Automatic Pet Feeder using Arduino

We've had several posts in the past talking about various issues related to humans needing to travel. Examples: Should you try to fly with your human? Should you take a car trip with your human? Should your human leave you at home and try to find someone to take care of you? For those humans who are only going on a short trip and have strong technical skills, we have another option to share with you involving using an Arduino to feed us.

For those who have never heard of it, Arduino is: "Open-source electronic prototyping platform enabling users to create interactive electronic objects." People have put them to use on cool projects such as security cameras, "smart canes" for the blind, fingerprint scanning garage door openers, and hacking talking teddy bears to make them say what you want. It was only a matter of time before an enterprising guinea pig owner put this technology to work for us!

For more details, see here: "Arduino - Guinea Pig automatic food and water dispenser by Studvio."

Our humans have experimented a little with a similar device called a Raspberry Pi, but making something like this is a bit beyond them for now. If any of our readers actually have made something like this, let us know in the comments section!

(Again, we want to emphasize that this should only be used for very short trips. You wouldn't want to risk your guinea pig going without food for too long if the power goes out or the device malfunctions! In fact, we'd probably recommend that if you're going to rely on something like this, you may also want to set up a webcam to monitor the guinea pig cage for these sorts of emergencies.)

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to All Our Piggie Friends!

Happy holidays, everyone! Thank you for being loyal readers following all our piggie adventures, and sharing your adventures with us in the comments section.

We hope you and your families (both furry and human) enjoy the holiday season and have a fabulous 2017!

Cavy Savvy 500th Post Celebration!

Guess what, loyal readers? This post is our 500th Cavy Savvy post! That's a whole lot of food reviews, product reviews, questions answered, and other guinea pig information. We like to commemorate milestones like this, but it's a little bittersweet this time since the blog founders Lola (1) and Buffy aren't with us to celebrate this time around. But I'm sure they're still avidly reading our latest posts from the Rainbow Bridge, happy to see that what they built still endures.

Time to celebrate!

Looks like romaine lettuce, apple, and orange pepper!

I claim the orange pepper!

Hey Lola... We did it! 500 posts!

Here's to hundreds more!

Can guinea pigs eat red carrots?

Long-time readers of this blog may know that carrots come in colors other than just orange, including white and and purple. To get in the Christmas mood, we're reviewing a food that's Christmas-colored: red carrots. This particular variety is known as "nutri-red," and it is known to be very high in lycopene, an antioxidant found in tomatoes and known to have heath benefits for humans. Red carrots are originally from India and China.

Like all carrots, you can feed us the equivalent of one baby carrot per day.

They're not super red. More like a reddish-orange.

But they sure taste like carrots!

Mmm... Carrots!

We have yet to meet a carrot that we didn't love! Red carrots get 5/5 stars!

Product Review: Carefresh Colorful Creations, Orange

Hi there, loyal readers! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your humans. (If you're in the United States, anyway. I know we have international readers as well who might not celebrate.) Thanksgiving is a good time for guinea pigs. We aren't carnivores, so we have no interest in turkey, but there are lots of fruits and veggies that humans often cook that we can eat: butternut squash, green beans, cranberries, and  so on. Make sure you wheek as loud as you can if you your humans aren't giving you some food you're allowed to have! They mean well, but they sometimes get too wrapped up in their own business and need a little reminder that we love food, too!

After all that Thanksgiving feasting, you'll need a nice place to lounge around, digest, and eventually do your business. That's when you'll appreciate having quality bedding in your cage. Which brings us to today's product review: Orange Carefresh Colorful Creations.

It's so orange.

Looks inviting in the little cage. And I think it will match my patches of tan fur.

Here's the description for this product :

"Carefresh Colorful Creations Small Animal Bedding allows you to create a fun and vibrant living space for your small pet while keeping him comfortable and dry. This colorful bedding made from natural paper fibers can match your room decor, show your favorite team's colors, or allow you to come up with a creative design of your own. However you choose to use it, you will create a unique and aesthetically pleasing atmosphere for your small pet to live in."

We have reviewed several types of Carefresh bedding products before, including ones whose main selling point was their color. As with the other Carefresh colorful beddings, the bedding itself works great, and it looks fun:

Time to dive in and test it.

Also, it's quite comfortable to lounge around on. However, bright orange isn't a very good color for hiding the evidence of your Thanksgiving overindulgence, if you catch my drift.

