All my piggies!

[Eriathwen]

Wow, what a fantastic family of Guinea pigs you have and each one with such an individual story, your doing such an amazing job taking care of them. It must sound great when you go to feed and they all get excited. I always called it a whoop whoop kinda sound.

Thankyou! I try to do my best by them. Honestly it's deafening some days and they sound like a herd of elephants when you're sat downstairs.

 

[Member ID2]

I am also so impressed with what you do. Not only that, you have so much knowledge about guinea pig behaviour. It can't be easy to introduce piggies to each other not really knowing whether they will make friends or not.

 

[Eriathwen]

So unfortunately we lost Clover to a brain tumour at the start of February and then a couple of weeks later Paddington to bladder cancer

Today we adopted this lovely little guy who we will be having neutered to go in with the remaining 4 girls in that group as they had started to bicker without a male to keep them in order! So far he is being called Dylan.

He was 1 of 4 little boys that had started fighting and bullying eachother. He was the only one who hadn't found a new home and has been a little battered about, with scars on his nose and ears but he is an absolute sweetheart.

 

[Maz]

Ooh he's adorable!

 

[RainbowBrite]

I am so sorry you lost Clover and Paddington.

Welcome to your new home beautiful Dylan.

 

[Member ID2]

I'm so sorry you lost two of your piggies.

 

[Member ID2]

Lovely to see this beautiful little boy.

 

[Frida]

Hello Dylan, you're very handsome

 

[Coco61]

I am also sorry about your recent losses.
Dylan is a very handsome boy and he will settle into life with his group.

 

[Riven]

I'm sorry to hear that you lost Clover and Paddington. They had a great life with you.

I hope Dylan can sort his new lady friends out

 

[Eriathwen]

Another new little face joined us today. She is 6 months old and a 'biter', they decided they couldn't risk having her around their children anymore so.. here she is. She is currently on pregnancy watch as she was having play dates with their 2 males

Shes incredibly sweet, hasn't bitten me so far and apart from needing fattening up, seems in good health!

 

[Maz]

She's beautiful! She probably isn't a biter, she was probably scared by the children or not handled appropriately. So you might be having baby piggies AND baby hedgehogs! I am quite excited!

 

[Eriathwen]

I've not seen any evidence of her biting, in fact she's an absolute sweetheart that loves attention and chin rubs I've even tested by gently poking my finger in her mouth while checking her teeth and stroking her lips.. she certainly doesn't bite just for the sake of it.

 

[Frida]

She's beautiful What's her name?

 

[Eriathwen]

In her previous home she was called Bailey but I already have one called that so at the moment we aren't too sure. We've not settled on one that fits her

 

[Jain]

So while I'm sat syringe feeding Mabel I'll make a start on introducing them!

Ebony is the piggy I've had the longest out of all of them, I got her at about 4 weeks old with her counterpart Ivory who sadly passed away a couple of years back after very sudden heart failure. They came up from the Isle of Wight to be friends with my solo females who didn't get along, from a friend. Unfortunately Ebony arrived with quite bad scurvy, her little back legs were stiff which made walking difficult but I soon managed to get her sorted. She also has something called E.cuniculi which mostly effects rabbits but can infect a lot of other small animals. She's been spayed due to ovarian cysts, had to have a large cyst on her back removed earlier this year.. shes been through an awful lot health wise but is tough as nails, in spite of being a fragile little thing. She's currently being treated for an upper respiratory issue.

