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Last Updated: 2/28/18
Photos and videos are listed from oldest to newest. Videos include the word video and will take you to You Tube.
From 5/27/11, the day that she arrived.
Abby in the box in which she came
home.
Abby's face
On 5/31/11, I gave her a bath and took these photos right after.
Abby's right side
Abby's rear - it is brown
Abby in Pigtopia - on 6/6/11;
Brownie's behind can also be seen.
Abby and Brownie - on
6/6/11
Abby and Brownie - on 6/14/11
Abby and Brownie - on 6/24/11
Abby on 9/24/11.
Abby on 10/15/11.
Abby hiding in the house, waiting for Avery to come down the ramp for the first time on 11/24/11.
Here are some photos of all three piggies on 11/26/11.
Abby, Brownie, and Avery - left to
right
Abby, Brownie, and Avery - top to
bottom
Abby, Avery, and Brownie - left to
right
Here are all of the guinea pigs on 1/7/12:
Avery (back), Abby (left), and
Brownie (right)
Avery (back), Abby (left), and
Brownie (right)
Abby (left), and Brownie (right)
Guinea pig sliding board video - my guinea pigs sliding down the ramp from their second floor to their first floor some time in February, 2012. They come down in the order of Avery/Lammie, Brownie, and Abby.
Abby (left), Avery (bottom), and Brownie (right) - on 2/28/12
Abby (front) and Brownie (hiding in the back) on 8/2/14.
I ordered two female guinea pigs, one Abyssinian and one teddy. They did not come at the same time. The Abyssinian came first. [The teddy would never come.] I named her Abby (from Abyssinian). She came home on 5/27/11. She cost $34.99. I put her in the bathroom in quarantine. I called the vet, and he could not see her until 5/31/11, and my mother had to take her because I was taking my cat, Gino, to the vet that night.
Abby was mostly white with an off brown head and a spot on her rump of the same color. Her eyes were pink! I had not had a guinea pig with pink eyes before. She was my sixth guinea pig that I had had in my life. Abby was just a weanling, maybe as young as three weeks but perhaps as many as five weeks. I had never had a guinea pig that was so scared before. She was full of energy but just wanted to hide. By the next day, there was no sign that she had eaten or drank anything. I put a ramp under the water bottle because I was afraid she could not reach it. When she would not even eat the best fruits and veggies inside her hiding place with her, I was worried. My mother asked the vet's helpers who just said to puree the food. We syringe fed her some puree but I did not think she actually ate very much. I started to weigh her bowl with the pellets to be able to tell if she ate some or not during the night. I thought Brownie would show her how to eat but I could not put them together until the vet said she was not contagious or harboring parasites. I saw not signs of either. She seemed healthy, just petrified. Time would tell.
Abby went to the vet on 5/31/11. He told my mother she was in good shape. Her weight was 330 grams or 10.6 ounces. She was about four weeks old so her assigned birthday was 5/4/11. She had no ear mites or signs of guinea pig mites or lice. Her teeth were good. Her heart rate was 294 which was normal. Her lungs were normal and clear. She had mild conjunctivitis. He thought she was getting over a cold but I thought she was dehydrated. Once she moved to Pigtopia that night, she started to really drink water. That water bottle was easier to use. I gave Abby a quick bath and nail trim before putting her in Pigtopia. She bit me during the bath so she was not so timid as I thought. I moved her to the upper level of Pigtopia and cable tied up one of the metal shelf pieces to keep the two guinea pigs apart. She started to come out of her shell now that she was in there. She was eating fruits and vegetables, drinking, running around, and doing well. Brownie was not happy though. He was chewing on the bars trying to get in.
From the weights of her bowl, Abby ate 13 g of food on 5/28/11, 24 g on 5/29/11, 35 g on 5/30/11, and 34 g on 5/31/11. I stopped weighing after that.