We'll give Carefresh Colorful Creations, Orange 4.5/5 stars!

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Honeynut Squash?

Why, hello there, fine Cavy Savvy readers! The humans were out of town for a bit, which meant we were also on vacation at the vet for boarding. The accommodations are nice, and it puts our minds at ease (in light of Broccoli's recent medical issues) to know that we have great veterinarians watching over us. Unfortunately, no one bothered to share the WiFi password with us there, so we weren't able to post anything.

We're back now! And, we have a new squash to review for you: Butternut Squash!

$1.50... Is that a lot of that money stuff or not? I don't know, but I think you should buy it!

If your human isn't already visiting their local farmer's market, you should encourage them to do so. They're a great source of new fruits and veggies to try!

So what is a Honeynut Squash anyway? We looked it up, and it turns out that Honeynut Squash is a variety of Butternut Squash that is crossed with buttercup squash. It turns out that a plant breeder at Cornell University created this new variety, which "fits in the palm of your hand and has about ten times the sweetness and squash flavor of the workaday butternut."

As with regular butternut squash, we can eat this 2-4 times per week, and shouldn't be fed the stalk, seeds or stem. Since this variety is bred to be sweeter than regular butternut squash, you should probably feed it to us less often (say, 2 times per week).

I'm willing to share, but please stay on your side of the plate, Broccoli!

Hey! This is clearly not respecting the boundaries I established! Food in my mouth is clearly not on your side of the plate!

After an initial feeding frenzy, Broccoli got bored for a bit and wandered off. But then he came back when he saw he was running out of time to eat more squash.

Walking onto the plate isn't very respectful of boundaries, either! You're really not good at following instructions. Please work on that!

I found Honeynut Squash to be a delightfully sweet variety of squash. Broccoli was a bit all over the map, however. First he wanted to eat it out of my mouth, then he was bored, and then he tries to take over the plate by sitting on it! I think our opinion of honeynut squash averages out to 4/5 stars!

Update on Broccoli, the Guinea Pig with the Eye Problem

Hi readers, I've got some good news to share: the vet called about Broccoli's surgery, which was scheduled to take place earlier this week. Apparently all of the positive thoughts that readers like you sent his way really helped, because the vet called off the surgery. Broccoli is doing so much better than expected that she thinks it may be possible to treat him with medication for a bit and see how he does on that alone.

Now, he may still need surgery in the future, but for now he is doing well, is eating on his own, and can be weened off of the Critical Care so long as his weight continues to be up. He's a brave one that Broccoli!

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Atlas Carrots?

The humans have decided to try something called "Blue Apron" recently. In exchange for some of that money stuff they care so much about, a box shows up once a week with ingredients and recipes. While we can't eat a lot of this human food, this has been good news for us because it has meant that some new fruits and veggies have shown up at our door.

When we heard that a new type of carrot had arrived in the Blue Apron box, we had to wheek loudly until the humans agreed to let us review it. The carrot is called an Atlas Carrot, and it is no ordinary carrot. Here's how the Territorial Seed Company describes these things: "An out-of-this-world planet or Parisian Market-type carrot, Atlas has a delightful globe shape with a sweet flavor and dainty crunch." That's right, a round carrot! Can you believe it?

That's a carrot? Not an orange pepper?

Like all carrots, we can eat atlas carrots almost daily, but no more than the equivalent of 1 baby carrot at a time. We recommend having your humans cut your carrots into thin slices. That way, it will seem like you've got more to eat!

Broccoli, smell that for me. Are you sure it's carrot?

He seems sure, but let me give it a quick sniff to be sure.

Yes, that's definitely carrot! Yum!

Atlas carrots taste like regular carrots, but have a fun shape. We give atlas carrots 5/5 stars!

Guinea Pig has Puffy Eye

Hello there, fine readers. It's Lola (2) here, and I wanted to give you all some news on Broccoli's health. Unfortunately, he has been feeling sick lately, so the humans took him to the vet a few days ago. His weight was down, which is a strong indicator that something is amiss. The humans noticed that the tooth he broke off a few weeks ago hadn't been regrowing as it should, and figured this all probably had something to do with tooth pain.

The vet told them that there's something wrong with his eye, but they're not sure exactly what yet.
They had him sedated and x-rayed, and the good news is it isn't related to his bones, but they are concerned that there may be an abscess or tumor in the area behind his eye.

