This is often caused by a cold. Wash the eyes in a solution of boric acid that you can get any druggist to put up for you.
Paralysis.
Cavies sometimes have dragging of the hind limbs. Some say alfalfa will cause it, but it is usually from some disorder of the kidneys. Give about 25 drops of sweet spirits of nitre three times a day and rub the limbs with a good liniment. Feed carefully for several days and they will often get over it.
General Instructions.
It is much easier to keep Cavies well than to cure a sick one, therefore, try and prevent trouble. Sick ones should be separated from the others and placed in comfortable quarters. Feed only choice food. Keep their quarters clean, sweet and well ventilated. Give them all air and sun you can and all the room for exercise you can. Feed no mouldy, wet or half cured hay or grass. Do feed grass that is wet with dew or rain. Just give your Cavies half a chance and you will find that disease will bother your Caviary but little.
CHAPTER X
PROFITS IN CAVY RAISING.
This industry in America is in its infancy. There are in several sections of the country large Cavy farms but they raise nothing like enough to supply the demand. Either as a side line with only a dozen or two females or whether raised as a business, Guinea Pigs offer a safe, sure and pleasant method of making money.
There is no danger that the business will be overdone as the demand is growing much more rapidly than the supply and as the supply increases more will be used. The hospitals in most cases use them in preference to any other animal for experimental purposes but at this time they cannot get them in sufficient quantities. There is and always will be a great demand for them as pets. When the people get educated to the food value, this end of the industry will come in for its share. The present high cost of meat and the decreasing supply of cattle indicate that in a few years the people of this country will have to make other preparations for their fresh meat and the Cavy offers the solution to the meat problem. All of these facts make it plain that there is no danger of there getting to be too many Cavies.