I'm posting this here because it's part medical & part behavioural but I plumped for this section in the end!
I am a bit worried about poor old Bertie at the moment. Apologies for the long post but it is quite an involved story...
Bertie is now 9 months old and living with Horatio who is 6 months old. Bertie had big surgery at around 9 weeks old for a massive abscess at the back of his neck, details here http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/...inea-problems-eating-after-surgery&highlight= . At the time of his surgery, he was bonded with Willow our old piggie who sadly died on Christmas Eve. Bertie had been introduced to Willow when he was just about 6 weeks old and Willow was well over 3 and a half years old. They got on really well. Bertie was always a bit worried and looked to Willow for comfort and support.
When Willow died, Bertie was quite sad and we gave him a cuddly toy friend until we got his new friend introduced to him about 14 days later. Bertie started biting the cage bars a lot at this point which I put down to stress.
We had wanted a single older boar to go with him but couldn't find one (no rescues near us had any & the rescues are all pretty far away too) so we took a chance on a 10 week old piggie, Horatio. Bertie was always the boss although he is quite small. He never grew very big after all his surgery and ABs at such a young age (see above link for the story of his lumps if you are interested...).
Bertie continued to bite the cage bars whenever he heard us making the guinea food and if he seemed unsure about anything.
Bertie and Horatio got on well until about 2 weeks ago when Horatio got to be the same weight as Bertie and decided he didn't want to be bossed around any more. We have since had a few minor scraps with hair pulled out but no blood drawn. We get a good bit of rumbling from Bertie but he backs down if Horatio calls him on it. Horatio puffs up his hackles, chatters at Bertie and chases him round the cage. It always used to be Bertie chasing Horatio before.
Bertie had gained weight well and levelled off at 800g but over the last 2 weeks he has lost 50g. I assume this is down to stress. I am watching him at food times, he eats his veggies well and seems to be eating hay & pellets at other times too. The boys have 2 water bottles, 2 food bowls, 2 hay tubes and 2 fleece beds in their enclosure. I did take out a lovely hanging fleece curtain because Horatio kept chasing Bertie behind it and not allowing him out.
I had 2 new gorgeous rescue pigs arrive on Friday and their enclosure was near to Bertie and Horatio's for a while at which point Bertie immediately started biting the cage bars again. This behaviour stopped as soon as we moved the new cage to the other side of the room. This made me think even more that the bar-biting is a stress reaction. Bertie just seems to be a really stressed-out piggie & I guess given his start in life with such traumatic surgery & then the loss of his great friend, this is no real surprise.
I will be weighing Bertie daily rather than weekly for a while to see how his weight goes.
Bertie also has a few small scabby bits with small clumps of hair coming out as a scab comes off, I am assuming this is mites and have ordered Ivermectin to treat him. It seems sore if you touch where a scab is. It is only in a few very small areas, it is not spreading / growing like ringworm. He did have ringworm on his nose in January but we saw the vet about this & cleared it up fine with cream. The current problem does not look the same. I am again putting this down to stress as mites can get out of control during times of stress. None of our other pigs are showing any signs of it at all.
Can anybody give me any advice about how to handle the change in dominance between Bertie and Horatio? I don't want to split them up unless we have real fighting because they get on well most of the time although they never cuddle up together. Has anybody else found weight loss in a situation like this?
I do have the potential to try bonding each with a different boar as I have 2 single boars (Pip and Peanut) waiting to go in together once Pip is over his URI (see Pip's head tilt thread for this one!). Pip is very submissive and would probably be ok for Bertie but Peanut is dominant and quite humpy so I expect the fur would fly if I tried him with Horatio...
Any help would be appreciated & you deserve a medal if you've managed to read this far - thank you
I am a bit worried about poor old Bertie at the moment. Apologies for the long post but it is quite an involved story...
Bertie is now 9 months old and living with Horatio who is 6 months old. Bertie had big surgery at around 9 weeks old for a massive abscess at the back of his neck, details here http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/...inea-problems-eating-after-surgery&highlight= . At the time of his surgery, he was bonded with Willow our old piggie who sadly died on Christmas Eve. Bertie had been introduced to Willow when he was just about 6 weeks old and Willow was well over 3 and a half years old. They got on really well. Bertie was always a bit worried and looked to Willow for comfort and support.
When Willow died, Bertie was quite sad and we gave him a cuddly toy friend until we got his new friend introduced to him about 14 days later. Bertie started biting the cage bars a lot at this point which I put down to stress.
We had wanted a single older boar to go with him but couldn't find one (no rescues near us had any & the rescues are all pretty far away too) so we took a chance on a 10 week old piggie, Horatio. Bertie was always the boss although he is quite small. He never grew very big after all his surgery and ABs at such a young age (see above link for the story of his lumps if you are interested...).
Bertie continued to bite the cage bars whenever he heard us making the guinea food and if he seemed unsure about anything.
Bertie and Horatio got on well until about 2 weeks ago when Horatio got to be the same weight as Bertie and decided he didn't want to be bossed around any more. We have since had a few minor scraps with hair pulled out but no blood drawn. We get a good bit of rumbling from Bertie but he backs down if Horatio calls him on it. Horatio puffs up his hackles, chatters at Bertie and chases him round the cage. It always used to be Bertie chasing Horatio before.
Bertie had gained weight well and levelled off at 800g but over the last 2 weeks he has lost 50g. I assume this is down to stress. I am watching him at food times, he eats his veggies well and seems to be eating hay & pellets at other times too. The boys have 2 water bottles, 2 food bowls, 2 hay tubes and 2 fleece beds in their enclosure. I did take out a lovely hanging fleece curtain because Horatio kept chasing Bertie behind it and not allowing him out.
I had 2 new gorgeous rescue pigs arrive on Friday and their enclosure was near to Bertie and Horatio's for a while at which point Bertie immediately started biting the cage bars again. This behaviour stopped as soon as we moved the new cage to the other side of the room. This made me think even more that the bar-biting is a stress reaction. Bertie just seems to be a really stressed-out piggie & I guess given his start in life with such traumatic surgery & then the loss of his great friend, this is no real surprise.
I will be weighing Bertie daily rather than weekly for a while to see how his weight goes.
Bertie also has a few small scabby bits with small clumps of hair coming out as a scab comes off, I am assuming this is mites and have ordered Ivermectin to treat him. It seems sore if you touch where a scab is. It is only in a few very small areas, it is not spreading / growing like ringworm. He did have ringworm on his nose in January but we saw the vet about this & cleared it up fine with cream. The current problem does not look the same. I am again putting this down to stress as mites can get out of control during times of stress. None of our other pigs are showing any signs of it at all.
Can anybody give me any advice about how to handle the change in dominance between Bertie and Horatio? I don't want to split them up unless we have real fighting because they get on well most of the time although they never cuddle up together. Has anybody else found weight loss in a situation like this?
I do have the potential to try bonding each with a different boar as I have 2 single boars (Pip and Peanut) waiting to go in together once Pip is over his URI (see Pip's head tilt thread for this one!). Pip is very submissive and would probably be ok for Bertie but Peanut is dominant and quite humpy so I expect the fur would fly if I tried him with Horatio...
Any help would be appreciated & you deserve a medal if you've managed to read this far - thank you
