One of our two 2 year old boars had been a bit quiet over the last week and looked very sad this morning. Took him out of his cage and realised he wasnt well. Took him to vet and apparently he has an abcess inside his jaw which had prevented him from grinding his teeth down and the teeth had overgrown to the point where he couldn't move his tongue much and could barely eat.
So he has had emergency surgery to sort teeth and drain jaw abcess and is recovering at vets over night with pain relief, antibiotics and special feeds.
Poor poor piggie. The children have massive faith in the vet and think it will all be fine. I'm not entirely sure he will survive and neither is the vet.
And piggie no 2 is sitting in hutch looking for his friend and looking very sad.
I do hope he recovers. Any positive stories?
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Sick guinea pig
MrsFlorrick · 16/09/2015 20:14
Ohh little soul 
It just shows how they hide things so skillfully . He;s most likely had the sharp bit and managed to a degree to eat but maybe bitten his cheek and the whole thing flared up?
They can go from "quiet" to "crucial" in a short space of time.
So the next few hours will be the decider. Hopefully he'll recover well and he's still young. But he's been through quite major surgery so all paws crossed.
Extra cuddles for your boar at home.
Oh dear. Emergency vet just phoned. Poor piggie seems to have gone into shock after his op.
They are giving him fluids IV and have him on heat pads to keeps his temp up. Vet said he might phone again during the night if there is a decision to be made about putting him down or he dies.
Piggie no 2 looks sad and lonely downstairs in the hutch.
Piggies hide it well. I only realised he was actually unwell because he is usually the livelier one and he likes to chew on this big wicker ball which he hasn't over the last couple of days. Otherwise you couldn't really tell.
Piggie no2 is very different much more laid back and sort lounges around without doing much. So it would be really hard to tell if he was unwell.
Thanks for all your messages. Despite heroic efforts Thomas passed away just before lunch time today. Poor little piggie and his piggie friend at home is looking so sad.
About to go and pick DC up from school and tell them what's happened.
Poor DS. Thomas was his piggie.
Give your boy a few days to come to terms with it.
You can start phoning round some Rescues and see what they have available (when we got our GP3 he was being brought to Rescue as part of a huge intake , he needed to be vet checked. We had GP1 alone for 6 days which he probably thought was the longest 6 days of his life)
A young boar will fit best (they will be to introduce them on neutral ground)
Boars seem to get the short shrift , so many on bloody Gumtree , boar pairs/boar singletons - must stay away-.
When we had GP3 alone we got 2 girls and had him castrated (kept apart for his sterile status to set in). GP3 was a big bolshy chap, we feared a little piglet would be overwhelmed. Our sows take no prisoners 
Aw sad I feared the worst when you said Thomas was on a heat pad but didn't want to say.
Same happened to Fatimus who was Old Boy's special girlfriend i.e. the one that liked him too She passed away not many months after him. She had major surgery, pulled out her stitches, had more surgery to repair the damage and sadly never started eating again. She was very cold sitting on a heat pad too.
Our remaining sow was sad without her and the following weekend we went to a rescue for her to chose a friend. She instantly bonded with Millie and we adopted Coco too because DD1 fell in love with her. The 3 of them have been great friends but Millie is her BFF.
Trios do not work with boars. New boar/piglet must be your remaining piggie's choice but you can do some pre-selection for him. When we went to the rescue I asked only to be shown guineas that were same old as our piggy, short haired and not pink eyed.
- Thank you
Fortified. To be fair I didn't think his odds were great given he didn't perk up within a few hours post surgery. Poor Thomas
DS is now worried we are all going to die. He has been up out of bed twice already
How do I go about getting the remaining piggie to choose the new friend?? Do I take him to the rescue? Any advice is welcome!
Phone round a couple of rescues , they might not have any suitable but might put you in touch with other Rescues.
The place I got GP3/GP4/GP5/GP6 often get pregnant sows so they have litters but they do get reserved quickly.
(Our GP3 was part of a huge haul of boars, all ages. I said I needed a tiny boar and they arranged for me to take GP1. He chose GP3. There were some unweaned piggies but GP3 was good to go)
The only thing you need to be aware of is when your new boy decides "Hmmm, I'm Spartacus" and decides to over rule your pig.
There might be some Teenage Tussels but that can be anticipated and overcome.
Our GP1 was alphapig with GP2 but when GP3 came along, he took over. There was a bit of male dominance mounting but they just sniped and walked away.
When the ladies joined us (after GP1 died) and GP3 was sterile and bonded, they took charge.
GP3 died this year. We couldn't bear to be boarless so we got GP6 (ready neutered) and he runs round the girls like their personal guard and protector and Food Demander.
Fernie introduced a piglet to her older boar, I'll try and find the date of the posts but I'm sure she;ll be on here to post. Gingerpiglet is now a huge gorgeous boy 
(I will peruse back through the old threads to find any Boar Date posts)
We took our lonely sow to the rescue to have a play date with her new friends. Shai saw Millie and stuck to her like glue. Then Coco joined them. She was nice too but Millie was favourite.
Then we took them all home in the same carrier. No problem. Put them all in the outside run. No problem. Evening came and we brought them. New girls explored everything. Shai was 
They are touching my things! In my bed! In my living area! In my nugget bowl! I did not expect this 
We had to serve them separate piles of food for a couple of days until Shai got over herself but it was all plain sailing 
70 and Fortified. The remaining piggie is the dominant one and has always babied Thomas so I think a very young piggie would suit. Remaining piggie is also very laid back and lazy which will probably help.
I have only ever had on incident of teeth chattering between the two which was over some particularly delicious parsley. Other than that it was always calm.
Fingers crossed I can find a good friend.
I've tried two local rescues already and neither had any particularly compatible piggies. All the boars they had were much older or sows. Neither had any babies which was my second option.
The last place gave me another place to try about 25miles from here. Will have a go and see.
thanks so much everyone. To be honest ive shed a few tears. I've just been to buy a lovely sparkly blue box with a fancy decoration as a box for Thomas. When I pick DS up from school, I will take him to buy a small plant he can plant on top of the grave. And then we go and pick Thomas up.
Need to go and dig a hole now. So sad.
The remaining piggie looks so sad. I've had him out for a cuddle but he still looks miserable.
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