'SPECIAL NEEDS' PIGS!
A Special Needs Guinea Pig is another way to describe a guinea pig who may have experienced, Extreme Past Trauma, Genetic Dissabilities, or Injury Dissabilities, Brain Damage or other serious Medical Conditions Etc. We always have our shelter animal's best interest at heart and for this reason, some guinea pigs are safer to stay in our shelter under our own personal care.
My shelter gives HOPE to these very special, members and a place where they can safely call 'home' for the rest of their days, receiving the ongoing care they may require.
At Palm View Guinea Pig Rescue & Recovery Shelter, I care for Microphthlamia (lethal gene) guinea pigs, more information regarding this terrible, genetic dissability can be viewed on the Cavy Rescue Connection Forum. I currently house three very unique lethals, each with their own dissabilities and all of them as happy as they have ever been.
As lethals have very short and unknown life spands (due to severe internal dissabilities), I am proud to say that all three of mine have all reached over One Year Old. My lethal pig stories are at the bottom of this page.
In this section I will also share some stories of other permanent pigs, how they came to me and what they have been through - some of these pigs have touched my heart and will remain as my 'keeper' pigs. So stay tuned - I will add new pig stories when I can.
'Pippin' a little boy who had endured so much pain for such a little body - at such a young age.Pippin was privately surrendered in early 2010, at the time of his surrender I was closed for any incoming guinea pigs due to the huge amount of new shelter pigs and the financial strain of medical attention they were requiring. Most of the time, surrenders come to the shelter in terrible condition or in need of some sort of medical/veterinary treatment.
I was about to turn Pippin's owner away until I asked what his details were, I was horrified to learn what he had been through and organised for him to be brought straight to me.
Once he arrived, I saw a tiny little pig, the size of a 4 week old baby (he was 12 weeks old by this stage), he had a severely swollen back leg and the owner told me it had improved from the size and colour it was originally.
Pippin at the vet - his back legs were paralysed.
Dragging his back feet - pictured Right.
Basically, the lady had given her very young child, a guinea pig as a pet but did not supervise her child with the baby guinea pig. In turn the child broke Pippin's legs, the lady could see (due to the area turning black and mass swelling) that it was probably broken. Not realising that guinea pigs could actually have pain relief, she denied him of any vet treatment for 6 weeks until the original pet store, (where he was purchased from), told her to call the shelter to cover the vet bills. (I'm not impressed by this stage)...Poor little Pippin was rushed in to see my Vet Michelle, who told me that the outcome due to the duration of his injuries, may not be that great.
His Xrays came back much better than we hoped.
'Pippin' Snuggling up to his very first friend 'Poppin'
Pippin was suffering from 2 green stick fractures to both of his back legs, severe soft tissue damage to hips, back legs and spine, vitamin C deficiency and malnutrition, dislocation to one of his back legs and paralysis.So after months of TLC, Pippin bolts around perfectly - pop corning and bouncing around with his new best friend 'Poppin'. Pippin is still small for his age but is nice and solid, his coat is beautiful and growing longer every month - he still has 'some issues' and a prolapsed penis (meaning it can't retract) due to severe trauma in that entire region... but otherwise - he is doing fantastic.
Pippin and Poppin are in fantastic conditon and now live with Deb at Bayside Guinea Pig Rescue.
'Lemonade'
lethal gene - Lemonade's arrival.
My sweet little 'lethal' sow, was rescued by an ACS member, from a Bayside Pet Store. She was dying in the sales pen, a tiny little 3 week old, white baby, wrongly sexed & thrown in with adult boars. Lemonade's top teeth were so overgrown (due to her lethal genetics) that they were curling under, causing her to starve to death - amongst other severe health issues.
I hand reared her, clipped her teeth and helped her to mend with syringe feeding supplements & infant formula. Unfortunately Lemonade tested positive to Coccidiosis disease which could have killed her if I hadn't have caught it in time.
Lemonade is now 2 years old, she is blind in both eyes, has small eyes but only her sockets are visable now, she is deaf, has no bottom teeth, half a back mollar on one side & one on the other side - her top front teeth are usually non existant - sometimes she will have one tooth, other times none.
Lemonade is one of my all time special girls!!!! Pic below taken byBianca Newling.
Lethals are ALL born white - this is not just a colour, more of the fact that they are born without pigmentation. Please Note that regular white pigs with pink eyes are not Lethals. They can only be born by the genetics of breeding two Roan or Dalmation Breed parents together. A Roan Gene Pig may not show full markings but can still produce Lethal offspring.
'BUNTY'another crazy little guy, Bunty is also a disabled, but unlike Lemonade, Bunty can see very well - he can also hear. Bunty has severe brain damage.
He was brought to me after a pet store's pregnant sow, gave birth to 3 lethals. One baby was too weak and passed away and the other two found themselves in my care on their 3rd day. Both babies were so severely brain damaged that they were unable to stop spinning & rolling, they were unable to stand up as their head tremors, caused them to continue to roll around. It was one of the most saddest sights I have seen, they were both tiny little babies, starving & frightened. I found that by keeping them rugged up in a tiny possum pouch, enabled them to remain more still. Unfortunately the little sow was just not strong enough to make it - she passed away two days later.
But my little boy 'Bunty', I wasnt going to give up on. Bunty began to learn our routines & was always looking up waiting for his syringe supplement feeds - he grew stronger & stronger every week.The photos I have added is simply, 'Bunty responding to my voice' - looking up, sitting in his food bowl, waiting for me to pick him up.... my sweet little man.
Bunty caused a lot of conflict as most people thought I was 'playing God' and keeping him alive against God's Will. I disagreed, where they saw a totally brain damaged animal that should be killed, I saw a sweet fluff ball who knew my voice and was beating all of the odds.... Bunty even made the front page of the Queensland Times Newspaper - with his story in 2009.
This remarkable little boy is now over one year old and although he still has brain damage, has grown very strong muscle control, he has a perfectly normal, healthy hutch mate and the pair are just as closely bonded like any other healthy pair. Bunty is able to eat by himself & do everything as normal - he is now able to drink from a sipper bottle but couldnt previously, due to not having enough head control to stay in one still position.
Bunty has had many milestones to cross and has done a brilliant job - with a little bit of help. Bunty is still the funniest character, he is very voice orientated and when he hears me speak , he gets very excited & spins around in circles like a dog chasing his tail.
I could never have imagined not helping him, he looked at me as his mother/carer & for that - I owed him a chance!
Unfortunately 2012 is the sad year where all of my Lethal and Brain Damaged Pigs have since passed on.
Each one of them have all grown and lived happily for 3 years which, given their circumstances, is a huge deal.