They are giving him pain medicine this week, and supplementing his feeding with Critical Care to get his weight back up. He's going in for surgery next week. They are hopeful that they can clear the abscess, but there are a couple of concerns. First is that he's an older pig and surgery is always risky.
The second concern is that when they go in, it could turn out to be a tumor and not an abscess, which would be very bad because it's harder to treat. Also, they are hoping it does not come to this, but if the damage is to his eye, he may have to have it removed! Poor Broccoli! However, they think it probably won't come to that. (Still, feel free to send positive thoughts in his direction!)

Broccoli is getting plenty of rest before his surgery next week.

There is a chance he can fully recover from this. We will know more after the surgery, but we are very hopeful. And he's hanging in there and is very good about taking his medicine. In the meantime, I'm doing my best to be a good cage mate to him as he builds up his strength. Stay brave, lion-pig!

Announcing the Winner of Our 2016 Halloween Giveaway

We used a random number generator to choose the winner of our 2016 Halloween giveaway, and the winner is ...

RANDI COOK!

Congratulations, Randi! You just won a guinea pig mask from Archie McPhee! Please send us an email in the next 30 days with your mailing address to cavysavvyaguineapigblog@gmail.com and we will mail you your prize.

Thanks to everyone who entered! If you didn't win this time, just remember that there's always next time.

Cavy Savvy 2016 Halloween Giveaway!

Regular readers probably saw our recent post on the Pokemon costumes from Cuddly Cavy Creations. We looked amazing, but did not enjoy getting them on. We figure that turnabout is fair play, so it's about time that we get humans to wear costumes of our choosing!

And we have just the costume in mind. This is a guinea pig mask from Archie McPhee :

Put it on, human! You'd look much better as a guinea pig!

We were thinking we'd just put this on the humans for cute pictures and post it, but then we had a better idea: make it a Halloween giveaway! We haven't done a giveaway in some time, so I think we're overdue.

Here are the giveaway rules:

• You must be a resident of the continental United States.
• You have to be a follower of this blog. To follow us, just click the "join this site" button on the right.
• To enter, leave a comment on this blog post expressing your interest in participating in the contest.
• All entries must be received by October 15th, 2016 at 12:00 pm (US Eastern time) to be eligible.
• One winner will be chosen at random from all eligible entries and announced on this blog on October 15th sometime after the giveaway closes.
• The winner will be instructed to email us to provide us with a mailing address to send the prize to. Winners must provide us with a mailing address within 30 days to receive their prize. (We'd recommend replying ASAP to get it in time for Halloween.)

Good luck!

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Sweet Dumpling Squash?

The first official day of fall just happened earlier this week. We like the fall for a few reasons. First, the temperature drops closer to the ideal range for guinea pigs (at least in our area it does--can't speak for all the readers out there who might leave in really hot or cold places). And second, it means that the humans tend to find new squash for us to try, which we tend to like. And, right on cue, the humans brought home a new one!

The humans saw this at the farmer's market and thought of us. We got them trained well!  

As it turns, out, Dumpling Squash is also known as Sweet Dumpling Squash, and it's supposed to have "sweet, tender orange flesh." Well then, what are you waiting for, humans? Cut it open and let us try it!

Hurry up! Clean out the gunky stuff!

We can have winter squash like Sweet Dumpling Squash 2-4 times per week. As with other squash, just feed us the flesh--no seeds, stringy parts, skin, or stems.

Broccoli, I sure hope you wouldn't mind staying on your side. I believe that's a perfectly fair way to share the squash.

Hey! You're now on both sides! That wasn't our agreement!

The squash was delightful, even if Broccoli's manners were not quite at that level. We give Sweet Dumpling Squash 5/5 stars!

Product Review: Cuddy Cavies Creations Pokemon Go Costumes

Longtime readers might remember several years back when Lola (1) and Buffy entered a costume contest with costumes from Cuddly Cavies Creations, and won second place. With Halloween just around the corner, the humans decided that it might be nice to get us some new costumes. We don't really get why Halloween is so exciting to humans, but sometimes you just have to play along for their sake. I suppose Buffy and Lola (1) did look great in their costumes. But if the humans really want us to get excited about Halloween, they should give us some treats that we're allowed to eat, like pumpkin.

Anyway, Cuddly Cavies Creations has some new Pokemon costumes that I think a lot of humans will go crazy for. Have you heard about this Pokemon Go craze? It's apparently some big thing where humans will stand around on street corners, staring at their phones and trying to find and catch little creatures by throwing special balls at them. Humans, if we agree to put on these Pokemon costumes, you better not throw anything at us! Deal?

