Get to Know Our Foster-Based Guinea Pig Rescue and Meet the Team Behind It
Welcome to Vegas Friends of Guinea Pig Rescue!
Vegas Friends GPR is a foster-based rescue, meaning that there is no central location for the guinea pigs. All guinea pigs are placed in foster homes throughout the valley. The rescue started with its first rescue in August of 2022.
We rely solely on community members to foster the small animals until we can find them their fur-ever homes!
Director: Kacey Brunson
Piggie Vice President: Popeye
Human Vice President: Looking! Interested?
A Registered Non-Profit in the State of Nevada
Registered 501(c)3 with the IRS (EIN: 88-3653198)
Vegas Friends of Guinea Pig Rescue was founded and created by its Director, Kacey Brunson. Kacey has 11 of her own guinea pigs, and after starting an Instagram account for her own guinea pigs, she quickly saw the alarming rate that guinea pigs were being dumped and abandoned all over the country. After realizing that there was no local rescue exclusive to Guinea pigs, VFGPR was born.
Kacey hit the ground running. Her intention was to be a small rescue. Kacey works full-time, fosters dogs for local dog rescues and has her own family and fur family. What started out small exploded in no-time. Before she knew it, the foster network had grown to over 20 foster homes in the Vegas Valley and several in California, and the population reached over 80 guinea pigs in the rescue.
Medical and Abandoned Guinea Pigs
At Vegas Friends of Guinea Pig Rescue, we do not normally take owner surrenders. Our mission is to save the most vulnerable guinea pigs- the guinea pigs with medical needs and guinea pigs that have been abandoned. (See Re-Homing page if you are looking to re-home your guinea pigs).
Some of the Medical Cases We Have Taken On:
Stan the Man: Stan came to us with his brother, Hank, as an owner surrender in January of 2023. Immediately Kacey could tell that something was wrong. He sounded very congested and seemed to be struggling to breathe, and was breathing through an open mouth. Kacey gave him a nebulizer treatment and he was off to see the vet the next day. It appeared to be a typical Upper Respiratory Infection- the standard treatment was given. Two weeks later, he had not improved so another round of treatment was prescribed. Stan was also getting daily nebulizer treatments with some medications in his nebulizer. X-rays were done, there was nothing seen in his chest. No fluid or infection. So the issue must have been in his nasal cavity. After two months of treatment and Stan still sounding congested on about 60% of his days, medications were stopped, with the occasional use of the nebulizer if needed. Stan was a happy piggy, eating and being a brat to his brother and just being his cute self. There was no clear answer. Then in June of 2023, Kacey came into the room to find Stan near death. He was laying on his side and completely bloated. Kacey rushed him to the vet, where they began immediate emergency care. Stan’s temperature was so low, around 93 degrees. He was in critical condition. It was thought that he had an episode of having to breathe through his mouth, causing air to fill up his stomach. Stan was there for 4 days while they raised his body temperature with warming IV fluids, kept his digestive system going and helped him with his breathing with the oxygen tank and nebulizer treatments. (Pictured). He was very critical and would do good one moment, but then back-slide a bit. After 4 days he came home and although he seemed weak, and could still hear his breathing, he was almost back to new.
Now, to find out the cause of the mysterious congestion that would come and go. Some days he would be fine, then Kacey would go into the room and he was congested. After he recovered from his hospitalization, Kacey and the vet bounced some ideas around. Kacey set up a diagnostics appointment for him and we were going to try to culture fluid from his nasal passage and do a skull X-ray to get a better look at the nasal passage.
Unfortunately, that was never to be. On November 27, a week before his appointment, Kacey came found and found Stan lethargic and bloated again. Medications were given, a nebulizer treatment was given, but Stan looked very ill. He was rushed to the after-hours Emergency vet. The prognosis was poor, but we authorized everything to be done for him. The took x-rays to make sure his stomach was not contorted (which is wasn’t) and they placed a catheter to try to get air out of his stomach. Kacey saw Stan in the treatment area, where he was mostly covered with a towel to hide the catheter. He looked very tired. Kacey told him that she was not giving up on him, gave him a kiss on his half-white, half grey nose, and said goodnight.
