Lost Teeth

So we took Ruffles to see the vet today. Luckily for us she was in today for a different occasion and was able to see her and advise us on what to do. She can still eat, nothing seems different about her and we are just going to have to keep an eye on her and her little teeth. I'm hoping her teeth will grow out normally and won't have any issues, so we won't need to take her to a vet dentist. All and all she seems happy, her walking seems to be looking better and better, sometimes she stands pretty well and she loves exploring around the living room and play follow the leader with Nibbles (I should really video record that). Ruffles is such a trooper and Nibbles has been a great support looking after her, all and all hopefully when she's healed she can finally get some peace!

Water Therapy!

So I've been doing water therapy on Ruffles to hopefully strengthen her back legs which I think has been going pretty good. I took her for a vet appointment which I mentioned in the previous blog and the vet that it was a wonderful idea and she was glad I was doing it. I'm glad I was able to do something right :p, but I couldn't have thought about it without that person on guineapigcages.com who suggested for me to do physical therapy on Ruffles. Again thank you for bringing up that idea, I think that's what made a huge difference between her walking and not. My vet like the idea and wanted me to video recorded which I finally did and have it uploaded onto youtube which I can't wait to show her. Of course I'm also going to post it here for you wonderful people.

Guinea Pig Water Therapy

Tonight I do not have very good news. While I was feeding her lettuce I noticed something fall out of her mouth and when I picked it up I noticed it was a tooth. Dan (my boyfriend/ their uncle) became extremely worried and wanted to take her to an emergency room asap, but I reassured him we could wait till morning for a vet appointment. Not sure what could have caused her teeth to break, I'm kinda assuming when she freaked out she ran into a wall really hard or something close to that scenario. When I checked her teeth both top teeth were completely gone, I could see a slight piece on the right but I couldn't see anything for the left. It was hard to see because she kept squirming. She seemed to eat her lettuce and pellets fine, but it just took her a while to eat it so I think she's okay. I tried to feed her critical care just in case she hasn't eaten very well throughout the day, so I'm glad I still have that stuff on hand. We'll see what happens, wish me luck.

Improved Piggy!

Hi everyone!

So sorry for taking so long! I've been swamped with work.. Ruffles didn't like her wheels very much which was normal which made it hard for me to take a pictures, but I'm happy to inform you with very good news.Ruffles is officially walking again. She was able to gain movement and is slowly improving her walking and her strength. I made a video for guineapigcages.com explaining about the good news which I will post. I did different things hoping he would help her so I don't know if it was the things I did or her own body healing herself naturally, regardless she is well. I will continue to post updates, pictures and videos and continue recording her improvements hoping she can be back to normal or very close.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tDY7LGY19cc

Ruffles was taken back to the vet to be checked for some lumps that was under her belly area and found out that it was a cyst. We did some testing done to check if it won't become dangerous and received news that it was just a cyst and is not harmful. Thank goodness! Everything seems to working out for Ruffles and Nibbles has been awesome support for Ruffles. She should continue the good work!!

 Nom nom nom nom nom

Nibbles is showing Ruffles her next goal for improvement.

Home Is Where The Heart Is

So there is a few things. I've been annoying the hell out of Ruffles the past couple of days because I would pick her up to move her feet around so they don't cramp up. It was recommended by one of the forum people at guineapigcages.com who is an occupational therapist assistant student (THANKS!) and I'm glad he brought it up because I never thought about it. Sadly that same day I read it I believe Ruffles right leg cramped up already because from I think it's the ankle? it's completely tense and unmovable, :( but I still try to massage it hoping it would loosen it up. The left leg I still see movement I think when she feels like it, because some days I see her use it sometimes she just drags herself so not sure how much progress she's getting.

                       Ruffles does not like it when Nibbles is in her house because her butt gets cold.
                                     

I'm getting really excited because in a few days she will be getting her wheelchair!! Hopefully she'll be able to move around more on her own to stretch out her legs, relieve herself easier and hopefully see more improvement on that leg of hers. I'll be sure to post with pictures and all.

