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I don’t mean to post a sad or depressing post but I am so upset and still kind of in shock at what happened today. So I rescued some guinea pigs a few months ago from a couple different people who didn’t look after them properly. Some had nails that looked like they had never been cut and were curling around, a couple were matted and had greasy hair, one was being fed hamster pellets instead of guinea pig pellets and one had cedar shavings instead of pine which I was severely allergic to. You could just tell they weren’t cared for very well. I cut all their nails, bathed and groomed them and made sure they were healthy, bought some nice bigger cages for them and wooden houses, new water bottles and dishes and fresh pine shavings and hay. I ended up with 5 pigs in 4 different cages, 2 males I separated into two cages because they were chasing each other around in the same cage, 2 females who were fine together in one cage and one female in another cage who didn’t get along with the others. After several weeks though of thinking I was sick over the summer, constantly sneezing and coughing, I realized I was actually allergic to the pigs or their hay. I would also get redness and hives if I picked them up and get really itchy. I found it odd because I have always had pets including cats, dogs, guinea pigs and rabbits and was never allergic to any but I was allergic to certain grasses and weeds when I was younger.
So I advertised them on kijiji a couple weeks ago trying to find them new homes. I found the two females a good home with two young girls who love them so I was left with the two males and the single female. I didn’t advertise the female because I was thinking of trying to find another single female friend for her or find her a home with someone who already had a female pig. I replied to one wanted ad that a lady posted who was looking for a female pig to go with one she already had but after she said she was interested she never got back. In the meantime a couple people looked at the male pigs but thought they were too big or too old and they wanted smaller or younger ones. I was getting frustrated no one seemed to want the other ones so I thought I may just end up keeping them and manage my allergies with pills the best I can. In the meantime, everyday I would let them run outside in my backyard and eat the grass and dandelions there. We have a big fence on one side of the yard so the pigs would stay around the corner of the house and the fence and never go to far. I would always watch them outside and if anything would scare them like a bird or someone passing by they would run behind our composter and hide so they had some protection. We are in a townhouse and back onto a big field/greenspace and then other townhouses are across the field so it’s a nice sheltered, quiet area where people walk their dogs sometimes.
But today when I put the two males outside to run around I came back inside for a few minutes to get changed upstairs and my mom yelled upstairs she saw what looked like two wild dogs run by the backyard. But these dogs didn’t have a person with them and my mom mentioned one looked like it had a white toy in it’s mouth as they ran by. She went outside and followed them down the field but they took off behind the houses and we didn’t see them again. Well I came downstairs and looked outside and they were gone but I saw something orange in the grass by the end of our yard and I didn’t know what it was so went out to investigate. Then I got a really bad feeling as I got closer and realized my orange guinea pig was lying lifeless at the end of the yard. I was so upset I started crying. I was only inside for like 10 minutes but I looked at him and touched him and he was already gone. He looked like he had been mauled by a dog. Then I panicked as I was looking for the white pig and couldn’t find him anywhere and to my horror realized that must have been the white thing my mom saw the dog carry away. I saw a little bit of white hair on the grass but that was it. I was talking to my friend Brian on the phone when I walked outside and just told him I would call back and dropped the phone in shock. He came over to my house a few minutes later when I told him what happened and we walked down the field looking for any signs of the dogs or the other guinea pig but didn’t see anything. It was all over so fast. I was just walking around aimlessly crying, blaming myself for putting them outside when I never thought anything like this could happen. The poor orange pig was still in the grass when we walked back so I got my shovel out and we picked him up in a box and buried him over in a patch of trees at the end of the field. We never found the white one.
We couldn’t figure out if the dogs were wild like coyotes or just dogs that got loose from someone’s yard but my mom said they looked orange coloured like regular dogs. I never thought a dog could kill a guinea pig though, I had been letting them outside everyday all summer and never had a problem and never saw those dogs before. It was like a freak accident I never saw coming. I went upstairs to my lone female guinea pig who was left who was happily eating her food and I just looked at the empty cages beside hers with sorrow. I took her out, and my friend took the top of her cage off and we put her outside with the cage covering her so she could get her turn outside on the grass. We sat there watching her and talking for an hour with no sign of any dogs around anywhere. My mom called animal control to report the dogs but they wouldn’t do anything. They just said to call back if we saw them again. I brought the female back inside and then went for another walk around the neighborhood just talking with my friend trying to feel better. I still can’t believe this happened today and I am not sure what to do next. I may keep the female for now or try and find her a friend and find her another good home and maybe just sell the other cages left. I can’t bear to look at the empty cages. It was such a sad day! RIP Piggies!
White Male
Orange Male
Female we still have
Females who found new home
Looking for rainbow or pink & teal grab bags!
Oh that’s so awful Kim!
So very sorry! Hugs!IN SEARCH OF MY NEXT GRAILS:
Black Peacock & Butternut Adult Poads
Kickstarter 'Rainbow Tiger' Bantam Dragon*~*~*~* Ela_Hara: The DragonKeeper *~*~*~*
*** Come visit me on deviantArt at http://ela-hara.deviantart.comSo sorry that happened to you guinea pigs, Kim. Don’t blame yourself. You had no way of knowing that would happen.
Those poor creatures! I’m so sorry, Kim.
My keyboard is broken. I keep pressing "Escape", but I'm still here.
So sorry.
With regard to the allergies, you wrote, ” After several weeks though of thinking I was sick over the summer, constantly sneezing and coughing, I realized I was actually allergic to the pigs or their hay. I would also get redness and hives if I picked them up and get really itchy. I found it odd because I have always had pets including cats, dogs, guinea pigs and rabbits and was never allergic to any but I was allergic to certain grasses and weeds when I was younger.”
For some reason, allergies can show up when a person is 25-30 years old. I didn’t get hay fever or have allergies to cats until I was about 30.
I’m so sorry Kim. Losing any pet hurts.
I agree with etruscan about the allergies, they can show up at any time in your life to things that have never bothered you before. I hope its not the guinea pigs that you have developed an allergy too!
Looking for:
"COSMIC SHIFT DRAGONS and KI-RINS" and the "OCTOPUS TANUKI TEST PAINT #1"Thanks. I just feel so bad because they would have been so helpless against big or agressive dogs. I was thinking they could have hid behind the composter but the dogs must have chased them out because there was white hair around the corner where they would hide. My mom only noticed the dogs when they were running away as she didn’t even realize I had put the guinea pigs out otherwise she would have been watching them. It just happened so fast that both she and I didn’t know what hit us.
With the guinea pig I have left my allergies don’t seem as bad as I used to just get hives when I picked the males up but their hair was more oily even after I bathed them. It was either that or the hay I am allergic to. The female seems lonely now like she knows the other pigs are gone as she didn’t eat her veggies yesterday and didn’t come out of her house much. I took her out and petted her and let her run in the living room but she didn’t really run around and just sat there. So I might take a look at other female guinea pigs at the human society and see if I can find her a friend, even if it starts out in a separate cage. She is just used to having other pigs in the cages next to her that are now empty.
Looking for rainbow or pink & teal grab bags!
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