[Stones] Elvis Condolences & Introduction

[Gloria A Villalobos]

My sincere condolences on Elvis' passing.  I was fascinated by his 
experiences and he truly sounded like a wonderful piggy.  I know you 
did everything in your power for him, and that's all we can ever do.

I just found this list a couple of days ago and it's actually a 
little ironic that my two piggies are Priscilla and Lisa Marie (AKA, 
the Presley Girls.)  They are two rescue piggies (now aged 5 & 5 1/2) 
who have been with me for a little over 2 years now.  Both came to me 
with a past history of ear infections and were left with head 
tilts.  They actually tilt in opposite directions and will sit on 
either side of their veggie dish like a matched set of bookends, 
begging for food.  Lisa's eye turned opaque a couple of days after I 
got her and we had a long bout of dealing with a corneal 
abrasion.  She's now on a daily dose of eye gel, but doing 
well.  Then, about 6 months ago, I found a lump on her throat which 
turned out to be a highly aggressive malignant thyroid 
tumor.  Surgery and lots of TLC got her through that fortunately.

Priscilla has been pretty healthy since I got her.  Unfortunately, 
when I took the girls in for their check-ups last week, they found 
Priscilla had an ear infection & started her on antibiotics.  Not 
such a big deal but, even with probiotics, she stopped eating.  Her 
regular vet said to stop the antibiotics & referred her up to our 
area emergency veterinary hospital.  During her exam, they noted she 
had some severe discomfort in her belly.  An x-ray later . . . and 
they show me a nice collection of stones.  Numerous small ones in the 
bladder, some tiny ones in the right ureter, and one large one in the 
urethra.  They put her on IV fluids to try to flush out the stones, 
but after 2 days, there was little motion, and they'd only disloged 
the one from the urethra.  So, she went in for surgery Monday 
afternoon.  They got out all the stones in the bladder, but weren't 
able to get all the ones from the ureter.  The surgeon didn't want to 
cut into the ureter itself for fear of scaring and eventually losing 
the kidney.  She says she feels the stones may still get flushed into 
the bladder where they may either make it out on their own or be 
easier to retrieve.  She also found that Priscilla has a pretty 
significant bladder infection.  Currently, Priscilla is still at the 
hospital, on fluids, hand feeding, antibiotics and pain meds.  One of 
the things I like about the hospital is that they're a 24-hour 
facility, so doctors & support staff are there throughout the night, 
and they have a separate area for guinea pigs and other exotics where 
it's quieter and they're not stressed by barking dogs and the like.

So, I'm glad I found this community and have been reading furiously 
through the archives to bring myself up to speed on the stone 
issue.  Prior to Priscilla & Lisa Marie, I've had 6 other guinea pigs 
(all but one of whom lived to at least 5 years) and this is the first 
time I've encountered stones.  Priscilla's now 5 1/2 and I know this 
is tough on her.  I know she may not have a good outcome, but I 
REALLY don't want to say goodbye to her yet.  I've never had a piggy 
that was as much of a mush.  Given a chance, she'll sit and cuddle 
for hours.  I'm trying to figure out what kinds of things I can 
change to help prevent (or at least delay) a recurrence.  As I said, 
she's well over 5 and as much as I'm not ready to lose her, I also 
don't think she'd tolerate numerous surgeries.

Please wish her the best.

G.-