Yesterday morning we dropped Milo off around 7:45am at the vet. He was there for a little over 5 hours for his castration. He came home wearing an Elizabethan collar or "cone of shame." He hates that thing! We tried making him one using a pool noodle, but it turned out the pool noodles we have at home aren't quite large enough to work for that purpose. We are going to try and buy a larger pool noodle tomorrow. He's not allowed to run or jump for two weeks, and the collar is to prevent him from licking the surgical site. Yesterday the poor guy was just miserable. If we are holding him or he's sitting next to me on the couch, we can take off the collar if I make sure he doesn't lick himself, but yesterday he just didn't want to stay on the couch. I don't think he consumed very much of the pain pill I tried to give him last night so this morning I covered his pills in peanut butter, which did the trick. The poor guy cried and kept Ian awake until 12:30am. For his sake and also Ian and Nadia's sakes, I hope he doesn't cry as much tonight. I was so tired that I slept right through it except for the one time Ian came into my bedroom around 11:30pm holding Milo and asking what he should do with him. I didn't see Paul at all yesterday, but I figured he was at home at that point so I asked Ian to ask Daddy about it since Daddy wasn't asleep.
When I went it to check him at 7:30am, he was in the crate, but he wasn't wearing his collar. Sometime during the night he managed to get it off, and Milo was licking himself when I opened Ian's bedroom door. Today he spent a lot more time in my arms or beside me on the couch, but he did have to spend some time in the crate with the "cone" on when he wouldn't stay on the couch. Of course there is no way to communicate to him that he can't be active for two weeks. I cannot wait until these two weeks are over. We also got him microchipped yesterday plus paid for lifetime dog registration with the state of PA. Altogether we spent about $500 on him over the past week at the vet. Back in January I thought I had selected one heartworm medication and one for flea/tick prevention. Well it turned out I picked two different heartworm medications although the one does have some flea prevention in it. The vet had approved the prescriptions back in January. I wish they had noticed my error then. They recommended two different oral medications for flea/tick prevention that cost about $200 a year or one specific flea/tick collar. I chose the collar since it was $60 for 8 months. Hopefully it will do the trick. I had to remove a few ticks from him last month. Thankfully I had a PetSmart gift card so the flea/tick collar didn't actually cost us any money. Here's to hoping and praying that after he recovers from his surgery his desire to mark his territory will be far less.
Nadia started a little photoshoot of our three guinea pigs yesterday, and after she took quite a few pictures, she asked me to take some more. I will say this is one advantage of guinea pigs - no need for neutering or spaying them since we have three females. We don't have to worry about them having babies, and they have no issues with marking their territory. They occasionally poop when they are out of the cage, but their pellets are dry. They only pee in their cage, thankfully! Buttercup and Peppa are about 14 months old, and Jenna is 4.5 years old. Peppa is the largest of the three. Owning four guinea pigs over the past 4+ years has been FAR, FAR, FAR cheaper than owning a dog for four months. We do love Milo very much. The kids and I really missed him during the hours he was at the vet yesterday.
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| Photo credit - Nadia |
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