Guinea is gone

[nancyo]

It is with a heavy heart that I write this as Guinea passed away sometime this afternoon. I am in tears. Guinea had the sweetest disposition and I will miss his happy face and his begging for food. He was almost 6 years old. I took my daughter to her horse lesson and when I came home I got Guinea's meds ready. I came into the room and there he was - gone. I think his frail body just gave out. Just a few hours before he was eating pellets and nibbling on a bag. Poor guy.

Rest in peace my sweet boy. We will miss you always. Run free now with your buddy Oreo.

[camende]

I am very very sorry!

It sounds like Guinea was well loved and taken care of. Its so not fair when we loose them.

[cali2]

You did your best. Now it's time for Guinea to run and play on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge. Take care.

[nancyo]

Thank you - it's going to be strange since Guinea was part our family since a wee little guy. His cagemate Brownie (he is alone now) seems to be okay. Brownie will be our last pig. Hubby is allergic to the hay and well quite frankly I've had too much heartache with these guys. Both pigs that I lost had reoccurring stones. I'm going to try all I can to keep Brownie stone free, but I worry it will happen to him down the road too.

Nancy

[cali2]

Any chance that your water source might be a contributing factor?

[nancyo]

Possibly. I've been around and around with that one (Sef will attest to that). My water is hard, but it runs through a water softener using potassium choloride. It is then run through the zero water pitcher which is suppose to remove most of the cruddies and I have a water meter measuring dissolved solids to check that. I switched to bottled water for a bit - made no difference - Guinea still got a stone. Truthfully, I think it was caused by the pellets. I won't name them, but many here know which ones I'm talking about (not KM's).

Nancy

[bugsmom]

I'm so very sorry about Guinea. He was certainly much loved and I'm sure knew it. Rest well sweet boy.

The on-going stone debate. If only it was something as simple as changing their water but probably not.

Hugs to you and your family.

[Sef]

Oh no, Nancy! I'm so, so deeply sorry. I don't really even know what to say. You absolutely did your very best with this little guy; some things are just out of our hands despite all of our efforts.

I wish you lived here, so I could give you a big hug "in person." This isn't the same thing, but hopefully you know the feeling behind it: {{Love & hug to you, my friend}}

Sandy

[nancyo]

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I'm better than last night. Brownie seems to have become a bit friendlier . It's strange not seeing Guinea stuffing his little face in the cage, but at least he is with Oreo now. I'm going to bury Guinea next to Oreo in our backyard.

RIP sweet boys.

Thank you to everyone for all the support and information. Maybe if I had gotten Guinea on the albon/flagyl combo sooner things would have been different, but I'm not going to second guess myself.

Nancy

[sabrina]

I'm so sorry, Nancy.

I hate stones so much and I wish we knew more.

[Paula]

Damn. I'm so sorry Nancy. It's always so hard.

Don't second guess yourself, you did what was best for him and I'm sure he knew that.

I'm very sorry.

[brendab]

Oh No! I came for an update and was so sad to read this nancy!

6 is a good ripe age and you did everything you could. He was truly loved.

[nancyo]

Thanks again everyone!!!

Nancy

[vanillapooh1979]

I am so sorry Nancy! I just now saw this post.