piggieminder
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I hope this experience will help other's in a similar situation. The planning and preparation has helped keep me busy after losing Spike.
After losing his best friend on Monday Peanut was a little bit quiet for a few hours but picked up very quickly. We think he'd been in pain with an abcess at the side of his mouth which was effecting his eating. I found the abcess (size of a pea) on Sunday, when the vet touched it on Monday it burst and she was able to squeeze the contents out. He's eating very well now, it must be such a relief to be rid of the pressure on his face. He's not too impressed with me bathing it and picking the scab off to stop it reforming but he loves Metacam luckily and gets it as a reward. This morning Peanut moved house, he has gone down to the ground floor of Piggie Towers, next door to Caspy and Rusty. At the vets we discussed the risk of Spike's infection being contagous and the risk to the other's, as they are all in close proximity if they are going to catch it they will be brewing the infection now anyway so moving Peanut when I felt he was ready would put them at very minimal extra risk. Yesterday I divided off a section of C&R's C&C so I could move him as soon as I felt he was ready. This morning Peanut could hear the other piggies moving around and chatting to each other, he came to the front of his cage trying to see what was going on so I felt the time was right. I was worried how the other's would react to having Peanut next door, but I had no cause to be. The boy's are used to meeting through the bars at floor time anyway so I'm sure that helped. All 3 piggies stood at the divider and looked at each other, there was lots of sniffing for about 3 seconds, they all went to respective hay piles and had a good munch (I'd just topped up with fresh hay), and then snuggled into their beds and went to sleep. Long may this peace continue!

After losing his best friend on Monday Peanut was a little bit quiet for a few hours but picked up very quickly. We think he'd been in pain with an abcess at the side of his mouth which was effecting his eating. I found the abcess (size of a pea) on Sunday, when the vet touched it on Monday it burst and she was able to squeeze the contents out. He's eating very well now, it must be such a relief to be rid of the pressure on his face. He's not too impressed with me bathing it and picking the scab off to stop it reforming but he loves Metacam luckily and gets it as a reward. This morning Peanut moved house, he has gone down to the ground floor of Piggie Towers, next door to Caspy and Rusty. At the vets we discussed the risk of Spike's infection being contagous and the risk to the other's, as they are all in close proximity if they are going to catch it they will be brewing the infection now anyway so moving Peanut when I felt he was ready would put them at very minimal extra risk. Yesterday I divided off a section of C&R's C&C so I could move him as soon as I felt he was ready. This morning Peanut could hear the other piggies moving around and chatting to each other, he came to the front of his cage trying to see what was going on so I felt the time was right. I was worried how the other's would react to having Peanut next door, but I had no cause to be. The boy's are used to meeting through the bars at floor time anyway so I'm sure that helped. All 3 piggies stood at the divider and looked at each other, there was lots of sniffing for about 3 seconds, they all went to respective hay piles and had a good munch (I'd just topped up with fresh hay), and then snuggled into their beds and went to sleep. Long may this peace continue!
