Peppy

October 2005

We got another skunk!  We’re not changing his name even though the next skunk was to be called Cooper (or I favoured Connor).  I wanted a friend for Tyler so I've been periodically looking at some web pages where people advertise animals for sale.  Then a friend e-mailed me and said she has a friend who just got a skunk and I thought what, there are skunks for sale still?  So I looked at the web pages immediately and Peppy happened to be advertised, I immediately phoned up about him, I usually hate phoning and e-mail instead but for some reason I just grabbed the phone and phoned up and I happened to be the first person phoning up about him.  Quite a few other people phoned up about him, too, but since I was the first, I was the one who could see him first.  The people lived in north Wales so Sunday the 9th of October 2005 we drove up, only about 140 miles but on horrible little twisting winding roads right through Wales.  So that took just over 3 1/2 hours which surprised me, I thought it would take a lot longer.  Being a Sunday at least the roads were quiet.  So we had Tyler with us and when we got to the people, we let Tyler and Peppy run together, I was surprised, Tyler was so nosy and walked all around, I thought he would just hide, he's usually shy but he was quite bold there.  The skunks got on, Peppy was so sweet and I could even handle him so we took him with us.  Then at home Tyler turned into a little demon.  ;-) We heard sounds from him that we didn't know he was capable of making!  Grunting and screeching, he sounded more like a parakeet than a skunk.  So we only let the boys run together under supervision, at least they didn't fight, Tyler was just scared of Peppy and would screech when Peppy got too close but then Peppy would leave Tyler alone.  But while Peppy is desperate to be friends and is so happy to have skunk company, Tyler just wants to be by himself.  I don't understand it as Tyler has never been weird with any of the other animals, he's happy for the ferrets, dogs and cat to be around him but then there is another skunk and he's petrified.  Tyler is bigger, too.  I hope they'll get on soon and play together.  So Peppy was caged at night but the cage was open all day long, he still chose to sleep in it though.  But a week later we left him out of the cage at night for the first time and he woke me up 3 times at night!  He was rummaging through the lounge underneath my bedroom and I don't know what he was up to but he made a lot of noise... So since then Peppy has been allowed to stay out at night and everything is okay.

Peppy is a bit "damaged".  ;-)  The tip of his tail was bitten off, probably by a fox, when he was a baby. His tail looks shorter and "odd" but I don't care about physical appearance, personality is way more important and Peppy is perfect in that way!!!  He's also got 2 broken canines, I thought the top right one was completely gone but then I saw a few traces of tooth there.  The lower left also broke off.  And he is rather fat.  I think not enough exercise and too much food. ;-) Now he's sooo happy to run around, he's been in our garden and just runs around so much and he's pretty active so I bet he'll loose weight quickly.  :-)  And then I can get him neutered.  I’m too scared to have him done now because of his weight and I wonder if him being obese is putting a strain on his heart so I don’t want to risk him getting an anaesthetic.  

Peppy's previous owner said he breaks eggs when you give him one so we thought he would hold them with his front feet and smash them onto the floor.  So we gave him an egg and he shuffled it around and then shot it through his back legs with his front feet (I guess like a rugby player?) so it smashed against the wall (kitchen unit) and cracked.  He went to it, pounced on it and then ate it.  It was so hilarious, he is such a fun skunk.  :-)  

Oh, and he loves to cuddle.  He's happy for anybody to cuddle him.  Tyler will only cuddle with me and rarely with Pete but Peppy cuddles with anybody so Pete loves that.  :-)  When Peppy runs around, you only have to touch his back and he will sit down to be petted.  :-)  He's really amazing.  :-) I was a bit scared to get another skunk because I thought what if he is destructive, doesn’t get on with the other animals and is really skittish? But we were lucky yet again and got a model skunk! He’s the same age as Tyler so about 1 1/2 years old. He’s been with the ferrets and does not bother them at all, even Squeaky trusts him! Tyler will bite Squeaky’s tail ;-) but Peppy won’t so Squeaky knows that and doesn’t mind him at all. ;-)

Peppy has even been sleeping with Tyler! I think Peppy joins Tyler when Tyler is asleep, this way Tyler can’t protest. Actually, Tyler does protest sometimes but then Peppy just sticks his bum in Tyler’s face and reverses into bed so Tyler curls up and goes to sleep and Peppy is happy because he is with Tyler. :-) Makes me so happy to see them together. Peppy likes his food, too, has had raw chicken, he even ate a chick. And he eats a wider variety of vegetables than Tyler.