That night, while the emergency vets tried to get air from his stomach, Stan went into cardiac arrest and could not be resuscitated. His body was tired. Stan the Man, Kacey’s Rock and recent face of the rescue had gained his wings.
We never found out what was causing the mysterious congestion noise. We know it was not a typical URI, so our best guess is rhinitis. In the future I hope to include his medical notes on this page for anyone to look at and maybe even learn something from Stan.
Treasa: Treasa came from the local animal shelter March 8, 2024. They emailed VFGPR to advise us that they just received a guinea pig as a stray and that she was not doing well due to a severe eye injury. Well, of course we will take her! Off Kacey went on Friday evening to pick her up immediately.
Medical Notes from the Shelter:
BAR and active. Ruptured globe OD; malodorous. Inflammation of all four feet. Abdomen appears slightly distended.
A- Ruptured eye, pododermatitis, possible gravid
P- Prescribing treatment with meloxicam for pain and listing for transfer with a 3/ 11 commitment date (due out time).
On March 9th, she underwent emergency surgery to have her eye removed. In addition to removed the ruptured eye, because it had been like that for awhile, a capsule of infection had gathered under her eye, causing a “dent” in her eye socket. This was drained of the infection and a drain was placed there, through the top of the head, so the orifice could be continually drained and not cause additional infections. She looked like a Franken-piggy (pictured). No complications with the procedure, she came out like a champ, stayed overnight in the hospital and came home. The instructions were medication to control pain and infection and daily flushes of the drain.
The next few days were rough and Treasa would hardly eat or poop. She was hospitalized again on March 12th, where she stayed overnight and received some fluids and medication. On March 15th, she had her drain taken out. The next set of instructions was to flush the site out two times a day, and pack with silver sulfa. Stitches to come out in a week.
March 22- the stiches were not all removed because the eye was healing so slowly. We were to continue the twice daily flushes and medications. On March 30th, the last couple stiches came out. To continue the daily flushes.
April 12th is when things started going wrong. When doing her eye flushes and foot care for her bumblefoot, it was noticed that her eye appeared to be infected. Kacey gently cleaned off the scab covering her eye and infection came out. So on the 15th, back to the vet she went. The wound was flushed out again very well, and stitched back up.
April 21st….yep, infected again. When cleaning out the area again, the vet noticed that there were particles of food in her site. We all know that Treasa loves nothing more than burying herself in a pile of hay, so it was likely she was getting food into her incision somehow. So the vet concocted a little patch to keep the food out. So began the “Pirate Patch” era. Treasa went back to the vet several times that week to have the bandage replaced. On April 29th…infection!! What?! With the pirate patch?! The vet did some exploratory and discovered a microscopic hole inside the extra orifice in her eye. When the vet ran some water down the hole….the water came out of her mouth.
So there it was. There was a tiny hole that the food was getting into from when Treasa was eating food, it was not getting in there externally as first suspected. After another few visits of trying to flush and still finding food, the decision was made to try to fill the hole with bone glass, hoping that her body would absorb it and close the hole. Then the food would stop entering and causing infections.
May 6th Treasa underwent surgery to have the bone glass put in. Surgery was successful and she came out like a champ as usual. A few days later the bandage was removed. It appeared to be a success.
Think again! A week later, Treasa started showing signs of infection again- her body was rejecting the bone glass. It was removed the following day and a new plan was developed.
For the last 3 weeks now, Treasa has been getting wet to dry bandages. A wet bandage is packed in her eye. Once it’s dry, it is removed. When it is removed, it takes some of the skin and tissue with it, to promote healing. Then a new bandage is placed. Treasa has been going in for bandage changes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The hole is slowly getting smaller and shallower. There have been no signs of infection since starting the wet dry bandages. This was updated on 6-17-2024. Check back again for more updates!
Other Medical Piggies:
- Rex (failure to thrive- severe malnutrition- still fighting)
- Stewie (eye removal)
- Rhino (elderly guinea pig with a large mass on her toe- adopted and surviving!)
- Mirajane (Ovarian mass- passed away post surgery)