Male Guinea-Pig neutering - hand holding and advice please :)

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Our GP3 , one year old Rex (big chap, 1360g/ 3lb in real money) is at the prime of his fitness and having lost his male 'stepdad' has been teamed up with a couple of 10 month sows.
By 'teamed up' they are in chatting range only, the girls are still lairy and quarentined , GP3 is not getting anywhere near until he's passed his fertile phase and we've done proper supervised introductions.

So, we have our guinea-vet.
I have blankets (cream fleece) and towels (white) in case anything leaks.
No hay except a toilet roll tube stuffed with hay (I did consider a rack but in the hot spell, I gave rack hay only. GP1 and GP3 pulled it onto the floor and sat on it )

I'm prepared with syringes to give medication.

So, anything else I need?
I'm well aware that I'm The She Devil IHO, but in losing his 'nads , he gains two wives and reduces the risk of impaction when he gets old and saggy.
Win-Win

No advice from me (two intact boars here) but Dougal & Marvin sends sympathetic wheeps.

Handing holding from me 70, it will be a nerve wracking day but I'm sure GP3 will come through fine.

It's a whole year now since our boys were 'done' and they are both doing really well.

If vet hasn't already mentioned it, make sure you take a 'packed lunch' in for him-ie a small tub of GP3's favourite fresh foods to tempt him to eat after the anaesthetic.

It sounds like you have all bases covered for his recovery-hopefully your vet will do as ours did, and seal the stitches with surgical glue (minimises risk of them 'getting at' the wounds as they heal). Y y to white towels/fleeces, hay in a rack etc. Our boys were certainly quiet for a couple of days after surgery, and we were advised to keep them off the grass for a few days (think I kept them off grass for a week in total) but really they bounced back very quickly (they were coming up for 2 when they had it done). Eating, pooing etc as normal very quickly.

Hope all goes well!

they said take a water bottle and his favourite snack.

GP3 is on his own ( the sows are in their own cage) - we were going to have him done this year so that when he was in the situation of being without GP1, he'd be prepared. But GP1 went suddenly (but not unexpected) . I was worried about stitches if there was another pig with him.

He can have cut grass and I can keep him indoors for a few days if he needs to.

I was cuddling him tonight while DH cuddled the tri-colour and DD cuddled my pig (the lairy Himalayan)
He seemed huge compared to them and gave me very judgey eyeball-to-eyeball looks like he knows but I haven't told him

70 - he knows . He will hate you for a long time after until he gets parsley and then he may forgive you but only if more parsley follows.

Good luck with the op. I'm sure it will be fine. He'll enjoy his pampering afterwards.

Definitely lots of parsley.

Mine weren't exactly judgy afterwards, but they perfected the reproachful gaze which could roughly be interpreted as 'It feels sore, dietcoke. Soooore. Need more paaarsley.'

Which they got, of course

Good luck today to you, DD and GP3-will be thinking of you all.

The deed is done , He's now a no-nad boar

He's in the travel box, some carrot and apple has been accepted but parsley will be offered later.
Nice hay in cardboard looroll tubes.

Lovely soft fleece and a fresh white towel to sleep on.

When he regains the use of his voice, he'll wheek a thank you

Bless him. Hope he sleeps well.

He's with his girls (they are in their cage) in the Pighouse (I asked and they said provided it was warm enough- which it is) he'll be fine.
He's got his soft bedding, and he's looking judgey, eaten dandelions, so all looks (crossed fingers) well.

huh - I had mine done when his 'friend' died... all for naught! Didn't want my more boy or girl friends - grumpy git! Rescue centre from whence he came said he's happier seeing out his days in solitude!

Have the neutered boars put weight on since their surgery?

DD and I were chatting as we drove, that it wouldn't change how he behaved (unlike just about every other animal I can think of) but most castrated animals go a bit soft and pudgey after.

If that's the case, I really need to look at his food quota (he's put on a couple of ounces since I weighed him last , so he's not starving himself with grief). Maybe when he gets his sows he'll chase them round like Benny Hill , or they'll chase him

No, 70 - our boars are about the same as they were before. Our very dominant boar (tricolour, who was seriously injured by our actually-very-chilled-out-except-he-got-utterly-sick-of-his-brother-being-very-dominant ginger pig) has definitely calmed down a lot, in that he's less hyper and stressy, but I think that's more to do with being more happily settled with his gal pig (they are a better match, temperamentally, than the two boars were).

But weight wise they have remained very similar.

dietcoke - GP3 is 8 days post-op now, doing nicely.
I'll need to get him out tomorrow and have a good feel around (that sounds bad doesn't it ) to make sure there's no lumpy bumpy bits that shouldn't be there.
DD gives his undercarriage a check every time she lifts him, she is far more familiar with his arrangements than me

He still has his stitches in, I phoned the vets to give them an update. They said they dissolve (which is fine) and he'll probably remove them himself when it's time.
How long did this take with your boars?

And the advice on when he's sterile varies alot too. Some sites say 3 weeks, vet said 4, some sites say 6 weeks. A wiki site said 12 weeks

We let GP3 chat to the sows (he was on the floor, DD and I sat on the floor holding the females)
He started purring and licking their front paws
Weird pig.
(He used to lick GP1 ears) GP1 used to sit with a look on his face

Aww, perhaps he was trying to say he worships the ground that they walk on

OB used to purr too and nuzzle his nose into Fatimus' fur. She smelled good

I'd like to think so but it's more likely to be "Wash your manky paws before you're welcomed into my boudoir"

These ladies have been busy with piglets before they came to live here. They need to experience freedom and larkiness now (and if that involves not wiping their paws then so-be-it)

But it does look really sweet when he does the purring chat move