It was a lovely day in Essex yesterday, the piggies were happy in their run. Well actually that's not true. Millie had a very dirty bum and had a brisk bath with lots of fur rubbing to get the stains out, manky girl. Millie was in a very judgey mood drying off in the sun burying herself in hay and not trusting me at all.
At some point in the afternoon when DH had gone food shopping and DD2 was out with a friend, DD1 noticed the problem. More accurately, shrieks of Mum come here there's blood everywhere 
And so there was. Over the grass and lifted up the summer house roof and literally pools of blood and splatterings everywhere. I knew it was either Coco's many medical problems or a fight. We checked the pigs. DD1 picked up Coco last. Her paw was pouring blood.
Next came a mad dash for the first aid box and Coco's foot bath.
We decided to treat her in the garden. Between us we dunked her foot to clean it. DD1 held a piece of gauze on her paw while I got to work with tubular finger bandage. I told Coco she was keeping this bandage on and micro-pore taped it in right up to her arm pit (if guinea pigs have arm pits) I did consider we should shave her fur off first but the next question would have been, who's shaver shall we use? I didn't fancy using my LadyShave on Coco and I knew not to ask DD1. So you can imagine the job we are going to have getting the bandage off again.
The resilience of animals is amazing. Once bandaged up, Coco didn't see any reason not to carry on enjoying the garden 
DD1 sat her on the grass where she started munching as if nothing had happened and can even walk very fast towards the flower beds with it on. Poor DD1 had her hands and feet covered in blood and my hands looked like they had come off the set of a horror movie. We needed a good clean up.
I half didn't expect Coco to survive the blood loss but she is still with us, eating, pooing and peeing. And she kept the bandage on.
The vet is probably a waste of time. Coco had a big scab on her foot which I think she has knocked or nibbled off and that is the cause of the bleeding. Its a shame I thought her feet were getting better as they had scabbed over. Lately she has been walking better on them and they have not been as hot and inflamed feeling.
This reminds me the time DH cut his finger open using my left handed dress making scissors for something in the kitchen. I took him to A&E and they didn't want to take the bandage off as I'd made such a good job of it 
I think I'll take a look at her paw tomorrow and think again.
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Small pets
more Coco drama
fortifiedwithtea · 11/05/2015 10:04
Poor Coco
. Hope she's feeling better today. They are incredibly resilient aren't they? And a small amount of blood can look like a huge amount as well. I've accidentally nicked the quick when clipping a wriggly Scruffy's black claws and I'm always amazed that such a tiny cut can leak so much blood. He's never noticed yet as claw clipping is accompanied by a large chunk of cucumber, so while I'm running round with kitchen roll, water and cornflour, he's in his own little world.
Did Coco remind you that after a large amount of blood loss you're supposed to eat something sweet like apple, melon, strawberries etc? Preferably a very large quantity, just in case of feeling faint. I'm sure she may feel that such treatment should last several days, if not weeks.
Ooh poor Coco Hopefully it is just the scab that has been scraped off somehow.
She sounds like a very good patient, most piggies would've hoiked off the bandage and given the person trying to help them a bite and a judgey look to chastice them 
So she's back to little piggie paw dunking in a tiny cup, and some heavy duty spoiling . Get Well soon Coco.
DD1 and I changed Coco's bandage yesterday. Let me tell you it was a performance with copious amounts of poo dropped on me thanks Coco.
Somehow we did it brilliantly under pressure but made a complete hash of the new dressing.
Had a look at the foot. She has a very hard scab that is so hard, nearby flesh is tearing. She really needs a good long foot spa and Vaseline rub. Coco hates Vaseline 
She doesn't eat it. Its not a nice sensation for them. I've tried it on the other girls as well when their feet look dry. Naughty does her whinging voice. Naughty always has something to say about every situation so I believe her. Vaseline not nice
Woah, Bag Balm is expensive
The not so good bandage stayed on and was covered in something brown when I took it off. I have decided she doesn't need anymore bandages wonder why 
All piggies are making the most of the lovely weather in the run today.
I luffs fluffly bees. I have lots of holes in my lawn where they've popped themselves out. They don't bother stinging unless you really wind them up so Scruffy would be okay but Ginger can be quite irritating. My boys managed to snatch a couple of hours breezy grazing - the forecast is not great here either. I suspect I'll have 3 grumpy boys wandering the kitchen this week - usually it's just Currentbun in there but he'll have to share if the weathers bad.
Good news about Coco having her bandage off. The brown on it - had she been eating chocolate? That's the only thing I can think it could be
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