And some fussing (and biting), the humans got us into the costumes:

Top: I'm looking "hot" in my "Charmander-pig" costume! Bottom: Lola's looking adorable in her "Pig-achu" costume.

Costumes are no fun to put on. I'm a bit more relaxed about it, but Lola ended up getting a little nippy. We recommend that you have two humans put on the costumes; one who can support our feet, while the other can snap closed the Velcro. Also, make sure you listen to your guinea pig. If it seems like your guinea pig is getting too stressed out, give up on putting on the costume. It's not worth upsetting us over a few cute pictures.

Despite our complaints about having costumes put on us, we have to admit that we looked great once they're on. We give these costumes 5/5 stars!

More Celebrities with Guinea Pigs

We did a post on celebrities with guinea pigs last month, and asked readers to let us know in the comments section of they knew of any others. Piggyfriends obliged, and pointed out: "Queen Elizabeth 1st. of England ( 1533-1603 ) had a pet guinea pig. Our ancestors must have been quite a novelty in those far off days when we were first brought back from South America." Unfortunately, there is no photo of her with a guinea pig. This was the closest thing we could find:

From the Being Bess blog: "The Ermine Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, by William Segar. Elizabeth is depicted with an ermine on her sleeve (a member of the weasel family, along with ferrets, a domesticated form of polecat used for hunting), representing her royal birth. Unfortunately, there is no Guinea Pig Portrait!" 

We also learned that journalist Soledad O'Brien had a guinea pig named CJ:

Soledad O'Briend, her guinea pig CJ, and Anderson Cooper. (Source.)

CJ even has his own Twitter account (which hasn't been updated in a long time, unfortunately):

https://twitter.com/CJOBrien1

In addition, we have more pics and information on the Roosevelt family guinea pigs, as first mentioned in our previous post:

"Roosevelt was the only president to own guinea pigs. Their names were Admiral Dewey, Bishop Doane, Dr. Johnson, Father O'Grady, and Fighting Bob Evans." (source: Reddit)

Thanks again to Piggyfriends for providing us the information on Elizabeth 1 of England! Again, if you know of any other guinea pigs who had famous human companions, please let us know in the comments section.

Can Guinea Pigs Eat Carnival Squash?

Summer isn't quite over yet, but you can already tell that fall is right around the corner. The humans have been complaining less about sweating like pigs (even though I try to assure them that sweating isn't a problem for us), and more squash has been showing up at the grocery stores and farmer's markets. It was therefore only a matter of time before they managed to find a new one for us to review. Good job, humans!

Today, we're reviewing carnival squash. It turns out that carnival squash is a hybrid of acorn squash (which we've reviewed) and another type called sweet dumpling squash (which we've never heard of). Carnival squash is a winter squash, which means we can have it 2-4 times per week. Don't feed us the stem, skin, seeds or stringy parts around the seeds. Just feed us some small raw cubes of the orange flesh (not too much- sugar and all).

So colorful!

Come on, Broccoli! Share with me!

How about if I just reach in there?

Yum!

More! More! More!

No more? Aw...

We have no complaints at all about carnival squash. It was nutty and a little sweet. We finished every last bite the humans gave us. We give carnival squash 5/5 stars!

Guinea Pig Attractions Around the World: Inokashira Park Zoo Guinea Pig House

We're both still recovering emotionally from Buffy's unfortunate passing, but are trying our best to keep bringing you the best guinea pig content. We're going to keep this one fun and lighthearted, though.

Today, we're going to take you the other side of the world for another guinea pig attraction! We're going back to Japan to look at the Inokashira Park Zoo.  (Regular readers may recall that we already showcased a zoo in Japan which had a guinea pig bridge. Just to be clear, this isn't the same zoo.) Inokashira Park Zoo is located in western Tokyo. It is not that big of a zoo, but it does have something of interest to Cavy Savvy readers: a Guinea Pig house!

The sign for the Guinea Pig house! (source)

Look at all the guinea pigs! (source)

You can even pick them up and pet them! (source)

So many guinea pigs!

Inokashira Park Zoo is said to be relatively-inexpensive, too: 400 yen (about $3.93 US), for those humans who worry about that money stuff.

