter & Pepper – A New Beginning http://bluestonecages.com/pig-stories/scooter-pepper-a-new-beginning http://bluestonecages.com/pig-stories/scooter-pepper-a-new-beginning#comments Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:00:44 +0000 bob http://bluestonecages.com/?p=46 After Pookie passed away my daughter wanted 2 guinea pigs to take Pookie’s place. I read that they love company and are lonely when housed singly. So, I agreed that we would adopt two pigs to share our home this time.

I knew that we didn’t want to adopt a male and a female for obvious reasons. It was time to study the book to learn how to identify the males from the females. The book tells you that it was easy to tell the difference between the two sexes…

In boars (males) to identify the sheathed penis, gently press on the lower abdomen and this will cause the penis to protrude from the sheath. Sounds easy! The females (sows) will have a skin fold in a Y-shape above the anus. OK! Study the pictures of the two sexes closely some more and I will be an expert at sexing guinea pig pups. The book says it is easy and not hard to tell the difference between the sexes. WRONG!

I feel I am prepared to pick out two females to share our house with us and we make the trip to the pet store. We immediately fall in love with a cute black and white American Short hair pig. There are two other Abyssinian black and white pigs that are adorable too. The Abyssinian breed has rosettes or whorls of tufted hair all over its body. We determine what we think is the cuter of the two Abyssinian pigs and check to make sure it’s a female. Yes! Then we check again the other American Short hair pig with the unusual markings that we immediately knew we wanted to take home with us. Yes, it looks like she is a female too. Perfect! We have our two female pigs that should be very compatible. Sometimes if two males are housed together they can be territorial or fight with each other, especially if there is a female housed with them. If the two males have been littermates and no females are present they can peacefully live together. However, we have two females so they definitely should be compatible and no chance of extra piggies running around in the future.

We eagerly arrive home with our two pigs and temporarily house them in Pookie’s old pet store cage, which is way too cramped for two pigs. However, until we can construct their new cage it will do for a few days. We decided the black and white American Short hair pig would be called Misty and the Abyssinian would be Pepper. It was strange but after a few days Misty started acting like she was a he. Misty started doing what some people call the male “rumble strut” to impress Pepper. Could Misty be a boy? I went on-line to look at more pictures to determine what female young pups look like compared to males. OOOPS! I think we have a male. A quick trip to the vets and we get the news Misty is a MALE. How can this be? The book said it was easy and I had studied the pictures for a very long time.

Well, Misty became Scooter after that and we had him neutered when he was 4 months old. After a long 30 days had gone by after Scooter was neutered, the “wall” came down that divided them and they were reunited again. And as the story goes they lived happily ever after!

To Happy and Healthy Pigs!
Nancy from BluestoneCommerce Cages

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]]> http://bluestonecages.com/pig-stories/scooter-pepper-a-new-beginning/feed 0 Pookie – The Beginning http://bluestonecages.com/pig-stories/pookie-the-beginning http://bluestonecages.com/pig-stories/pookie-the-beginning#comments Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:35:32 +0000 bob http://bluestonecages.com/?p=1 Our very first guinea pig that we shared our home with was named Pookie.

My daughter had a mouse named Peek-a-Boo that a boy at school had given her but she was not a very friendly mouse. She was looking for another pet that wouldn’t bite her every time she tried to touch it. I found out that guinea pigs are cuddly, mild-mannered and are not likely to bite. When my daughter asked for a guinea pig, not being very responsible about cleaning Peek-a-Boo’s cage, we told her if she would clean the mouse’s cage for a month and showed us how responsible she was, then we would go looking for a guinea pig to share our home with. Well, she faithfully cleaned the cage for a month and that is how we came to adopt Pookie into our home.

Pookie was a cute little guy, with a pretty chestnut color and white streak down the center of his head. Our friends had a guinea pig cage that they were no longer using so we used that for Pookie’s home. It was the standard pet store cage 15 by 24 inches. We purchased a new wooden nest box, water bottle, hay rack and food dish. After we put all of the necessary things that guinea pigs need in the cage there was hardly any room for Pookie. There was definitely no room for running and playing and barely enough space to turn around in outside of his nest box. We would hold him in our laps and cuddle him and sometimes he get time to run around on the floor. Life is very busy though and it seemed that we did not have the time to let him out of his cage that often.

After Pookie was a year old we noticed that his left eye was closing and did not appear to be normal. We took him to the vets and she thought it might be an infection. He was given eye drops and antibiotics by syringe but the eye continued to look worse. While we were on vacation, my neighbor who was taking care of him had to rush Pookie to my vet because he had a stroke. He was just over a year old and had developed a brain tumor. It was very rare for guinea pigs to develop a tumor at such a young age. Although, we do not know for sure if the tumor was cancerous it did end up being the reason he passed away at a very early age. Guinea pigs are known to be resistant to cancer. The scientists think that the Kurloff cells – which are unique to cavies – and asparaginase found in their blood may be the reason for protecting them against cancer.

We will never know exactly what caused the brain tumor in Pookie. Genetics? Perhaps. What we do know, now that Pookie is gone, is that we have always regretted making him live out his entire short life in that tiny, cramped cage. And as caring and responsible pet owners, we have sworn that it will never happen again. Pookie has made us realize that our pets deserve better.

To Happy and Healthy Pigs!
Nancy from BluestoneCommerce Cages

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