Panda was purchased from a petstore, I had seen her sister Pumpkin and always wanted a ginger teddy pig, they were obviously siblings so I got both of them. Panda has been a wonderful little piggy, barely causing any issues until a couple years ago where she also got ovarian cysts and needed to be spayed. Little did we know back then that would come back to bite us in the bum!
It turned out that Panda was intersex! She began producing testosterone which came to a head this year, she grew a kind of pseudo penis and fell out with Oliver, her herds neutered male. She recently had a suprelorin hormone implant put in to resolve her hormone imbalance which has brought peace to the herd again

Silver is what is known as a lethal white, I believe similar to eyeless whites in Syrian hamsters and double merles in dogs? But Silver is deaf, blind, has a reduced ability to absorb nutrients, malformed incisors, he has neurological issues and micropthalmia (tiny eyes)
I saw Silver and his brother Forrest for sale over 130 miles away in Surrey and was concerned about their welfare, what would happen if someone who did not know what they were and how complex their medical needs could be, bought them. So off I went to get them!
They were incredibly thin, crawling with lice and covered in bite wounds having been kept in a small hutch with 10+ other adult to baby males. There were flies absolutely everywhere
They have absolutely thrived with the proper care, and have become nice chunky adults. Silver is on gabapentin twice daily to help his neurological issues which is doing wonders for him.

I was given Gus the same week I collected Silver and Forrest. I recieved a text from the RSPCA Foster carer I had adopted Paddington from, knowing I'm a sucker for a special needs animal and with nobody wanting to offer the poor old boy a home, she thought I would like to have him. Gus was found dumped in a hotel car park, emaciated, no hair from mange, nasty bumblefoot..and the final nail in the coffin of anyone wanting to adopt him, he has quite severe fecal impaction, he needs help removing these impactions multiple times a day and while he recovered physically in the rspca's care (apart from the impaction) he was a sleepy, quiet little guy. When I was handed him, he just flopped down and slept in my arms. He had apparently never been with other pigs as far as they knew, upon arriving home he heard my rabble of misfits and his entire demeanour changed, he is a totally different boy now he has his new friends around him, he lives with Ebony.

Mabel is my latest rescue, she was being given away online free to good home 2 months ago, she looked so sad I had to go get her. She was in a little hutch inside a small shed, her 2 friends had died and their child had lost interest. Upon arriving home I found her nails extremely overgrown, curled over her other toes, as well as digestive issues and signs of ovarian cysts. Luckily later that day one of my others had a vet appointment so she was able to tag along. She had a cyst on each ovary the size of a golf ball! We booked her to be spayed 2 weeks later in the hopes it would fix her other issues (spoiler alert it didnt)
She recovered incredibly well from the surgery apart from a rocky first few hours where she was in a lot of pain. She seems to have an issue with her left front leg and possibly heart issues, she has an appointment tomorrow where hopefully she will be booked in for xrays and further diagnostics, she requires syringe feeding every 4 hours or so currently!

And last but not least of the first 1/4 we have Tilted Tilly.. Tilly for short. She came to live with me just over 3 years ago with her daughter Hazel who sadly passed away a couple of months ago after an accident. Tilly also has E.cuniculi, however is more severely affected due to not receiving treatment as quickly. She has a head tilt, neurological issues and is blind. She is also developing cataracts bless her. She was a breeding sow, who came to me to retire after developing her head tilt relating to the E.cuniculi. She's a lovely little thing, very sweet and docile!

Phew.. that'll do for a while I think

Thank goodness for people like you you are amazing to cope with so much timewise and emotionally I love a happy ending

 

[RainbowBrite]

She is so beautiful and she looks so sweet natured. It makes me so angry when people give their guinea pigs 'play dates'. I am so happy she is with you now.

Is she your only piggy without additional needs?

 

[Eriathwen]

No luckily I have quite a few who are healthy, if we don't include those with behavioural issues I think maybe 12? 13? are special needs.

Shes such a lovely girl, shes been very eagerly coming over for attention all morning. She has drunk an awful lot of water which isn't ideal, that's what pregnant pigs do but I'm still hopeful she's not

 

[RainbowBrite]

I will keep my fingers crossed that she is not pregnant. She is in very safe hands now.

 

[Zara]

She's beautiful and looks very relaxed and calm. Lovely you have taken her under your wing, she's in good hands now.