There are many different breeds of cavies to choose from and they come in
smooth coated, rough coated and long coated. The choice was easy for me as I
knew I wanted to have American Crested again, and this time round I
wanted to also breed Abyssinians as they have such wonderful characters.
Update: I no longer breed American Crested
cavies. I had to make a decision after major surgery on my
shoulders to focus on just two breeds, with Abyssinian's being my main
breed and Lunkarya as another very small stud.
Health & other Interesting Information/Articles
For want of a separate section on Health and interesting articles I have
found I have decided to use this 'space' for now.
In the 1986 Combined Cavy Clubs of NZ Yearbook there appeared the
following article on the use of Cider Vinegar by Dianne Pannell, who has
kindly given me permission to copy it here. Whilst some might not
agree with part of the article (or be sensitive to it), it is necessary
to include all the information as that is the proof of the success of
Cider Vinegar.
A Wonder Cure? I Wonder!
After reading the excellent article from Cavy World on Pseudo TB in
the last Waikato Cavy Club Newsletter I recalled an outbreak of the
disease that occurred about four years ago in our NZ caviaries.
At about the same time I was breeding rabbits, and, after buying some
infected cates, I incurred an outbreak of Pasteurella - a disease which
is fatal, (supposed to be incurable) and requires destroying all
affected rabbits and sterilizing or burning the cages. However, I
heard about the natural antiseptic properties of Cider Vinegar and
decided to give it a go. I added a teaspoonful to a bottle of
water (about 400 mls) and administered it to my remaining rabbits.
(The ones which died I had done post mortems on and their intestines
were covered with the white cysts typical of Pasteurella.) The
remaining rabbits, which had gone to skin and bone in no time, began to
pick up and were very soon fat and thriving again. When I
eventually killed one for eating and opened it up there wasn't a sign of
Pasteurella - it was thoroughly healthy. Consequently, when I
encountered Pseudo TB in my caviary I promptly introduced cider vinegar
to everyone's drinking water - a teaspoon to one of the medium sized
water bottles - sure enough it cleansed their systems and eradicated the
disease. I've administered cider vinegar to all my animals ever
since as a matter of course (keep a flagon in my caviary) and even my
dogs get it in their water. It keeps everything disease free even
if they're exposed to a disease and I have since heard of many diary
farmers getting in on the act and administering it to their cows to the
complete eradication of mastitis!! Of course, with large diary
herds it involves buying it in by the tanker and filtering it through
the trough systems so it must be paying off for them to go to the
trouble and expense. Needless to say I and my children get dosed
with it as well - I don't know why I tend to look to my animals health
first, long before it occurs to me to tend to my poor children as well!!
(Doesn't say much for my mothering abilities!)
I hope this hint helps someone - remember it's great for everything
internal - Salmonella, Toxaemia in pregnant sows, enteritis, mastitis,
the works.
Dianne Pannell
Ragwort
Is poisonous to cavies as well as other livestock. It seems to
have been rather rife this year and I even found some in our garden.
It needs to be dug up, root and all and disposed of, preferably by
burning. Wear gloves to protect your skin when you do so.
There are lots of links on the internet about this plant so I won't add
any more here except a couple of pictures of what the plant looks like
before it flowers.
Click on the thumbnail pictures to enlarge.
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