stray hares
Cavy Star, Photo Contest Winner
Cavy Slave
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2012
- Posts
- 397
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2012
- Messages
- 397
Hello, hello, long time no post. I thought I would kindly reintroduce myself, also because I don't think I ever did an introduction post here previously, so, two pigs with one cuddle sack I guess...
My name is Jessica and I used to run a very small piggy rescue but the stress became overwhelming and a little too much (more the people side of things than the pigs! But also there's a lot of sadness and grief involved, and that takes its toll). I work as a diagnostic medical scientist here in Brisbane, Australia, currently in the field of human genetics, but I am toying with the idea of moving to general veterinary diagnostics... it's just a strange time to be changing fields, so I might think on that some more.
I work really closely with my very awesome exotic vets and I (unfortunately) have experience with a lot of weird piggy illnesses. Over many years and many, many pigs I've only dealt with one bladder stone for instance, but then have also seen a guinea pig who vomits due to a stomach tumour, guinea pigs with infectious bladder diseases that have never been seen the species before (but has been seen in sheep??), and guinea pigs with highly unusual congenital issues. I think it comes as a package deal with rescue, but also because I am extremely diagnostic and research focused, I will nearly always ask for post mortem and pathology testing for strange piggy losses. I think it can help future pigs if the vets can learn from weird cases (and I know for a fact that some of my piggies have changed how my vets deal with guinea pigs with similar illnesses, and their cases have been presented at conferences so I like to think they've helped piggies Australia-wide too).
Phew! I currently have 17 (which is a lot for most people, but it's actually the lowest piggy numbers have been for years, ha) piggies, ranging in ages from a few months (my most recent rescues... rescue is a hard habit to break cold turkey, okay? Haha, ah) to nearly 7. I lost a lot of my really old piglets this year, which was devastating because many of them had been with me for many, many years, and partially why I needed to tone down the rescue side of things because this year has been... a year. For many reasons.
I have a pretty broad knowledge of all things piggy, but am particularly focused on the strategies of capturing dumped and abadoned guinea pigs (no, really), and have some hopefully useful knowledge on many medical issues, pregnancy and difficult labours, handrearing pups, palliative care, genetics, and just the general "science of guinea pigs"... all with a crazy animal person, vegan, animals rights, rescue focus.
Hi!
My name is Jessica and I used to run a very small piggy rescue but the stress became overwhelming and a little too much (more the people side of things than the pigs! But also there's a lot of sadness and grief involved, and that takes its toll). I work as a diagnostic medical scientist here in Brisbane, Australia, currently in the field of human genetics, but I am toying with the idea of moving to general veterinary diagnostics... it's just a strange time to be changing fields, so I might think on that some more.
I work really closely with my very awesome exotic vets and I (unfortunately) have experience with a lot of weird piggy illnesses. Over many years and many, many pigs I've only dealt with one bladder stone for instance, but then have also seen a guinea pig who vomits due to a stomach tumour, guinea pigs with infectious bladder diseases that have never been seen the species before (but has been seen in sheep??), and guinea pigs with highly unusual congenital issues. I think it comes as a package deal with rescue, but also because I am extremely diagnostic and research focused, I will nearly always ask for post mortem and pathology testing for strange piggy losses. I think it can help future pigs if the vets can learn from weird cases (and I know for a fact that some of my piggies have changed how my vets deal with guinea pigs with similar illnesses, and their cases have been presented at conferences so I like to think they've helped piggies Australia-wide too).
Phew! I currently have 17 (which is a lot for most people, but it's actually the lowest piggy numbers have been for years, ha) piggies, ranging in ages from a few months (my most recent rescues... rescue is a hard habit to break cold turkey, okay? Haha, ah) to nearly 7. I lost a lot of my really old piglets this year, which was devastating because many of them had been with me for many, many years, and partially why I needed to tone down the rescue side of things because this year has been... a year. For many reasons.
I have a pretty broad knowledge of all things piggy, but am particularly focused on the strategies of capturing dumped and abadoned guinea pigs (no, really), and have some hopefully useful knowledge on many medical issues, pregnancy and difficult labours, handrearing pups, palliative care, genetics, and just the general "science of guinea pigs"... all with a crazy animal person, vegan, animals rights, rescue focus.
Hi!