Gizmo the Guinea Pig update
Gizmo injured himself a couple of months ago and lost the use of his back legs briefly, dragging himself around. Fortunately, he made a very good recovery gaining full mobility in one leg and a fair bit of movement in the other. (He gets physio every night to help him along).
There is a down side, however. In the early stages he started biting the thigh of his (now good) leg and this has never properly healed, despite our efforts to apply creams and antibiotics. Last week there was talk of a biopsy as it looks like a rather nasty growth, but now our friendly vet thinks the best thing to do is remove the growth completely and rebuild around the area. There is always the danger that he will gnaw away at this area as well, but the vets will try to ensure the sutures are internal with something protective over it. (Guinea Pigs can’t get the lampshade treatment as they need access to the general area for Coprophagia (icky alert!)
So, it looks like Gizmo will be laid up for a while and he will be getting a double-dose of physio as well. What is interesting to me, however, is that we have bonded during this adversity. Karen does most of the graft (as I am way too wary about getting bitten) whilst I keep him from moving too much and stroke him. He has a limited repertoire of noises but he started making a new one whenever I was stroking him. Karen looked around on the internet and found it- it denotes intense pleasure so he is happy in adversity.
He always looks a bit mournful to me, but I’ve never seen him blink although apparently they do have eyelids. Here is a picture of him after a shampoo wash wrapped up in a towel. He looks really cute when you can’t see how big his teeth are!
on June 12, 2008 at 12:24 am
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Well he does have a rather direct look, rather intimidating actually, so you are wise to treat him with caution. Bathing a guinea pig? Sound fraught with danger.
on June 12, 2008 at 1:21 pm
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Go on with you, he looks cute!
on June 12, 2008 at 5:58 pm
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He is back from his surgery and seems none the worse from it today.
on June 12, 2008 at 10:42 pm
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I find that picture really scary; but then I am scared of rodents!
on June 13, 2008 at 6:27 am
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Citunslicker, that is understandable, as he has the same face for looking interested, feeling happiness, hungry, pain and anger.
However you interpret it, it is certainly intense as a snapshot.