Monday night, 24th October 2005, I was cuddling Peppy and rummaging through his coat to feel his skin (it was sort of dry and scabby which I thought would be fixed with fish oil and cod liver oil over time) and then I went to wash my hands and felt something crawl over my arm.  At first I thought I had fruit flies on my arm.  ;-)  But the things didn't come off when I washed my arm and eventually I thought "oh, they're biting blood sucking things" and then it clicked that Peppy must have them!  So I looked at him and there were sooo many of them in his coat.  Literally hundreds.  I checked Tyler and he had some.  I found a few on Poppy.  Not knowing what to do, I got the frontline out and hoped that it would kill those things.  I treated the skunks, cat and dogs.  I also got a live one off Peppy and we put it into a container.  I checked Peppy and Tyler Tuesday morning and Peppy had hundreds of dead things in his coat.  :-)  I gave Peppy a good combing and got many, many out of his coat.  He must be feeling so much better.  Anyway, Pete went to the vets with the live thing and the vets looked at it under a microscope and compared it to pictures in a book and it turned out that it was a dog biting louse (trichodectes canis).  I looked them up on the Internet and it says they're host specific so theoretically they should only go on dogs, not skunks...  Peppy was itching and has a very itchy spot that he chewed a lot but I thought that was just dry skin.  I'm just glad that I noticed and that those things went onto my arm. 

November 2005

Peppy was neutered on 22nd November. I wanted to wait with it but the one broken canine got infected and when I took Peppy for a check-up, Michaela said she wanted to take it out. I was sooo worried because he is still fat so I took him to the vets when I got the call that Michaela was ready and I waited until Michaela anaesthetised him, then waited for him in the waiting room. Michaela worked on him for about an hour or even more! She castrated him and then not only pulled (dug/ drilled out???) the infected canine but also the other broken canine! He even had a stitch in his mouth... It must have been quite a bad procedure, poor Peppy... He had pain killer and well, it didn’t spoil his appetite. I gave him kibble (softened with boiling water) for over a week. I always have some high quality dog kibble as stand-by (for the dogs and skunks).

December 2005

Peppy has done well so far and lost quite a bit of weight. I'm not starving him, he sometimes even leaves food so I'm definitely feeding him enough. But he is so energetic and enjoys running around so I guess that is making him loose weight. This month he has learnt to walk up the stairs! :-) He was finally lean and strong enough to climb up steps but he still had a problem with balance and how to fit onto a step and then get up another. At first I helped him, I just put my hand under his tail so he wouldn't fall backwards and he quickly climbed the stairs. Then one day I was upstairs and Peppy appeared. :-) And once he managed to get up the stairs, there was no stopping him. He doesn't get up as quickly and easily as Tyler but I'm sure one day he'll be better at climbing stairs.

February 2006

Peppy still needs to loose weight but so far he has done extremely well. Another 60 g and he will have lost 1 kg! He was 5.26 kg when we got him, heavier than Tyler. Now he is 4.32 kg :-) He was rather obese when we got him and could barely walk. He could not go up one step and went (struggled) through the cat flap on his side. He has lost an average of 1-1.5 % of his bodyweight per week which is excellent, not loosing too much weight too quickly but rather a little weight steadily. But he’s still a wee bit podgy. Tyler is fat and needs to loose a little weight but I’m not too worried as he is very strong and goes up the stairs quicker than me. Plus he has actually lost almost 200 g since December. :-)

As a closing note I will say that Peppy is a wonderful skunk, as cuddly as Tyler and very, very sweet. He gets on with the ferrets, dogs and cats and feels very happy here. :-)

September 2007

Peppy is doing very well and his weight now is at 4.14 kg so he has lost a bit over 1 kg.  He lost it quite well at first and then just didn't loose any more weight after a while.  Same with Tyler.  So I evantually cut down their meat and upped the veg intake so the boys lost a little more weight. They are not overly active, I think if they were more active, they could have more meat...

But Peppy has got more active since we got Blossom so I hope he'll loose a bit more weight. Blossom is hyperactive and runs around at least 10 hours every day and luckily this gets Peppy motivated at least morning and night.  ;-)  He is very happy to have Blossom, she has slept in a crate with him from the very start.  Peppy was in a little snug cat carrier (if he slept in anything big, he also went to the toilet in it, sigh...) so with Blossom's arrival I had to give him a bigger cat carrier but no accidents in it so far.  :-)