Still on the fence about going? Then check out this quirky Japanese video, which Google translates as "Inokashira Park Zoo song of Befriend a Guinea Gig":

10 amazing minutes long!

The humans are already sold on this, and have been talking about planning a trip in the winter. We'll post more if and when they actually go!

Goodbye, Buffy

It is with heavy hearts that we have to announce the passing of Buffy last night. The humans dutifully continued her new medicine regimen since Friday morning, but it just wasn't enough. Her muscle weakness kept getting progressively worse, until yesterday when her little legs could no longer stand anymore. The humans rushed her to the 24-hour animal hospital, where they said her heart had stopping and asked if they should do CPR. They said it was very likely that they would have ended up cracking her ribs if they had gone ahead with CPR, and she would have been in a lot of pain (assuming it even worked). The humans had to make the incredibly-difficult decision not to put her through that.

While we're all devastated by her loss, we would also like to stay focused on all the good times we had with her. Lola (2) and I are so glad that we had the chance to join her cage and experience the good guinea pig life with her. We got to eat so many foods together, and go on some great adventures, like the time we got to go to a Pignic and meet another texel. Although it was before my time in the cage, she also got to go on an adventure where she got blessed in a church. And she had the chance to share her experience with all of you wonderful Cavy Savvy readers. I would like to think that all the positive thoughts (and comments) you've been sending her way helped her keep going for much longer than anyone expected.

The humans got Buffy around June 2010, and she was about 6 weeks old at that time. That's over 6 years, which is pretty long for a guinea pig to live. We wish we could have spent even more time on earth with her, but we have no regrets about how her time on earth was spent. By any measure, she had a good life.

Here are a few pictures to remember the good times:

Buffy's first bath (June 30, 2010).

So cute! (6/30/10)

Buffy's Cavy Savvy introduction (3/19/11).

Buffy gets blessed (10/4/11).

Meeting another texel. (10/2/13)

Eating a fruit-flag on July 4th (7/4/15).

Enjoying our company just last week (8/17/16).

Sadly, this means that both of the founders of this blog have now passed. However, Lola and I will do our best to carry on their legacy, and give you the best in food reviews, product reviews, and other great guinea pig info. I'm sure that's what they both would have wanted.

Feel free to leave a comment if you enjoyed reading Buffy's adventures. She'll probably enjoy reading them from the other side of the rainbow bridge.

Giving Guinea Pigs Injections

Hi there, readers. Broccoli here with some news about Buffy, who hasn't been feeling like herself lately, but asked me to give you all an update on her behalf. So as you know, her health has not been great ever since the vet found that uterine mass back in November, but despite this, she's been doing better than expected with the implants, medicines and Critical Care. A couple days ago, the humans noticed that there was still blood in her urine, her weight was really low (even for her), and she even lost her balance and fell over (which is a new symptom for her). The humans then took her in the vet as soon as possible.

The vet observed her for a couple hours and ran some tests, including an X-ray. The X-ray showed that her mass has grown large enough that it's actually pushing on her other organs. In particular, it's been pushing on her bladder, which has led to the formation of some small bladder stones that they think she would have easily passed if not for the pressure. And, as a result of the pain of the bladder stones, she's been sucking in more air, which is leading to gas and causing more discomfort. As for the loss of balance, it sounded like it was due to muscle weakness in her hind legs (rather than a seizure than the humans initially feared), which might be related to dehydration.

The vet was honestly surprised that Buffy was doing so well under these circumstances; they said most guinea pigs would have lost interest in eating and most likely had to be put down. However, since Buffy has defied expectations already and still seems to be enjoying a reasonably-good quality of life, they felt it was reasonable to continue treatment. When asked about life expectancy at this point, the vet said it was hard to say because Buffy is "one in a million", that is, most pigs wouldn't have survived with a mass this large as it is, and she could have anywhere from a few days to several months left.

Given her current situation, the vet recommended she remain on Tramadol (for pain) and Cisapride (for GI concerns), but also made some changes to her medicine regimen. First, they increased the amount of Critical Care  by 10 ml per day to help get her weight up. Second, they added Simethicone, an anti-gas medicine, to her daily routine. Third, they got her back on Enrofloxacin, an antibiotic, to make sure she doesn't get an infection, as bladder stones can be jagged. Fourth, they got her back on Meloxicam to control pain and inflammation. Fifth, they added Lactated Ringer's Solution to her daily regimen. According to Guinea Lynx, "Fluid therapy can buy time while your ill pig is responding to antibiotics. Subcutaneous Injection of fluids helps to rehydrate your pet."

