Eric J. Gruber

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed one of our Guinea pigs, Butterscotch, was acting a little strange.

I couldn’t tell if it was when he was pooping or peeing, but sometime during the waste elimination process he would let out a kind of “yelp!” He would then sit still for a few seconds, then proceed on with his typical Guinea pig duties (sleeping, eating and pooping).

I kind of thought it was going away, but Monday evening, the noise was worse than it had been. Tuesday evening, he went to the vet and I signed him up for an overnight stay to be checked out Wednesday morning. Then we got the call: he had a stone in his bladder and they had to do surgery to get it out. Of course, we instructed them to proceed. The picture shows the stone in the doctor’s hand. Look at the size of that thing; it’s about the size of a large marble! Holy crap.

Apparently this was caused by a bacterial infection, and shouldn’t be a chronic condition. I saw Butterscotch after the surgery yesterday during my lunch break. Thankfully, he was alive and looked good. He was, however, a tad bit out of it. Drugs tend to do that to 3 lbs. furballs.

To recap, here are some lessons learned:

• If your pet is acting funny, trust your gut and get it checked out.
• Don’t run out and spend your economic stimulus check. Instead, put it in savings, you never know when you’re going to need it.
• Don’t beat yourself up about not acting sooner. Even if its eating you up inside.

Hopefully, he’ll be coming home today. That’s good news, since his buddy, Espresso, misses him terribly. He’s been pretty emo the last couple of days.

I know how he feels.