In brief - they were designed for a lady who had an elderly piggy that needed regular teeth work but became very stressed being wrapped in a towel. The owner hated her being so unhappy and asked me for help. So I made a piggy shaped pocket that fastens together with Velcro along the spine from the bottom forwards. This enable the piggy to get out if it wants to (this is not as restrictive as a towel) and also allows for a certain amount of front leg movement. With the less restrictive wrapping and the ability to raise her front feet a bit the elderly piggy was much happier having her teeth done. She still didn't like it, don't get me wrong, but it was a great improvement as regular stress does affect a piggy badly.
I started selling them, to interesting results. One lady insisted on showing them to the lady who teaches about dental work in piggys with a view to her stocking them. She wrote to me, explaining that she would rather teach everyone to use a towel as everybody has a towel to hand. I completely agreed with her, but it was very nice to be recommended.
I have also had more than one person telling me that a stressed, biting, unhappy piggy is calmer in one of these. I didn't quite believe it, but apparently it is so. The feeling of being cuddled while not being totally restricted seems to be a nice one for various piggys, and three piggies to date stopped biting when in these.
So they are very useful in a certain way. They are not as restrictive as a towel, but when trying to get something disgusting such as baytril down a reluctant piggy they may not be enough. For syringe feeding they can be very helpful, I have a picture or two somewhere I think. Anyway, the size depended on the length of the piggy's spine, that is how they do up. And the fleece has a round the body stretch, not along the body stretch. So there is comfort there, as well as a certain amount of restraint.
I haven't made or sold any for about 14 months now, not because they are no good, but because I forgot to renew the listing on ebay and will have to rewrite the whole thing. Aaaagh. So they do have some rarity value! I have sold a few each month for a few years though. The design is good, the fleece is cut ready to sew in a bag behind me as I type, but I just don't want to write it all out again.
I hope the raffle raises lots of money, Sarah x