Now, that fifth one is something new and different from how the humans usually give us medicine. Usually, the humans feed us some kind of liquid in a syringe. The amounts, colors, and taste can vary, but you just get a quick burst of something tasty or nasty in your mouth, swallow it, and it's over. The Lactated Ringer's Solution is given with a needle. Sounds painful! The humans were scared to try it, but the vet showed them how to do it. Hopefully, you'll never have to be in this situation, but here's what your human needs to know and do if you are:

• The first step is to fill the syringe from the orange protruding cap on the bag. Don't pierce the clear plastic part to get the liquid. Avoid drawing air into the line.
• After filling up the syringe, you'll want to warm up the solution in a cup of warm water before injecting it:

The injection will be much more uncomfortable if you don't warm it up first. You'll want to have it around body temperature, which is about 102 degrees for guinea pigs. Hold the needle out of the water.

• It's a good idea to have two humans present for the injection, if possible. Have one human hold the piggy's head and backside to prevent squirming, biting, and other bad (but understandable!) behavior. You can try a cuddle cup, favorite blanket, or anything else that might help your guinea pig feel more comfortable during this stressful process.
• Find the shoulder blades, gently pinch the skin, and insert the butterfly needle into the pinched skin. Grasp the wings of the butterfly needle to maintain a firm grip.
• Push on the syringe with it angled downwards to prevent air bubbles from going in. If you see air bubbles in the syringe, stop injecting before the air bubbles reach the tube and needle.
• Don't push too fast, or the fluid mass will start feeling weird, and your piggy is more likely to freak out.

It's not always easy being a good guinea pig owner. Sometimes you need to do things that neither of you really wants to do in the short-term, like subcutaneous injections. But if you help us manage or overcome a health issue, you'll be rewarded with an appreciative fuzzy smile.

Celebrities with Guinea Pigs

Humans are obsessed with famous people. They have entire magazines and TV channels about them. Even though celebrities aren't usually that interesting to us guinea pigs, we figured it might be fun to do something nice for the humans and do on a post on celebrities. But since this is a guinea pig blog, we're only going to talk about famous humans with guinea pigs.

Have you ever wondered which famous humans have had guinea pigs as pets? We found out that there were a few:

• Lady Diana Spencer, princess of Wales, had a guinea pig named Peanuts when she was younger (about 11 years old). Here's a picture of her with Peanuts from 1972:

Source: The Royal Post.

• Prince Harry and Prince William holding a guinea pig and a rabbit: 

Source: Popcrunch.

• Michael Bond, the creator of Paddington Bear, had a guinea pig named Olga:

Source: The Telegraph.

• Kermit Roosevelt, son of president Theodore Roosevelt, holds a guinea pig in this family portrait. Regarding guinea pigs, Theodore Roosevelt has said: "their highly unemotional nature fits them for companionship with adoring but over-enthusiastic young masters and mistresses."

Source: NPS.

Do you know of any other famous humans who had pet guinea pigs? If so, let us know in the comments!

How Long do Guinea Pig Suprelorin Implants Last?

Hi there, readers! It's Buffy here. I wanted to let you all know that I haven't quite been feeling like myself lately. The humans thought I seemed a little more lethargic, my weight has been a little down, and my appetite for Critical Care isn't what it once was. In addition, the humans started seeing blood in my urine. It was clearly time for another vet visit, much as I'd rather just hang around in my cage. (Cars are scary, you know!)

Do I really have to go to the vet? I mean, is blood in your urine really that big of a deal? Hmm... Saying that out loud made me realize how that sounds. I guess you better take me.

The vet said that the blood is most likely either a symptom of a UTI, or related to the uterine mass they found. Based on the color of the blood, the vet said it was more likely related to the uterine mass, but put me on an antibiotic just in case it was a UTI.

They also said that the implants only last 4-12 months, and I had mine back in November. So I got another Suprelorin implant to replace the old one. As you may recall, things were looking pretty grim back in November when I got my first Suprelorin implant, and I started to do much better afterwards. Hopefully, the same thing will happen again this time. The vet set it could take up to a month to really start seeing results if the old implant is completely out.

It's been a few days since they put the new implant in, but I'm feeling better already. I've been finishing my Critical Care for the first time in a week, I'm off to a good start!