Another big news is that Nibbles and Ruffles got a new cage. I finished fixing it up yesterday and I love the fleece I picked out! They look adorable! Anyways they have a lot more room to run around which will be great when Ruffles gets her new wheels and I think they loved it because they were playing around a lot when I finally put them in. But one thing that makes me question why they were playing around a lot is because Nibbles was in heat that day and kept trying to hump Ruffles, so not sure if it's because they like it or because there was humpage going around. Regardless I'm really happy.

                                                                   Previous Cage

                                              New Cage. Fleece is sheeps, moons and stars.
Second fleece that boyfriend bought for piggys

Take a look on how they reacted to their new home.

Miracle Pig?

Quick note before I start. Nibbles did the cutest thing. When she was playing around in her cage and going through the cardboard tunnel there was a cardboard tape roll in front of her so she couldn't get out without moving it. So she literally picked up her right paw and pushed it to the side with full force to get across! It looked hilarious!! I wish I would have recorded it. I tried to have her repeat the action, but no luck....I guess it was a once and a lifetime situation. Oh well..

Both Nibbles and Ruffles are very spoiled I gotta say. Today I went shopping for groceries and I had my babies in my mind. I bought them grape tomatoes (which I gotta say they didn't like too much), lettuce and wheat grass (which they loved, I need to grow this). Since Ruffles is paralyzed I checked her and cleaned her rumpus yesterday which it looked pretty clean. I'm not sure if I did it right because I was scared as hell that I was gonna hurt her.  They both did really well except Nibbles moved around a lot, but it was okay and they both got treats from it so it was all good all around.

So here is the big new's that I've been wanting to talk about on this post......Ruffles is able to move and lightly push on her heel of her left leg. Her toes and right leg still shows no improvement, but I believed she was permanently paraplegic so that little movement she is showing is HUGE!!! Could it possibly be trauma? Is she healing which is slowly getting her movement back? Later on which I see the doctor maybe she can give us a better idea of what's going on. I was thinking about when the doctor gave us the news that we would have to either put her down or give her a comfortable and fulfilling life, I am soo grateful she's still with us today. We talked to the people at Doggon' Wheels and we were lucky to find out that they have a guinea wheelchair that can be refurbished to fit Ruffles which makes it half the price which is really nice that we were able to save a bit. I can't wait to receive the wheelchair and see what improvements we will see from Ruffles. <3

Ain't no rest for the wicked

I bought more items for the guinea pigs like houses, toys, etc and Ruffles continues to move around like nothing happened (and she is still really fast). My boyfriend and I started looking into wheelchairs for guinea pigs that day we had the vet appointment and luckily enough we found a company that did just that. My boyfriend called Doggon Wheels and luckily they had some fitter's in the area that could measure Ruffles to send proper measurements for the company to make the wheelchair.

So today or actually yesterday their mommy's, my boyfriend and I all went to Menlo Park to Scout's House Rehab Center to get her measurements and the staff was really nice. It was their very first guinea pig so it ended up being an experience for everyone. Ruffles and Nibbles did not like traveling and Ruffles much less liked being picked up, but the measurements were successful and I found out she was a very symmetrical piggy :p .

All and all I got some really good pictures and a short clip of Ruffles moving around and now we are eagerly waiting to get her new wheels and hope that she'll enjoy her new ride.

To live or not to live

Ruffles wasn't eating and I had to force feed her the liquid food and her pain meds and constantly clean her poo because she would not be able to eliminate properly because her butt is always on the floor. That Monday I heard the news I didn't want to hear, Ruffles is paraplegic and she cannot feel any deep pain anywhere below her injury. I felt like it was all my fault. The doctor said if she's not happy and her quality of life isn't good then it would be more humane to put her down. My boyfriend and I were heartbroken, we didn't want her to lose her life that quickly because we knew she had so many more years ahead of her. We mentioned to the doctor that I noticed that she began eating more when she would hear Nibbles eating and she recommended to try to keep them near by but not together until a couple of days just so we can continue to supervise her. After leaving the vet we did just that.

Coming home, I began setting up the cage to be two parts of one cage to allow Ruffles and Nibbles to see, hear and smell each other without being in the same cage and sure enough Ruffles ran around, was eating, drinking and pooping like nothing ever happened. She seemed happy. Since it was our first guinea pig we had no idea what was a happy guinea pig (she was really quiet). I signed up to the forum guineapigcages.com and asked people there and gave them the scenario and the description of her behavior and everyone agreed she sounded happy!