Hello,
I've just come across this thread. I just wanted to share my experience of having recently had both my boars neutered. Now my experience is awful, and I'm sure there are others who have had no issue - but you know what I wish a month ago I'd seen and read a thread like the one I'm about to write.
The neutering operation itself went well, the aftermath has been horrendous. It was not detected prior to the neutering that one of my boars had a heart murmur.
About a week after the neutering operation Manny started to become unwell, really unwell. The neutering operation cost me £65 per piggy - I've spent over £500 in vet costs because of my poorly boar. So in vet fee's just in one month, I've spent somewhere between £700 - £1000, I still have ongoing medication to pay for.
The only thing we can put it down to was - post-operation stress/effects of the general anesthetic. No one could have predicted it would happen. If I had the chance to go back in time and not have them neutered. I would in an instant! It was not worth it at all.
Syringe feeding at 2am, 4am, 6am, 8am, 10am - and so on throughout the day, taking time off work often at a moment's notice (you try having that conversation with your boss, I need to stay home with my guinea pigs.....luckily I can work from home, doesn't mean I haven't faced stern faces over the last couple of weeks for the amount of days I've stayed home), hours and hours spent on the phone to forum members, vets, hundreds of pounds spent on tests, continous running up and down to the vets, sleepless nights, constant crying, knowing he was in pain - it was awful.
The operation went well, that was not the issue. For my piggiy it appears to be all to do with the stress - although we may still be wrong on that. Quite honestly, three very good vets have failed to be able to tell me what's wrong with Manny. Not their fault, not their fault at all, we just don't know. There's not enough information out there about guinea pig anatomy. We're fighting in the dark and that's the way it is.
A week after the op he suddenly stopped eating, his poops turned soft, then there was no poops, then there was diarhoea. He was hunched up in pain, squealing and crying in his cage. I was up and down the vet with him constantly. He would of died, if I hadn't had the money to pump into keeping him alive and getting him the 24 hour supportive care he required. He just refused to eat, that played havoc with his gut, and I'm telling listening to your guinea pig cry is just about the worse thing an owner can hear.
I'm still not completely out of the woods yet although he is doing better.
My other piggy coped absolutely fine with it. But if you look at those odds, 50/50 chance, they aren't good. I can't tell you how many nights I've spent awake and crying- and you know why? Because it was all my fault because I put him through that operation - and it doesn't matter how many people told me it wasn't my fault and that I wasn't to know and I was doing all that I could, you know what - it was my fault, it was my choice, it wasn't nature, it wasn't his time, i interfered with nature, I interfered with him, this is catergorically my fault. The book rests with me. Every squeal, every whimper, every time he's fighting to be put down when I'm trying to give him his meds - is a reminder that I did this to him. He was a perfectly happy piggy before I decided to have him neutered.
Don't get me wrong, my intentions were good. I wanted him to have a lovely piggy life with wives and be happy. But I did not explore the option of boar dating. I should have tried. When him and his cage mate weren't getting on, I should have atleast tried boar dating first. Neutering should only be done, I now believe after every possible scenario is explored. I didn't listen, I didn't listen properly when people told me that. They told me there was risks, I was confident I had a good vet, I didn't think about stress in terms that it could kill him....!
I'm just saying, be prepared. It is not a straight forward operation, not if, for example, one of your piggies who appears happy and healthy simply buckles under the strain. Manny was a big fat piggy, over a 1kg, the perfect age and weight. He appeared healthy, robust, playful - I would never have imagined just three weeks post op, he'd be skinny, withdrawn, and I'd have a team of people all of the country in one way or another - fighting for his life.
Please please please please, do not enter into neutering lightly. If you can avoid it - please do. Please check all your options. Neutering sounds simple, but if it goes wrong, you are in for a world of pain. Please make sure you have the finances, the support, and are able to accept that this decision could be a life or death one for your guinea pigs.
The operation itself is very simply. You could have the best piggy vet in the world, but you can't predict how your guinea pig is going to react afterwards.
I just want to spare anyone the ordeal I've just been through and am still going through. I'm not trying to sound awful here, I'm really not, three weeks ago I was that person thinking, yeah getting them neutered will be great - then they can have a fabulous life......Now I'd pay £2000, I'd pay more if I could go back in time and not do it.
But that was my experience......but I think it's one worth sharing - if you're making a decision on neutering. If you do go through with it, above anything else, make sure you have the finances of up to £1000 per guinea pigs ready to hand incase you find yourself in a similar situation to me, make sure you have support, a team of very experienced guinea pig people who can sit with you, talk with you, explain how to syringe feed, give you advice etc, this forum is great -but what you really need is someone you can call at 1am, make sure you have a plan if you have to work and he suddenly becomes ill upto a month after the op (abcesses/infection can occur up to 6 weeks post op). Make sure you know how much the emergency vet fee's are. If one of your piggies goes down hill at 2am on a Saturday night - how much is that going to cost you?
Review all the list of post-op complications, speak to as many people as possible who have had their piggies neutered, found out what issues they've had, maybe even draw a chart of how many people had problems vs how many who didn't.
Best of luck. I'm not trying to be awful, please don't think that. I just wish someone had stopped me that morning I put them in the carrier, slapped me across the face and said, 'do you know what you might be doing?'. If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't do it, not a chance.
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