Guinea_Piggin
Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2007
- Posts
- 221
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2007
- Messages
- 221
While doing clincals for my Nurse's Assistant training, we were in a nursing home and in the lobby on our floor they had a guinea pig, an orange aby female (with a white bum)named Nikki. Unfortunately, the day I got there, the cage and pig were a mess. Poor piggy has super long nails and a bald patch of fur on her back. The cage, along with being a too small pet store cage, was quite rank, and there was only a bit of hay. I didn't get a chance to say anything to the staff before leaving, but on my way out noticed the activities board "3pm - Guinea pig time". So I figured I'd wait and see what they did by the next morning before reporting them. Have to give the home/staff a chance.
Coming in on day 2 (and day 3 for that matter), I was VERY surprised! We got to the lobby and Nikki had fresh bedding, fresh hay, a full bowl of food, and a fresh full water bottle (w/o vitamin c drops!). Her nails were still a bit long, but I was happy to see the improvement in the cage. While it's still too small, it's good to see that the lapse in cleaning was only temporary.
Later on during day 2, activities had a massage/relaxation session in the lobby, and they had taken the pig out for the "of sound mind" (ie: gentle, completely lucid, no fall risk) residents to hold and pet. I had a quiet moment while my resident was in this group so I sat and watched for a bit. At the end of the session, one of the activities ladies went to put Nikki back and noticed I had taken an interest in the little fur ball. We got to talking, and as it turns out not only does Nikki have a proper vet (yay!) but they also have the guinea lynx handbook for her vet records and care information.
After talking to the activities lady, she let me hold Nikki, I got some information on Nikki's care. Turns out they adopted Nikki, so not a pet store pig, around Christmas last year for a nice lap animal for the residents to cuddle. The bald spot is from mites they'd just finished treating (she showed me the tube of topical ivermectin the vet gave them) in the last week. And mentioned that they normally clean the cage daily, but they had an incident on the floor on Monday (not involving the pig) and never got a chance to clean the cage. I casually mentioned that Nikki's nails looked rather long and that they should probably get trimmed. Lady looked, was rather amazed that they had been allowed to get that long, promised she'd take care of them by tomorrow.
I observed the resident's interactions with Nikki, and they are very calm and gentle with her. Cuddling her, and laughing when she'd sniff the air and give them piggy kisses on their neck. lol She even fell asleep on one gentleman's lap!
Day 3, my last day at the nursing home, I checked on Nikki and she had a clean cage again. Full water, hay and food, and even had her nails trimmed! If they hadn't done anything by now, I was going to do something about it. I was so glad to see the huge turn-around/improvement. Despite the smallish cage, which I found out they don't have the C&C due to space and a resident dog and cat on the floor. Not the best for the pig, but I must admit I'm glad to see they're taking precautions for Nikki's safety.
Coming in on day 2 (and day 3 for that matter), I was VERY surprised! We got to the lobby and Nikki had fresh bedding, fresh hay, a full bowl of food, and a fresh full water bottle (w/o vitamin c drops!). Her nails were still a bit long, but I was happy to see the improvement in the cage. While it's still too small, it's good to see that the lapse in cleaning was only temporary.
Later on during day 2, activities had a massage/relaxation session in the lobby, and they had taken the pig out for the "of sound mind" (ie: gentle, completely lucid, no fall risk) residents to hold and pet. I had a quiet moment while my resident was in this group so I sat and watched for a bit. At the end of the session, one of the activities ladies went to put Nikki back and noticed I had taken an interest in the little fur ball. We got to talking, and as it turns out not only does Nikki have a proper vet (yay!) but they also have the guinea lynx handbook for her vet records and care information.
After talking to the activities lady, she let me hold Nikki, I got some information on Nikki's care. Turns out they adopted Nikki, so not a pet store pig, around Christmas last year for a nice lap animal for the residents to cuddle. The bald spot is from mites they'd just finished treating (she showed me the tube of topical ivermectin the vet gave them) in the last week. And mentioned that they normally clean the cage daily, but they had an incident on the floor on Monday (not involving the pig) and never got a chance to clean the cage. I casually mentioned that Nikki's nails looked rather long and that they should probably get trimmed. Lady looked, was rather amazed that they had been allowed to get that long, promised she'd take care of them by tomorrow.
I observed the resident's interactions with Nikki, and they are very calm and gentle with her. Cuddling her, and laughing when she'd sniff the air and give them piggy kisses on their neck. lol She even fell asleep on one gentleman's lap!
Day 3, my last day at the nursing home, I checked on Nikki and she had a clean cage again. Full water, hay and food, and even had her nails trimmed! If they hadn't done anything by now, I was going to do something about it. I was so glad to see the huge turn-around/improvement. Despite the smallish cage, which I found out they don't have the C&C due to space and a resident dog and cat on the floor. Not the best for the pig, but I must admit I'm glad to see they're taking precautions for Nikki's safety.
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we visit her everyday after school or during the summer we take her out to lunch every day and we bring my dog shadow in to see her every weekend and she loves it and so do the other residents. It makes their day, ecspecailly because the dog who used to live there with them was put to sleep because of cancer. I never really thought of bringing my pigs for her to see but its an Alzheimer's home, so they problemly wouldnt be safe.
