Edmund Hillary Ridgeback's Page

"Ned" Edmund Hillary Ridgeback 6/1/02-6/15/03

After Harry died in February, I wanted to get a cagemate for Bleys. While I was at Mary's house (Cavy Companions Rescue) I fell in love with a little texel girl named Willow. We decided to bring Bleys over to see if he and Willow would get along. The day before the introduction, Mary called to ask if I had checked with the local Humane Society to see if they had any pigs. I hadn't and when I did, lo and behold they had an adorable, young, golden agouti boy. This was Ned. Mary offered to "exchange" him for Willow if she and Bleys got along. Well, let's just say that I was in love within minutes and couldn't let him go. So after visiting with Mary, we brought both Ned and Willow home.

Ned was a partial(?) abby -- two whorls on his back and a pomp of hair at his forhead. He kinda had an Elvis 'do, so the shelter had named him Elvis. He was a very sweet, energetic, loving boy who was curious about anything and everything. He climbed everywhere, so I decided to name him Edmund Hillary Ridgeback (Ned for short). Somewhat coincidentally, Ned was also Mary's father's name. I thought this was a fitting tribute as Mary has done so much for pigs (and me).

Ned was only about a year old when he died. He had only been with us for four months. At the end of March, he stopped eating his pellets, but was still excited about veggies, hay, and vitamins. He quickly gained about a pound and started acting a bit lethargic. I started him on Baytril and made an appt at the vets. The night before his vet appointment, I noticed that his penis was "missing". After working gently to extrude it, I discovered a bunch of debris around it. After I cleaned him off and cleaned out his bum (his poos were soft for lack of pellets) he pee'd everywhere. He was like a fountain!!

At the vet's we couldn't find any particular reason for his illness. The only thing that seemed wrong was a thick (1/4 inch ish) layer of fat from his chin to his bum. Well, we stopped the antibiotics a couple of days later hoping that his appetite would return. Amazingly, in that time the "fat" disappeared. All I could think was that the penis debris was blocking him from pee'ing and he had retained all that fluid in his underside.

He never really got his appetite for pellets back, but was acting normal again. I was keeping an eye on him, but all seemed fine. Well, early morning on June 11, I woke up hearing him "hooting" like he was having trouble breathing. I started him on the Baytril again and syringed him Pedialyte. By Thursday morning, he was developing a lump under his chin. The lump felt like a large cyst. I made a vet appointment for as soon as I could. (Between the vet's schedule and my weekend plans that I couldn't cancel we settled on Monday afternoon.) Friday the lump had grown and was starting to come down between his front legs. I was thinking that it was a recurrence of the fluid retention, but there wasn't any blockage and he was pee'ing well.

That Friday I managed to get him back on his pellets (I had to hand feed them to him one by one) and his poo's started to return to normal. The hooting was gone. He was in good spirits and seemed fine except for the lump which was still there along his throat to a point between his front legs. I continued with my Saturday plans (a long day 2.5 hours away with my folks and a girl I'm mentoring). When I got home Saturday night (11:30pm) he was still doing well. He begged for dinner and was in great spirits. Poo'ing, pee'ing, and acting like a normal pig. The lump was still there.

As I was house/cat sitting for a friend, I left to spend the night at that house. I didn't get back to my house until about 1pm (which it is not too unusual for me to get up that late on a weekend, so I wasn't too worried about the babies "starving"). When I got in Ned was curled up in his house dead. His body was cold and he looked peaceful. I think he went quietly in his sleep. There were no signs of "death throws" so I'm certain he wasn't in pain.

Although I know that I did what I could, I of course feel guilty. Not only was I not there when he died, but I feel cursed. To have three babies die so closely together makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong. They have all died of different causes and of things that I couldn't prevent, but my heart still feels like I'm a bad mother.

When we got the post mortem results, it turned out that it was a congenital defect in both kidneys. It makes me so mad to think about how all three of my babies who have just died were struck by congenital problems. They were all rescues, so I'm guessing that they were not "well bred". If only we could eliminate the overpopulation problem so that we can conservatively breed healthy, happy furbabies!

Although we only had a short time together, I will always love and remember my little Neddy Bear.

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