Mumsnet Talk

Found one of our old girls dead in her nest this am - not exactly unexpected as she was over 5 1/2 and had been looking progressively frail over the last few weeks.

Problem is that her sister has been left on her own for the first time in her life.

Will she be OK? Should I get her another friend or will it be too much stress for her? Or should I be expecting her to follow her sister in the near future?

I'm not sure what pet you are talking about but we had a rabbit die a year ago and its mate has been fine. Thriving in fact and they had never been apart.
I'm so sorry your old girl died. Loss of a pet is awful.

sorry guinea pigs

DC are understandably upset and I don't know what to do for the best - go left behind has always been the most ......erm........ difficult of the two I would worry for any other pig we tried to introduce. She used to bully her sister something chronic but would go loopy and panic if you separated them.

Hi there, sorry to hear about your girl, bless her but she lived to a good age and clearly was well loved. There are several threads on here about what to do with the remaining companion - it really is up to you and your children, at some stage you have to decide whether to get another companion, as she will be sad and lonely on her own. You can a) decide to get new ones - you would probably have to a new couple of younger girls from a rescue, or a singleton from a rescue and then be prepared for some hard work getting them integrated together, this will take some time and require separate hutches etc for a while, it may be too stressful for your older girl, or it may perk her up a bit and give her a new lease of life!! b) decide she is going to be your last girl, bring her in with you all, make sure she gets lots of love and attention, but be wary that she will pine and at her age, may not make it ( several of mine died within weeks of each other, Im convinced they died of a broken heart/loneliness).

It is a tough call, as with option a) you know you will be facing this scenario again, we did it over 7 years, with a total of 9 girls as I couldnt bear the thought of one being lonely, but in the end we chose not to get any more - not for a while anyway. It is hard being the one left, so make sure she is comforted and included, if that makes sense!

Good luck!

I'm really sorry to hear about the loss of your beloved piggie.

This happened to us our beautiful Loulou pig died in October. Her sister (5 and a half) was very upset but is now back to normal as we got three baby guinea pigs from a rescue. The woman who runs the rescue suggested babies as they were more likely to defer to our old lady pig who is an alpha piggie. They are all really happy. The younger pigs race around and provide entertainment for Dotty and they make a huge fuss of her. They are always snuggling up with her and cleaning her.

In fact, one piggie in particular was looking after Dotty so much that we started to wonder if she had an underlying illness. She was diagnosed with heart failure a couple of weeks ago but not thanks to a brilliant rodentologist and two brilliant vets (one in Hertfordshire and one on Kent/London borders) she is better and taking heart medications and is back to her normal self.

Talk to your local GP rescue they will know what to do for the best

Oh Silver sad to hear about Loulou, but your rescue piglets sound wonderful and they will be keeping Dotty young at heart! - Such a lovely tale ( tail), it is great when it all works out and they get on, I think girls are easier in that respect, especially when young ones need mothering and bossing around a bit. I am really impressed that your guinea is on heart medication - what do they prescribe for this and what is the treatment? - Would be interested because I am sure one of ours had heart trouble, I didnt know such treatment was possible.

Dedicated rescues are usually much more knowledgeable because they are specialists and really know their stuff. Great to read such a happy story!

Hi Guineapiglet it is lovely having the baby pigs as they have so much fun and love Dotty so much.

Dotty slowed down a lot in the last few weeks then one day she started wheezing which her asthma medication did not sort out and she did a few hoots so I took her to a GP savvy vets and asked for a chest xray. I did this because the rodentologist said GPs can have asthma and heart failure. She is on an ace inhibitor and a diuretic. One months supply is not expensive at all. Whereabouts are you? I can recommend two fabulous vets. GPs have a high incidence of heart failure unfortunately.

Wow - she is on the same medication as my mum!! Does she have to take it in crushed up tablet form, or how do you get it into her - I know it is a perennial guinea problem with their little hearts, one of ours had a heart attack after being attacked by her companion, it was horrible to watch and even with a vet nurse friend giving mouth to mouth ( yes, honestly) < she has never forgiven me!> she didnt recover and I wonder if she had a congenital heart problem. Others on here have written about their hitherto healthy pigs suddenly going down hill, so you do wonder whether they have heart things going on as well?

Dont have guineas at the moment but would be interested to know where vets are that you recommend as this might help others in your area ( we are now in Hampshire and there is a brilliant guinea rescue down the road a few miles....)
Can you post up some pics of the babies, would love to see them all!

Sorry to hear the loss of your piggie . Guineapiglet has covered all that I would say. Decide whether you want to continue being a guinea owner and if you do get a pair to avoid having a singleton again too soon.

Thanks for all the kind words and advice. After long discussions with the dc they have decided that they don't think its fair to introduce a strange piggie to our remaining oldie so she is going to move into my ds's bedroom for as long as we have her. He has spent all evening making her a run and sleeping area. She will be an even more spolit piggie than before if thats possible

When oldie has passed on then we will think about getting some more. We may have a break for a while though as it will be hard to replace our 2 girlies.

Hopefully oldie will be with us for a good while longer <fingers crossed>

WRT to introducing pigs to an established pigs

The pigs I had as a child dwindled in numbers over time, we introduced new ones. I had 4 females at one point (an mum and daughter.We bought a new female but the old sow did not like her. The new one was pg with one girl pig so we had two pairs. When the old girl died her pig got on fine with the 2 new ones)

We had ours in at night and bad weather. In the house when we got down to one they followed us about and we had single pigs for a year or so.

It's a difficult call. You could get a similar aged female and they might get on (you'd need to match them but I'm sure the Rescues are full of older pigs)
Or maybe 2 piglets.

How is she doing?

well old pig is doing really well She seems to love being in ds's room and is better than any alarm clock!

She has made friends with our old cat and the 2 of them are snuggled down by the side of the aga in the dogs bed! Eating well and generally being her demanding self

Here's to her being around for quite a while to come.....

It sounds like old girl has a new lease of life, with all her friends, and if she is getting lots of attention and cuddles from the cat(!) and your kids, then it sounds like she is happy and contented - sounds like a perfect solution for you all, it is amazing how such little souls can take over and boss us all around!