I thought it had been a while since you saw my girls so here we are! Chestnut is the brown one and Angel is the white and caramel one. They are both my angels though and I love them to bits. These photos were taken last month, the day after they were bathed – 16th of March. It is the very last photo taken when Angel will be able to see out of her eyes, as now she is completely blind.
They were having treatment for mites at the time, and I was shampooing them a few days after their first lot of treatment at the vets. Although no mites had been found, the vet did see the white flaky skin, like dandruff, that was on Angel’s back, and agreed that was a sign of mites so gave me some medication for it, which I had to drop onto both of their skin the following week. Otherwise, they were, (and are), happy and healthy. They were still jumping around in-between scratches. Angel did start to thrash her head from side-to-side at one point, and she did not seem to be biting at the same time, so I was worried about this. The vet said so long as she does not do that after the mites have gone, she should be fine and it will have been the mites, otherwise it could be a brain issue. Her eyes, heart and teeth, were all checked and fine. Strong heartbeat, which is good. I decided to be positive about this, as I think it was the mites, and I hope not to see her doing that again and that she will be okay in this respect, she is only 1 year and 10 months old. Guinea pigs, naturally do a thing called popcorning when they are happy, and they can twitch and do the most weirdest of movements with their body, but this was different as far as I could tell, and when I said “Angel, what you doing?” She stopped doing it. Here is a video of another person’s guinea pig popcorning and you will see what I mean about weird movements.
And if you want to see more piggy power, check out this amazing video from another guinea pig lover.
I started to write this post before she had her last trip to the vets on 3rd of April, so have updated it before posting. I had notice on Saturday 24th of March, that her eyes had started to become a bit cloudy when my mum had asked how my girls were doing. I thought maybe it was just the light in my room and the reflection of light into it. 6 days later and it was clear that her eyes were not right and I Googled it and it said there could be an infection. However, as she was jumping around her cage, playing and eating and drinking fine, and in no pain and had no eye discharge, it was like there was nothing wrong with her, because her behaviour meant there was nothing wrong. She even jumped up on my arm as usual to take her out for cleaning, so there appeared to be no sight issue. I seemed more concerned than she did.
On Saturday 31st of March, I made an appointment to see the vet on Tuesday 3rd of March, after the Easter weekend. They saw no urgency, as her behaviour was normal. My mum and dad offered to take me and my mum kindly paid for the check-up and treatment as I am currently unemployed from an employed job (still redundant). She was still scratching which was a worry. (The vet was not the usual head vet, as he was away on vacation and she has a further check-up with the head vet very soon, on Thursday 12th of April.) He examined her eyes in a dark room and declared she has cataracts in both eyes and is stone blind. She cannot see anything. I was in shock, my heart heavy and sank to my stomach. It hurt me more than her I think. She is still behaving like there is nothing much wrong with her, which I am very grateful and thankful for. And now I praise her on her beautiful pearl eyes. They take some getting use to as they are like bright white marbles. They don’t operate on cataracts in guinea pigs I was told. I feel upset that my baby girl is less than 2 years old and will never see me with her eyes again. I love her so much and feel like a furry mother in agony. In fact I am shedding tears as I write this to you, but better out than in. People around me, don’t show much emotion sometimes and I am an emotional person, I need to let it out, to feel better. She has finally stopped scratching, as the vet gave her some more mite treatment, after her cataracts diagnosis. Fingers crossed when she sees the head vet on Thursday this week. She is currently munching food as usual.
Until next time, stay quirky and write soon
Sandra xx
Quirky Books 
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