I put Brownie and Abby together on 6/1/11 in a cage on the ground. Brownie was neutered and not capable of being a father. Still, he humped her, over, and over, and over, and over. She squeaked a little but did not seem to mind. We put them in the cage and let them together. It was constant chasing, squeaking, and humping. My mother said Abby could not take it any more so I separated them again. I had intended to let the pigs together after we got the other girl, Daisy. That way, he could only pester one at a time.
Daisy did not arrive on 6/3/11 at the pet store so I let Brownie and Abby together that night. This time, he was only interested for a short while and soon went back to other piggy things like eating her veggies, turning over houses, and rooting around. It took her a few hours to come down the ramp but then she acted like she had been there all along and knew the place already. They were getting along great! He mostly ignored her and ate her servings of vegetables. Sometimes he put on his "I'm hot" show puffing up his fur and wiggling his butt slightly but he did not make all the noise and strong butt moves that my previous unneutered male guinea pigs did. Abby followed him around like a little puppy sometimes and other times bounced around the cage like Tigger. Brownie hardly made a noise but Abby liked to gurgle a lot but very quietly. I thought they were happy.
As of 6/18/11, Abby was doing great. There were no problems although she did like to nip me when I held her. She also liked to chew the plastic igloo, coroplast, and tape on it.
On 11/19/11, I got another female guinea pig, a texel named Avery (I call her Lammie). We shall see what Abby thinks since she rules Pigtopia. Go to Avery's page to read about how they did together.
I took all the pigs to the vet on 6/23/16 for check ups. [Note added 1/2/18 when putting these notes in the past tense: I am pretty sure this was not the first ever check up for Abby! It is just the first one I recorderd on her web page.] Abby was at 919 grams. Her only problem was that she had more eye goop than she should. I would give her ofloxacin eye drops for a week to see if that cleared it up.
On 4/15/17, I was cleaning the guinea pig cage and grooming the guinea pigs which I do once a month. I trim their nails, brush them, use eye wipes on their eyes, use ear wipes in their ears, check them for lumps, etc. When I picked up Abby to groom her, she sneezed blood all over. There was a LOT of blood coming from her nose. I thought she was dying on the spot! I could hear some aspiration of blood, or so I thought. I put her back without grooming her and thought she might not survive for long. Well, I guess it was just a nose bleed because, a week later, and she was fine. She wiped the blood off her face with her paws and was back to normal the next morning. Very strange and scary!
On 5/13/17, exactly four weeks after the above nose bleed, Abby had another nose bleed right after I groomed her. The stress of the grooming must have brought it on. Just like last time, there was a lot of blood but it stopped within a few minutes. I am afraid she probably had some kind of growth in her nose or close to it. Since she was more than six years old, she was already considered old so investing a lot of time in to trying to find and potentially treat the problem which was most likely fatal regardless seemed like it would just cause Abby and I more stress, time, and money than it was worth. Nonetheless, the pigs were due soon for checkups so I would ask the vet.
Abby went to the vet with Brownie and Lammie on 6/22/17 for a check up. Her weight was about the same at 909 grams. I told the vet all about her nose bleeds. He said Abby might have a tumor or cyst up her nose or in her system somewhere such that it bled out her nose. A few drops of blood came out while at the vet even. The vet said there is only one vet school in PA where they even have a cauterizing probe small enough to go up a guinea pig's nose to burn the damaged tissue to stop a bleed. He had no tools that can look up her nose and doing so would cause it to bleed. Due to her advanced age of six, and the locations and costs of any treatment, he was basically not going to do anything about it which was what I figured. Her eyes were a little goopy but the vet thought they were good and did not prescribe any eye drops.
While Abby had those two bad nose bleeds in April and May, she remained pretty stable until early December when she started to bleed from her privates, probably her rectum. It was bright, red blood. I can only assume that cancer spread to her intestines but, whatever it was, she became more and more lethargic and lost weight. She died around 5:30 pm on 12/9/17 at the age of 6 years, 7 months. I put her web site in the past tense on 1/2/18. Good bye, Abby. ;-(
It was such a cold winter that I did not get around to burying Abby until 2/25/18!
Go to Pigtopia for photos and information on Abby's home.
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