Sick guinea pig

[MrsFlorrick]

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?

Hi Millimat. Thank you. That sounds promising.

I'm in Kent. I had no idea pets at home did piggie matching.

Spoken to two more rescues.

It's very sad. They seem to have a lot of older boars and boar pairs. No younger ones available.

I'm waiting to hear back from one in Surrey to see whether they have a suitable age piggie for our remaining boar.

Let me know if your pets at home was nearby kent

We're nowhere near you but our local pet shop does introductions and it might be work asking them where they get their piggies from-you might be able to get in touch with a breeder and get hold of a young boar that way.

Our lonely boar is neutered and had some new lady friends. They came from a sad situation and they all have mites at the moment so Mr pig is only living next door at the moment but he's perked up no end since he has new friends to squeak to. Hopefully they'll all be together soon.

Purple daisies. That's a good option as well. I will phone a few more possible places tomorrow.
Bound to find a younger suitable boar very soon.

I do know someone locally who is a bit of a piggie officionado. I'm going to text her tomorrow and see what her advice is.

The funeral for Thomas went well. DS and I picked him up from the vet. The had wrapped him in a lovely pouch. We had a big sparkly box with hay carrot and lettuce for him. DS shed a few tears.

DS DD and I all dug a hole in the garden after DS chose a spot (we had three trial holes as DS wasn't sure). Laid Thomas in his box.

DS had chosen an English Lavender as a plant on top which we planted. Tidied up and said final goodbye. Then pizza express for a "wake".

It helped DS (4yo) move on. He really understood and was pleased with everything.

We all came back and gave our remaining piggie some love. Poor piggie is looking so lonely.

Mrs if you have foxes, put something over the piggies grave until the soil settles.
When we buried GP2 (our first inmate in the Guinea Graveyard) he was dug up twice
Foxes are looking for earthworms so they are opportunists so if they find a rodenty body......
Our boar was in a zipped up M&S toilettries bag so thankfully we didn't have the horror of finding him in bits.

The foxes got underneath a heavy flowerpot in the border, dug underneath it. Don't underestimate them.

We learned our lesson with GP1 (he was put in a Lock&Lock box with a huge lump of wood ontop of the dug soil.
GP3 was too porky for a Lock&Lock so I had to customise a cardboard box with loads of ducktape (waterproof heavy duty) and I put a metal hanging basket over his grave till it was settled.

A flat stone /paving slab type would do, but definately something for a few days.

Our three boars are all in the border, we give them a nod as we walk to the Pighouse.

70. I put stones large ones all around the plant and then some nice red fancy shaped Victorian roof tiles (having roof redone so have old spares).

But yikes not sure it will be enough now. I dug down almost 1m so it's quite deep but that's probably not a fox deterrent. Oh dear.

When a piggie crosses the Rainbow Bridge they leave a Pig Shaped hole in your heart. But there is another little pig out there who will step into that space and though you might feel a bit hmm about them to begin with (You want your own piggie back really but that isn't an option) .
If they have a sad story to tell, they'll get under your skin and soon it'll be like they were always there.

All ours (GP1 to GP6) are Rescues. All have their own sad tale. None of them cruelty cases thankfully.
Accidents.
Breeders' reject.
Breeding sows.
Unwanted.

But loved by us. and well deserving of a second chance.

I have just instructed DH to make sure he checks in the morning before the DC look in case Mr Fox has been at it. And yes lots of foxes here.

If you've done 1m and stones that should be enough. We have a family of foxes in the back of our gardens (my vegetarian fingers itch to skin the buggers )

70. Aw. That's lovely!! . Yes they leave a piggie shaped hole in your heart. Sweet little things.

My main concern now is finding a friend for Rosie (yes Rosie is the boar left behind!). DD insisted we call him Rosie and refer to him as "her". According to DD Rosie is most certainly a girl despite evidence to the contrary.

Good Luck with your piggie search though don't be taken in by Himalayans.
(My little GP5 is a Himmy. I had two of them many years ago as well. Obviously I didn't learn)

Ruby eyes- dodgy vision (some pig experts say their vision is good but I know from watching them, it ain't)
Dark claws (nightmare to cut)
Don't like sunlight-likes to be out in the garden at 11pm in summerif she had her way.
White fur picks up any stain going (green mouth and manky yellow bum anyone)
Judgey as blazes.

Good job we luffs her

Sorry to hear about Thomas pig. Lavender is an excellent choice of plant though - Rosie can enjoy some of that!

I went through this in February when one of my 3.5 year old boars died. Scruffypig was bereft. We gave him loads of attention and he spent most evenings wheeking through whatever was on TV on the sofa.

I phoned round loads of rescues and after a couple of weeks I found one with a mum and her 3 babies that had just arrived. I had to wait another couple of weeks until they were ready but then I took Scruffy down to them (an hours drive) to choose a nephew. They were brilliant. We put Scruffy with a baby boy and watched them for an hour while we had a coffee and talked pigs. Apart from an initial bit of posturing from Scruffy, all was well and Gingerpig came home with us. I thoroughly cleaned the cage to make it neutral and they had new houses, bowl and bottle, so everything was new to both pigs.

Since then, he's grown into a large 7 month old boy and they get on really well. Even though he's bigger than Scruffy now, he still defers to him on everything.

Keep trying rescues, even the ones you've already tried because you never know what's going to come in.

Can't resist. Photo of baby Ginger, the day we brought him home and him last week. He's grown so much.

Forgot to say, make sure Rosie has loads of fuss and attention while he's alone. Even just being in the same room as everyone while you're all doing other stuff will help.

I think Scruffy would have accepted anything as a friend as he was so lonely!

YY to neutralising your pigs house .It's a sad task to remove every trace of your piggie but in order to get them off to the best start, it needs to be "blank" not "Rosie and Thomas".

You can scrub,rinse and wipe with white vinegar then leave to dry. I use a steamer (hand held) and VirkonS solution.

Move everything round to confuse them . 2 doors in the hidey boxes.

We used a brand new child's paddling pool to do the bonding . Newspaper, hay, food. In the kitchen, we kept an eye on them for an hour or so. They were fine. GP3 was scared, GP1 was security.

GP1 was so enamoured of his new piglet, he wheeked all the way home and shredded his newspaper (we put them in seperate boxes because I didn't want DD to have to deal with any ructions on the drive home)

When GP3 met the girls then the girls met GP6, it was strictly nose touching, just in case

Fernie. Those piggies are so cute!!

We have had Rosie out for lots of attention. He is now outside in the garden play area eating grass in the sunshine

Is Chelmsford in travelling distance to you? Blackberry Patch Guinea Pig Rescue is where we got Coco and Millie. They have a web site and facebook page. I highly recommend them and they will help you find the right piglet.

Fortified. It's a fair way but if I don't turn a suitable friend up for Rosie here I will give them a call. Thank you.

Rosie was out in the garden today and actually jumped around and wheeked so obviously feeling perkier.

Awww it sounds lovely what you did.
We are in the north but if there's no other options phone round your pets at home and pet shops to see if they'll do piggie matching.