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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